INDIA: Dettol targets female consumers with new soap variant

The new Dettol Skincare soap has been fortified with moisturiser and a new feminine fragrance.

The company was earlier averse to tampering with any of Dettol's core attributes - including its traditional, pungent aroma - but research showed that a section of consumers stayed away from Dettol because it was perceived to be harsh.

According to Anne Engerant, regional marketing director, South Asia, the variant will lure new consumers and the original formulation will keep loyalists hooked.

The product was test marketed in two states, and Engerant said in both the markets, Dettol Skincare Soap added incremental volume, leading to an increase in the overall soap franchise.

The company successfully launched Dettol Skincare Liquid Soap in late 2003, which contributes 30 per cent to total liquid soap volume.

During the last decade, Reckitt Benckiser's efforts to grow Dettol's brand franchise stumbled - the brand was extended to antiseptic creams, medicated plasters, liquid soaps, shaving gels and cream, talcum powder and even a floor care agent (which, according to the company is still being test marketed). Except for soap, Dettol failed to crack any of these markets.

Reckitt Benckiser will now re-focus on the soap market, which it says is the biggest contributor to the Dettol brand sales.

CM Sethi, managing director of Reckitt Benckiser, said the new Dettol Skincare soap offered the company immense opportunity to grow and gain new consumers.

"We have just begun on leveraging the brand, once again," he said.

The company has a robust pipeline of new products that is being planned under Dettol apart from organic growth from existing product formats.

Reckitt will be spending around $4.3 million on media for Dettol this year.