Rebranding - Mysore Sandal Soap by Feelberry

Rebranding Mysore Sandal Soap

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The Heritage The rectangular red and green box with a floral pattern enclosing the ‘Mysore Sandal Soap’ offers an aroma of heady sandalwood fragrance, accompanied with a rush of memories. One of the great contributions of Sri Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV and Dewan Sir M. Visvesvaraya; after a hundred years of existence, continues to be a brand with an immense potential to be much much more. © Feelberry Osakeyhtiö (Oy)

A Global Clientele 1799 - 1805 In Mysore, sandalwood had always been a state monopoly; contributing to be the most important source of revenue for the state. Distillation of sandalwood oil was considerably primitive in India, leading to foreign countries importing sandalwood in order to carry out the process of distillation. Prior to 1799, China constituted a major share in the purchase of Mysore’s sandalwood. Gradually, Germany materialised as one of the most significant buyers of the wood. The storage of sandalwood was supervised by state - owned sandalwood godowns known as SANDAL KOTIS.

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The Royal Gift

1805 - 1831

The early 18th Century found visiting dignitaries presenting perfumes with the scent of Mysore sandalwood to the Maharaja of Mysore, a customary occurrence. Similarly, it was also considered tradition for the Maharaja to present sandalwood articles like walking sticks and fans to distinguished guests such as Queen Victoria. During this period, although sandalwood observed its lowest price, it continued to be an important source of public revenue for the state of Mysore.

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Sandalwood in Vogue 1831 - 1881 The sandalwood market had seen exponential growth in the year 1881, fetching as much as ₹ 1,051 per ton, a fortune at the time. sandalwood’s high demand led to renowned representatives of leading international perfumery houses like Volkarts and Antoine Chiris to voyage for a period of 3-4 months and travel on bullock carts for days at a time, to simply auction sandalwood from Sandal Kotis.

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Self Reliant Production 1881 - 1916

Sandalwood auctions in the 19th Century saw a slow culmination. The Maharaja of Mysore saw this as an opportunity to replace the exportation of sandalwood with sandalwood oil. He envisioned sandalwood being distilled domestically and the extract being exported to other countries. Alfred Chatterton, the Director of Industries of the state along with two chemistry professors began to experiment with the distillation of sandalwood oil in a laboratory for the first time in India; and by 1916, sandalwood oil of the best quality was being produced and sent to London.

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The First Sandalwood Soap 1916 - 1918 Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV’s was left intrigued by a rare set of sandalwood soaps he received as a gift from his guest, he asked statesman and Dewan Sir M. Visvesvaraya to map out a plan of action to initiate the production of such sandalwood soaps in Mysore. S.G. Shastry, popularly referred to as ‘Soap Shastry’, one of India’s first industrial chemists from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, planned an educational journey to England to master the art of soap making. India’s first soap with pure sandalwood oil was launched in the market in 1918.

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A Stepping Stone to Fame

1918 - 1957

S.G. Shastry strongly believed that a bar of soap with such a vast history behind it earned the merit of being presented in a manner similar to a piece of jewellery. This belief turned into reality, when a rectangular box resembling a jewellery box was made and the soap was wrapped in a light crêpe paper to elevate its brand value. The iconic fragrance of Mysore Sandal Soap combined with its attractive packaging led to a tenfold increase in popularity and demand for the soap, marking the launch of the Government Soap Factory near Cubbon Park in Bangaluru.

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The Journey So Far 1957 - 2021 Over time, depletion of Sandalwood reserves in Karnataka has led to Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited (KSDL) encountering difficulties in procuring its raw material, causing a drop in production. The company functions at merely 25% utilisation of the factory’s manufacturing capacity. The company has experimented with different varieties of soaps, incense sticks, hand washes, essential oils, and talcum powders. However, Mysore Sandal Soap continues to be KSDL’s most popular product with up to 85% of its total sales occurring in South India.

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Media and PR Coverage In addition to its unique packaging and colourful history, Mysore Sandal Soap has over the years had a diverse marketing strategy. Vintage advertisements of Mysore Sandal Soap are considered prized collectables.

Advent Of The Advertising Era Mysore Sandal Soap was introduced to the State of Mysore by their Maharaja, making the citizens of the State feel a level of privilege and honour. The first widespread advertisement was created in 1928, where printed pamphlets were circulated throughout Mysore, creating an aura of fame among the masses. The consumers were enthusiastic about this highquality soap. This led the rise in sales and Mysore Sandal Soaps to fly off the shelves.

