Executive Decision Making | ByGeorge You Got It

Hindustan Unilever touches lives of every Indian with its popular brands and robust distribution. Nine out of ten Indian households use on or more of its brands, and its reach spans a whopping nine million outlets. It is India’s largest fast-moving consumer goods company, highly valued enterprise and a hotbed of executive talent.

Nine out of ten Indian households use on or more of its brands, and its reach spans a whopping nine million outlets.

HLL was witnessing slowing down of the fast-moving consumer goods business at the turn of the century. The brand proliferation had led to a situation where meaningful differentiation was dwindling. This necessitated strategic change and full-scale market interventions. It was felt imperative to conduct brand restructuring, to allow higher spends on select brands and to intensify promotions on key products.

MS Banga as its Chairman and CEO launched the ‘Power Brand Strategy’ to concentrate on core brands and regain elusive growth. This called for deploying a formation of multi-product, multicategory brands with national reach. He mercilessly rationalized the portfolio to 30 power brands from more than 100 brands on offer, thereby giving a new strategic thrust to the business.