MUMBAI: India’s famous soap brand Cinthol, owned by Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL) is gearing up its effort to connect to consumer for its freshness portfolio as the heat after monsoon kicks in. The popular brand held an interesting day filled with fresh adventure, in association with the cricket sensation, Shubman Gill as part of its #TurnDownTheHeat campaign of Cinthol Lime & Cinthol Cool soap variants.

“We have done a 360 degree here. It starts with TV campaign; the TVC is on all of national channels. We are also doing regional media taking Maharashtra and West Bengal channels. Along with TV, we started this digital campaign, which has thought and led to activation campaign where Shubman Gill came in as the celeb and he started asking about what is your adventurous spree to turning down the heat along with Cinthol Lime and Cinthol Cool,” GCPL personal care generale manager marketing Urshita Nema shared the details of the campaign.

“Cinthol as a brand has done a lot of outdoor activities and we got responses from across the nation. We picked up the winners and then we had micro-influencers to lead the campaign. Multiple influencers started posting their pictures may be with a parachute, diving in the waterfall and we tried to involve them in the campaign,” Nema added.

Nema also added that Cinthol’s target is practically youth oriented and while the brand has been there for years, it has been refreshing itself constantly to connect with its TG. But she also added that TG is more about psychography and people who are young by heart, who love to go out for sports and adventure, they are also the brand’s TG.

Talking about current focus of marketing initiatives, Nema shared that they are focusing on ‘hyperlocal marketing’ right now. She explained that while they divide the term, one of it has to be rich media and TV will be there.

“But when we have to connect to our TG, we look into the relevance of which market we are working. Cities in North, West like Delhi, Bombay all these cities’ digital connect is very good. So, we have taken up this as digital friendly. We have few states where we are doing experiential marketing campaign like Ola, Uber tie-up. We gave fresh lime wipes. So, it depends on market what we pick,” she added.

Nema also pointed out that where consumers are going is practically digital savy. While the brand also understands internet rates are coming down, everyone is hooked onto digital, they are going digital with micro-influencers, OTT platforms like Hotstar, Voot.

GCPL posted its second-quarter financial result on Wednesday and the soap segment’s revenue declined by 4 per cent year-on-year and the brand’s overall ad spend sharply fell down by 22.1 per cen year-on-year. In an exception, India’s recent economic slowdown has affected FMCG brands also which are usually more immune to slowdowns. While asked about the impact of the slowdown, Nema said that  slowdown news is correct but there are markets like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu which are still growing.

Due to weak demand, FMGC major HUL slashed prices of Dove, Lux, and Lifebuoy soaps recently and Wipro Consumer Care, the maker of Santoor soap, also cut the price of the soap. While Neema was inquired if Cinthol is also thinking of a similar move, she answered that the brand is ready to react to competition anytime.

“But I would say we are not in a stage where we have to go hyper-aggressive to counter competition with offers. The brand pull for Cinthol is very high. We would say we are least impacted in the situation,” she added.