Description and Analysis of the Strategy of a

Successful Market Nicher

Ashish Chaudhry

U109177
 PEARS

Niche Marketing

A niche is a very narrowly defined group of customers which seeks a distinctive mix of benefits.
Niches can be identified by dividing a segment into sub-segments. The customers in a niche have
a distinctive set of needs and are ready to pay a premium for the product that satisfies it. A niche
needs to be carefully defined as it should not end up being too small a segment. On The
advantage of operating in a niche is that it has profit and growth potential and is unlikely to
attract many other competitors.

The aim of niche marketing is to understand the customer needs so well that the customers
willingly pay a premium. However niche markets always have the possibility of dying out, hence
many niche marketers prefer to operate in more than one niche with different products to
diversify the risk associated.

We will be analyzing different strategies followed by pears soap as a successful niche product
initially for the kids and then positioned as a ‘pure and mild’ family soap.

Brand History

Andrew Pears who pioneered this famous soap was born in around 1770 and moved from his
native in Cornwall to London in about 1787. He trained there as an apprentice to a barber. He set
up a barber's shop after doing his apprenticeship in Soho, and started producing range of
cosmetic products. 1

1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pears_soap
At that time, Soho was an up market residential place and Andrew's clients included many
wealthy socialites who took great pride in their appearance. The fashion amongst the wealthy of
that period was for pristine white complexions and tanned faces were associated with those who
labored outdoors. Andrew discovered that his creams and powders were often being used to
cover up the damage done by the harsh soaps and other beauty products of that time which
contained arsenic or lead.

Pears started experimenting with purification of soap and finally managed to produce a soap that
was gentle and purely based on glycerin and other forms of natural products. The clear soap had
a novel and transparent appearance which provided it with a sure shot marketing advantage. To
add to the appeal, the soap was given an aroma reminiscent of the British gardens.

In 1835, his grandson Francis Pears joined and the company A. & F. Pears Ltd was created. In
1838 Andrew Pears retired, leaving Francis the sole charge of the company. In 1851 the
company was given the prize medal for soap at The Great Exhibition.

Francis' son-in-law Thomas J. Barratt, who is also referred to as the father of modern advertising,
eventually managed the firm.

In 1862, the soap production had moved to Isleworth, and three years later Francis' son, Andrew,
joined A&W Pears Ltd. and ran the factory as a joint proprietor, with Thomas managing the
London head office.

The A&W Pears Ltd. finally became a part of the Lever brothers in mid and the production was
moved to to Port Sunlight in North West England.2

Market Position
Pears for instance, has less than five per cent of the Rs. 7500 crore toilet soaps market, but it has
a unique position that has been successfully extended to other reacted categories like face wash.
It has been successfully positioned as a premium yet not very expensive soap for the urban
middle class. Based on glycerin, it is a marketed as a mild, soft and soothing soap for the kids.

The product range has been successfully extended to body wash and face wash but still
maintaining its ‘mild and gentle image’ as well as maintaining its original translucent amber
colour.

Pears occupies more than 50% share in the mild soap segment for kids with its closest competitor
being Johnson and Johnson’s baby soap range.

2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pears_soap
The Pears brand comes under HLL's skincare division unlike the rest if its soap brands which
exist under the personal wash portfolio.

ITC Ltd. has launched a new brand by the name of Fiama Di Wills to compete with Pears. Pears
has three variants which are Pears Amber, Oil Control and Germ Shield. Amber is the largest
selling variant. The consumer pattern shows that switching consumer loyalty is very difficult..
The brand loyalty of Pears is probably more than any other. The other soaps which are in
competition of Pears are Dettol with moisturizers, Johnson & Johnson, Fiama Di Wills. Fiama Di
Wills is a new product by ITC and has grabbed a 5% share. What it is lagging behind is in its
distribution network as there is always a stock out. In the long run it can provide tough
competition to HUL.3

