4. an Analysis of Retailer’s Perception Towards Nirma Beauty Soap With Reference to Ahmedabad City
Content
AN ANALYSIS OF RETAILER’S PERCEPTION TOWARDS NIRMA BEAUTY SOAP WITH REFERENCE TO AHMEDABAD CITY PROF. NEHAL A. SHAH Assistant Professor (MBA Deptt.) Gandhinagar Institute of Technology, (A Center for Management Studies) Gandhinagar-382721, Gujarat, INDIA
DR. VASUDEV A. MODI Assistant Professor, B K School of Business Management, Gujarat University, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, INDIA
ABSTRACT The Indian soap industry is facing the cut throat competition, so it is essential for all the company in the industry to fulfill the customers demand by offering products (i.e.: soap) at right place at a right time and at the right price via retailers. India is a one of the largest consumer economy, with burgeoning middle class pie. In such a widespread, diverse marketplace, Nirma aptly concentrated all its efforts towards creating and building a strong consumer preference towards its ‘value-for-money’ products. This study basically focuses on perception towards Nirma toilet/beauty soap from retailer’s a) perspective of Ahmedabad city of Gujarat state. As we know the retailers work as mediators between b) manufacturer and customer who plays a vital role in fulfilling the needs of end-user’s by making the things available at the doorstep. Keywords: FMCG, Toilet / Beauty soap, Retailer, Perception, and Non Soapy Detergent. Introduction: The Indian Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) market is growing at an exponential rate. The FMCG products are sold quickly at relatively low cost. Though, the absolute profit made on FMCG products is relatively small, they generally sell in large quantities, so the cumulative profit on such products can be large. In Indian FMCG market the toilet/bathing soap is occupying an attractive market share. In soap sector the variety of species of soap products are found in a consumer household market. Hence, in developed countries special soaps or Non Soapy Detergent (NSD) may be used for washing coloured clothes, white clothes, delicate clothes, dishes, hands, windows, floors, toilets, kitchen surface, carpets, for bathing, showering, shampooing. In emerging market one or two types of soap may serve the need of users i.e.: Toilet/Bathing soap and Washing soap. The Indian FMCG sector is the fourth largest in the economy and has a market size of US$13.1 billion1, and there by providing knowledge of hidden opportunities in the Indian FMCG sector. Indian beauty soap industry has also been studied thoroughly. Nirma, the proverbial ‘Rags to Riches’ saga of its founder is a classic example of the success of Indian entrepreneurship in the face of stiff competition. Starting as a one-man operation in 1969, today, it has about 14,000 employee-bases and annual turnover is above Rs. 2,500 crores 2. Nirma in a short span captured the domestic market with a quality product. Nirma in true sense, spearheaded the market revolution by offering innovative, ‘value-for-money’ products, and changed the cloth-washing habit of Indian housewives the revolution itself called as…“NIRMA”. The performance of Nirma during the decade of 1980s has been labeled as ‘Marketing Miracle’ of an era. During this period, the brand surged well ahead its nearest rival – Surf, which was well-established detergent product by Hindustan Unilever. It was a severing battering for MNC as it recorded a sharp drop in its market share. Nirma literally captured the market share by offering value-based marketing mix of four P’s, i.e. a perfect match of product, price, place and promotion. Nirma has always remained committed to offer better products, at better value, for better living. Nirma is one of the few names - which are instantly recognised as a true Indian brand, which took on mighty multinationals and rewrote the marketing rules to win the heart of princess, i.e. the Customers. II. Review of Literature (A) Retail Sector in India Mittal &Prashar (2011) 3 identified the opportunities and challenges faced by organised retailers in the tri-city (Chandigarh - Panchkula - Mohali) region. The result of the study reveals that competition from the unorganised sector is the biggest challenge for organised retailers. Other challenges faced by organised retailers are- inefficiency of distribution channels, internal logistical problem and retail shrinkage. It was found that organised retailers see growing middle class as their greatest opportunity followed by large number
of earning youth customers. The tri- city region has people from all over India, proportionate increase in spending with earnings and India's booming economy. Dash (2011) 4 concluded that the India Retail Industry is the largest among all the industries, accounting for over 10 per cent of the country’s GDP and around 8 per cent of the employment. The Retail Industry in India had come forth as one of the most dynamic and fast paced industries with several players entering the market. But all of them have not yet tasted success because of the heavy initial investments that are required to break even with other companies and compete with them. The India Retail Industry is gradually inching its way towards becoming the next boom industry. Today retailing is the largest contributing sector to country's GDP i.e. 10 per cent as compared to 8 per cent in China, 6 per cent in Brazil. Modern retailing is capable of generating employment opportunities for 2.5 million people by 2010 in various retail operations and over 10 million additional workforces in retail support activities. Sathish & Venkatrama (2010) 5summarised that the retail market was the next growth frontier for corporate India. It offers an opportunity for a large player to build a Rs. 40,000 crores retail business spanning multiple categories by 2015 (at current prices). Compared to this, the revenue of the largest Indian retailer Pantaloon was only Rs. 1,085 crores in 2005. No wonder large domestic business houses and international retailers had expressed keen interest to enter the retail sector in India. However, to capitalise on the opportunity, a player needs to be aggressive in its outlook and build scale quickly. Singhal (2010) 6according to a study conducted by KSA Technopak, India’s leading management consultancy firm specializing in the fashion and retail industries, organised retailing in the country is estimated to touch Rs. 18,000 crores in 2002-2003. This reflects a 20 per cent growth over the previous year. “The year 2003 will be the year of rapid growth for the organised retail sector in India. It will usher in improved profitability for the leading players and by 2004, country will see at least three of the top ten global retail giants firm up entry plans for India,” said Arvind Singhal, Chairman, KSA-Technopak, in a presentation on Organised Retailing: Emerging Opportunities. “Global retailing trends clearly show that consolidation and mass merchandising have contributed significantly to the success of international retailers. Mishra (2008) 7strategically analysed and looked at the factors which affect the growth of the Indian retail market, which were as follows: economic growth, increase in purchasing power, young aged demographics. This paper had also carried out the SWOT and Porter’s analysis of new organised retail models. Fig. 1 shows list of various factors that are affecting the growth of Indian retail industry.
