God is in the Detail

Spirituality Sells! And thank God for that – pun intended. It isn’t all that difficult though. Give a religious spin to almost anything and you’re sure to find a target audience. Well, mostly!

It’s what Godrej Soaps decided to do back in the early nineties. It was a decision triggered by a degree of self-preservation – or at least market relevance. Until then, Godrej played the premium soap market, and pretty much dominated it with a 75% share. But then, that total pie itself wasn’t all that large, and other players were beginning to nibble at their heels. On the other hand, economies of scale made the mass segment a tasty and profitable proposition.

Going Mass

Not that Godrej had no presence in the popular soap segment – Vigil was its mass brand, but it hardly made a dent in that huge ocean. The question that confronted the company was whether it should tweak or reposition Vigil, or just launch a new popular category soap.

Godrej chose the latter. It summoned all its thinking heads into a single room and traded ideas and suggestions. What new soap would have a notable differentiation and yet strike that perfect balance between price, quality and acceptance? Fancy ingredients or any level of sophistication would take it out of the mass segment. Plain vanilla would not create that all-important differentiation.

Most of the suggestions were cut adrift for the above reasons – or for their logistical and economic un-viability. One idea, however, was truly different and worth the exploration. It was an ingredient alright, but one that could hook the masses – at least the devout and the spiritual. Water is a basic ingredient in soap, as in most other personal care products. So, instead of ordinary water, why not use a special kind of water – fully loaded with spirituality… water that came specifically from the Holy Ganges; Gangajal itself!

Winning Idea

It seemed like a winning idea right from the time it was propounded. India is, and was, a fervently spiritual and religious country. And the Ganga represents the vortex of this spirituality. For the devout masses, a dip in the holy river is on the lifetime wishlist. A yearning to wash away a lifetime of sins. Now instead of going to the Ganga, what if the Ganga came to you!

Still, what seemed like a clincher of an idea in the conference room, needed to pass the test of marketplace realities – especially in as complex and varied a market as India. Would a soap made from Gangajal find universal acceptance?

Research was conducted, holy men and sadhus were consulted – it all seemed to be above board. Everything hinted at universal acceptance. Convinced, Godrej went full steam ahead. The soap was formulated and mass-produced. And real Gangajal was used in the production. No taking any sort of chance playing with people’s sensibilities and sensitivities.

Plenty of thought was put into the presentability too. The packaging was appealing in its dominant blue and white, and imagery of snow-capped Himalayan peaks with the mighty Ganga flowing from it. The name was direct too, leaving no doubt of any kind – Ganga was ready to be unleashed in the market; and just to be sure, that brand name repeated in thirteen languages across the packaging.

Widespread Acceptance

Godrej Ganga was tested in Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Consumer response was so conclusive, the company went ahead and launched the brand pan India. Acceptance was widespread and encouraging. In a little under two years, the brand carved out a six percent share of the popular segment. Encouraged, the company introduced other pack sizes. It also roped in popular celebrities to add sparkle to its ad campaign – Sunil Gavaskar, Rishi Kapoor and TV star Kiran Joneja, whose role as Ganga in the mega serial Mahabharata, was cleverly contextual and hence a bit of a masterstroke.

The product proposition itself was watertight. If a dip in the Ganga was on the wishlist of the masses, and mostly not attainable for various reasons, then how about a daily mini dip – a little bit of packaged Ganga as part of one’s personal cleanliness ritual!

It all motored along nicely; it was good while it lasted. But somewhere down the line, things started to change. It rapidly started to lose market share and, to halt the slide, the company relaunched it as Dudh Ganga in 1997. Salvation did not happen and, finally, the brand itself was cremated in 2000.

What Changed?

Why did such a big idea fail in the end? There were several reasons for it, though to begin with, the basic product idea itself wasn’t really flawed. After all, it did create sufficient substantiation in the initial years.

The main issue was that the marketing proposition wasn’t really sustainable in the long run. It was hinged on the sole premise of spirituality. That in itself was a double-edged sword. For sure, the novelty of it all initially appealed to the devout, but that simultaneously alienated the non-devout or the spirituality-neutral.

The more cosmetically inclined youth clearly chose such tangible features as skin-cleansing or complexion-improvement. That was one big segment alienated. Then there was the double whammy along the literacy-divide. The literate view perceived the Ganga as a polluted river, due to mass bathing and other reasons. Soap made from polluted water did not find any appeal amongst this segment. The illiterate viewpoint was the very opposite – how can you put God in the bathroom! Holy Ganga water in a washing place simply didn’t sit.

The product had zero appeal for the non-devout – they were never going to even try it. Ironically, even a fair section of the devout weren’t going to – simply because they steered clear of cosmetic and non-natural products. Caught between the devil and the deep sea, the brand sunk quickly to the bottom. By the year 2000, it disappeared from the shelves and manufacturing lines.

Godrej Ganga is a curious case study and different from most we have put out here. On the one hand, it was an instant success – everything seemed right… product idea, novelty, packaging, marketing proposition. On the other, the very same strengths turned into weaknesses, once the initial euphoria wore out.

Keep tapping our Marketing Folklore Series for more such case studies. The one commonality that emerges is that the market place is incredibly complex and challenging. Though, as marketing and communication professionals, that is exactly what we live for.