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Breaking The Territorial Bounds As the popularity of the soap grew, Mysore Sandal Soap started venturing into other States of India. Processions with a lot of pomp and display on camel backs were held in multiple cities, solely for advertisement purposes. As flyers paved the way for newspapers and telegrams, more advertisements started to surface. The soap was advertised on large neon signboards in major cities across the country. As a result, the soap rapidly became popular among the youth of the country turning into a household name. For the first time in history, a soap brand had such an effective marketing campaign been carried out by a company.

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Crossing the Indian Borders With technological advances and growing success, advertisements for Mysore Sandal Soap had begun to appear in mainstream magazines like, ‘Justice’ a magazine of the Madras Presidency, and ‘The Hindu’ a prominent newspaper circulated across the country. Exhibitions were held in cities like London to promote the soap in an international market. The soap was presented to Queen Victoria, who developed a liking towards its fragrance and demanded that they be made available for the rest of the Royal family. During this time, the soap faced fierce competition from British soap producers, but the product quality and the resolute ad campaigns of Mysore Sandal Soap made them irreplaceable.

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Setbacks Along The Way The soap market had fallen dramatically since the advent of TV and coloured advertising. In order to boost revenue, Mysore Sandal Soap launched several customer health and sustainability campaigns, the results of which were ineffective. Their attempts mainly failed as the company was unable to keep up with the advertising trends of the time. Furthermore, the liberalisation of India led to multinational competition in the soap market, and the fall in demand was pushing up operating costs, causing KSDL major damage. By 2004-05, the firm had suffered losses of approximately ₹ 90 crore.

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Working With Celebrities The business slowly regained its stability and began to grow again, continuing to be actively involved in advertising. The company resorted to enlist Bollywood actors such as Dia Mirza and Mugdha Godse for advertisements. In 2006, Mahendra Singh Dhoni the famous Indian cricketer was selected as the Brand Ambassador of the Soap with the goal of increasing sales in the Northern States of India. However, the partnership ended in a bitter feud between the Organisation and M.S. Dhoni, when he reportedly failed to honour his deal by refusing to finish a shoot. After the unpleasant experience with a celebrity ambassador, all future endorsement deals with celebrities in commercials were minimised, and the focus was shifted solely on the soap’s purity. ~ 16 ~

Creating a Diverse Social Identity In 2006, the Company was also awarded a Geographical Indicator or GI tag that allowed KSDL to rightfully claim their product to be made of pure ‘Mysore Sandalwood’, as a result generating a gross sales turnover of ₹ 476 crores for the business. The year 2012 marked the inception of the Facebook account of Mysore Sandal Soap, followed by their Twitter account in 2013 and the Instagram account created in 2017. Although there was little to no interaction on these platforms, the soap managed to receive favourable customer response. For instance, the renowned fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee described the soap as “My Chanel, My Luxury soap” on Instagram. In addition, companies like Condé Nast Traveller India, Times Now and The Better India have shown enthusiasm about the soap. Due to the lack of regular Social Media engagement of Mysore Sandal Soap, the target audience has seen a shift from a younger generation to consumers above the age of 40. ~ 17 ~

Inefficient PR Coverage The kingdom of Mysore had conceptualised and achieved self-reliance through Mysore Sandal Soap a century before the ideation of the Make in India mission. The soap itself is more of natural ingredients, gentle on the skin with neutral ph, cruelty-free and packaged in an environment friendly manner. Despite these fantastic advantages, the company’s public relations initiatives have not reached their full potential, and the brand has only been referenced in a few articles over the years, such as the company’s 100th anniversary being noted in the Hindu. When enterprises like TATA and Dr Campbell’s Darjeeling Tea, have made significant gains through strong public relations initiatives.

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Internet Reputation Review The objective is to highlight the significance of brand awareness through case studies of other companies.

Building an Internet Reputation A consumer today while making purchase decisions always depends on Internet research before going through with the purchase. Online presence can greatly influence a consumer’s decision. So it is important for brands to monitor and actively manage their Internet reputation. Companies without a strong digital content strategy, risk losing buyer awareness, and ultimately, sales opportunities. Customers do not hesitate in finding the answers to their questions elsewhere and move to other brands that are more reactive.

Online Reputation

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Managing the online presence of the brand, providing press releases & feature stories in newspapers and other media agencies, making sure all reviews are properly addressed, form a very important action in maintaining a regulated internet reputation. Companies whose brands are at the forefront also face a lot of publicity which when left uncontrolled and unmanaged can slide towards negative publicity too. © Feelberry Osakeyhtiö (Oy)

Brand Website

Social Media

A customer centric brand website plays a very important role for any brand that is looking to reinvigorate its market presence. Some of the world’s most iconic brands like Mercedes, Apple, Chanel have kept their corporate website and the brand(s) website different to make sure that there is no ambiguity in the communication strategy of the brand website.