Fig 1: Growth Drivers of Indian Retail Industry 8 (B) Indian Soap Industry Soap is a surfactant used in conjunction with water for washing and cleaning that historically comes in solid bars but also in the form of a thick liquid, especially from soap dispensers in public washrooms. Historically, soap has been composed of sodium (soda ash) or potassium (potash) salts of fatty acids derived by reacting fat with lye in a process known as specification. The fat sare hydrolysed by the base, yielding glycerol and crude soap. Many cleaning agents today are technically not soaps, but detergents, which are less expensive and easier to manufacture.9 The Indian soap industry includes about 700 companies with combined annual revenue of about $17 billion. All companies are operated over all metropolitan cities of India. Generally Indian per capita consumption of soap is at 460 gms per annum and 70% of India's population resides in the rural areas and around 50 per cent of the soaps are sold in the rural markets. 10 Monitor (2011) 11 analysed that the soap market in India increased at a compound annual growth rate of 12 per cent between 2004 and 2009. The bar soap segment led the soap market in India in 2009, with a share of 99.3 per cent. The leading player in soap market in India is Unilever.
III. Need of the Study Due to cut throat competition in the market of toilet/ beauty soaps segment, it is necessary to do the study of retailer’s perception towards Nirma Beauty soap. For that reason it is needed to know the actual selling of company’s products in terms of revenue/ number of units sold/its competitors selling in the market, how much share the company holds in the total market etc. IV. Objectives of the Study 1. To measure the market share of Nirma toilet/beauty soap in Ahmedabad city. 2. To identify major competitors of Nirma beauty soaps in Ahmedabad city. 3. To identify the market moving fragrance/flavor, price and pack size of the beauty soap. 4. To know the view of retailers regarding service provided by Nirma and their satisfaction level with comparison of other beauty soaps manufacturing companies. 5. Try to get suggestions from retailers to improve sales of Nirma beauty soaps. V. Research Methodology The study is descriptive in nature. The researcher adopted this research design to gather information from the respondents to assess the preferences of customers and factors affecting among the retailers towards selling of Nirma toilet/beauty soaps. The study was conducted with 200 samples (180 Retailers & 20 Wholesalers) from Ahmedabad city of Gujarat state. The sampling method adopted for the study was nonprobability convenient sampling where the researcher can select the sample elements based on the ease of access. Structured questionnaire was prepared to survey the respondents. The primary data has been collected through a structured questionnaire from the respondents. The secondary data has been collected from the books, journals, magazines and websites. The data relating to the company were collected from the personal manual and past records of the company. The data was collected by contacting individual retailer directly. VI. Data Analysis and Interpretation 1. List of area surveyed in Ahmedabad city: Table 1.0 shows the overall list of area of our surveyed from Ahmedabad city of Gujarat state. Table 1.0 2. Which toilet/beauty/bathing soaps are mostly sold? 2.1: Pink Flavor The study found that beauty soaps are most demanded in the pink flavor from the point of view of retailers. Retailers gave first rank to the Lux strawberry, second and third position gained by Godrej No.1 Rose and Strawberry respectively. Nirma Beauty is at the fourth rank and Nima Rose is at the 8th rank. From table 2.1, we can interpret here that rose and strawberry flavors in the pink beauty soap category are high in demand. Table 2.1 2.2: White Flavor The table shows that Lux is again on the top, at the first rank with the flavor of Peach. Godrej No. 1 Jasmine is at the 2nd rank where Nirma Beauty White is at the 7th rank and is not in that much demand. Here from table 2.2, we can interpret that in white toilet/bathing soap category peach, almond and jasmine flavours are most in demand. Table 2.2 2.3: Sandal Flavor The table 2.3 shows that according to the retailers, Santoor is at the 1 st rank in the sandal flavor of toilet/ bathing soap category. Whereas Godrej No. 1 is at the 2 nd and Nima Sandal is at the 3rd rank. Here, we can interpret that Breeze, Dyna and Jo are least preferred for sandal flavor of toilet/bathing soap. Table 2.3 2.4: Lime Flavor The table 2.4 shows that Cinthol, Godrej No. 1 and Breeze are the most demanded in the lime category of toilet/bathing soap, whereas Nirma Lime Fresh is not that much preferred by the consumers and is having the least demand in lime category toilet/bathing soap.
Table 2.4 3. Total market share of different brands of beauty soaps The table 3.0 shows that the Godrej No. 1 is the market leader with the market share of 28 per cent, Lux at the 2nd position with the market share of 15 per cent and Nirma is at the 3 rd position with the market share of 13 per cent, whereas Nima brand is having 3 per cent market share. Table 3.0 4. Under which pack size (in grams) toilet/beauty soaps are mostly sold? The table 4.0 shows that 125 gm pack size of the toilet/ bathing soap is the market mover. Followed by 100 gm pack size is high in demand.
