Godrej Consumer Products aims 40% sales growth from new products

Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) is aggressively looking at expanding its new product portfolio, also called newly developed products, which will be present across various categories, including handwash.

The company is hoping that by launching seven to nine products in current year, it will be able to increase its sales by at least 40%.

The company on Thursday launched Protekt Mr Magic, which it claims is the first-ever powder to liquid hand wash and expects to become a Rs 500-crore brand soon.

Sunil Kataria, CEO, India and SAARC, GCPL, said, “We are looking at making this a Rs500-crore brand in the next four years, and a Rs200-crore brand in the next two years.” Speaking more about the planned launches, he said, “Almost 40% of this year’s growth is coming through new product development (NPD).”

“NPD is a critical hallmark of our strategy. This year we have gone a step further and will launch about seven to nine products, many of which are innovations. It will be an aggressive foot forward from us with huge investment. There will be new variants in the existing segments, and a few more category creators."

On the marketing front, the company is well aware of educating the consumers about the new categories and products. Since creating awareness is a massy job and so is the product, Kataria is sure that the primary focus of the marketing plan is on television.

GCPL has got Creativeland Asia as the creative agency. Madison is the media agency on record.

“Video will be our main communication driver on both TV and digital, which will take about 80% of our marketing budgets, because this is a category creator and we need to create awareness and educate for the product. There will be a lot of demonstrations, and interactive and engaging sessions at modern trade outlets too. Online channels are a great way to engage with consumers in a dialogue. This needs more education and hence, the mass media are very important, though digital will also be heavily used.”

Explaining further about the media platforms, their uses and the media mix on rural and urban segments, he said, “TV will be primary for creating reach, followed by digital.Print will be the third most important medium. Digital will be heavy in urban. TV will be pan-India but the focus will be more on FTAs in the rural markets. Overall, we are already spending in double digits on digital advertising mediums.”

The marketing plan will be launched in a few days and the creatives feature children. Speaking more on the target audience and who will be the first takers of the product, he said, “TG is pan-age-groups but we expect the early adopters of the product to be the parents and kids. It has the direct correlation with the goodness of reducing child illnesses."

With its handwash product, the company aims to push the Rs800-crore liquid hand wash category to grow and become a Rs 8000-crore category. It already has a product in the liquid hand wash segment in the name of Protekt, which grabs a single-digit market share in the category. It expects the new product to redefine its market share, to reshuffle the category a bit and then take a larger chunk from it.

Isn’t there a threat of the new product cannibalising the existing hand wash play? Kataria said, “Both markets will coexist. If there is some cannibalisation, it will be very marginal. On the other hand, the gains of creating a new category are huge. I think the hand wash category should double its penetration in urban markets in the next three years. Along with this, if this disruption is able to make a meaningful penetration in rural, it will be a great success."

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