According to industry observers, Fevicol had managed to ensure a high recall value in the minds of consumers in spite of belonging to a largely B2B product category. Although Fevicol was a low involvement product, it had managed to reach out to every household in India due to the brilliance and humor behind its ad campaigns, said some industry observers. According to them, Fevicol had always used humor to reach out to the audience and had been successful in leaving a lasting impression on the minds of consumer through its hilarious ads. Its witty ads played an important role in making Fevicol a household name with tremendous brand recall. The ads were so successful that they managed to make an adhesive product like Fevicol into an FMCG item, said experts...

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As of 2011, Fevicol had a market share of over 75% in the adhesives category with a presence across 80% of India. Because of the new initiatives by Fevicol, its year on year CAGR showed an incremental growth. Net sales of branded Adhesives and Sealants grew by 14.1 % and contributed 50% of the total sales of the Pidilite in 2014-15 .

Fevicol was the single largest contributor to Pidilite’s total revenue. According to analysts, Fevicol’s sustainable brand success was due to continuous innovation and the introduction of new and effective products across segments. With the introduction of new small-sized SKUs (Stock Keeping Units), deepening of the distribution network, and a series of brilliant advertisements, the company was able to create a pull for its brand that led to a strong increase in its sales from Rs. 100 million in 1983 to Rs. 10 billion in 2006, 100 times sales in 23 years. In fiscal 2015-16, the company’s profits were Rs 7.47 billion ...

THE ROAD AHEAD

Analysts opined that volume growth would be more important for Fevicol going forward since the company had increased prices to counter rising raw material costs. Focusing on the semi-urban and rural areas could open up newer revenue streams through more volumes for Fevicol, they added. However, the main threat to Fevicol was from the unorganized sector, which was growing rapidly. Commenting on the competition, “As for competition, at any given time, there will be brands which will be priced lower than ours in the B2B space. That is all the more reason why we try and differentiate our product and build trust even for a low involvement category,” said Madhukar B Parekh, Managing Director of Pidilite.

EXHIBITS

Exhibit I: Fevicol Product Portfolio*
Exhibit II: Some Iconic Fevicol Ads
Exhibit III: Key Financials of Pidilite