Table 4.0 5. Under which price segment toilet/beauty soaps are mostly sold? The table 5.0 shows that according to the retailers, toilet/bathing soaps are mostly sold between price range of Rs. 11-15, i.e. 45 per cent which includes Godrej No. 1, Fair Glow, Breeze, Jo, and Vivel. Table 5.0 6. Which company provides you better service? The review of retailers revealed that 78 per cent of the retailers believe that all the companies give them good service; whereas 7 per cent of the retailers believe that none of companies give them good service. We can visualize from table 6.0 that top three companies who provide best service are Nirma, HUL and Godrej. Table 6.0 7. According to you what are the major attributes that influence customers’ decision to buy toilet/beauty soap? The table 7.0 shows that people are more Brand and Price oriented. Followed by quality, fragrance/flavor and packing of the toilet/bathing soaps. According to the retailers’ weight and advertising are also influencing factors, whereas shape, ingredient and color of the toilet/bathing soaps are least preferred by customers. Table 7.0 8. What suggestions would you like to give to increase the sales of Nirma toilet/bathing soap or to improve the product? From table 8.0 we can analyse that, most of the retailers believed that retailers’ scheme and consumer scheme would be beneficial to increase the sales of Nirma Beauty soap. In addition to this attractive display is beneficial to attract retailers for selling of the Nirma Beauty soap. 35 per cent retailers believe that Nirma should increase the range of the product; it should increase the fragrance/flavours in the beauty soap. Frequent advertising is also one of the ways to change the mindset of the consumers. 12 percent retailer’s emphasis is on the frequent advertising. Table 8.0 VII. Findings 1) Nirma beauty soaps are doing well in Ahmedabad city but it is not at the first place. Nirma Beauty soaps come at the third place after Godrej No. 1 at the first and Lux at the second, whereas Nima soaps has secured 8th place. 2) For Nirma, pink flavor is most demanded and for Nima, sandal flavour is most demanded. 3) In the areas like Vejalpur, Ghatlodiya, Vasana, Maninagar, Viratnagar, Mithakkhali, Rakhiyal, and Kalupur, Nirma is moving very fast and vice versa in the areas like Navrangpura, Satellite, Nirnaynagar, Gurukul, and Paldi. 4) Nirma provides maximum margin but does not give any schemes to the retailers and to the consumers also. But retailers are satisfied with the service provided by Nirma.
VIII. Conclusion With consumers today exposed to choices in terms of new categories, new brands and new shopping options enabling them to seek more information in the crowded retail environment, it is a major challenge for FMCG companies to attract them. Also the price sensitivity is waxing and brand loyalty is waning. And the consumers, who once stuck to favorite brands, are now, willing to try any quality products at an affordable price. That is why many soap companies are now offering additional benefits at no extra cost. Nirma can be said as the most reverential and one of the best managed companies of India. One important part of FMCG companies is its distribution network, its retailers and wholesalers. The overall system should have perfect co-ordination and cooperation among all its activities starting from the product in the production process till it has proved that it has well established and robust network system. If the soaps market is an indication, analysts believe that the customer is getting a perceptibly similar value at a lower price and hence down traced. The Indian consumer is extremely price conscious and won’t pay for something in which he does not see incremental value. So in effect, companies are not matching the premium they are charging for their products with adequate increase in product attributes and usage. In order to achieve higher growth rates, per capita consumption and penetration levels have to be increased. This requires use of promotional schemes that are the most essential in today’s market. Though, this could not guarantee brand loyalty by the customers but at-least the customers will try the products and generate sales for the companies. The result of above survey shows that Nirma Ltd. is providing good monetary benefits in terms of margin to retailers as well as wholesalers and also provides value for money to customers. IX. Limitations This survey is conducted by considering the time constraint. Sample size of two hundred retailers may unjustify the survey. It is difficult to be precise about the most appropriate sample size for conducting such research. Due to subjectivity and beliefs of retailers, some responses of the questionnaire may differ from the reality. Also due to lack of available literature may affect the validity of the data. XI. Annexure TABLE 1.0: LIST OF SURVEYED AREA Area
Retailers
