Unilever Unplugged Case Study – PureIt

Why Water Purification?

1. A billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water - 80% belong to the D&E

countries

2. 80% of all diseases in D&E countries are waterborne

3. An estimated 2.5 billion cases of diarrhea occur among children under five years of age – this

has remained stable over the past two decades.

4. Diarrhea remains the second leading cause of death among children under five globally.

Nearly, one in five child deaths – about 1.5 million each year.

Today, the consumers are concerned but forced to make various compromises with known and

existing solutions.

1. Boiling: Widely prevalent habit of boiling water, but it is expensive, time consuming, poor

tasting & energy intensive.

2. Standalone filters: Do not deliver adequate germ kill (vis-à-vis viruses, bacteria, parasites).

3. Bottled Water is expensive; not really sustainable

4. Premium purifiers (ultraviolet, reverse osmosis technologies) - Dependent on electricity &

piped water; expensive

5. Water liquids/tablets: Cumbersome, often ineffective, poor taste

PureIt – Mission:

A Break through Innovation:

Way back in 1998, PureIt started as a project in Port Sunlight with a clear brief of ‘no electricity’, ‘no

running water’, give World class Safety standards (USEPA - 643) under a cost of Rs 1 (30 ps per litre *

daily avg consumption of 2-3 Litre per day) for an adult everyday. The project moved to India in

2000 and was test marketed in Chennai in 2004. In 2005, it was extended to the Rest of TN followed

by AP & Karnataka in 2006. We went national in 2007 with our Classic 23 Litre device which was then

priced @ Rs. 1600.

Unilever Pureit’s product portfolio has been designed so as to provide safe water in all parts of the

world

1. Complete protection from all harmful germs – viruses, bacteria and parasites [ As safe as

boiled water]

2. Meets the stringent germ kill criteria of the Environmental Protection Agency of the U.S.A

3. Key skus can be used in all urban and rural areas because they don’t depend on electricity

and pressurised tap water

4. Assured / uncompromising safety for consumers because of Unambiguous ‘end-of-life

indicator’ & ‘auto-switch off’ system

5. 90% lower carbon footprint compared to consumer alternatives of boiling water, or using

bottled water

Business Model: Rapidly acquire consumers with purifier & secure ongoing revenue from each

consumer with periodic sale of consumable germ kill kits. As the consumer base expands, the germ

kill kit revenue stream builds up.

First line of Gravity Purifiers:

Communication Journey in India:

Market Context (2007-08)

• Purifier penetration (All India (AI) Urban): < 2%

• Current Methods: Do nothing (40%+) followed by Boiling, Simple Filtration & candle filters

made up 90% of AI Urban.

• Competitive landscape: Low Heat

o -Aquaguard: Heritage brand since 1982

o -Aquasure :Eureka Forbe’s recently launched NE (non electric) purifier to counter

Pureit

o -Kent, Purocom, Whirlpool, Philips, Zero B: Other electric purifiers present in market

but with minimal media spends

In 2007, PureIt’s Marketing Task was to convince non-owners of purifiers to convert to Pureit

(Market Development) and communication Task was to Peg Pureit to the Gold standard of water

safety (As safe as ‘Boiled water’) while being superior on convenience and costs. We sold over 1 Mn

Purifiers in 2008 & category penetration went up to 5% & competitive heat began emerging.

• 2007: Boiler (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6K64imdtYs)

• 2008: Yellow Eyes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwkGg8Rqcqc) & Doctor

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXZlI2dyLOI)

Market Context (2009-12)

Category heat increased & low priced SKU’s powered category penetration. However Pureit ran the

risk of being viewed as ‘One Amongst the Crowd’. In these years, our marketing Task was to

convince consumers to prefer Pureit over other purifiers (Share Gain) & communication Task was to

convince intenders about Pureit’s superior safety delivery (1 crore challenge / 1 Crore viruses)

• 2009: Home Demo – 1 Crore (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej2hn33uRtA &

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn5d9BW7JZQ)

• 2010 saw the launch of 1000 rupee purifier to preempt the threat of Tata Swach 1000 Rs

Purifier (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irXaMM0MKnk). In 2010 category penetration

went to 14% and Pureit had 60% share on non electric segment on Volume.

