Just now I got an sms from my journalist friend that Rexona soap is going to be migrated to Hamam.
The brand was in the life-support for quite a while. The first attempt to kill the brand was during the powe
r brand strategy where Rexona was planned to migrate to Lux. At that time Rexona was launched with Lux milk cream. But after some time, HLL decided not to migrate Rexona. Then I thought that this brand will be rejuvenated. But now is has been confirmed that Rexona Soap is now history.As a customer I am sad because it was a nice soap. As a marketer, I am upset because such a good brand is being killed. For HUL , the reasons can be many. In this era of cut throat competition, it does not make sense to have too many brands. So the logic is to put your money into those brands which are powerful. Rexona has never been a volume/revenue contributor for HLL.
Another reason is the existence of Rexona deodorant which had a different image compared to the soap. Its in India that Rexona exists in soap category. Worldover Rexona is famous as a deodorant.
It is more difficult to kill a brand compared to launching a new one. There can be issues of managers getting emotional about the brand . Another difficulty is to handle the existing customers of the brand. HUL is hoping that Rexona customers will migrate to Hamam. As a customer I will not migrate because I have a different perception about Hamam.
Rexona deo will be given more focus by the company now that there is no soap variant. HUL has been using imported International commercials of Rexona in India. Its sloppy marketing to import global campaigns into a diverse market like India. HUL had the resources to do it by itself but its trying the short-cut.
So in the FMCG kurukshethra one more brand has been killed. This time by the own company.
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that really is a news to me as well..
ReplyDeletethanks for the info. I ve been following ur write-ups..
Nice insights i must say:)
-Sonali
I guess I will go more with your second explanation as a reason why HUL killed Rexona. When they introduced Rexona Deo in the Indian market, one would always associate the Deo with the Soap (which was more down market). The down market feeling of a bathing soap has had a severe effect on Rexona Deo, as people perceived it to be an ordinary Deo compared to other newly introduced Deos with exotic names. Rexona Deo was the first "made for mass" deodrant in the Indian market, but they couldn't really leverage it when other FMCG's introduced their DEOs. That's my 5 cents...
ReplyDeleteTh good news is that Rexona is still there in the market, looks like HUL wants to revive it. Any suggestion how HUL can revive it.
ReplyDelete