Government initiatives increase awareness about home care products: The prime minister of India, Mr Narendra Modi, has started a campaign “Swachh Bharat” to clean the country. Due to the combined effect of awareness campaigns by the government and subsequently by leading home care companies such as Hindustan Unilever Ltd, the awareness about hygiene-related products such as toilet cleaners, surface cleaners, hand wash and personal care has improved. It has eventually resulted in higher sales of home care products in the country.
Top trends and developments that were witnessed in the Home Care market in India in 2015 were:
- Government initiatives increase awareness about home care products: The prime minister of India, Mr Narendra Modi, has started a campaign “Swachh Bharat” to clean the country. Due to the combined effect of awareness campaigns by the government and subsequently by leading home care companies such as Hindustan Unilever Ltd, the awareness about hygiene-related products such as toilet cleaners, surface cleaners, hand wash and personal care has improved. It has eventually resulted in higher sales of home care products in the country.
- Companies try to increase value sales by adding benefits to existing products:Leading companies within home care categories such as laundry care, air care and toilet care have launched variants of their regular products with additional benefits such as fragrance, germ-fighting capabilities, better cleaning and pack shape in order to increase their value sales. A variety of fragrances and product formats ranging from solid block to aerosol can such as AmbiPur from Godrej Consumer Products Ltd are some examples from air care. Products with value-added benefits are more prominent in urban regions as rural consumers prefer to spend lesser amounts on basic products.
- Home care is expected to grow faster due to increased rural consumption: Increased hygiene-awareness, particularly in rural regions, will fuel sales growth for home care products especially toilet care and laundry care. Leading companies will continue to increase their number of promotions in local languages to reach out to tier II and rural consumers and expand their distribution further. The continued efforts from government will also help in increasing awareness and supporting further growth in sales.
- Home care companies launch specialised products in the wake of disease outbreaks: The spread of diseases such as dengue, swine flu and chikungunya has given the opportunity to home care companies to launch specialised products, which claim to be effective against viruses causing such diseases as well as against germs. Companies have launched and marketed such germ-resistant products across categories such as toilet care, surface care and home insecticides in home care. Besides home care, categories such as hand wash, personal care and healthcare have witnessed such launches too. Also, companies such as Hindustan Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser (India) Ltd have modified their promotional campaigns, in order to show the efficacy of their products on germs and viruses.
Global Landscape for the Home Care market, Forecast Growth