Since its inception, social media has been a game changer for many businesses. It provides brands a platform to engage with the customers and helps in understanding their demands. The power to engage customers and predict the market based on their feedback has made social media a powerful business feedback and strategy tool. ~ 21 ~

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The Way Forward With all that Mysore Sandal Soap has to offer, it is crucial to consider how to increase the brand awareness and market share.

The marketing industry is in the midst of a period of change that is both absolutely terrifying and very exciting. Faster and more intuitive technology are creating and changing the notions of being a consumer. Today there are more channels, more choice, more speed, more confusion, more noise — and less signal. In this fractured, mind-bending speed environment, it’s fair to ask how to have a larger reach when a branding strategy is planned.

How to have a global reach? The evolution of branding is a by-product of the intersection of culture and commerce. As the marketplace evolves, so must brands evolve to satisfy ever-changing consumer needs and wants. As much as brands and companies may wish it to be otherwise, brand is a reaction to consumer culture and not the reverse. Major historical events and technological advancements demand that brands continuously alter, adapt, and modify the way they interact with consumers. A greater cross section of people think most brands do not matter that much at all to them. That should terrify all of us as marketers and as businesspeople. People want brands that act, that help and that do. Consumers are sending a very clear message that challenges every part of a business — from finances to operations to marketing. Consumers are telling us to stop making empty promises and start acting in new and different ways. In other words, we should be building brands that do things that matter to the target customers.

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In order to succeed in today’s environment, companies need to rethink how they build and care for their brands. Some, however, are on the frontier of not just a new way of branding but a new way of behaving as well. Historically, brands have relied on disseminating their own messaging and communications in the hope that audiences would listen and act on what they heard. But our global experience in brand re-imaging have figured out a new way; ENGAGE YOUR CUSTOMERS through various platforms more so on the social media platforms where customers can re-engage. We are definitely in the Age of the Customer, a time when brands have fully embraced the fact that they don’t create themselves. Customers have significant impact on how brands are built, and brands cannot abstain from ongoing interaction. Realising this is one thing. Adapting to it requires a shift in thinking and, ultimately, behaviour that hasn’t happened yet. Feelberry do things; we use action to create meaningful experiences and engagement with the customers and to express their point of view and place in the world. By making your brand behave in more deliberate and authentic ways, you prove your worth, invite participation, and create a distinctive point of view and track record that is less vulnerable to copying by competitors.

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We’ve learned through research and practice that the way a company or brand behaves and acts — as well as what they do and what they make — has far greater influence on someone’s interest and involvement than any individual product or service they sell. It makes sense. Products and services proliferate and are often interchangeable. They mostly all meet consumers’ needs, yet marketers still seek that elusive “differentiation” that will distinguish their brand from others. Today, a brand has to be useful, meaningful, and engaging — or it is moving toward irrelevance.

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Most people don’t care if 70 percent of brands disappeared, brands need to create real value in order to matter. These days, articulating purpose alone is not enough — at the heart of brand behaviour lie human truths. We need to articulate a new social contract between customers, communities, and companies. Brands, through their actions and values, can become guardians of audience sensibility and values. In short, we need to think about how brands can be useful and become a part of the consumer’s life.

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What Now On a positive part, the Mysore Sandal Soap as a product is excellent, the company has a strong history and the brand does not need a makeover. What needs to be bridged is the branding and the business strategy to scale foreign markets and convert the brand to regain the premium level that it enjoyed a few decades back.

Media & Social Channels Media has greatly influenced the relationship between consumers and businesses, especially the social media. They have a large number of connections with the most attention commanded from user base. The connections built in real life by networking have lots of potential. Products and services are introduced to consumers meaningfully, that is through a two way conversation. The social media can be a very important channel of a brand. Feedback on a company’s products is easily accessed. Social media users say what the product means to them at that time and so the data collected from such forums is real. This is beneficial in the improvement of strategies for better customer satisfaction. It will enable the business to know and understand the situation of the market for better strategising.

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Building an Internet Reputation As already showcased before, majority of the listings of Mysore Sandal Soap on E-commerce websites are by third-party sellers. A large portion of these vendors sell fake or unauthorised items at an inflated price range. As a result, consumers are dissatisfied and their reviews bring disrepute to the brand. An official selling channel and continuous monitoring of such fake listings with initiatives to take them down would create a clarity about the brand. Regular updates on product advantages from the Brand website as well as links to E-commerce site pages from where they are available would create a consolidation of the selling process. Brand pages can also be created on the E-Commerce sites as there are for Himalaya or Body Shop.

Consumer Channels Having a proactive consumer feedback system would further help in identifying consumer perceptions. This helps in understand consumer trends and planning product changes to make the brand completely consumer centric.

