SUNSILK & Its Branding Strategies

Acknowledgment
The preparation of this report is a sound example of teamwork. The experience is a valuable one because not only did the report increase our understanding and knowledge on the assigned topic, i.e. SUNSILK & Its Branding Strategies. It also taught us important lessons of how to incorporate out theoretical knowledge to enhance the understanding of practical implications. In addition, it also gave us a thorough opportunity to learn from others; despite conflicting ideas, the teams managed to join efforts and reach unanimous decisions at the end. It re-defined our skills of working with others to reach a final goal, and improved our communication as well as tolerance levels. However, this would not have been possible had we not been given the opportunity to present this report. Therefore, we would like to express the deepest appreciation to our course instructor, Ms. Tina Umnia Hossain, Assit. Professor, who has been a continuous source of guidance throughout the report and has always been there to answer our quarries.

Executive summary
The summery describes the history, mission, vision, purpose, and Sunsilks total brand and how company manages these brands for segmentation, targeting, and positioning. This report tells us that how company selects their segmentation, targeting and positioning strategy for a specific product Sunsilk shampoo. This report tells that what are the pricing, promotion, and packaging strategy of Sunsilk shampoo. It also mentions that what are the version of Sunsilk shampoo launch into the market according to consumer need and evaluation. What competitive strategies Sunsilk follows is also included in this report. Marketing programs and promotional activities are clearly and briefly covered in this report. Another vital element such as: market leader, market challenger and market follower are identified clearly. Mind share, market share and heart share are also included here, which helps to understand about consumer perception about the product. Finally, in the end recommendations are given that what strategy should Sunsilk follow to meet the strategies and market share of their competitors.

Introduction:
Sunsilk is a hair care brand, primarily aimed at women, produced by the Unilever group. Sunsilk is Unilevers leading hair care brand, and ranks as one of the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate's billion dollar brands". Sunsilk shampoos, conditioners and other hair care products are sold in 69 countries worldwide.

Sunsilk is sold under a variety of different names in markets around the world including Elidor, Seda and Sedal. The brand is strongest in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East and is the number one hair care brand in Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Sri Lanka and Thailand

Key facts
Number 1 in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East Sales of more than 1 billion a year. Selling in 80 countries. Also sold as Elidor, Hazeline, Seda and Sedal. Recent Awards: Holds the Guinness World Record for the most heads of hair washed and styled in one day

Objective:
To know about the Sunsilk. To know about the difficulties faced by the Sunsilk. To know about the growth strategies used by Sunsilk. To about the various promotional strategies of Sunsilk. To know about the 4 Ps of Sunsilk.

Methodology
In order to reach in our destination or complete the report with proper and relevant information we collected data from several sources. We collected data from both primary and secondary section. In primary section we prepared a questionnaires relating with different topics and making a general perception how people think about Sunsilk . In secondary section, we collected information from internet, promotional materials, and articles.

Background of the Company

Unilever is a multi-national corporation, formed of Anglo-Dutch parentage that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products. It was created in 1930 by the merger of British soap maker Lever Brothers and Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie. In the 1930s the business of Unilever grew and new ventures were launched in Latin America. Since then Unilever has made tremendous growth, going through economic crises like the First World War and the Great Depression. Today the company is fully multinational with operating companies in over 100 countries, employing about 179000 employees. With the onset of the 21st century, Unilever implemented a strategy known as Path to Growth to transform business and to launch their Vitality mission. With 400 brands spanning 14 categories of home, personal care and foods products, no other company touches so many people's lives in so many different ways. 150 million times a day, someone somewhere chooses a Unilever product. From feeding ones family to keeping ones home clean and fresh, Unilever brands are part of everyday life.

Unilevers mission is to add Vitality to life. It meets every day needs for nutrition; hygiene and personal care with brands that help people look good, feel good and get more out of life.

