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hello everyone this is Aisha Farim I did my MBA from IM Lucknow Now currently I'm part of the Uni Liever Future Leaders program 2024 batch During my UFP program I underwent various stints across domains uh which includes sales marketing modern trade etc etc And now currently I have recently started with my uh new role which is customer development manager at Uni Liver I started as a summer intern with uni liver back in 2023 During my internship I worked with a brand called Sudam where I had an opportunity to work with a live project which had

a realtime business impact So the ultimate purpose of this video is to take you all through my internship journey and experience along with a product life cycle how it landed from the ideation to the shelf and also to showcase how different domains of uni were collaborated and contributed to the product journey So here I am uh so where it all started Uh we have Wamika with us who was the brand manager back then Hi Wamika how are you hi I'm good How are you i'm also doing great uh so uh I would want you to

uh make our audience understand like what was the vision behind the product and how did we go about with the product launch So it started with looking at Vim and redefining the category in which we play Vim was only in the dishwashing category and we were the market leaders still are and at that time we thought okay how can we really expand the universe in which Vim plays Are there some white spaces are there some unmet needs that whim has the expertise to solve So it started with that and we found that the puja utensil

cleaning category which is a different category altogether because the substrates in puja utensils are copper and brass which are different from what you use in normal dishwashing which is usually say steel ceramic aluminium because the substrates are different uh it is a completely different category but Vim has the expertise to play because we get substrates we get cleaning we get stains on any sort of vessel and that's how we found this to be a very very ripe opportunity uh and uh it became a big bet for us and that was really the vision that how

can we redefine the category in which we play how can we win in puja utensil cleaners and really really show the whim expertise um in this brand new category why honestly this was I I think my favorite part of my entire stint because I can't believe I got to name a brand Uh but um what I did was I just looked at what are the different Indian uh names that we can use that will somehow um communicate what the brand stands for which is cleaning but also be authentic also really show that we get the

get the category So you had to look at marrying whim as a brand You had to look at the uh cleaning the benefit that we do and also the category in which we want to play So I came up with almost 30 names Uh AB tested them tested them with consumers tried to ask them what they think of when I say the name And then we all just arrived at Sudhham because we loved it It seemed uh punchy enough It seemed like a good fit for the brand we're trying to build And yeah that's how

we landed at SHA Uh thank you so much That was really insightful Uh now let's move on to the next segment that would be R&D Uh to really understand how the product was made [Music] Hi Rita how are you i am fine How are you i'm also doing great Uh so I have three questions for you First question is uh Sudam has a slightly different formulation from whim conventional liquids So how did we go about with it uh see Aisha uh this is a special this sudum is for special utensils of copper and brass right

and the tarnish on copper and brass is really very difficult to get removed with a conventional whim liquid So that's how we develop a new formulation with special activives which can effortlessly and quickly remove the tarnish from copper and brass utensils I can see shudam in two different formats So what are those two different formats and why did we arrive at two different formats yeah that's a good question actually Uh so when we did this consumer research we identified two key pain points uh the current powder format which is available in the market uh it

goes into the intricate nooks and corners of the article Copper and brass articles if you see they are very intricate in design Yeah So that powder doesn't get removed quickly and that article then becomes dull over the time So that we wanted to solve for the consumer Second was cleaning with powder becomes very messy So we wanted to get rid of this messiness and that's how the cleaner option was gel or spray just using a gel like how we use whim gel for our regular utensils This gel format also can give a good tarnish removal

from copper and brass spray because busy uh people uh they just want to have a spray and quickly get rid of this tarnish then that format also we introduced in the market Fair that was very clear Thank you so much So now let's move on to the next segment where we discuss about the packaging and launch plan for Sudam [Music] Now let's cover the most uh interesting segment uh which covers the launch plan and the packaging segment for Sudam We have Ankita with us here Hi Ankita How are you doing hello I am very well

It's nice to have you here Thank you so much So uh I would like to hear from you Sudam has a quite uh different and a distinct packaging from the conventional ones Can you take us through like how did we come up with a different packaging strategy for the shudam so with shudam I think the biggest challenge was to drive distinctiveness but also to make it look really premium So in this category we have an eyeball competition which has a packaging like a powder at the end of the day So just because of the nature

of the format the packaging itself is not very exciting So when we were doing a liquid the idea was that the packaging and the bottle has to have a good ergonomic while pouring on the idol It needs to look premium because puja and idols and this category is slightly more high involvement So what we wanted the consumer to do is really look at the bottle and feel like a wow and that they can actually keep it in their mandi areas and it can actually kind of live with that right So which is why we went

with a slightly muted white kind of a color with a golden touch on the cap Uh we had to experiment with a lot of packaging So we initially went with the brown codes of design to kind of match the muddy feel of the uh mandr the wooden textures you know the idols that we see with the copper and brass codes But again it didn't land premiumness as well as pure white did It kind of lands purity the shine We looked at adding some gold touches with the foil uh and kind of denoted conotes of the