J&J
25%
PEARS
FIAMA
PEARS DETTOL
DETTOL 54% J&J
16% FIAMA
5%

Product
Variants

The pure and gentle skin cleansing range from Pears:

 Pears Pure & Gentle soap (Amber) with natural oils which are ideal to care for dry skin
 Pears Oil Control (Green) with lemon flower extracts to gently clean excess oil on skin while
retaining essential oils
 Pears Germ Shield (Blue) with mint extracts to gently protect skin from germs
3
www.scribd.com/doc/16559233/Project-HUL
 The pears baby products range:
 Pears baby soap The leading baby soap in the country, is specially formulated with mild
moisturizers and milk protein to gently cleanse, moisturize and nourish the babiest of skin.
Pears soap also comes in a herbal variant, which offers the added protection of 5 herbal
ingredient extracts – aloe vera, sandalwood, margosa, turmeric, and kus kus grass.
 Pears baby cream Enriched with milk protein and it also contains mild moisturizers which
help to keep the skin as soft smooth and healthy
 Pears baby cologne Comes in two irresistible fragrances i.e.floral fresh and cooling fresh – to
keep the baby happy and comfortable, especially in humid weather.
 Pears baby talc Sterilized for added protection, and comes in a wonderfully fresh fragrance.
 Pears baby shampoo Gentle and cleans baby soft hair and offers added nourishment from
vitamins B & E.
 Pears baby oil Specially formulated with lanolin which helps to keep baby’s skin smooth and
supple.  4

Quality

Pears soap is hypo-allergenic and non-comedogenic so it will not clog pores, and contains no
color that may irritate sensitive skin. It is designed to cleanse in a gentle and mild manner. It is
made with quality raw materials which include glycerin and natural oils. It does not contain any
animal byproducts5.

Pears Soap is marketed in India by Hindustan Lever Limited. The product contains ingredients
such as glycerin, rosemary, cedar, natural oils, and thyme. The product is not tested on animals.
There is an elaborate manufacturing and subsequent ageing process which takes three months
after which the soap reaches a state of pure clarity. The manufacturing process has remained

4
www.unilever.com.lk/ourbrands/personalcare/pears.asp

5
www.soapmakingsuccess.com/
practically the same for now over 200 years. 

Price
Pears has been marketed as premium glycerin soap. Available in 45 gm, 75 gm and 125 gm
packs; Pears was initially placed as soap for the young kids. But slowly, it has been repositioned
as a mild soap for the whole family which does not harm the skin and gently cleanses the pores.
It is available at Rs34 for 125 gm pear soap and Rs 25 for its 75 gm cake.6

The closest competitor is Johnson’s baby soap with its 75 gm placed at Rs 27.

PEARS AMBER/PEARS OILCONTROL/

PEARS GERMSHIELD 125 GM Rs 34

PEARS AMBER 75 GM Rs 25

PEARS AMBER 45 GM Rs 16

Besides, HLL in India also serves as the base for manufacturing the Pears brand worldwide and
supplies the brand to the rest of Unilever's markets worldwide.

6
http://sawaal.ibibo.com/groceries/what-price-pears-soap-276618.html
Promotion
Thomas Barratt the son in law of France Pears was managing the marketing of the soap. He
realized that the soap needed to be pushed aggressively about in order to survive. Hence, a series
of ads which featured cherubic children were launched and which is firmly in the value the brand
holds today. He pioneered the idea of using images which were considered as "fine art" and aptly
used them to symbolize the brand's quality and purity (i.e. untainted by any commercialism) and
simplicity ( use of cherubic children). He is rightly known as the father of modern advertising7

The best-remembered piece of publicity for Pears which Mr. Barratt devised was using the
painting ‘Bubbles’ of Sir John Everett Millais' in an advertisement for Pears. The model for
'Bubbles' was the artist's grandson, Willie (later Admiral Sir William) James, and the curly-
headed little boy made his first appearance at the Grosvenor Gallery in London in 1886; the
picture was originally titled 'A Child's World'. The picture was bought by a Sir William Ingram
of the Illustrated London News for reproduction as a presentation plate in the magazine, and after
use it was sold to Barratt for 2200 pounds. This gave Pears exclusive copyright on the picture,
but Millais' permission had still to be obtained before the painting could be modified by adding a
bar of transparent soap for use as an advertisement.

