Jeeva : The Complete Ayurvedic Soap

Brand : Jeeva
Company: Jyothi Laboratories Ltd
Agency: Situations Advertising and Marketing

Brand Count : 203

Jeeva is a niche brand in the Rs 700 crore Ayurvedic soap market in India. The brand which was launched in 2002 is still restricted to the Southern Indian markets . Jeeva is the first initiative of Jyothi Labs into the highly competitive personal care market. Jyothi Lab which is famous for its Ujala Whitener will be fighting with the giants like HLL in this market. Jeeva competes with Medimix and Chandrika in the ayurvedic category. The market for ayurvedic soap is cluttered with all major brand's having an extension in this category.

Like all the brands of Jyothi lab, Jeeva was launched in the market with a clear differentiation. The brand boasted of 27 herbal ingredients that will smoothen, nurture, soften and deodorize the skin making it younger and beautiful. The brand is the brainchild of Mr Ramachandran MD of Jyothi Lab. According to the company website, the brand is the result of seven years of research by the R&D team.

Jeeva was launched with much fanfare in Kerala. Jyothi Lab always uses Kerala market as its launch market. There is an unwritten law ( my law) that if a brand succeeds in Kerala, there is a surety that it will succeed in the national market.
The company used the famous Southern Film Diva Simran to endorse the brand and the ad talked about only one thing: 27 ingredients. This differentiation was significant because at that time the market was dominated by Medimix which was positioned as a Curative soap. Medimix was well established and to take on that heritage brand, one needs to have one Big Idea.

All though there is no significance about the number 27, Jeeva tried to create a magic around the number. To a certain extent the positioning worked. The ads ensured a fair amount of trail purchase for the brand. Although some marketers say that the focus on 27 ingredients is sustainable because it can be bettered by another player. I feel that to launch the brand, the focus on the number has worked magically. The brand uses the tagline " The complete Ayurvedic Soap" which is further reinforced by the focus on 27 ingredients. The brand is targeting SEC B,C,D segment of the market.
But after a while the brand became silent in the market. Last year saw lot of action in the ayurvedic soap market with the relaunch of Chandrika , Hamam and Medimix. The category moved from pure ayurvedic to Naturals.

Jyothi Lab had big plans for Jeeva brand. According to the company website, the brand is going to be an Umbrella brand endorsing a range of personal care products . The first signs of that strategy became visible in 2007 when the company launched the first extension of Jeeva brand : Jeeva Naturals.
Jeeva Naturals is white soap that has coconut milk and ordinary milk protein extracts as the ingredients. The new product is positioned on the nourishment platform and currently TVC and print campaigns are on in the Southern States. The ads talk about the brand primarily as a beauty soap.

Jeeva is a challenger brand in the Soap market . But to sustain and grow in this market, the brand has to identify a theme or a positioning strategy that is sustainable.

source: businessline,jyothilabwebsite
image :businessline jyothilab