Packaging Highlights Most hi-value brand soap companies like Loccitane and Cetaphil highlight their ingredients on the packaging. The current packaging is actually very good since it is fully bio-degradable, the soap wrapper locks in the essence while the outside print on the box has a very royal and elegant feel. The printed matter can be changed highlighting the composition and the fact that it is natural and very gentle on the skin, cleaning the dirt yet keeping the skin child-like, similar to how nature would enhance the perception about the quality of the soap .

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Highlighting CSR Activities Having a social initiative activity channel that represents environment protection, social initiatives, community activities can also bolster the brand image as it has done in case of Body Shop. Now the latest trend is about being supportive towards the supply chain workers and assisting in sustainability. Also highlighting the positive environmental protection in using natural ingredient based products compared to chemical gels and body wash can have a long term positive effect in retaining the market leader status that was once enjoyed by Mysore Sandal Soap.

Business Ventures & Value Addition Currently the Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited utilises a fraction of their production capacity. Amidst the celebration of their century year in 2016, it was announced that the Company had plans to enhance their production capacity by modernisation of the plants and machinery along with launching new products to cater to market demands. Mysore Sandal has 3 sandalwood oil factories in Mysuru, Shimoga and Bangalore. The task of increasing production over the years has become more daunting to achieve due to the rapid depletion of natural sandalwood.

Increasing Profits Just an increase in sales would not change the current company situation greatly. Due to shortage of key raw materials that cannot be scaled up, the production cannot be increased. But matching the soap perception with other brands like Body Shop and Kama Ayurveda, the pricing can be drastically increased making the profits go up even though the sales remain the same.

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Collaborations with Scandinavian Cosmetic Companies The capacity of the factory’s manufacturing unit can be maximised by opening Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited to reputed Cosmetic Companies across the Globe. Various International cosmetic companies are on the constant lookout for collaborations with successful Indian brands to venture into the Indian market. With a 100 year old rich history like Mysore Sandal Soap, a name known across the country and beyond, a collaboration would prove to be a profitable venture for both companies involved. We can organise Joint Venture initiatives between premium Scandanavian Cosmetic companies like Lumene, Finland and Face, Sweden as well as niche boutique companies that could use the un-utilised production facility to mass manufacture their productsfor sale in Asia and even export to Europe.

International Exports Premium toiletries and amenities are a requisite for all hospitality companies from multinationally diversified hotels to the independent luxury brands. Large hotel chains are always looking for ways to provide a more personalised and organic experience to their customers by building an ambience specific to their theme. This would be the way for initial acceptance in EU. In the next phase we would bring in distributors who would be willing to handle the export stocks creating a strong Export Oriented product line. Pure Sandalwood Oil would also be another export line that can be channelised to Spa Hotels. Our internal review has found out that, there is a great demand for sandalwood based products in countries like China, Bulgaria, Russia and European Union; this easily opens up an opportunity to sell the same current production at a far higher premium increasing immediate profits.

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The Feelberry Synergy With decades of experience in working with Fortune 500 companies we have the skills to re-imagine and revive any brand.

Over the decades we have enabled companies to identify their potential for growth and have catalysed the change. With our offices in Pune, India as well as in Helsinki, Finland, we have the unique position to drive Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited to revive and regain their former glory and open up their true value as one of the world’s oldest hi-quality soap producer. With a strong network in Scandinavia and China, we are capable of taking care of the next decade of growth for the export of sandalwood soap and sandalwood products increasing the company turnover even without any increase in production.

What we plan to do • Revive the social media, making it more consumer centric. • Redesigning the packaging information highlighting the uniqueness of the ingredients. • Design and manage the brand website. • Design and manage the e-commerce brand pages. • Involve print media like Conde Nast, Vogue and Cosmopolitan, to cover the rich history of Mysore Sandal Soap.

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• Highlight the Geographical Indicator for the Sandalwood oil. • Involve international press like New York Times, BBC in portraying one of the World’s oldest soap company. • Initiate collaboration ventures with Scandinavian and EU based cosmetic company. • Introduce samples with Hilton, Radisson Blu, Scandic, Thon, Melia and Boutique Luxury Hotel chains in EU. • Assist in joint venture with Lumene, Finland and Face, Sweden for under-license Manufacturing. • Export to Scandinavian countries using existing distributors who already handles Himalaya products. • Open up the Chinese market for exports at premium prices. • Create a monologue book on the history of Mysore Sandal Soap story and have it published by Harper Collins or Bantam Books to create a deep market awareness. • Public relation drives that would involve using famous personalities around the world who love Sandalwood and provide them with an exclusive PR package.

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Rebranding Mysore Sandal Soap