Wheel vs Nirma
Hindustan Unilever Ltd: The Wheel Saga MM I Individual Assignment (Weightage: 5%)
In April 2009 at the Goafest, one of India’s top DJs, set the dance floor ablaze by playing a remix of the Nirma jingle. Truth though is he would have been better off playing a remix of the Wheel jingle that was inspired by the 1960s, Shammi Kapoor hit song Dekho Dekho Dekho from An Evening in Paris. That commercial, set in motion a Wheel that would roll on over the decades to become the blockbuster brand in the Lever stable.
Today with sales of over Rs. 2,000 crore Wheel is ‘Brand No 1’ in the HUL portfolio not to mention the world’s largest selling detergent in volume terms. If Wheel were to be a standalone company it would rank 228 on the ET 500. Nitin Paranjpe, CEO, HUL, puts it rather succinctly when he says that every second Indian is a Wheel consumer.
Says Paranjpe, “Relevant consumer insight, optimum supply chain and wide distribution reach together have delivered a winning proposition.” Yet, few had imagined in 1987 that Wheel would one day serve half the country or earn half a billion dollars.
That was a time when FMCG companies were still the kings of marketing and HLL was the undisputed emperor of all that it surveyed. And then from out of nowhere came Karsanbhai Patel’s Nirma. If there was ever a Mahabharat in the annals of Indian marketing, this was it. Lever’s was caught in the mythical chakravyuh, unable to curb the ascending star of Nirma. Never before had a brand shaken the Lever citadel so decisively.
Alyque Padamsee, former CEO Lintas (the agency that worked on the detergents portfolio back then), recalls that Nirma was priced at a third of Surf and was as aggressive as HLL. Says Padamsee, “Surf was Rs 21/kilo and Nirma was Rs 7/kilo. Importantly Karsanbhai borrowed a leaf out of HLL’s marketing manual and outadvertised us.” Ashok Ganguly, former chairman of Hindustan Lever, who back then was leading the company
In April 2009 at the Goafest, one of India’s top DJs, set the dance floor ablaze by playing a remix of the Nirma jingle. Truth though is he would have been better off playing a remix of the Wheel jingle that was inspired by the 1960s, Shammi Kapoor hit song Dekho Dekho Dekho from An Evening in Paris. That commercial, set in motion a Wheel that would roll on over the decades to become the blockbuster brand in the Lever stable.
Today with sales of over Rs. 2,000 crore Wheel is ‘Brand No 1’ in the HUL portfolio not to mention the world’s largest selling detergent in volume terms. If Wheel were to be a standalone company it would rank 228 on the ET 500. Nitin Paranjpe, CEO, HUL, puts it rather succinctly when he says that every second Indian is a Wheel consumer.
Says Paranjpe, “Relevant consumer insight, optimum supply chain and wide distribution reach together have delivered a winning proposition.” Yet, few had imagined in 1987 that Wheel would one day serve half the country or earn half a billion dollars.
That was a time when FMCG companies were still the kings of marketing and HLL was the undisputed emperor of all that it surveyed. And then from out of nowhere came Karsanbhai Patel’s Nirma. If there was ever a Mahabharat in the annals of Indian marketing, this was it. Lever’s was caught in the mythical chakravyuh, unable to curb the ascending star of Nirma. Never before had a brand shaken the Lever citadel so decisively.
Alyque Padamsee, former CEO Lintas (the agency that worked on the detergents portfolio back then), recalls that Nirma was priced at a third of Surf and was as aggressive as HLL. Says Padamsee, “Surf was Rs 21/kilo and Nirma was Rs 7/kilo. Importantly Karsanbhai borrowed a leaf out of HLL’s marketing manual and outadvertised us.” Ashok Ganguly, former chairman of Hindustan Lever, who back then was leading the company