Millais at that time was unquestionably the richest and most popular painter in the whole of
Britain was apprehensive about the commercial exploitation of his work, but he mollified by the
Barratt by the quality of the plates and gradually agreed to the idea. Once the advertisement
appeared he was at the receiving end of vigorous hostility shown by the art world, and even as
late as 1899, three years after his death, the affair was still a matter for debate in letters to The
Times.

None the less, the campaign was a huge success, whatever the critics had to say. Even today,
'Bubbles' is one of the most instantly recognizable advertising symbols ever framed, and many of
the prints, which Pears later made available to the public, are still hung in living rooms all over
the world.

Barratt now held two trump cards. In one hand was product that was immediately recognizable,
the transparent Soap. In the other was the association that had developed between that product
7
http://blogs.siliconindia.com/DeepakTripathi/Advertising_History-bid-1876x29I90293000.html
and the social culture, now represented by 'Bubbles'. It was a combination which was to
represent Pears' public image for many years, and continued with the tradition of each young
Miss Pears (winner of the annual competition) having her portrait painted by the recognized
artist of the time. Barratt capitalized a lot on this association.

He brought art to the public eye through Pears Annual, which was first published in 1891 and
survived until 1920. 8

The Annual was a large-format cover publication containing, in addition to advertising for Pears'
and other firms' products, quality fiction (Dickens's Christmas Books were reprinted in early
editions), illustrations (as the years went by more of color plates and second-color tints were
used) and at least two large, separately packaged prints which could be used for framing. All this
only for a miserlysixpence!

Barratt hence had philanthropic as well as commercial motives in bringing art to the public eye.

Barratt died on the 28 April 1914, aged 72. He was widely mourned, particularly among the
press and advertising fraternities. He was the one who transformed advertising limited to the
levels of crude newspaper advertisements and paper bills to the levels of sophistication it stands
at today. The manufacturing world was forced to see the advantages of paying money for good
advertising; in the 1880s Pears were spending between 30,000 and ,40,000 pounds a year on
advertising and by 1907 the figure had risen to 126,000.

He pioneered the technique, so familiar today, of saturation advertising; An interesting anecdote

is when. E. Gladstone was searching for a metaphor to convey a sense of vast quantity during a
debate on a particular topic now forgotten in the House of Commons, suggested the the articles
in question were as numerous as the advertisements of Pears Soap'. The name of Pears soap was
n hoardings and on railway stations, in the press and on buses almost everywhere in the
Victorian times.

Pears was quick to recognize and cater to the taste of the day. Children (whether they were
angelic or recalcitrant), animals, flowers and beautiful women are common denominators in the
appeal of advertising, especially when aimed, as is in the case of Pears Soap, at female buyers.
Pears' slogans -'Matchless for the complexion', 'Good morning! Have you used Pears Soap?' were
simple and unchanging. Only the pictures were changed from time to time.

It is interesting to look at a 1907 newspaper interview with Barratt in which he says:

'Tastes change, fashions change, and the advertiser has to change with them. An idea that was
effective a generation ago would fall flat, stale, and unprofitable if presented to the public today.
Not that the idea of today is always better than the older idea, but it is different - it hits the
present taste.'

8
http://www.bubbles.org/html/history/bubhistory.htm
Pears advertising, as was the case, was suited its brand image, and hence was tasteful and
restrained. The message was simple: that Pears Soap was safe and it was healthy and it made its
users beautiful.

It savors of prestige advertising, embodying an unquestioned market supremacy; here there is a

good hint of snobbery as well, for while the middle classes are invariably seen as healthy and self
assured, the social inferiors like servants, ragged urchins and in particular black people are
frequently seen as figures of fun.