category with the colors we chose So the idea was to drive premiumness and I think we did that by choosing these kind of muted colors So my second question to you ish can you please take us through the launch plan for Sudham So for Sudam actually in the launch we went with a three-pronged approach Um this was fairly a very very new and different category for uni liver This was puja utensils as a category It's different from whim but it held the brand of whim While we were sure of the market sizing we were sure

of the top layer in the category we were just not sure of how much and how soon can we scale this So to kind of build that confidence in the CD system we decided with a three-pronged approach where first we did a ecom launch in India and we started small We only launched the spray just to gauge how the consumer is going to pick it up and what's the reaction going to be and we were sold out in month one Sodam was sold out There was great response people complimenting people talking about how good the

product is in terms of cleaning their puja utensils It's fast it gives the right kind of shine We of course had some feedback coming in with the silver uh utensils So we took that in we built that into the product and then we went into the launch with uh launching it in Tamil Nadu which is the largest market for us So we started with the e-com launch all India Then we scaled it to Tamil Nadu in GT and MT to kind of get that confidence going uh we did that in the first month and again

the sales really shot up uh with what we had projected and then we decided to kind of go ahead and launch full south So now our objective is to kind of scale in south really dominate in south and then kind of take it to all India and make it bigger and better going forward Great So now already we have an understanding about how the R&D packaging and the supply chain works Uh now we cover the important bit of the entire uh process which is the finance bit So we have Sonel with us today Hi Sonel

how are you hello Hi I'm good How are you i'm also doing great So I quickly have two questions with regards to finance bit for Sudam First is uh given the fact that in the market we know that the current players are in a very different format that is a powder we have come up with gel and a spray format So how did we do the benchmarking to arrive at the optimal pricing i want to hear it from you When we decide pricing for any new launch right we typically consider two factors An external which

is an outside in approach and then an internal one which is important for us from our financials perspective In case of Sudam like you mentioned the key player in the market today is in a different format which is a powdered format Knowing that our product is definitely superior in terms of both sensorials and the efficacy of the product Uh we benchmarked a certain price point at which we can equate the price per wash to a competition while the put down price is at a 1.5x to competition This just enables that the consumers who are willing

to pay for a superior format are taken into the category And once they realize that the amount of product you need to clean the utensils is half of the competition it typically equates your price per wash And hence the going in principle which to say that we benchmark to competition at an equal price per wash considering the internal factors which is our financials Obviously while deciding pricing it is important that we make a decent healthy margin which is accreditive to the category that helps us to invest back in the marketing of the product So a

healthy financial growth model will be the key factor of deciding the pricing for the product Got it Very clear So my uh second question would be out of this benchmarking process since we were new in the market you would have faced a lot of difficulties Can you take us through like what were the difficulties and challenges you face basically and what were the key insights and learnings basis so at the time of launch of Sudam we first decided to launch in the south market and south market is typically the one which uses a lot of

proxies for cleaning for specialty cleaning like tamarind lemon When you benchmark something against that it becomes really difficult to evaluate what the price per wash of a proxy versus a branded player would be Absolutely And hence that was a bit of a challenge for us to determine whether a person who was using say a tamarind today to clean the specialty uh utensils for auspicious occasions would be willing to put a put down price of say 60 to be able to clean it But an overarching factor again remains for us that one we are a premium

format We are here to disrupt We are offering it in a format of a spray which has never been explored before and hence to be able to charge a price that the consumer would be willing to put for this premium format So challenging in terms of benchmarking to proxies but still keeping in mind that we are going in with a superior product a superior format and at the end of the day again something like God is inelastic for pricing So for us people are willing to pay when it comes to these things and hence that

is how we went ahead with it Now we have set the context for the entire product life cycle across all the functions like the marketing finance supply chain and the packaging Now let's uh delve deeper and understand the final leg of the product that is the product launch and the promotion campaign [Music] Moving on to the next part of the project which includes the promotion and launch campaign Here uh Sudam as a brand what we wanted to do was we wanted to uh promote the product apart from the conventional way of marketing it which is

uh slightly different and at the same time which could build affinity with the consumer as well So whatever learnings we had bases the consumer connects basis our market workings uh and also the shadowing of the consumer we did her travel her journey to the temple uh we understood that there are certain forums uh inside the temple temple came out to be the right avenue for building the uh affinity at the same time dep deploying the promotion campaign where we came up with uh 12 to 13 ideas which we thought could be the right avenues to

tap on the consumer then had a brief discussion with the leadership team and then finally finalized four ideas basis visibility and uh the ease of deployment and the cost and also uh which seems very relevant to the category that is how we went about with it one note uh that I would like to leave you all with before ending the video is uh foundation school what happens in the foundation school exactly so it's a uh 3 days immersion program filled with leadership sessions uh shadowing ing senior managers CHWEs factory visits R&D sessions Uh the best

part is uh you can become a part of the foundation school and uh bank and uh internship opportunity with HL like how I did So the last note which I would like to leave you all with is the foundation school uh applications are open Uh please go forward and start applying for the same [Music] Hey