Today in Sri Lanka the detergent industry has become a turbulent, rapid changing industry.

There are many brands involved in this day to day household business, here we talk about Surf
Excel

! one of the top brands in the industry.

"n a country like Sri Lanka, people were used to stick in to soap in cleaning purposes especially
in laundry. #ccording to the geographical circumstances ordinary washing soaps weren$t the
most suitable thing in laundry in areas like #nuradhapura, %olonnaruwa, &ambantota etc'
&ere in the middle of ()*+$s a new solution, washing powder was introduced suitable for any
water condition that used in laundry.
#t the mid of ())+$s, the brand Surf Excel

was launched in Sri Lanka. #t present the brand

Surf Excel

has become a famous brand among all areas in Sri Lanka by winning peoples$
hearts. ,ow it contains several large scale channels and thousands of workers -oined. #t the
beginning of .+(+ it is included most famous detergent brands in Sri Lanka ac/uiring 0+1 of
market share.
Surf Excel

is originally manufactured in "ndia and imported, marketed by 2niliver Sri Lanka.

#s being the sole agent in Sri Lanka the marketing process of Surf Excel

is totally handled by
2niliver Sri Lanka.
#t the launching time market segmentation was insignificant as there wasn$t many competitors.
#s being a new product, people were taken forward to buy and use Surf Excel

without any
effort. 3ut at the end of ())+$s due to diversification of the detergent industry 2niliver
reconsidered their marketing mix. #s a result Surf Excel

was introduced in a fresh appearance

targeted towards housewives as a highly effective stain remover. This new appearance
succeeded in short run but in the long run they had to make some changes to the original one.
4ue to the highly competitive environment Surf Excel

marketers decided to divide the

customers in to more significant parts. "n return their target market was matched with
housewives having kids. 2nder a new attribute 4irt is good! this new marketing plan was
launched and currently they are proceeding with this. 4irt is good implies that the children
aren$t aware of stains at their activities, so stains are essential part of learning. &ence let your
children do anything and the stains can be dealt with Surf Excel

. This is a new kind of idea

that differentiates Surf Excel

products which has done an excellent positioning process

compared to other competitors.
5onsidering the other competitors segmentation we can observe that the Surf Excel

has
bounded comparatively effective segment where the others don$t see as a separate unit. 6ainly
the others focused on removing stains without promoting the process of stain removal but Surf
Excel

focused on exhibiting the process of stain removal rather than saying. Through there
advertisements one can get a clear view of their target market as all of their advertisements
appearing kids with stains on their cloths and moms use Surf Excel

to
get rid of stains.
Surf Excel

doesn$t focused on how effective it works on the stain but says don$t worry about
stains because Surf Excel

will take off the stains, which means stain removal is nothing to it
when the others talking about how to remove stains using their products. This idea gives a
special place for Surf Excel

among other competitive products, remaining on customers$

intentions that Surf Excel

is the most suitable laundry cleaning product for a family with kids.
7n the other hand, it implies that if it can handle the stains on kid$s cloths, removing stains on
adult$s clothes is nothing. This shows the uni/ue features of Surf Excel

and the strategy of
positioning. #lso it differentiate from 2niliver$s other detergent products due to the same
reason and they use this strategy to discourage new enters to the industry taking the ultimate
advantage from positioning.
8hen considering on marketing mix of Surf Excel

basically, one can observe competitor

dependence mostly except promotions. 7ther tools of marketing mix such as %rice, %lacing are
mostly same as the others. Those things are discussed in detailed further.
The 6arketing 6ix of Surf Excel

(. %roduct
8hen considering market mix tools of Surf Excel

the product is the most important thing as

the people are used to believe that all detergent products are appear same. Surf Excel

having
special formula which can work in both hard and soft water which means Surf Excel

acts
same at the south end of Sri Lanka as well as middle or north end. Specially Surf Excel

can be
easily identified among the other products as its uni/ue container.
The consumers$ need can be varied consumer to consumer based on intention. "n a product like
detergent powder the demand could not be exceed more than ( kg, according to the target
market. #lso the product should be available in small sachet matching to the buying power of
most of the members of the target market. So the Surf Excel

product comes in small sachet to

( kg powder packs, giving the opportunity to the customer to fulfill his9her need. 7n the other
hand this type of range makes sure that customers of Surf Excel

won$t bend for another

product in a case of lacking buying power.
Surf Excel

introduced their product range mainly in two categories.

1. Surf Excel

:uick wash.
2. Surf Excel

6atic.
Surf Excel

:uick wash is strategically targeted on most of customers in their target market. "t
can be used for both hand wash and washing machine
and promoted throughout all parts in Sri Lanka in all
forms, such as sachet ;+ g, (++ g, .++ g, ;++ g and ( kg.
#lso can be purchased in any store, super market etc'
,o matter of water <whether hard or soft= but the action
remains same. "t comes in common usual orange and
blue pack, shows the highest selling compared to the
Surf Excel

6atic.
Surf Excel

6atic is specially designed for washing machines and the forms of products are
fewer compared to Surf Excel

:uick wash. Strategically this is designed for the customers in

target market who are having higher buying power. This has gained an extra advantage by
catching all the customers based on various buying power. #lso Surf Excel