• 2011: We continued to build on the powerful and popular 1 Cr Challenge

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xZeXzlgiGo, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-

RJkeleUSB8 & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfHECg4klJs). But as we were establishing

superiority, there also began a slow down on market growth in 2011.

• 2012: Paani Paani (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3_MCEvxadc). The slowdown

began accelerating significantly and the category penetration reached 1/5th

of the country

households.

Market since 2013:

Since 2013, there were two significant paradigm shift that the market was going through:

1. The premium purifier market involving UV and RO purifiers began to grow owing to

increased participation from local and international competition (Kent, AquaGuard,

Electrolux, LG, etc.,). Pureit also entered the space and in a short span of 2-3 years, already

has 5 products in the space and commands over 30% + Market share.

2. The core (non-electric) purifier market was largely dormant and hence the category

penetration started dipping down to 16%. Non-electric Purifiers was dominated by Pureit

(60% market share) and hence it was upto Pureit to get this segment out of slumber. This

segment saw decline on volumes since the consumers at the lower end of the price-tier

were:

a. Delaying Purifier purchases due to deteriorating economy.

b. Not finding relevance in the category.

i. Leading to new consumers not purchase the device.

ii. Leading to existing consumers not buying the germ-kill kit to continued

usage.

Regaining the momentum on the Core Market:

Reviving the growth in the core purifier market is at the heart of Pureit Brand essence and is also

critical to unlocking the future growth dynamics at the marketplace since this segment

contributes over 60% of market volume. Since the intender base (people who found the idea of

Water purifier as a relevant product) was shrinking, PureIt had to communicate ‘relevance’ of

the category to consumers.

In 2013, since cost was seen as the biggest barrier for the Purchase (since there was a burden of

inflation on the consumers), Pureit decided to communicate the ‘Value’ proposition of owning a

purifier. This was done through the popular 3 cylinder campaign [3 Cylinder Ad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LZgpvljORA]

This campaign created relevance with consumers to begin replacing their current habit of boiling

to PureIt since it saved money in the process and offered superior taste and convinience. While

this campaign arrested the decline, it was very tactical. With the outgoing UPA government

increasing the number of subsidized cylinder in 2014, the message was no more relevant in

creating purchase intent of the category.

In 2014, the brand embarked on the journey to talk to consumers who are not just fence sitters

delaying the purchase, but to those consumers who did not appreciate the need for owning a

water purifier. This required serious education and behavior change to enable people to see

beyond their usual prejudices like a) my water is alright, been drinking it for ages and b) it’s too

expensive a proposition to own a water purifier and It’s not worth it. The following relevance

building communication was developed to aid market development [5 new contaminants -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WClFxMb8jA].

Case: Use this Ad and its consumer Insight to develop an integrated marketing plan and channel

execution strategy (TV, Activation, Radio, Consumer Contact, etc ..). Try to create innovative and

creative ways to take this idea to the target audience and bring the benefit alive to build

category relevance amongst consumers.

Caution:

1. Avoid the pitfall of thinking about making a new Ad.

2. Avoid spending time on ‘whats’ (like radio / prime time / Digital / sponsoring) and spend

time on the ‘how’ (what exactly on Radio and how would you leverage the Ad when you go

viral or sponsor activities).

3. No Strategy Slides with Jargons / Matrix and Models. Avoid thinking like a consultant /

strategist. Think like a brand manager and put yourselves into the consumer shoes to

appreciate what works with them and what does not.

4. Max: 8 Slides – 8 Mins to present – 4 Mins to Question / Answer

5. Judging Criteria: a) True to the Brand b) Creativity c) Feasibility d) Clarity (in no specific

order)