History of Sunsilk Shampoo

Launched in 1954, in the UK, Sunsilk had quickly become Unilevers leading international shampoo brand. By 1959, it was available in eighteen countries worldwide. In the 1980s, Pakistan had a largely under-developed market in terms of personal care products. The launch of Sunsilk in 1983 introduced FMCG industry in Pakistan to redefine the lives of its people. Sunsilk introduced in 1989 with three variants related to hair type endorsement of a hair stylist was the first step in building the image of brand as health care expert. With the competition of local and multinational companies due to rationalize of excise duties, Sunsilk has not been able to take market share. To strengthen the brand UPL decided to prelaunch Sunsilk premium range consisting of four variants in January 2000. Due to need of shampoo for oily hair and dandruff unilever launch a new variant of Sunsilk having citrus extracts. The range consists of Sunsilk: Yellow Sunsilk with Bio Proteins from Vegetable Extracts: Normal hair needs wholesome nourishment. New Sunsilk with Bio Protein extracted from Vegetable milk has nutrients that deeply penetrate each hair strand, to nourish it leaving hair strong and beautiful. Dull hair needs a rich black shine. New Sunsilk with Melanin extracted from plants serves this purpose very effectively. It helps in the growth and retention of the black color of hair, giving it a rich black shine. Green Sunsilk with Fruitamins Vitamins from fruit Extracts: Thin and limp hair needs extra body and volume. New Sunsilk with Fruitamins has natural extracts from fruit that contains Vitamins. These vitamins help in giving extra body, shine and amazing manageability to the thinning and lifeless hair. Pink Sunsilk with yoghurt proteins: Dry hair needs wholesome conditioning, extra shine and style. New Sunsilk with yoghurt proteins makes the dry hair full of life. Its especial ingredients moisturize each hair right to its tips leaving it shiny and beautiful. Orange Sunsilk with active nutrients from Citrus Extracts: The advanced formula of orange Sunsilk is the result of the latest research. This shampoo is especially designed for oily hair type that looks flat and greasy due to the excess of moisture. New Sunsilk with active ingredients from citrus extracts cleans the excess oil off hair while its nutrients deeply penetrate each hair strand to nourish it.

Point of parity (POP)

Points of parity are associations that are not necessarily unique to the brand but may in fact be shared with other brands. For an offering to achieve a point of parity on a particular attribute or benefit, a sufficient number of customers must believe the brand is good enough on that dimension. Like others SUNSILK consists of such POPs: Dream soft & Smooth Stunning Black Shine Lusciously Thick & Long Anti-Dandruff Solution Hair Fall Solution

Point of Difference (POD):

Points of difference are attributes or benefits consumers strongly associate with a brand, positively evaluate, and believe they could not find to the same extent with a competitive brand. With point of difference, the brand must demonstrate clear superiority. For instance: Apple (design), Volvo (safety), Energizer is the largest lasting battery. We found that PODs for Sunsilk is Co-creation formula created by experts. They came with this idea to grab the market and to be superior in the market. From 2009 Sunsilk started working with a number of professional hair "experts" to develop new and improved products. Each hair issue" variant links to an "expert with the relevant specialist hair knowledge. For example, Dr Francesca Fusco, a New York dermatologist, co-created a hair fall variant for the brand. The lineup also includes: Jamal Hammadi for Black Shine, Rita Hazan for Vibrant Colour, Teddy Charles for Plumped Up Volume, Thomas Taw for Damage Reconstruction, Ouidad for Defined Curls and Yuko Yamashita (known for Japanese hair straightening) for Perfect Straight.

Branding strategy:
The branding strategy for a firm reflects the number and nature of common and distinctive brand elements applied to the different product sold by the firm. Branding strategy involves deciding the nature of new and existing brand elements to be applied to new and existing products. Branding Decisions: Branding strategy is one of the most vital decisions taking by marketers. It is a strategy, which brings lots of positive feedback for a firm. The first branding decision is whether to develop a brand name for a product. Today, branding is such a force that hardly anything goes unbranded. Unilever follow individual name for setting brand name for their different products, such as Sunsilk, Dove (Shampoo), Ponds, Fair & lovely, Dove for skin care. Unilever get a major advantage of an individual name strategies that the company does not tie its reputation to the products. So, if any brand fails or appears to have low quality, the companies name or image is not hurt.

