Manmeet Sabharwal's Blog

After Hindustan Unilever rocked the 1500 crore water purifier market in India few years ago,they are back.Last time around their TG was not exactly same as that of Eureka Forbes or Kent but this time HUL claim to take customers from right under their noses.

Hindustan Unilever has launched the new Pure it named Marvella(interestingly TMSBee’s last post on Pure it was called HUL Pure it-a Marketing Marvel.Inspired ? ).The purifier is claimed to be the first fully automatic waster purifier.This is a big claim as we all assumed that they were already there.And interestingly the USP still remains the same-No Electricity.Fully Automatic and no Electricity ? Interesting.

It is completely automatic and doesn’t require electricity to automate its operation.It removes the problem of refilling the purifier daily.It automatically refills itself from the tap.It has some mechanism through which it turns off the water inlet once its full and takes the water when it needs it.Everything is automatic.

Its a big innovation.A fully automatic purifier without any electricity expense.If it doesn’t have any electrical component so it would not want repair too often.Also its spares would be much cheaper(assumption ? Yes).So a good deal.But whats the deal worth ?

HUL has priced Marvella at Rs 6,990, a tad below Aquaguard.Now a customer who was sure of buying a fully automatic Aquaguard(leaving the ordinary Pure It) has an option.An option so good that it can turn the decision on its head.I have seen the normal Pure It take off in last few years.Almost all bachelors have them at their shared homes.It brand image is-A purifier that is  Safe and inexpensive.So what if the person has to refill it daily.But now even that is not a problem.

A normal Pure it costs exact 2000 rupees.Marvella costs 7000.Is automatic mechanism worth 5000 ? Or does it have extra features ? HUL claims it has.It has better purifying capabilities.The user manual is attached below the post.

Now lets talk about the TV commercial they are running.TMSBee doesn’t like  a post which doesn’t have  any Ad.

Pure it created the buzz with direct marketing and very less advertising expenses.It was later that they brought out ads on 1 crore challenge.But Marvella being targeted to a different TG demanded an Ad first up and HUL started it with an ad.

Just have a look at the Ad.

The ad is average(just average).The idea of showing Refilling as a problem  has actually messed up the ad,add to it the lingo they have used.So So Bo Bo ,Bo Bo Po Po.TMSBee is not sick but this is what you hear in half of the ad.The other half goes in explaining what it means.Pathetic ?

HUL are great marketeers and Marvella is an awesome product.It deserved a better ad.

One more issue is that in the ad they are actually highlighting the problems of refilling.Wouldn’t it cause problems for their super successful Pure It(manual).They could have told the positives points and could have attacked Aquaguard on use of electricity.

Their competitors are Aquaguard and Kent who use electricity so why are they targeting the manual purifiers who are not even fighting for the same TG.

The product rocks and should give the competitors a run for their money.The ad could have been better.

TMSBee found out that Aquaguard considers themselves as Honda Accord and Marvella as Maruti 800.So are not afraid of this new offering from HUL.(Source :Economic Times).

What Say ?

[attachments label=doctitle docid=1462 fields=caption,description force_saveas="0" logged_users="0"]