6atic is somewhat
expensive than Surf Excel

:uick wash due to the above reason and mainly sell via super
markets.
2niliver only imports two product ranges from a vast product range compared to the
manufacturer. There are available many related products like Surf Excel

3lue, Surf Excel

Li/uid wash etc'
5onsidering along the segmentation and target market, a product like Surf Excel

blue will be a
nicely matching product as the members of target market use blue as well as washing powder.
8ith the previous experiences in Surf Excel

washing powder there exists a high probability of

accepting such a product by the target market.
.. %rice
#ccording to the target market the price should not be exceed the limit that a normal family
willing to pay for detergent. #lso there are many competitors with various prices and small
differences of the product outcome. 3eing one of the old detergent powder Surf Excel

dominates a high market share compared to the others. &ere Surf Excel

has got the advantage

of competing with both cheap and expensive brands using its two product range. "t competes
with cheaper ones using Surf Excel

:uick wash and expensive brands with Surf Excel

6atic.
2niliver also promotes a detergent powder called >in

which has different /ualities other than

Surf Excel

.

Strategically 2niliver does this to survive both products and make the pricing
using one as the defender of the other. This helps to Surf Excel

to set the highest price margin

without refusing by the customer. #lso beat the competitors and to gain competitive advantage.
7bserving the process of pricing of Surf Excel

shows that 2niliver is using competition based

pricing policy that the Surf Excel

doesn$t increase or decrease its price independently but

depending on the competitors. This acts as a main reason of non?refusing by the customers
because price of the all other similar products are also raised at the same time.
#lso the product range like Surf Excel

6atic gives the higher profit margin focused on to the

customers who concern on /uality rather than price. So Surf Excel

6atic price setting not

highly based on the competitors prices but the /uality. %resently we can observe a price war
between Sunlight, >in, Surf Excel

and 4iva, four ma-or brands in Sri Lanka. 4ue to this, the
customers may switch from one product to another to get superior satisfaction. There is a nice
opportunity of attracting other customers who use different brands towards Surf Excel

and to
increase the market share of them.
Suggestions
"f Surf Excel

can maintain a medium price among the similar products will give an
opportunity to attract customers from the other brands who aren$t selecting Surf Excel

as their
detergent powder.
5urrently there isn$t a fixed pricing policy such as discounts at the purchase or price reduction
at the ma-or purchases as the other similar brands do. 7ur opinion is that if
Surf Excel

can such a policy there market share will be higher in a short time.
Surf Excel

sachet price is the highest price among the similar product. This has made the most
of sachet users away from buying Surf Excel

sachet. This should be considered by the Surf

Excel

marketers.
%romotions
Surf Excel

highly believes in sales gain through promotions. #nnually they spend a lot for
these promotions. Typically sales promotions can be observed and customer targeted
promotions can be highly seen.
Specially according to their strategic marketing plan, mothers having small kids @ target
market? are mainly focused they involved in the traditional marketing promotions and also
modern techni/ues they own gondolas %7S stalls and etc' #lso field activities which can be
significantly identified from the other similar brands.
Especially their field promotions a set of activities for the customers <mothers and their
children= are highly popular among the rural areas. Through these activities they motivate
customers to buy more or to stick in with them or to attract new customers of their target
market. #s the advertising they use these events effectively packed and thrown to their target
market.
Event list
#dvertising using media.
Surf Excel

mainly uses television and daily papers <especially weekend papers= as their
advertising media. Aou may see kids involved in their childish activities with a set of annoyed
mothers and a -oyful mother. The -oyful mother always uses Surf Excel

and not paying any

attention to the stains on the clothes. Even the mother also -oins with the kid to accomplish the
kids$ task. These commercials get popular both children and moms even among fathers. These
commercials indirectly force customers to buy Surf Excel

. 8e observe significant arise of

these advertisements which implies that there are working well.
#part from the media they use a powerful marketing tool called super market promotions. 8e
can fre/uently see these kinds of promotions rolling over all the super markets. &ere these
super market offer a raffle draw or price rewards for the customers who are buying some of the
nominated products. #s the time this report is being processed we observed three main super
markets <5argills, Beells and #rpico= running this kind of promotions running for the ,ew
Aear. Surf Excel

was a nominated product over the three super markets. Through this kind of
marketing promotions Surf Excel

gains new customers and attract people for impulse by

normaliCing the product.
#lso Surf Excel

conducts the way of doing laundry in the areas that are hiving hard water.
They conduct seminars, demonstrations at those areas. Through these they have gain a huge
competitive advantage. #lso they involved in socio responsible marketing by repairing public
wells, washing areas etc' #t the rural area they place a huge cutout near a public well,
washing area on a tank, stating the advantages of using Surf Excel

.
Suggestions
1. There is not a proper way of getting feedback from their promoting campaigns. 6ost of
participants are not truly customers of the Surf Excel

.
2. Surf Excel

marketers are mostly concerned on short term promoting events. This gives
short time benefits but not suitable in long run.
0. They are conducting continuous promotion programs which prevent the survival of new
entrants$ products, also gaining customets.
4. Through these promotion programs Surf Excel

has been gained a memorable

reputation among all the customers which strongly helps to be survived.
%lacing

Group Members
M.M.M Dilushan AS2009351
AS/63344/2008/2009
M.D.M Lahiru AS2009426 AS/62768/2008/2009
B.A.E.H Mendis AS2009449 AS/62786/2008/2009