Brand Elements: Brand elements can play a number of brand building roles. Band elements are those trademark able devices that identify and differentiate the brand. Most strong brands employ multiple brand elements. Marketers choose brand elements to build as much brand equity as possible. Brand elements such as: memorable, meaningful, likable, adaptable and protect able. We describe those elements in short as follows: Memorable: every consumers mind catches the brand name. Their marketing programs set the brand name in consumers mind. Their short brand name such as: Dove, ponds, Sunsilk etc are easily memorable. Meaningful: Every consumer has a clear meaning about Sunsilk. Consumer thinks about Sunsilk as a product which solve their problem relating with hair. Likable: From our research we found that most of the people like the brand verbally and visually. Protectable: The brand name is legally and competitively protectable. The brand retain their trade mark rights and not generic. Adaptable: another fact which we saw in Sunsilk. Different pack size and new formulas are easily accepted by the consumers.

Target market of Sunsilk:

The main target market of Sunsilk is females between the ages group 16-40 belonging to the lower and middle income classes. But in their promotional activities, they cover the whole market irrespective of these classes. Sunsilk target its market on the basis of consumer buying behavior, income level, and purchasing power of people. For which quantity of the product can be changed according to the income and purchasing power of the consumers as in case of Sunsilk 120ml and 5ml packs are also available to target low income groups.

Identifying competitors
Pure competition: Sunsilk exists in the pure competition. Analyzing competitors: The new Sunsilk shampoo aims to fulfilling the need of its target market by offering a high quality, assessment of concept in term of acceptability, credibility, and perceived benefits that it offers a healthy choice shampoo alternative to target customer. Classes of competitors: In urban areas, Sunsilk is acting as a market challenger against Head & Shoulder. Sunsilk has got the advantage of keeping their prices lower than Head & Shoulder shampoos but Head & Shoulder has captured a bigger share of the market due to its intense promotional activities

Competitor review: The major competitor of Sunsilk in rural areas is BIO AMLA and in urban areas Sunsilk mainly cutthroat of Head & Shoulder. The main advantage of BIO Amla is herbal composition, low prices, which attract rural market but in term of quality they are far behind Sunsilk shampoo. In urban areas Sunsilk acting market challenge with Head & Shoulder. Sunsilk has got the advantage of keeping their prices lower than P&G but P&G has captured a large market share due to its intense promotional activities. Generally, Cute work as a market follower as it doesnt go for any innovative action. Market share: Sunsilk as a market competitor, they are steadily gaining market share. At present market situation, they capture 34% of total market share.

Mind Share: to buy a shampoo rational consumers firstly think about Sunsilk due to the promotional strategies of Sunsilk. So that Sunsilk rapidly increase their mind share. Heart Share: Due to reach product and marketing attributes & features Sunsilks mind share in total competitive market is higher than any other brand. Consumer would like to choose Sunsilk as their first choice

Competitive Strategies for Sunsilk

Defining the strategic objective: The Sunsilk Shampoo aims at fulfilling the needs of its target market by offering a high quality, assessment of the concept in terms of its acceptability, credibility and perceived benefits, that it offers a healthy choice shampoo alternative to the targeted consumer. The theme of the product shall be anchored around the motto. Expanding the total market: Sunsilk is very sensitive to increase its market. Its sometime very challenging for a firm to expand its total market. Sunsilk basically wishes to increase new customer and more usage. New customers: Sunsilk trying to attract buyers who are unaware of the product or who are resisting it because lack of such features. Sunsilk using market penetration strategy, new market segment strategy and geographical expansion strategy for searching new consumers. Very attractive advertising and other propositional activities perform a vital role in this case. More usage: Sunsilk recently increase the amount, level and frequency of consumption. It also improves packaging and redesigns the product. It offers larger package sizes and makes the product more available. They emphasize more on marketing program, which inform the consumer about the brand and it frequently develops the product which also spurs new uses. Choosing General Strategy: Flank Attack: Sunsilk can follow segmental strategy. In market Head & shoulders targeting mainly high and middle class people but big portion in lower class consumer could not adopt their product. So, Sunslik targeting the lower class, who have lower income and launch new product at a lower price. Frontal Attack: Sunsilk can launch new shampoo combining conditioner, anti-dandruff, and shinning in a one product as follow as Head & Shoulders. Bypass Attack: Sunsilk can introduce anti-dandruff shampoo and provide an extra conditioner in a package

