By ANURAG ASHOK ARUN MOULI

HISTORY
Andrew Pears who pioneered this famous soap was born in around 1770. He set up a barber's shop after doing his apprenticeship in Soho, and started producing range of cosmetic products. Andrew discovered that his creams and powders were often being used to cover up the damage done by the harsh soaps and other beauty products of that time which contained arsenic or lead.

HISTORY
Pears started experimenting with purification of soap and finally managed to produce a soap that was gentle and purely based on glycerin and other forms of natural products.

INTRODUCTION IN INDIA
Launched in India in 1902, Pears exuberates a long heritage of purity and pristine. With the goodness of glycerin & natural oils, Pears is trusted for being gentle, and is recommended by doctors and pediatricians worldwide. It is so pure that you can actually see through it!

INTRODUCTION IN INDIA
With a tradition of protecting and nurturing skin with utmost gentleness, Pears has, for generations now, dedicated itself to caring for skin. Pears is the worlds first registered brand and it is in existence continuously since then.

COMPANYS FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

SEGMENT WISE SALES (%)

MARKET POSITION
Pears for instance, has less than five per cent of the Rs. 11,500 crore toilet soaps market. It has been successfully positioned as a premium yet not very expensive soap for the urban middle class. Pears maintaining its mild and gentle image as well as maintaining its original translucent amber colour.

MARKET POSITION
Pears occupies about 50% share in the mild soap segment for kids with its closest competitor being Johnson and Johnsons baby soap range.

MARKET POSITION
ITC Ltd. has launched a new brand by the name of Fiama Di Wills to compete with Pears. Pears has three variants which are Pears Amber, Oil Control and Germ Shield. The other soaps which are in competition of Pears are Dettol with moisturizers, Johnson & Johnson, Fiama Di Wills

MARKET POSITION

J&J 25% PEARS FIAMA DETTOL 16% PEARS 54% FIAMA 5% DETTOL J&J

PRODUCT VARIANTS
The pure and gentle skin cleansing range from Pears: Pears Pure & Gentle soap (Amber), Pears Oil Control (Green), Pears Germ Shield (Blue).

PRICE
Pears has been marketed as premium glycerin soap. Available in 45 gm, 75 gm and 125 gm packs. Pears was initially placed as soap for the young kids. But slowly, it has been repositioned as a mild soap for the whole family which does not harm the skin and gently cleanses the pores.

PRICE
It is available at Rs34 for 125 gm pear soap and Rs 25 for its 75 gm cake. The closest competitor is Johnsons baby soap with its 75 gm placed at Rs 27.

QUALITY
Pears soap is hypo-allergenic and non-comedogenic. Contains no color that may irritate sensitive skin. It is designed to cleanse in a gentle and mild manner. It is made with quality raw materials which include glycerin and natural oils. It does not contain any animal byproducts.

PROMOTION
Thomas Barratt the son in law of France Pears was managing the marketing of the soap. A series of ads which featured cherubic children were launched and which is firmly in the value the brand holds today. He pioneered the idea of using images which were considered as "fine art" and aptly used them to symbolize the brand's quality and purity (i.e. untainted by any commercialism) and simplicity ( use of cherubic children).

PROMOTION
He is rightly known as the father of modern advertising. Mr. Barratt devised was using the painting Bubbles of Sir John Everett Millais' in an advertisement for Pears. For a soap that is so popular and has been for more than a century Pears has also managed some of the most politically incorrect advertising in its history.

PROMOTION
Starting with the powerful enough to clean a black child, way back in 1903 when black was less politically volatile the ad intended to convey that black was unclean - and a soap that could clean black could clean anything.

MARKET SEGMENTATION
Hindustan Levers has decided to float a new variant Pears Junior. The company has decided to bridge the gap with the kids segment. It has been successfully positioned as a premium yet not very expensive soap for the urban middle class.

NICHE MARKETING
A niche is a very narrowly defined group of customers which seeks a distinctive mix of benefits. Niches can be identified by dividing a segment into sub-segments. The customers in a niche have a distinctive set of needs and are ready to pay a premium for the product that satisfies it.

NICHE MARKETING
A niche needs to be carefully defined as it should not end up being too small a segment. On The advantage of operating in a niche is that it has profit and growth potential and is unlikely to attract many other competitors. The aim of niche marketing is to understand the customer needs so well that the customers willingly pay a premium.

REPOSITIONING
For a long time, Pears had held the monopoly in the baby soap market with mothers preferring the natural goodness that this product offered for the delicate skin of their babies. Brand was repositioned and from merely beingbaby soap to a mild soap which could be used by the adults as well. Particularly asbeauty soap for women having a mild effect on soft skin.

REPOSITIONING
This helped in eliminating any possible embarrassment one might have felt in using this product as one grows up. The product is a soft soap with moderate lather and a gentle effect on the skin. After washing off the soap, one does not get the feeling of the body oils having been sucked out off the pores, i.e. the drying off effect is absent.

REPOSITIONING
Stretching the equity of its glycerine-based winter care brand - Pears, into the kids segment, Hindustan Levers has decided to float a new variant - Pears Junior. The new variant is not meant to be baby soap but is instead targeted at kids, i.e. a soap for growing kids.

REPOSITIONING
The timing is right and Pears has a better equity in the kids segment. The kid's segment has been largely untapped and J&J, which introduced kids soap in the past, has completely withdrawn from this segment. Making innovations in its packaging, Pears Junior also sports a transparent window with a toy to lure its young users.

REPOSITIONING
The new variant - Pears Junior is launched in the strawberry fragrance and includes olive oil as an active ingredient. In fact, previous existing variants such as Germ Shield and Oil Control all have active ingredients such as mint and lemon. Pears has already built its equation with the kids, being a pure and mild soap and it makes sense for HLL to actually stretch this equity of the brand into this new segment.

FACTORS AFFECTING BUYING BEHAVIOUR

Price is the most important factor which effects the buying behavior of consumer. A consumer goes for the various segment of soap like premium, popular, sub-popular and carbolic which are basically decided by the cost factor and fat content in the soap. The buying frequency is either monthly that is done by the families or in case of bachelors it is more than once in a month.

FACTORS AFFECTING BUYING BEHAVIOUR

One of the important points a soap marketer should note is that the soaps are usually purchased by women in urban areas as most of the day to day consumption of personal care products are made by women. women use more personal care product than men do and hence premium soaps are mostly targeted at them. Pears has dominated as high profile specialty soap.

SUBSTITUTES
Generally one can point at two general broad substitute threats in the Premium soap category. One threat is from the use of products like body wash and face wash. The second threat is from downtrading i.e. the consumers from the premium category opting for the popular category soap.

STRENGTH
Pears is the worlds first registered brand. It has a heritage of over 200 years. Comes in three variants- pure & gentle, Germshield, Oil clear. It is unique from others it contains glycerin that retains. A sign of gentleness. It is transparent to show that it is free from impurities.

WEAKNESS
Abandoned a new product formulation after customer complaints and demands to re-instate the old product back. Not a mass market, targets a niche sector. High raw material cost for the soap leads to higher selling price.

OPPORTUNITIES
Remains a niche player in soap market. Pears need to work on liquid soap versions to tap market.

THREATS
New competitors coming up in the market offering same values at reasonable price. Any changes to the product formulation can lead to downfall in the market share.

ADVERTISMENTS

SOURCE
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