COVID-19 and soap brands
Dear brands(brand and marketing teams) please spare us with your fuck ups and if you really feel the urge to milk something kindly go find a cow
The bottom line of any business is to make money. The consumer is aware but there are exceptions.
A few weeks ago I was standing in the queue to grab popcorn in a multiplex. By the time my number came, a young man came and asked me if he could speak to the guy at the counter for a minute. This young man, the father of a young girl, urgently needed milk for his child. After a bit of hesitation, the staff not only gave milk but decided not to charge. The father wanted to pay but the staff smiled and said thank you. Big deal? not at all. Has the multiplex got a loyal customer? I doubt. But what stood out was humanity.
Scott Galloway in his book, “The Algebra of Happiness”, talks about getting the easy stuff right. “Show up early, have good manners, and follow up. The lesson here…easy: don’t be a fucking idiot like yours truly, and get the easy stuff right.”
Similarly, you don’t milk during the times of a pandemic like COVID-19 which has brought mankind to its feet. But there are exceptions and we will always have assholes who will jump the line, try to be smart and watch out if anybody is talking. They will always have a backup plan and later release note on how they are saving mankind during the tough times.
On 31st January 2020, Hindustan Unilever Limited launched a bold print ad in the Mumbai edition of the Hindustan Times. “The copy of the ad urged users to practice proper handwashing techniques in the light of the coronavirus outbreak in China.”
The ad was released just when India had confirmed the first-ever case of a patient with the virus in the country. By now WHO confirmed that the outbreak was a public health emergency of international concern. And still, we took approximately 2 months to address the situation. And as I write, India is closed for 21 days but I see people going for morning walks and cycling.
Anyways, the print ad was celebrated by advertising and marketing gurus because it was a public service message. The brand said - “Please use any soap nearest to you. Not just Lifebuoy, but any soap like Lux, Dettol, Santoor or Godrej No. 1.”
Bold? Yes. But the ad ended saying -“Lifebuoy: Top 5 soap brands in India based on Nielsen data.” By adding that silly line HUL you converted the brilliant copy into an ad.
By mid-march, the virus had resulted in eight deaths and infected more than 450 people across India. The government finally accepted that the country has to take bold measures. Social distancing became the new norm, work from home was no more a luxury. Meanwhile, HUL decided to go big with its print communication. This time it had the ‘handwashing’ ambassador, Bollywood actress Kajol stressing the importance of handwashing as a potent precaution against the Coronavirus. She informs the viewers to use any soap that they have. This, despite her being seen in advertisements for Lifebuoy.
Obviously, the brand made sure that it got all the attention and Lifebuoy stayed in people’s minds.
By now the hand sanitizer makers witnessed a 10-fold jump in demand as the virus started taking a larger grip over the country. “We have seen a 10 times demand for hand sanitizers over the last month,” The Himalayan Drug company CEO Philipe Haydon told PTI.
Mumbai-based Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL) said it has upped production of its hand wash and hand sanitizer brand. “We have ramped up production of Protekt hand wash and sanitizers in our units as well as through our vendor partner units," said Sunil Kataria, chief executive officer, India and Saarc, GCPL.
Godrej Protekt launched an initiative called the 'Protekt India Movement'(what is this fascination with ‘K’). It launched a digital anthem featuring children as the messengers in order to create more awareness about hand hygiene. However the anthem right now is missing from the YouTube brand page, instead, it has three quick ads showcasing when to use the product. It is no more showing children in its ad.
Dettol from the house of Reckitt Benckiser(RB) also joined the handwashing challenge and it went the cool way by joining the TikTok madness. Obviously the objective other than educating people about the benefits of regular hand washing was also to get massive views and reach.
Along with the bunch of known influencers, the brand roped in Bollywood stars Kartik Aaryan and Urvashi Rautela where these amazing souls taught us how to wash our hands. Just watch how Urvashi grooves while washing her hands.
“Over the past couple of weeks, we have witnessed a lot of misinformation floating around hygiene practices, especially over the internet. Realising the gravity of the issue and being a responsible brand, we felt it was our prerogative to initiate this awareness campaign,” said Pankaj Duhan, CMO, RB Health South Asia.
The brand has released a press release stating that the campaign has witnessed 18 billion views and generated over 123K user participation videos in one week of starting the campaign. Thank you to the media money the brand burnt on TikTok. Additionally, I have a simple question: who washes his/her hand while dancing or shaking his butt. Maybe I am just too old to understand a cool and peppy brand like Dettol.
With the demand for hand sanitizers increasing day by day, marketers showed their true colors. Increase the prices, milk from the moment, even in the challenging times. But we also live in the times of social media by which the consumer can highlight any BS in seconds and get you trended for all the wrong reasons.
The same happened with HUL when the word circulated that the brand decided to increase soap prices between 5% and 6% across brands. As soon as the price hike announcement was flashed on TV news channels, social media users started criticising the move and #BoycottHUL started trending on Twitter.
However, the company denied the claim and said that it isn’t trying to make more profits in the time of crisis and the decision to increase the prices of soaps was taken well in advance.
“The prices of palm oil, a key ingredient for soaps, have been increasing for many months, and at the end of 2019, the inflation was over 25%. In light of this, we increased prices in our skin cleansing portfolio by 5% to 6% across our brands: Lux, Lifebuoy, Dove, Hamam, Liril and Pears. This was well before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in India.”
Interestingly three days after the Twitter trolling, HUL decided to reduce the prices of Lifebuoy sanitizers, Lifebuoy Liquid handwash and Domex floor cleaners by 15 percent. The brand has also committed Rs 100 crores to help in the fight against coronavirus. “HUL will donate two crore pieces of Lifebuoy soaps in the next few months to the sections of the society which need it the most.”
Meanwhile, Godrej has also pledged 1 million free handwashes, and slashing hand sanitizer prices by 66%. All these measures coincide with The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution recently issued a notification to cap the retail price of 3-ply masks at Rs 10 per piece, 2-ply masks at Rs 8 apiece and hand sanitizers at not more than Rs 100 per 200 ml, with lower or higher volume packs priced proportionately.
So dear brands don’t tell that you were not milking the COVID-19 opportunity by increasing the prices. And then there are ongoing courtroom battles with competitors scoring a point against each other. After Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) approached the High Court against Reckitt Benckiser for an advertisement allegedly disparaging the former’s brand of soap, the latter company has agreed to suspend the ad from March 22 to April 21. It is also claimed that the Dettol ad in question is a blatant copy of the advertisement earlier published by Lifebuoy.
“The RB and HUL battle is unnecessary and badly timed and odious. This is surely not a time for marketing cannibalism. Do it in times of peace. Not in times of war. And this is a war,” said Harish Bijoor, Founder, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
Researchers associated with the COV-IND-19 Study Group, an interdisciplinary group of scholars and data scientists, said that India may see 13 lakh cases by mid-may. I don’t want this to be true.
So dear brands(brand and marketing teams) please spare us with your fuck ups and if you really feel the urge to milk something kindly go find a cow. Thank you The Hindu Group.
