Brand Update : Santoor

Santoor has become the market leader in South India dethroning Lifebuoy , according to a report in Economic Times. Santoor has registered a 18 % growth this year. Now Santoor has 15.7 % value share in the South India market . In the national level, Santoor is the third largest soap brand with a share of 7.5% (value share).

Read the report here


Santoor's success can be attributed to its penchant for consistency. The brand is highly focused in its communication message and consistently invest in building brands.

Kudos for the brand

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Brand Update : Santoor

This season, Santoor has launched another brand extension - Santoor Deodorant. The brand now has a wide range of products under its brand portfolio. Now Santoor has soap, talc, face wash and now deodorant.

The brand is slowly but steadily moving in the direction of becoming a personal care brand rather than a soap brand. This 600+ crore brand was on a roll last year becoming one of the largest selling soap brands in India. The brand consistently invested in brand building and never shied away from spending in advertising.

The new extension is to cash in on the opportunity for a deo brand for ladies. Although there are many deo brands for the female segment, the market is growing and opportunity exists for new brands also.

I raise the issue of brand dilution when ever I see brand extensions. Although I am a critic of brand extensions, this strategy is inevitable for many reasons. In the case of Santoor, these extensions are a part of Wipro's strategy to make Santoor a family brand for personal care products. Brands like Pond's , Lakme , Vaseline have successfully metamorphosed into Family Brands.

The talking point about Santoor is the positioning. For over 25 years, the brand has been talking about the concept of " For a Younger Looking Skin". All the campaigns were reinforcing that message consistently and powerfully. When the brand moved into talcum powder, it had to deviate from "younger looking" to "freshness". In the case of deo also, the brand is talking about freshness.

Now if Santoor aspire to be an umbrella brand , it may have to dilute or change the core brand positioning of " Younger looking skin " and include brand value like Freshness . This is relevant for products like Deo and Talc . For other products like facewash or creams , the classic positioning will work for the brand.

Another factor is that Santoor soap derives its strength from Turmeric and Sandal . The brand even derives the name from these two ingredients. The positioning also derives strength from these two ingredients. Now when the brand expands its product portfolio, it has to look beyond these two ingredients. Hence if at all the brand wants to expand its horizon, it may have to find other sources of strength.

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Brand Update : Santoor Celebrates 25 years with Rebranding

Santoor, India's third largest soap brand is celebrating its 25 years of glorious existence in the fiercely competitive Indian toilet soap market.  The brand is celebrating this event with a rebranding exercise which consists of a new look, new fragrance and interestingly a brand anthem. Also the brand roped in Saif Ali Khan as the celebrity model for its campaign.

The rebranding  showcases new pack with a new logo which gives the brand a contemporary look. The interesting part is the Santoor brand anthem which is a well made theme presentation which reflects the core positioning of Santoor which is " A soap for younger looking skin".

Watch the Anthem here : santoor anthem

There is also a new ad featuring Saif Ali khan. The ad follows the same theme of mistaken identity where a young mother is mistaken for a spinster because of her younger looking skin. Congratulations to the brand for sticking to the theme which made it one of the most successful fmcg brand in India.

In a related article in exchange4media, one of the ad gurus  commented that the theme of mistaken identity has become old and boring and too predictable. In a sense the ad is predictable but we are not here to solve a puzzle, the more the ads become predictable, the more the message will be impressed upon in the customer's mind. The criticism of being a boring advertisement is relevant and the brand could have done more interms of making this theme more interesting. The anthem is fabulous and does justice to the brand's equity. 

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Brand Update : Santoor Extends to Baby Soaps ?

I stumbled upon a commercial for Santoor Baby soap in Facebook, thanks to the tip from Bhatnaturally. I was surprised to see this move from one of India's biggest soap brands - Santoor.
Watch the ad here : Santoor Baby 
A search in Google yielded no results. I assume that the ad is real and Santoor is now test marketing this brand extension in select markets. Since the ad features the South Indian actress Jyothika, Santoor is serious about the new launch.

Indian baby care market is huge with a size of  Rs 3000 crore expected to grow at a rate of 20% according to ASSOCHAM.The baby skin care market is valued at Rs 400 crore and toiletries valued at Rs 380 crore.
Johnson and Johnson has a huge stronghold in this market with a share of over 70% . Many brands like Sparsh from Marico and Babysoft from Wipro tried unsuccessfully to dethrone J&J . It is in this context that Santoor's move becomes relevant and interesting.
Santoor has been very consistent in its positioning. Santoor's core brand's positioning is " for a younger looking skin". The brand through all its campaign effectively reinforced this positioning and became India's second biggest soap brand.
Santoor Baby soap will be trying to leverage this equity . The problem is that Santoor is perceived to be a soap for adults. So when such a brand launches a baby soap, inevitably doubts arises with regard to the mildness of the soap. Wipro earlier tried the Baby Soft brand but couldn't succeed so it is now trying to extend its best brand's equity. The ad shows not an infant but a 2-4 year old kid. So the brand will be trying to target the segment which is slowly growing out of the Johnson and Johnson's baby soap. More over since the child is growing , mothers will not be much bothered about trying out a baby soap from Santoor's portfolio.