Thursday, August 14, 2008

Brand Update : Rexona RIP ( 1947-2008)

So its official, Rexona will be laid to rest. I recently saw a TVC where the ad says Rexona is now Hamam. First I couldn't believe it. Then I searched for the news but there was no information anywhere about this possible brand migration.

Just now I got an sms from my journalist friend that Rexona soap is going to be migrated to Hamam.

The brand was in the life-support for quite a while. The first attempt to kill the brand was during the power brand strategy where Rexona was planned to migrate to Lux. At that time Rexona was launched with Lux milk cream. But after some time, HLL decided not to migrate Rexona. Then I thought that this brand will be rejuvenated. But now is has been confirmed that Rexona Soap is now history.

As a customer I am sad because it was a nice soap. As a marketer, I am upset because such a good brand is being killed. For HUL , the reasons can be many. In this era of cut throat competition, it does not make sense to have too many brands. So the logic is to put your money into those brands which are powerful. Rexona has never been a volume/revenue contributor for HLL.

Another reason is the existence of Rexona deodorant which had a different image compared to the soap. Its in India that Rexona exists in soap category. Worldover Rexona is famous as a deodorant.

It is more difficult to kill a brand compared to launching a new one. There can be issues of managers getting emotional about the brand . Another difficulty is to handle the existing customers of the brand. HUL is hoping that Rexona customers will migrate to Hamam. As a customer I will not migrate because I have a different perception about Hamam.


Rexona deo will be given more focus by the company now that there is no soap variant. HUL has been using imported International commercials of Rexona in India. Its sloppy marketing to import global campaigns into a diverse market like India. HUL had the resources to do it by itself but its trying the short-cut.

So in the FMCG kurukshethra one more brand has been killed. This time by the own company.

Related Posts

Rexona

Hamam

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