Brand Update : Lux

Lux has a new endorser. True to the brand's heritage of being endorsed by the reigning queens of Bollywood, the brand has roped in Katrina Kaif as the new Lux girl.

The brand is currently running the campaign featuring Katrina across the channels for its new Purple Lotus cream variant.

Watch the ad here : Katrina Lux ad.

What is interesting is the change in the tagline of the Lux brand over the last few campaigns. Ever since the brand discarded its classic tagline of " Filmi Sitaroan ka saundarya sabun" , Lux has not been able to find a fitting tagline. The brand later adopted the taglines " Celebrating Beauty " and then later to " Why worry about beauty " . The last campaign had the simple voice over like " Lux with Beauty Oils ". The brand this time has further reinforced the USP of the brand as " Soap with cream and beauty oils".

This time Lux has used a new positioning " kaliyon se Thwecha ke liye" translated to " Skin as soft as budding/blossoming flowers ". While Lux with beauty oils is a more rational feature oriented pitching, the brand is also talking about the brand promise of a " Softer looking Skin". It is good the see Lux settling with its USP and positioning.

But the gain of Lux has resulted in a loss for another brand Dyna. Dyna which is the soap brand from Anchor Group was banking on Katrina Kaif for building the brand. The entire Dyna brand was heavily depended on Katrina rather than its positioning or differentiation. With Katrina ending the association with Dyna, it will be interesting to see the future of Dyna brand.

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Lux

Brand Update : Lux

Lux got bigger. The brand has come back in style. Lux released its first commercial featuring the most famous "Star Couple " of bollywood - Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan. The brand is currently running this high profile campaign across the media space.

Watch the ad here : Lux new ad

HUL has been facing lot of heat from the competition. Most of its best sellers were losing market share and competition getting aggressive day by day. Despite having very popular brands, HUL began losing shares especially in the personal care category.
The HUL brands are facing tough competition from players like ITC , Wipro ,Godrej and the like.

Recently I checked on the HUL products purchased at my home , I was surprised to find that we have dropped many HUL products from our shopping list. In the soap category itself, we never purchased an HUL soap for the past 3 months or so. These spaces are now occupied by brands like Vivel,Dettol, Santoor etc.

In my earlier update on Lux, I mentioned that HUL is not promoting the "original " Lux and not using the equity of Aishwarya Rai. The new campaign involving the two biggest stars of bollywood gives a huge thrust to the brand.

Ordinary consumers seems to be very much impressed by the new campaign. My mother liked the ad so much that she plans to buy Lux soon.

Personally I feel that the ad could have been different. The theme is nothing new and is used by many brands before. But the Star Couple makes the theme irrelevant. The charm and the chemistry of the couple make good the flaws in the "big idea".The ad has a sticky factor and in that sense Lux benefits.

The current campaign although expensive gives the required thrust for Lux. Lux badly needed some thing new to bring back the consumers who switched to other brands and never returned. The brand had made a strong comeback and that too in style.

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Lux

Brand Update : Lux

I cannot but watch this brand with a sense of awe. Lux and the brand's sustenance at the top of the product lifecycle.

There is never a dull moment for this brand. Be it the Chocolate Seduction or the Black Provocateur. Now Lux has launched two exotic variants : Lux Strawberry & Cream and Lux Peach & Cream.

The new variants are the fruit based soap which is now the flavor of the season. Lux has always been in the forefront of identifying and creating new trends in soap flavors.
What is interesting about the two new variants is that these are not promoted using sub-brands. As you may recall , most of the new launches in the recent past for Lux has been using sub-brands.

We had Lux Crystal Shine, Lux Provocateur , Chocolate Seduction etc. I had commented on my last post that HUL may have forgotten the Core brand Lux.

My fears are now found addressed as the new variants represent the core brand . My argument is substantiated by the fact that both these variants contains Cream which is the essence of the Original brand Lux.
The new launch also assumes significance in the light of heightened competition from ITC brand Vivel Di Wills. Vivel has been promoted with Film Stars and also comes in new exotic flavors.

Strawberry is going to be a new trend in the personal care market. I think it was started by Parachute Starz which is heavily promoted as having strawberry extracts.

Soap is a product where loyalty of customers lie not in a single brand but a basket of brands. Since the investment for the product is negligible, consumers are not averse to trying out new flavors or brands. Hence the task for any soap brand is to keep engaging the consumer at either the product lever or at the promotional level.
Brands like Santoor has been investing in promotions while the product essentially remained the same. Lux is taking the product route where consumers are engaged with new flavors and variants.
The new Lux variants are promoted exhaustively in women's magazines. What I liked about both these variants is that it is tempting. Both Strawberry and Peach has a tempting effect to it and I am sure that many consumers will try out these variants.