Wholesalers
Semi-Wholesalers
Total
Navrangpura
15
-
-
15
Satellite
15
-
-
15
Vejalpur
21
1
3
25
Ghatlodiya
14
-
1
15
Nirnaynagar
14
1
-
15
Gurukul
14
-
1
15
Paldi
15
-
-
15
Vasana
11
2
2
15
Maninagar
14
-
1
15
Viratnagar
15
-
-
15
Mithakali
12
1
2
15
Rakhiyal
15
-
-
15
Kalupur
5
3
2
10
180
8
12
200
Total
TABLE 2: FRAGRANCE / FLAVOR WISE RANKING OF VARIOUS SOAPS
2.1: Pink Fragrance/Flavor 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Overall Score
480
161
48
385
20
6
32
9
1141
0
14
18
0
8
48
60
147
295
856
301
168
105
0
3
0
0
1433
352
700
270
35
4
3
2
1
1367
56
140
600
240
40
21
16
0
1113
Breeze Rose
40
154
102
125
364
57
0
21
863
Dyna Rose
0
0
60
70
92
189
112
34
557
Jo Rose
16
0
66
130
112
60
174
26
584
Flavor/ Rank Nirma Beauty Nima Rose Lux Strawberry Goderaj No. 1 Rose Goderaj No. 1 Strawberry
Source: Field Survey 2.2: White Fragrance/Flavor Flavor/ Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Overall Score
Nirma Beauty
88
49
48
5
16
9
186
73
474
Lux Peach
976
322
78
35
20
21
0
0
1452
Fair Glow
0
0
654
140
60
42
44
12
952
Godrej No.1 Jasmine
304
875
114
50
0
0
16
0
1359
Jo Almond
136
70
96
575
100
0
14
10
1001
Jo Jasmine
0
14
72
100
260
285
10
1
742
Dyna Almond
0
0
48
85
324
180
50
9
696
Vivel
0
0
0
50
32
51
46
142
321
Source: Field Survey 2.3: Sandal Fragrance/Flavor Flavor/ Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
Overall Score
Nima
60
165
476
42
34
7
784
Goderaj No. 1
162
550
120
45
34
1
912
Breeze
78
125
144
282
30
17
676
Dyna
0
0
48
90
220
48
406
Jo
0
45
0
108
100
105
358
786
105
48
57
20
7
1023
Santoor
Source: Field Survey 2.4: Lime Fragrance/Flavor
Source: Survey TABLE MARKET OF
Flavor/Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
Overall Score
Nirma
0
0
0
0
86
157
243
Godrej No. 1
204
630
88
27
6
6
961
Cinthol
894
105
32
39
18
0
1088
Breeze
138
85
416
129
18
4
790
Dyna
54
65
108
261
68
30
586
Jo
42
90
148
174
146
7
607
3.0: SHARS
DIFFERENT SOAP BRANDS Soap
No. of Units / Month
Percentage
Nirma
44008
13%
Nima
11391
3%
Godrej No. 1
96872
28%
Lux
53369
15%
Breeze
27703
8%
Dyna
26698
7%
Jo
31480
9%
Santoor
29390
8%
Vivel
4098
1%
Cinthol
16201
5%
Fair Glow
10240
3%
3,51,450
100
Total
Source: Field Survey TABLE 4.0: PREFERANCE FOR PACKET SIZE Soap / Grams (gm)
50 gm
75 gm
100 gm
115 gm
125 gm
135 gm
150 gm
Nirma
-
1%
98%
-
-
-
1%
Nima
-
-
100%
-
-
-
-
Godrej No. 1
-
-
-
-
100%
-
-
Lux
-
56%
14%
-
-
30%
-
28%
-
-
-
72%
-
-
Dyna
-
-
-
-
100%
-
-
Jo
-
-
-
100%
-
-
-
16%
20%
-
64%
-
-
-
Vivel
-
-
76%
-
-
-
24%
Cinthol
-
-
-
-
100%
-
-
Breeze
Santoor
Field
Fair Glow
-
100%
-
-
-
-
-
Source: Field Survey TABLE 5.0: PREFERRED PRICE SEGMENT FOR SOAP Price Segment (in INR)
No. of Respondent
Percentage
Rs. 6-10
43
22%
Rs. 11-15
91
45%
Rs. 16-20
49
24%
Above Rs. 20
17
9%
200
100
Total
Source: Field Survey
TABLE 6.0: PREFERANCE OF SERVICE Name of Company
No. of Respondent
Percentage
HUL
164
82%
ITC
156
78%
Anchor
156
78%
Nirma
169
85%
Godrej
161
81%
VVF
156
78%
Wipro
160
80%
Source: Field Survey TABLE 7.0: FACTORS THAT CAN AFFECT SOAP PURCHASE DECISION Factors
No. of Respondent
Percentage
Price
147
74%
Shape
34
17%
Ingredient
23
12%
Color
45
23%
Packing
118
59%
Fragrance/Flavor
122
61%
Weight
87
44%
Advertising
98
49%
Brand
152
76%
Source: Field Survey TABLE 8.0: SUGGESTIONS GIVEN BY RETAILERS FOR NIRMA BEAUTY SOAP
Nirma Pink
Nirma White
Nirma Lime
Nima Sandal
Nima Rose
Add Flavors
35%
35%
1%
35%
35%
New Packaging
7%
7%
-
7%
7%
Frequent Advertising
12%
12%
-
12%
12%
New ad model
9%
9%
-
9%
9%
-
-
-
-
-
Consumer Sales Promotion
60%
60%
2%
60%
60%
Retailer Sales Promotion
66%
66%
3%
66%
66%
Attractive Display
44%
44%
2%
44%
44%
Suggestions / Soap
Stronger Distribution Network
Source: Field Survey X. References 1. At http://www.chillibreeze.com/articles_various/fmcg-in-india.asp, (Accessed on August12, 2012). 2. At http://www.nirma.co.in/genesis.htm, (Accessed November 21, 2012). 3. Mittal, K.C. &Prashar, A. (2011), “A field Study on Opportunities and Challenges Faced by Organised Retailers in Tri-City”, Synergy, 9(9), 69-78. 4. Dash, M.S. (2011), “Next-Generation Retailing In India: An Empirical Study Using Factor Analysis”,1(2), , 25-35. 5. Satish, D.&Venkatrama, R.D. (2010), “The Growth of Indian Retail Industry”, Advances In Management, 3. 6. Singhal, A. (2010), “Organised Retailing: Emerging Opportunities”, at http://www.businesswireindia.com/pressrelease.asp?b2mid=2647, (Accessed August 20, 2012). 7. Mishra, S. (2008), “New Retail Models in India: Strategic Perspective Analysis”, Journal of Marketing & Communication, 4(2), 39-47. 8. At http://www.dnb.co.in/IndianRetailIndustry/insight.asp, (Accessed October 12, 2012). 9. “Top Soap Brands in India”, at http://business.mapsofindia.com/top-brands-india/top-soap-brands-inindia.html, (Accessed September 03, 2012). 10. At www.indianmirror.com/indian-industries/soap.html, (Accessed August 19, 2012). 11. Monitor (2011), “Soap Market in Indian 2014 (Personal Hygiene)”, 35.
