Brand Update: Domex launches a direct frontal attack against Harpic

 In a very interesting move, HUL's toilet and surface cleaner brand Domex has launched a direct attack on the market leader Reckitt & Benckiser's Harpic brand this season. According to LiveMint, the Indian hygiene market is worth around Rs 38000 crore and the toilet-cleaning market is alone worth Rs 1600 crore. Harpic is the market leader in this segment. 

Domex has been trying to counter the market leader by positioning itself as a germ-killer. With the pandemic scare in place, the hygiene market is expected to grow because of increased customer perception of cleanliness and hygiene. 

This year, Domex has launched a direct frontal attack on Harpic that too with a direct comparative advertisement. The campaign had both print and television commercials. In the campaign, the brand takes the route of additional benefit of the Domex in terms of removing the bad odour caused by germs. This campaign helps the brand to create a powerful point of difference. The current campaign is made for the Domex Freshguard variant. 

The ad will likely be challenged by Harpic but Domex will be riding on the benefit of the punch delivered by this comparative advertisement until that time.

Research on comparative advertisement effectiveness has suggested that such advertising is effective in generating favourable responses in terms of attitude and brand consideration for the sponsoring brand. Comparative ads can be positive and negative. Positive comparative ads try to convince the customers about the superiority of the sponsor brands while negative comparative ads try to tell the consumers what they lose by using the competing brand. Research suggests that in the case of direct comparative ads, the negative comparison works better. 

For Harpic, the logical next move would be to neutralize the Domex claims quickly rather than wait for the ads to be taken down.