Off the Shelf: Keeping Malaysians Fresh & Clean

(marketingmagazine.com.my) – By: Malati Siniah

In today’s saturated market and tough economic conditions, brand marketers are working extra hard to ensure that their latest product is the first thing a consumer reaches out to when out shopping.

Off the Shelf is a weekly series where we speak to some of Malaysia’s top brand leaders in the retail space to find out what they did to stand out from the pack this year. This week Rakesh Kumar Singh the Marketing Manager for Dettol, Durex, Veet (Malaysia & Singapore) at Reckitt Benckiser (RB) shares how the company promoted its latest entrant to the market Dettol Gold.

Why did you think this new product was suitable for the Malaysian market?
As the saying goes, ‘mother knows best’ – every mom wants only the best for their family and to protect them at all time. At Dettol, we value our partnership with mums across the world to look after their family’s health, and we always strive to deliver better personal hygiene and cleaning solutions to keep her home and family healthy. Germs nowadays are constantly evolving, and over time, they become more resistant towards anti-bacterial products. When that happens, it’s easier to get sick, especially for children because their immune systems are not as developed as that of adults.

Mums know this and they always remain concerned. This is why it’s extremely important for us to stay innovative by rolling out products with the latest anti-bacterial science and improved germ-kill efficacy to ensure our consumers, who already have so much trust in us, stay even better protected than before.

This is the insight that has driven us to develop Dettol Gold as the Gold standard of germ protection. Gold is specially formulated and proven to provide double protection vs other anti-bacterial soaps, but without stripping away the skin’s natural moisture. We launched Dettol Gold as a complete package in all the leading formats i.e. bar soap, Shower Gel and even hand wash.

What were some of the marketing activities you launched to promote the brand?
The focus of our marketing activities has been on driving the awareness and trial for the new product. We have been running a completely new campaign on TV, supported with a massive digital, print and PR support. We understand that in today’s retail environment instore execution is very important to drive awareness as well as conversion and hence we have also been investing a lot on improving our presence in stores to bring the attention to the new products and drive purchase.

Right from start we have been very confident on our new product vs current products and therefore we started a massive trial program. For the first time, we developed a special trial pack of 50ml that was sampled across almost a million households via grassroots consumer outreach programs, instore, e-commerce and magazine samplings, to ensure that the entire family could try out the new product before buying it.

What is your outlook on the retail industry for 2017?
As per the Nielsen global consumer confidence survey, the consumer confidence in Malaysia is now improving and that points to a better 2017 for the industry. We remain very confident in the local market for Dettol and other categories that we operate in. With Dettol as the trusted protector of health and the Putra Gold winner for health category, we are well placed to lead this category’s growth for many years to come.

We have in place a very strong plan for 2017 to strengthen Dettol’s position as the trusted champion. There are new campaigns and innovative new products in the pipeline to continue to excite our consumers.

Launched an exciting new product in 2016? Why not reward all that hard work by ensuring that your product carries the consumer’s stamp of approval by joining Product of the Year (POY).

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