DR. VASUDEV A. MODI Assistant Professor, B K School of Business Management, Gujarat University, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, INDIA
ABSTRACT The Indian soap industry is facing the cut throat competition, so it is essential for all the company in the industry to fulfill the customers demand by offering products (i.e.: soap) at right place at a right time and at the right price via retailers. India is a one of the largest consumer economy, with burgeoning middle class pie. In such a widespread, diverse marketplace, Nirma aptly concentrated all its efforts towards creating and building a strong consumer preference towards its ‘value-for-money’ products. This study basically focuses on perception towards Nirma toilet/beauty soap from retailer’s a) perspective of Ahmedabad city of Gujarat state. As we know the retailers work as mediators between b) manufacturer and customer who plays a vital role in fulfilling the needs of end-user’s by making the things available at the doorstep. Keywords: FMCG, Toilet / Beauty soap, Retailer, Perception, and Non Soapy Detergent. Introduction: The Indian Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) market is growing at an exponential rate. The FMCG products are sold quickly at relatively low cost. Though, the absolute profit made on FMCG products is relatively small, they generally sell in large quantities, so the cumulative profit on such products can be large. In Indian FMCG market the toilet/bathing soap is occupying an attractive market share. In soap sector the variety of species of soap products are found in a consumer household market. Hence, in developed countries special soaps or Non Soapy Detergent (NSD) may be used for washing coloured clothes, white clothes, delicate clothes, dishes, hands, windows, floors, toilets, kitchen surface, carpets, for bathing, showering, shampooing. In emerging market one or two types of soap may serve the need of users i.e.: Toilet/Bathing soap and Washing soap. The Indian FMCG sector is the fourth largest in the economy and has a market size of US$13.1 billion1, and there by providing knowledge of hidden opportunities in the Indian FMCG sector. Indian beauty soap industry has also been studied thoroughly. Nirma, the proverbial ‘Rags to Riches’ saga of its founder is a classic example of the success of Indian entrepreneurship in the face of stiff competition. Starting as a one-man operation in 1969, today, it has about 14,000 employee-bases and annual turnover is above Rs. 2,500 crores 2. Nirma in a short span captured the domestic market with a quality product. Nirma in true sense, spearheaded the market revolution by offering innovative, ‘value-for-money’ products, and changed the cloth-washing habit of Indian housewives the revolution itself called as…“NIRMA”. The performance of Nirma during the decade of 1980s has been labeled as ‘Marketing Miracle’ of an era. During this period, the brand surged well ahead its nearest rival – Surf, which was well-established detergent product by Hindustan Unilever. It was a severing battering for MNC as it recorded a sharp drop in its market share. Nirma literally captured the market share by offering value-based marketing mix of four P’s, i.e. a perfect match of product, price, place and promotion. Nirma has always remained committed to offer better products, at better value, for better living. Nirma is one of the few names - which are instantly recognised as a true Indian brand, which took on mighty multinationals and rewrote the marketing rules to win the heart of princess, i.e. the Customers. II. Review of Literature (A) Retail Sector in India Mittal &Prashar (2011) 3 identified the opportunities and challenges faced by organised retailers in the tri-city (Chandigarh - Panchkula - Mohali) region. The result of the study reveals that competition from the unorganised sector is the biggest challenge for organised retailers. Other challenges faced by organised retailers are- inefficiency of distribution channels, internal logistical problem and retail shrinkage. It was found that organised retailers see growing middle class as their greatest opportunity followed by large number
of earning youth customers. The tri- city region has people from all over India, proportionate increase in spending with earnings and India's booming economy. Dash (2011) 4 concluded that the India Retail Industry is the largest among all the industries, accounting for over 10 per cent of the country’s GDP and around 8 per cent of the employment. The Retail Industry in India had come forth as one of the most dynamic and fast paced industries with several players entering the market. But all of them have not yet tasted success because of the heavy initial investments that are required to break even with other companies and compete with them. The India Retail Industry is gradually inching its way towards becoming the next boom industry. Today retailing is the largest contributing sector to country's GDP i.e. 10 per cent as compared to 8 per cent in China, 6 per cent in Brazil. Modern retailing is capable of generating employment opportunities for 2.5 million people by 2010 in various retail operations and over 10 million additional workforces in retail support activities. Sathish & Venkatrama (2010) 5summarised that the retail market was the next growth frontier for corporate India. It offers an opportunity for a large player to build a Rs. 40,000 crores retail business spanning multiple categories by 2015 (at current prices). Compared to this, the revenue of the largest Indian retailer Pantaloon was only Rs. 1,085 crores in 2005. No wonder large domestic business houses and international retailers had expressed keen interest to enter the retail sector in India. However, to capitalise on the opportunity, a player needs to be aggressive in its outlook and build scale quickly. Singhal (2010) 6according to a study conducted by KSA Technopak, India’s leading management consultancy firm specializing in the fashion and retail industries, organised retailing in the country is estimated to touch Rs. 18,000 crores in 2002-2003. This reflects a 20 per cent growth over the previous year. “The year 2003 will be the year of rapid growth for the organised retail sector in India. It will usher in improved profitability for the leading players and by 2004, country will see at least three of the top ten global retail giants firm up entry plans for India,” said Arvind Singhal, Chairman, KSA-Technopak, in a presentation on Organised Retailing: Emerging Opportunities. “Global retailing trends clearly show that consolidation and mass merchandising have contributed significantly to the success of international retailers. Mishra (2008) 7strategically analysed and looked at the factors which affect the growth of the Indian retail market, which were as follows: economic growth, increase in purchasing power, young aged demographics. This paper had also carried out the SWOT and Porter’s analysis of new organised retail models. Fig. 1 shows list of various factors that are affecting the growth of Indian retail industry.