Communication Tools of Sunsilk

There a number of ways to advertise both local and global brands in the market. Some of the very common means through which advertisement is done include: Electronics Media: Electronic Media has been the major factor in determining the global success of Sunsilk. In todays world where an average middle class individual has access to 30 to 40 channels through the cable minimum, he has the ability to view different types of advertisement just flipping the channels. Thus the consumer of today is so well posted on the fact that whenever a new product is launched, is it in the United Kingdom or in the United States, a consumer living in Asia would be well aware of the features of the products and he would know who the company is targeting. Print Media: Print Media advertisement is one of the common ways of advertising. The print media including the magazines, newspapers and brochures are relied upon a lot. In print media, the importance of placing the advertisement plays an imperative part in increasing the sales of the product. Billboards: Billboards have become one of the most influencing ways to advertise in our world. Everyone can see a whole advertisement like you watch on your own televisions or the type of moving and animated type of advertisements that you can see on the billboards happen to be very much in fashion. Sunsilk also has nearly all of its products on the billboards when either its launching a new ad, coming up with price promotions or re launching any product. These ads seem to be appearing all the time, which is really good for the company, as they are easily attracting the customers in every possible manner. Giving out free Samples: When the new Sunsilk Black was introduced, what the company did was, to create awareness amongst the youth they went to schools and colleges and distributed free samples of the products and gave out little brochures which told the qualities that the product had and the proper method of getting a black and shiny hair look. Advertising Alliance:AOL Time Warner and Unilever announced their multi- million dollar advertising alliance. AOL Time Warner, the world's largest advertiser, announced a multi-million dollar enhanced cross-platform advertising and marketing partnership under which AOL Time Warner will bring Unilever's wide array of leading consumer product brands to millions of consumers through innovative marketing campaigns across AOL Time Warner's broad range of online, on-air and print media in 2002.

Recommendation
1. The Sunsilk is a global company and each country has own culture, so Sunsilk should drive according to local preferences and needs because it is really necessary in today economic crisis to capture huge market share. Sunsilk can arise and ensure social responsibility in the society, so they would establish themselves in customer mind and customer would be loyal about Sunsilk. To ensure social responsibility and highlighting benefits they provide Sunsilk can raise their revenue. Sunsilk must focus on social responsibility, to maintain image among customers, mainly advertisement covers huge expenses of Sunsilk, but we recommend them to cut their 8

advertisement expenditures, in the economic crisis and should more focus on social responsibility. To ensure social responsibility and highlighting benefits they provide Sunsilk can raise their revenue.

2. People are familiar with Sunsilk, however they are not interested in whether it is a unilever product or not. Through extensive marketing methods unilever should make people aware of the fact that it is a Unilever Product and not just any product so that the brand loyalty increases and people purchase its product due to its brand name and not just the product name.

Conclusion
Sunsilk has huge potential of rural market 72% of total population but not yet develop a successful strategy to penetrate this market. The success of Sunsilk emulated which captured the rural market by two strategies- Develop strong distribution structure and Adopting packaging and pricing. Sunsilk

increase buying of raw material so that it does not have to suffer devolution and continuously increase in tariff rates. They introduced a smaller 100mi pack of Sunsilk in order to capture lower income segment. Sunsilk enter into web marketing. They should increase frequencies of advertising by electronic and print media. They should introduce 2 in 1 shampoo plus conditioner which demand huge potential market. Finally, taking every thing in account we can say that if Sunsilk emphasize more on social responsibility and create more attractive marketing programs, they can grab huge number of customers.

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