There were some 7,000 redistribution stockists who served over a million retail outlets. In the late-1990s, HLL realized that despite its pioneering efforts to expand its rural consumer base, a large part of the market remained untapped. Thus, the company set itself a target of contacting 16 million new village households by 1999.

This was to be achieved by strongly focusing on the sales, marketing, and production of the 'Power Brands' in the rural markets. HLL adopted a phased approach in order to meet its target and decided to address the key issues related to availability, awareness and overcoming prevalent attitudes and habits of rural consumers.

Continuing its focus on rural areas, HLL launched a massive rural campaign to reposition one of its leading brands, Lifebuoy, in February 2002. Lifebuoy was the single largest soap brand in rural India with 20 lakh soaps sold every year and had an estimated value of Rs 5 billion. The re-launch of 107-year-old Lifebuoy was primarily done to increase growth in the sluggish soap market. Commenting on this Category Head, Mass Market Soaps and Detergents, Sanjay Dube said, "It is the biggest and comprehensive re-launch of any of our brands."...