Fig 1: Growth Drivers of Indian Retail Industry 8 (B) Indian Soap Industry Soap is a surfactant used in conjunction with water for washing and cleaning that historically comes in solid bars but also in the form of a thick liquid, especially from soap dispensers in public washrooms. Historically, soap has been composed of sodium (soda ash) or potassium (potash) salts of fatty acids derived by reacting fat with lye in a process known as specification. The fat sare hydrolysed by the base, yielding glycerol and crude soap. Many cleaning agents today are technically not soaps, but detergents, which are less expensive and easier to manufacture.9 The Indian soap industry includes about 700 companies with combined annual revenue of about $17 billion. All companies are operated over all metropolitan cities of India. Generally Indian per capita consumption of soap is at 460 gms per annum and 70% of India's population resides in the rural areas and around 50 per cent of the soaps are sold in the rural markets. 10 Monitor (2011) 11 analysed that the soap market in India increased at a compound annual growth rate of 12 per cent between 2004 and 2009. The bar soap segment led the soap market in India in 2009, with a share of 99.3 per cent. The leading player in soap market in India is Unilever.
III. Need of the Study Due to cut throat competition in the market of toilet/ beauty soaps segment, it is necessary to do the study of retailer’s perception towards Nirma Beauty soap. For that reason it is needed to know the actual selling of company’s products in terms of revenue/ number of units sold/its competitors selling in the market, how much share the company holds in the total market etc. IV. Objectives of the Study 1. To measure the market share of Nirma toilet/beauty soap in Ahmedabad city. 2. To identify major competitors of Nirma beauty soaps in Ahmedabad city. 3. To identify the market moving fragrance/flavor, price and pack size of the beauty soap. 4. To know the view of retailers regarding service provided by Nirma and their satisfaction level with comparison of other beauty soaps manufacturing companies. 5. Try to get suggestions from retailers to improve sales of Nirma beauty soaps. V. Research Methodology The study is descriptive in nature. The researcher adopted this research design to gather information from the respondents to assess the preferences of customers and factors affecting among the retailers towards selling of Nirma toilet/beauty soaps. The study was conducted with 200 samples (180 Retailers & 20 Wholesalers) from Ahmedabad city of Gujarat state. The sampling method adopted for the study was nonprobability convenient sampling where the researcher can select the sample elements based on the ease of access. Structured questionnaire was prepared to survey the respondents. The primary data has been collected through a structured questionnaire from the respondents. The secondary data has been collected from the books, journals, magazines and websites. The data relating to the company were collected from the personal manual and past records of the company. The data was collected by contacting individual retailer directly. VI. Data Analysis and Interpretation 1. List of area surveyed in Ahmedabad city: Table 1.0 shows the overall list of area of our surveyed from Ahmedabad city of Gujarat state. Table 1.0 2. Which toilet/beauty/bathing soaps are mostly sold? 2.1: Pink Flavor The study found that beauty soaps are most demanded in the pink flavor from the point of view of retailers. Retailers gave first rank to the Lux strawberry, second and third position gained by Godrej No.1 Rose and Strawberry respectively. Nirma Beauty is at the fourth rank and Nima Rose is at the 8th rank. From table 2.1, we can interpret here that rose and strawberry flavors in the pink beauty soap category are high in demand. Table 2.1 2.2: White Flavor The table shows that Lux is again on the top, at the first rank with the flavor of Peach. Godrej No. 1 Jasmine is at the 2nd rank where Nirma Beauty White is at the 7th rank and is not in that much demand. Here from table 2.2, we can interpret that in white toilet/bathing soap category peach, almond and jasmine flavours are most in demand. Table 2.2 2.3: Sandal Flavor The table 2.3 shows that according to the retailers, Santoor is at the 1 st rank in the sandal flavor of toilet/ bathing soap category. Whereas Godrej No. 1 is at the 2 nd and Nima Sandal is at the 3rd rank. Here, we can interpret that Breeze, Dyna and Jo are least preferred for sandal flavor of toilet/bathing soap. Table 2.3 2.4: Lime Flavor The table 2.4 shows that Cinthol, Godrej No. 1 and Breeze are the most demanded in the lime category of toilet/bathing soap, whereas Nirma Lime Fresh is not that much preferred by the consumers and is having the least demand in lime category toilet/bathing soap.
Table 2.4 3. Total market share of different brands of beauty soaps The table 3.0 shows that the Godrej No. 1 is the market leader with the market share of 28 per cent, Lux at the 2nd position with the market share of 15 per cent and Nirma is at the 3 rd position with the market share of 13 per cent, whereas Nima brand is having 3 per cent market share. Table 3.0 4. Under which pack size (in grams) toilet/beauty soaps are mostly sold? The table 4.0 shows that 125 gm pack size of the toilet/ bathing soap is the market mover. Followed by 100 gm pack size is high in demand.
