Vivel soap: Scrubbing off with soft power

A new television commercial for Vivel soap focuses on workplace harassment and asks women to not hold back when faced with rough situations

Today advertisers aren't shy of making social comments even while selling soaps or bottled water. At a time when conversations among average consumers are assuming the proportion of national debates, thanks mainly to social media, ITC Ltd's new TV commercial of Vivel soap has decided to take up an issue that many would prefer to brush under the carpet.

The campaign focuses on workplace harassment and, as its title #AbSamjhautaNahin suggests, urges women to stop compromising. The 40-second ad shows a young woman, who has just won an award, meeting her friends. A middle-aged senior approaches and commends her, even as he leers at her with the promise that if she joins his company he could "take her to the top". She replies that surprisingly even a "lift man" had the same words for her the day before. The red-faced man sneaks away as the woman is cheered by people around her.

Sameer Satpathy, chief executive, personal care products business, ITC Ltd, says, "Sometimes the only thing holding a woman back is her own belief that she can be held back. With #AbSamjhautaNahin, Vivel hopes to inspire women to question the limits they've been conditioned into accepting, challenge the status quo and therefore maximise their potential and live fuller lives."

Vivel has been in the market for eight years. While in its initial phase it sought to simply to establish itself in a highly competitive market place, with this campaign, it hoped to move ahead - from being a functional brand to one rooted in an emotional promise, says Satpathy. "ITC strongly believes that for a brand to thrive and grow, it has to be embedded in society. Brands need to inspire, and yet be rooted in the reality of the consumer," he says.

According to Anil Nair, CEO, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, the agency had the option of a making the usual ad focused on rational benefits from the product. But it felt consumers were sceptical about how a majority of brands interacted with them in a typical "transactive" manner.

"Today, women at some point are holding back. It is many a time self-imposed. So, we decided not to create a typical campaign, but a 'what we believe in' campaign," he says.

But where does a soap fit in? Nair explains that just as Vivel soap promises to make skin softer, the ad showed the woman dealing with a rough situation softly, which he feels is unique to the fair sex.

"We do not equate the roughness faced by women with big issues like dowry but smaller things - it could be condescending attitudes or innuendos by someone, restrictions by family relatives or prejudices by society," he adds.

On deciding against the use of a celebrity, he says, "We wanted to bring in an affable woman, whose beauty is not skin deep. There is greater connect if the actor is not a celebrity but a girl next door."

However, the company plans to use celebrities - Kareena Kapoor has featured in Vivel ads earlier - to amplify the message of this campaign through digital and social media.

Interestingly, a Dove commercial aired a couple of months ago questioned stereotyped notions of beauty in a diverse country like India with a call of "let's break the rules of beauty".

Nair, however, is quick to point out that "Dove is doing nothing like this (Vivel's campaign) in India".

"The consumer in India is buying Dove because it is a very good moisturising soap. Also, they are getting some honesty, truth from the brand," he adds.

The market size of India's beauty, cosmetic and grooming market is worth $6.5 billion (Rs 43,500 crore), and is projected to reach $20 billion (Rs 134,000) by 2025. The toilet soap category itself is worth over Rs 13,200 crore, and is led by brands such as Lifebuoy, Lux, Godrej and Dettol. As of April 2015, Vivel had a market share by value of 2.5 per cent.

While Satpathy says the campaign is expected to be a "conversation starter", Nair expresses confidence that the positive initial responses from audiences would soon reflect in better sales and also build on brand affinity.