Lux : Celebrating Beauty

Brand : Lux
Company: HLL
Agency : JWT

Brand Count :190

Lux is a super brand that celebrated beauty across the world since 1925. The soap which was endorsed by the beautiful film stars came to India in 1929. Lux has been the largest selling personal wash brand in the country.

Lux has effectively managed its PLC through careful brand building and changing the product in line with the changing consumer. The brand is being positioned as the favorite soap of Film stars has been consistent interms of communication and positioning. The brand is also the classic example of successful celebrity endorsement. The first celebrity to endorse the brand was Leela Chitnis . From Leela to Aishwarya , From Madhuri to Madhubala, Lux has been endorsed by more than 50 film stars ( a sort of record isn't it). But in all these communications, the celebrity never shadowed the brand.

Lux was always changing with the times. Whether it be interms of the product or interms of promotions, the brand kept the consumers excited. Lux has two basic extensions interms of segments. Lux beauty soap and International Lux.
Lux was initially a premium brand. Lux was being projected as an aspirational brand and the endorsements by stars further reinforced the positioning. The increasing competition in the soap category forced Lux to rethink on its targeting strategy. The brand had a choice either to compromise on market share and uphold the premium positioning or to retain the market share and dilute the positioning. Lux wanted to ensure that the brand be positioned as premium but also did not wanted to compromise on the share. Thus born International Lux which is the premium variant and the affordable segment was catered by Lux beauty soap.
Lux beauty soap is available in Four variants : Exotic Flower Petals,Fruit Extracts,Almond and Sandal. Lux has a common ingredient of Milk cream in all the variants.

Although the brand enjoyed success and has sustained its leadership position, of late this brand has been facing issues of stagnation. The stagnation is caused by the plethora of brands competing for the market share and the scope for differentiation has reduced to almost nil. Together with the rush for celebrities to endorse anything from salt to cars, Lux is finding it difficult to sustain growth in this cluttered market.

In 2005 Lux celebrated its 75th anniversary sparking of a controversy. Deviating its tradition of roping in Bollywood Divas , this time none other than Shah Rukh Khan endorsed Lux. The ads created instant controversy with marketers discussing whether the brand has suddenly become MALE.Paul Newman also has endorsed Lux soap which shows that Lux makes such stunts to excite the market. Whatever be the controversy, the brand again succeeded in creating excitement in the market. Some argue that HLL was testing a new positioning to appeal to male users while others say that it was a one time endorsement to break the clutter. For marking the 75th year Lux came out with a celebration range endorsed by Kareena Kapoor . The Celebration range too created news because of its variant :Chocolate Seduction. These innovative products created lot of excitement that ensured that Lux remained in the top of mind of the consumers. Another variant which I like personally is the Lux with Orchid which looked cool in terms of packaging and looks.
Over these years, the positioning of Lux also evolved. Earlier the brand used the positioning " Beauty soap of Film stars" . But as the customer evolved, the positioning lost its charm because customers began to doubt whether the film stars actually used this brand. Taking a cue from the customers, Lux changed the positioning appealing to the need for becoming a star. The new positioning is communicated with the tagline " Bring out the star in you".Although worldwide the brand is being endorsed by film stars, the actual package usually contains picture of international models and not film stars.

While Lux beauty soap is sticking to the age old positioning, Lux international has moved from being a soap brand to a skin care brand. Lux International has the tagline " Not Just Soap, Its Skin Care". Under the Lux umbrella brand, HLL has introduced variety of personal wash products like body shampoo,hair shampoo etc.
Lux is the classic example of HLL's marketing genius. The brand will experiment and explore more in the days to come....

Related Brands
Santoor

source: hll.com,superbrandsindia,businessline,yahoomoney
imagesource: superbrandsindia

Brand Update : Lux

Lux has a new endorser. True to the brand's heritage of being endorsed by the reigning queens of Bollywood, the brand has roped in Katrina Kaif as the new Lux girl.

The brand is currently running the campaign featuring Katrina across the channels for its new Purple Lotus cream variant.

Watch the ad here : Katrina Lux ad.

What is interesting is the change in the tagline of the Lux brand over the last few campaigns. Ever since the brand discarded its classic tagline of " Filmi Sitaroan ka saundarya sabun" , Lux has not been able to find a fitting tagline. The brand later adopted the taglines " Celebrating Beauty " and then later to " Why worry about beauty " . The last campaign had the simple voice over like " Lux with Beauty Oils ". The brand this time has further reinforced the USP of the brand as " Soap with cream and beauty oils".