Table 4.0 5. Under which price segment toilet/beauty soaps are mostly sold? The table 5.0 shows that according to the retailers, toilet/bathing soaps are mostly sold between price range of Rs. 11-15, i.e. 45 per cent which includes Godrej No. 1, Fair Glow, Breeze, Jo, and Vivel. Table 5.0 6. Which company provides you better service? The review of retailers revealed that 78 per cent of the retailers believe that all the companies give them good service; whereas 7 per cent of the retailers believe that none of companies give them good service. We can visualize from table 6.0 that top three companies who provide best service are Nirma, HUL and Godrej. Table 6.0 7. According to you what are the major attributes that influence customers’ decision to buy toilet/beauty soap? The table 7.0 shows that people are more Brand and Price oriented. Followed by quality, fragrance/flavor and packing of the toilet/bathing soaps. According to the retailers’ weight and advertising are also influencing factors, whereas shape, ingredient and color of the toilet/bathing soaps are least preferred by customers. Table 7.0 8. What suggestions would you like to give to increase the sales of Nirma toilet/bathing soap or to improve the product? From table 8.0 we can analyse that, most of the retailers believed that retailers’ scheme and consumer scheme would be beneficial to increase the sales of Nirma Beauty soap. In addition to this attractive display is beneficial to attract retailers for selling of the Nirma Beauty soap. 35 per cent retailers believe that Nirma should increase the range of the product; it should increase the fragrance/flavours in the beauty soap. Frequent advertising is also one of the ways to change the mindset of the consumers. 12 percent retailer’s emphasis is on the frequent advertising. Table 8.0 VII. Findings 1) Nirma beauty soaps are doing well in Ahmedabad city but it is not at the first place. Nirma Beauty soaps come at the third place after Godrej No. 1 at the first and Lux at the second, whereas Nima soaps has secured 8th place. 2) For Nirma, pink flavor is most demanded and for Nima, sandal flavour is most demanded. 3) In the areas like Vejalpur, Ghatlodiya, Vasana, Maninagar, Viratnagar, Mithakkhali, Rakhiyal, and Kalupur, Nirma is moving very fast and vice versa in the areas like Navrangpura, Satellite, Nirnaynagar, Gurukul, and Paldi. 4) Nirma provides maximum margin but does not give any schemes to the retailers and to the consumers also. But retailers are satisfied with the service provided by Nirma.
VIII. Conclusion With consumers today exposed to choices in terms of new categories, new brands and new shopping options enabling them to seek more information in the crowded retail environment, it is a major challenge for FMCG companies to attract them. Also the price sensitivity is waxing and brand loyalty is waning. And the consumers, who once stuck to favorite brands, are now, willing to try any quality products at an affordable price. That is why many soap companies are now offering additional benefits at no extra cost. Nirma can be said as the most reverential and one of the best managed companies of India. One important part of FMCG companies is its distribution network, its retailers and wholesalers. The overall system should have perfect co-ordination and cooperation among all its activities starting from the product in the production process till it has proved that it has well established and robust network system. If the soaps market is an indication, analysts believe that the customer is getting a perceptibly similar value at a lower price and hence down traced. The Indian consumer is extremely price conscious and won’t pay for something in which he does not see incremental value. So in effect, companies are not matching the premium they are charging for their products with adequate increase in product attributes and usage. In order to achieve higher growth rates, per capita consumption and penetration levels have to be increased. This requires use of promotional schemes that are the most essential in today’s market. Though, this could not guarantee brand loyalty by the customers but at-least the customers will try the products and generate sales for the companies. The result of above survey shows that Nirma Ltd. is providing good monetary benefits in terms of margin to retailers as well as wholesalers and also provides value for money to customers. IX. Limitations This survey is conducted by considering the time constraint. Sample size of two hundred retailers may unjustify the survey. It is difficult to be precise about the most appropriate sample size for conducting such research. Due to subjectivity and beliefs of retailers, some responses of the questionnaire may differ from the reality. Also due to lack of available literature may affect the validity of the data. XI. Annexure TABLE 1.0: LIST OF SURVEYED AREA Area
Retailers