In design terms, many of the advertisements could be stripped of their typography and
considered purely as genre paintings - as some of them d originally were. Though the product
name and captions are generally in harmony with the pictures, they are typical of this transitional
period of advertising design in which lettering and illustration are not considered as a single
unified and integrated entity. Their appeal is very simple and immediate, and it requires no
sophisticated interpretation. The aim was to provoke an emotional rather than intellectual
response. Barratt aimed, he said, to make his advertisements 'telling, artistic, picturesque,
attractive, pretty, amusing' - and of course commercially successful. If for nothing more than that
the art was taken out of the galleries and into the homes and streets, thus brightening the boring
lives of ordinary people and they are worthy of remembrance.

For a soap that is so popular – and has been for more than a century – Pears has also managed
some of the most politically incorrect advertising in its history

Starting with the ‘powerful enough to clean a black child’, way back in 1903 – when ‘black’ was
less politically volatile – the ad intended to convey that black was unclean - and a soap that could
clean black could clean anything…9

And then there was the Happy Jappy ad in 1906 – a miniature Japanese woman squeezed into a
smaller tub – and looking ecstatically happy. And the ad proudly says,for white hands….. and –
the only soap used all over the civilized world – ‘developing nation’ as a term had not been
coined at that time. It was used to trump the more ethnic image projected by Japanes soap
makers such as Jap Rose at that time.

9
http://indsight.org/blog/archives/2005/06/16/pears-soap/
The image of the woman in a tub is authentic (except for the soap bar–the Japanese rinsed off
soap before getting in the tub), similar to images in travel books. It is obviously meant to titilate
by the woman’s “oriental” lack of modesty, she seems ready to invite the viewer to join her in
the tub.

Pears in fact sometimes exploited sexual themes- (”He won’t be happy till he gets it”–a bar of
soap or a kiss) and a famous early ad shows Lillian Russell naked in a bubble bath.

And then very recently, the Indian ad ends with the little girl peeping out from behind the soap to
say to her mother – kuch nahi (nothing) – in answer to her mother’s question - accha aaj mein
kya kapde pehnun? (what clothes shall I wear today?) – the background to this ‘perfectly
innocent’ reply is the theme of the ad – which suggests that Pears is so pure a soap it is
transparent and hence it contains nothing harmful in short, usme kuch nahi.

Repositioning

For a long time, Pears had held the monopoly in the baby soap market with mothers preferring
the natural goodness that this product offered for the delicate skin of their babies. However, a
few years ago, the brand was repositioned and from merely being“baby soap” to a mild soap
which could be used by the adults as well, particularly as“beauty soap” for women having a mild
effect on soft skin. This helped in eliminating any possible embarrassment one might have felt in
using this product as one grows up.
10
The product is a soft soap with moderate lather and a gentle effect on the skin. After washing
off the soap, one does not get the feeling of the body oils having been sucked out off the pores,
i.e. the drying off effect is absent. The fragrance is not like the floral perfume in most regular
which is artificially inseminated into the product. It is more natural and feels in-tune with the
basic minimum requirement of soap which is nothing more, nothing less.

Stretching the equity of its glycerine-based winter care brand - Pears, into the kids
segment, Hindustan Levers has decided to float a new variant - Pears Junior. The company has

10
http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Pears_Soap-56995-1.html
decided to bridge the gap with the kids segment, which is less crowded as compared to the baby
soap segment.
According to the company, the new variant is not meant to be baby soap but is instead targeted at
kids. It is meant for those who want to grow out of Johnson & Johnson's baby soaps i.e. a soap
for growing kids.
The timing is right and Pears has a better equity in the kids segment.'' In fact, apart from Doy's
brand - Princess, the kid's segment has been largely untapped and J&J, which introduced kids
soap in the past, has completely withdrawn from this segment.

