Unilever wrote the playbook for winning in emerging markets. And P&G is now rewriting its own version. No wonder that their bitter rivalry has flared up all over again — in India
At his second floor office in Hindustan Unilever’s new headquarters in Andheri, a north Mumbai suburb, Gopal Vittal pulls out two packs of Wheel, a detergent his company makes. One is a familiar, old pack but the other is a new, improved version that Vittal, HUL’s executive director for home and personal care, is now pushing into the market.
Not surprisingly, shortly after he took charge, Polman sent out a message: All attacks from P&G in emerging markets will have to be decisively repulsed. But defending its share is something HUL has been good at. The question is can Unilever find new ways to grow?
This time around, it took a leaf out of its successful 2004 experiment in India with Whisper. It smartly avoided potential dilution of equity with Whisper Choice, a low priced variant targeted at first time users of branded sanitary pads. Whisper worked because it created communication that was relevant for first time users and did not create any dissonance for users of Whisper Ultra. That enabled it to gain value as well as volume leadership and push Johnson & Johnson, its main rival in the sanitary napkin business, into a corner.
(This story appears in the 16 April, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)