Wholesalers
Semi-Wholesalers
Total
Navrangpura
15
-
-
15
Satellite
15
-
-
15
Vejalpur
21
1
3
25
Ghatlodiya
14
-
1
15
Nirnaynagar
14
1
-
15
Gurukul
14
-
1
15
Paldi
15
-
-
15
Vasana
11
2
2
15
Maninagar
14
-
1
15
Viratnagar
15
-
-
15
Mithakali
12
1
2
15
Rakhiyal
15
-
-
15
Kalupur
5
3
2
10
180
8
12
200
Total
TABLE 2: FRAGRANCE / FLAVOR WISE RANKING OF VARIOUS SOAPS
2.1: Pink Fragrance/Flavor 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Overall Score
480
161
48
385
20
6
32
9
1141
0
14
18
0
8
48
60
147
295
856
301
168
105
0
3
0
0
1433
352
700
270
35
4
3
2
1
1367
56
140
600
240
40
21
16
0
1113
Breeze Rose
40
154
102
125
364
57
0
21
863
Dyna Rose
0
0
60
70
92
189
112
34
557
Jo Rose
16
0
66
130
112
60
174
26
584
Flavor/ Rank Nirma Beauty Nima Rose Lux Strawberry Goderaj No. 1 Rose Goderaj No. 1 Strawberry
Source: Field Survey 2.2: White Fragrance/Flavor Flavor/ Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Overall Score
Nirma Beauty
88
49
48
5
16
9
186
73
474
Lux Peach
976
322
78
35
20
21
0
0
1452
Fair Glow
0
0
654
140
60
42
44
12
952
Godrej No.1 Jasmine
304
875
114
50
0
0
16
0
1359
Jo Almond
136
70
96
575
100
0
14
10
1001
Jo Jasmine
0
14
72
100
260
285
10
1
742
Dyna Almond
0
0
48
85
324
180
50
9
696
Vivel
0
0
0
50
32
51
46
142
321
Source: Field Survey 2.3: Sandal Fragrance/Flavor Flavor/ Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
Overall Score
Nima
60
165
476
42
34
7
784
Goderaj No. 1
162
550
120
45
34
1
912
Breeze
78
125
144
282
30
17
676
Dyna
0
0
48
90
220
48
406
Jo
0
45
0
108
100
105
358
786
105
48
57
20
7
1023
Santoor
Source: Field Survey 2.4: Lime Fragrance/Flavor
Source: Survey TABLE MARKET OF
Flavor/Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
Overall Score
Nirma
0
0
0
0
86
157
243
Godrej No. 1
204
630
88
27
6
6
961
Cinthol
894
105
32
39
18
0
1088
Breeze
138
85
416
129
18
4
790
Dyna
54
65
108
261
68
30
586
Jo
42
90
148
174
146
7
607
3.0: SHARS
DIFFERENT SOAP BRANDS Soap
No. of Units / Month
Percentage
Nirma
44008
13%
Nima
11391
3%
Godrej No. 1
96872
28%
Lux
53369
15%
Breeze
27703
8%
Dyna
26698
7%
Jo
31480
9%
Santoor
29390
8%
Vivel
4098
1%
Cinthol
16201
5%
Fair Glow
10240
3%
3,51,450
100
Total
Source: Field Survey TABLE 4.0: PREFERANCE FOR PACKET SIZE Soap / Grams (gm)
50 gm
75 gm
100 gm
115 gm
125 gm
135 gm
150 gm
Nirma
-
1%
98%
-
-
-
1%
Nima
-
-
100%
-
-
-
-
Godrej No. 1
-
-
-
-
100%
-
-
Lux
-
56%
14%
-
-
30%
-
28%
-
-
-
72%
-
-
Dyna
-
-
-
-
100%
-
-
Jo
-
-
-
100%
-
-
-
16%
20%
-
64%
-
-
-
Vivel
-
-
76%
-
-
-
24%
Cinthol
-
-
-
-
100%
-
-
Breeze
Santoor
Field
Fair Glow
-
100%
-
-
-
-
-
Source: Field Survey TABLE 5.0: PREFERRED PRICE SEGMENT FOR SOAP Price Segment (in INR)
No. of Respondent
Percentage
Rs. 6-10
43
22%
Rs. 11-15
91
45%
Rs. 16-20
49
24%
Above Rs. 20
17
9%
200
100
Total
Source: Field Survey
TABLE 6.0: PREFERANCE OF SERVICE Name of Company
No. of Respondent
Percentage
HUL
164
82%
ITC
156
78%
Anchor
156
78%
Nirma
169
85%
Godrej
161
81%
VVF
156
78%
Wipro
160
80%
Source: Field Survey TABLE 7.0: FACTORS THAT CAN AFFECT SOAP PURCHASE DECISION Factors
No. of Respondent
Percentage
Price
147
74%
Shape
34
17%
Ingredient
23
12%
Color
45
23%
Packing
118
59%
Fragrance/Flavor
122
61%
Weight
87
44%
Advertising
98
49%
Brand
152
76%
Source: Field Survey TABLE 8.0: SUGGESTIONS GIVEN BY RETAILERS FOR NIRMA BEAUTY SOAP
Nirma Pink
Nirma White
Nirma Lime
Nima Sandal
Nima Rose
Add Flavors
35%
35%
1%
35%
35%
New Packaging
7%
7%
-
7%
7%
Frequent Advertising
12%
12%
-
12%
12%
New ad model
9%
9%
-
9%
9%
-
-
-
-
-
Consumer Sales Promotion
60%
60%
2%
60%
60%
Retailer Sales Promotion
66%
66%
3%
66%
66%
Attractive Display
44%
44%
2%
44%
44%
Suggestions / Soap
Stronger Distribution Network
Source: Field Survey X. References 1. At http://www.chillibreeze.com/articles_various/fmcg-in-india.asp, (Accessed on August12, 2012). 2. At http://www.nirma.co.in/genesis.htm, (Accessed November 21, 2012). 3. Mittal, K.C. &Prashar, A. (2011), “A field Study on Opportunities and Challenges Faced by Organised Retailers in Tri-City”, Synergy, 9(9), 69-78. 4. Dash, M.S. (2011), “Next-Generation Retailing In India: An Empirical Study Using Factor Analysis”,1(2), , 25-35. 5. Satish, D.&Venkatrama, R.D. (2010), “The Growth of Indian Retail Industry”, Advances In Management, 3. 6. Singhal, A. (2010), “Organised Retailing: Emerging Opportunities”, at http://www.businesswireindia.com/pressrelease.asp?b2mid=2647, (Accessed August 20, 2012). 7. Mishra, S. (2008), “New Retail Models in India: Strategic Perspective Analysis”, Journal of Marketing & Communication, 4(2), 39-47. 8. At http://www.dnb.co.in/IndianRetailIndustry/insight.asp, (Accessed October 12, 2012). 9. “Top Soap Brands in India”, at http://business.mapsofindia.com/top-brands-india/top-soap-brands-inindia.html, (Accessed September 03, 2012). 10. At www.indianmirror.com/indian-industries/soap.html, (Accessed August 19, 2012). 11. Monitor (2011), “Soap Market in Indian 2014 (Personal Hygiene)”, 35.