Making innovations in its packaging, Pears Junior also sports a transparent window with a toy to
lure its young users. The new variant - Pears Junior is launched in the strawberry fragrance and
includes olive oil as an active ingredient. In fact, previous existing variants such as Germ Shield
and Oil Control all have active ingredients such as mint and lemon.

According to analysts tracking HLL, Pears has already built its equation with the kids, being a
pure and mild soap and it makes sense for HLL to actually stretch this equity of the brand into
this new segment.

However, HLL has decided to increase the pricing of its Pears Junior soap by 50 paisa in
comparison to the existing variant. It will be available at Rs 25 for a 75 gm bar.

Place

Distribution Channels
As Pears is one of the major brands of HUL and HUL being a strong force in the market in
terms of the breadth of its distribution channels and penetration into the market, it gets an edge
over its competitors when it comes to reaching out to maximum number of people.
Manufacturing takes place in over 40 factories across India and the associated operations
involve over 2,000 suppliers and associates. HULs distribution network comprises about 4,000
redistribution stockists, covering 6.3 million retail outlets reaching the entire urban population,
and about 250 million rural consumers.11

Inventory
In the case of HUL, 70 percent of business came from 30 percent of its stockists. There was an
urgent need to increase the efficiency and make online data available to the stockists for faster
order processing and data analysis. HUL carefully selected and implemented a stockist
automation solution aimed at managing stockist inventory, logistics and financial data. 12 This
investment was to pay off by bringing about an increase in efficiency, productivity and
profitability in terms of cost and time. The hours spent in manual billing could be better
utilized as information could be retrieved by the click of a mouse. This led to enormous
savings in term of cost and time for the company as well as its stockists by at least 35 percent.
13

11
http://www.managementparadise.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-40369.html
12
On considering a full month’s inventory, stockist were able reduce (optimize) inventory by
seven days. A Carrying &Forwarding agent was able to reduce inventory by six days, while
retailers saved up to seven days of inventory. 

The second phase included getting the stockists to log onto the HLL site and enter their
requirements pertaining to stock and sales, order booking & claims information. Incentive
schemes were introduced to encourage stockists to post their data online. It was a big milestone
in achieving connectivity with its stockist community.

The result of this innovation had its favorable effects on Pears sales as well and increased the
efficiency with which the inventory of the product was being managed.

Conclusion

Market niches always run the risk of dying out and market nichers usually prefer to be present
in more than one market niche. Pears has successfully utilized the strategy of risk
diversification by repositioning itself as mild beauty soap from a soap for the kids and babies.

According to the concepts of Blue Ocean strategy, Red Oceans are the industries which are in
existence today, which is the known market space. The rules and boundaries are all previously
defined. Companies are trying to outperform each other by grabbing a greater share of the
product in demand. As the market space becomes more and more crowded the prospects for
profits are reduced and cut-throat competition turns the ocean bloody.14

A Blue ocean in contrast denotes the unknown market space which was what was initially
tapped by Andrew Pears when Pears was discovered and promoted itself as a gentle and mild
soap in contrast to the harsh soaps of the day. In blue oceans demand is created rather than
fought over as Pears is trying to do by positioning itself as transition soap from babies to kids.
Competition is irrelevant as the rules of the game are waiting to be set.
The cornerstone of BOS is ‘Value Innovation’ i.e. creating a value for the customer as well as
the organization. It is about creating value for the market and eliminating the features less
desired by the current market.

Here, Pears is providing a soap that is clear, transparent and natural- all features which are
valued by the customers. In addition to its natural earthy fragrance new perfumes have been
13
http://mybotree.com/hll.php

14
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ocean_Strategy
introduced altering the 200 year old design keeping in mind the customers changing needs and
wants.

Hence, Pears is a perfect example of how a market nicher develops its own customer base by
working on the latent demands and developing a product such that the customers are ready to
pay a premium for it and are loyal to it. The marketing mix is also directed towards the same
end.