Cinthol sticks to freshness pitch

It’s one of the oldest soap brands in the Godrej stable and was created by Burjor Godrej, nephew of Adeshir Godrej, founder of the group 58 years back. If the Rs 250 crore brand is still going strong, analysts see two reasons for it.

One, the brand’s ability to stick to its core pitch – freshness and deodorancy – even though the competitive landscape has been undergoing a sea-change. For example, the same space was also occupied until recently by archrival Liril from Hindustan Unilever. But even as Liril metamorphosed into Liril 2000 some six months ago targeting a larger family audience in the process, Cinthol has stayed true to its identity all along. Its youth connect remains. So does its sensuality as represented by brand ambassadors such as Imran Khan and Vinod Khanna in the past, and Hrithik Roshan now.

And two, Cinthol has undergone a transformation in its own way by venturing into talcs and deodorants. “Deodarants as a category is a fast-growing one. We had to make our presence felt there,” says Dalip Sehgal, managing director, Godrej Consumer Products. “Talcs is not a new category. We were there earlier with Cinthol talcum powder. But it needed to be reinforced,” he says.

In markets such as Tamil Nadu, where the original Cinthol or Cinthol Regular does well, the group has recently launched a talcum powder under the same brand name. “In my view,” says Anmol Dhar, managing director, Superbrands India, and chairperson, Superbrands India Council, “Godrej Consumer Products has managed to reinvent Cinthol without compromising on its core quality. At the same time, it has moved into allied categories such as talcs and deos to support it. That’s a clever strategy.”

Sticking to the core premise of freshness doesn’t mean that Cinthol had stopped moving with the times. The green soap in a red wrapper - the original Cinthol - has a number of variants to it now. This includes a range of soaps under the ‘24-hour-confidence’ umbrella, which is endorsed by Hrithik Roshan. With no serious competition in the freshness and deodarancy space at the moment, experts believe this could work to Cinthol’s advantage in the coming months. “Freshness and deodarancy is a tangible benefit. The fact that Cinthol has managed to stick to it even as it has taken on a new hue, has worked,” says Santosh Desai, chief executive officer, Future Brands.

These initiatives were preceded by a repositioning exercise of the brand in Tamil Nadu last year. Basically, the brand was relaunched using the premise that it was recommended by dermatologists, says Sehgal. “We got this insight after conducting a survey in the state, where we found that the brand was being recommended by dermatologists,” says Sehgal. “Our research thereafter shows that this has worked with consumers. They feel confident when picking up the product,” he says.

The brand has played the pricing game as well. The company has two new variants at Rs 6 and Rs 15 respectively. “The price of a Cinthol Regular is Rs 23 in Tamil Nadu. We felt offtake would be better if we launched stock keeping units at lower price points,” says Sehgal.