This time Lux has used a new positioning " kaliyon se Thwecha ke liye" translated to " Skin as soft as budding/blossoming flowers ". While Lux with beauty oils is a more rational feature oriented pitching, the brand is also talking about the brand promise of a " Softer looking Skin". It is good the see Lux settling with its USP and positioning.

But the gain of Lux has resulted in a loss for another brand Dyna. Dyna which is the soap brand from Anchor Group was banking on Katrina Kaif for building the brand. The entire Dyna brand was heavily depended on Katrina rather than its positioning or differentiation. With Katrina ending the association with Dyna, it will be interesting to see the future of Dyna brand.

Related Brand

Lux

Brand Update : Can SRK save Lux ?

SRK is once again featuring in the ad of Lux. It was in 2005 that SRK stunned brand watchers in an ad for Lux. At that time Lux was celebrating 75 years of stardom. Circa 2012, Shah Rukh Khan again stars in Lux ad  not for  celebration of any milestone but a desperate attempt to rejuvenate the brand.

Lux which always centered around celebrities has been struggling for the last few years.Reports suggest that Lux is witnessing a de-growth thanks to competition from the likes of Santoor. Lux over the years has been facing a positioning problem which I have highlighted in my previous posts about the brand. Too many variants shifted the HUL's focus from strengthening the core brand to leveraging or rather squeeze the brand equity. This virtually made the core Lux brand vulnerable to competition. The commoditization of celebrity endorsement further diluted the celebrity-focused positioning of Lux. Virtually the differentiation of Lux was no longer existing. 

Lux is now in an un-enviable position. The core positioning of Lux- beauty soap of stars is virtually being killed by competition. Celebrities now are no longer differentiators. Lux also cannot risk going for a heavy repositioning sans celebrities because of its connection with Stars for over 75 years. The brand is in deep trouble.

With SRK, the brand is attempting another come back. Last year, Lux successfully leveraged Abhishek and Aishwarya and smartly took the platform of  ' Beauty'. 

The current campaign features SRK with the current Lux Diva Katrina Kaif. The brand completely changed its beauty based positioning ( benefit)  and decided to focus on fragrance (product feature ).The brand is pitching that  it contains international quality fragrances. From  benefit to  feature based positioning is a step backward for the brand. Usually brands start with feature based positioning and later graduate to higher -order attributes ( Laddering). Here Lux chose itself to downgrade from a higher -order positioning to basic stuff.The brand is absolutely confused about its future direction. 

Lux in the new campaign has the tagline : "Bas Zara Sa Lux " roughly translated to " Just need a little Lux" . The tagline is ideally suited for a detergent rather than a beauty soap. The treatment of the ad is below average with zero creativity and usual theme. No wonder the brand is on a downward spiral.

Watch the ad here : Lux SRK

What Lux right now needs is a thorough clarity about its brand manthra and its positioning.No amount of celebrity endorsement will work if the brand is confused about its positioning. It had earlier focused on beauty oil and now it is saying that fragrance is the key USP. This confusion is only going to kill this brand unless the marketing brains of HUL sit together and decide on the brand manthra for Lux. Other wise we are going to see the slow death of an iconic brand.

Marketing Q&A : Brand Laddering

Marketing Practice Reader Vivek asks about the concept of Brand Laddering.

Professor Kevin Lane Keller defines Laddering as follows

"Brand Laddering involves progression from attributes to benefits to more abstract values or motivations. Laddering involves repeatedly asking what the implication of an attribute or benefit is for the customer."

According to Keller, failure of laddering up sometimes reduce the strategic alternatives available to the brand. Keller also suggests that there is a means-end chain which takes the following structure :

Attribute ( descriptive features) lead to benefits ( meaning attached to attributes) which leads to values ( enduring personal goals and motivations).

The concept of laddering has its application in positioning of the product. When the brand is launched, the focus will be more on attributes and benefits. But once these basic functionality has been established in the mind of the consumers, the brand has to deepen the meanings associated with the brand.

For example, Dove's campaign has transcended from the basic functionality of the product to " Celebrating real beauty ". Nike is all about Athletic Performance . An Indian example would be Raymonds which has transcended the basic functionality of apparels to a more deeper meaning of " A Complete Man ".

Laddering is not always easy. The task for the marketer is to first have a clear understanding of the brand's core values. Also laddering will work only if the consumers are convinced and satisfied with the basic functionality of the brand.

The advantage of laddering is that the brand will breakfree from the product restrictions. That gives lot of flexibility to the brand manager. Flexibility in extending the brand aswellas in communicating.

References

Strategic Brand Management by Kevin Lane Keller