GCPL withdraws Rs 1,200 crore brand, Goodknight Activ to give Goodknight Gold Flash a boost

• Goodknight Gold Flash is aimed at converting non-liquid vaporizer users, bringing them into the category by offering them a premium product at a competitive price point.
• The brand is looking at a digital-heavy campaign wherein TV will get them reach but digital will help spread awareness about the product.
• GCPL has also withdrawn Goodknight Activ from the markets and will slowly phase out the refills for the product within the next few quarters to offer a single, more effective product to consumers, shared Sunil Kataria, Chief Executive Officer - India & SAARC, GCPL

Godrej Consumer Products Limited’s (GCPL) mosquito repellant brand Goodknight has come up with its latest liquid vaporiser offering, Goodknight Gold Flash, which the brand claims will get rid of a household’s need to use multiple formats of mosquito repellants, namely coils, aerosols, flash cards and incense sticks. Currently, the overall liquid vaporizer (LV) category is pegged at Rs 2,200 crore and if GCPL is able to crack this newly created single-solution category, the brand is staring at an incremental opportunity of Rs 2,500 crore in the near future.

Moreover, to ensure that Goodknight Flash Gold is able to make the desired impact in the market, GCPL is withdrawing its other liquid vaporizer offering, Goodknight Activ, which is a Rs 1,200 crore brand currently. Goodknight currently holds 60% market share in the LV category.

Why the new offering?

The brand has already launched Goodknight Gold Flash in the South market and has seen a positive response, shared Sunil Kataria, Chief Executive Officer - India & SAARC, GCPL. However, what he feels will make this a success is the fact that the product, which is a premium offering, will be available at almost the same price as Goodknight Activ. “We account for Rs 1200 crore in the Rs 2500 crore category. However, 40% of the market accounts for other LV users and this new offering presents an opportunity to convert those consumers. Moreover, the multiple format using households are a big opportunity for us too. This product has the potential to become the solo format in most households and that’s where we will start taking the share of non-LV formats. Also, the product comes at a very competitive price point. You are getting a product of business class at the price of an economy class,” shared Kataria.

Gold Flash is priced at Rs 89 for the machine and refill, while only the refill is available at Rs 75 per piece, which Kataria maintains is a nominal increase over their previous product.

The new machine rapidly releases visible flash vapours resulting in a knock-down effect on mosquitoes, compared to only repellency effect of normal liquid vapourizers in the initial period. The body of the machine is such that refills of other brands, or even that of Goodknight Activ cannot be used on it. However, refill of Gold Flash can be used on machines of other brands.

While the brand has already stopped the production of Goodknight Activ, the refills will still be available and it will be slowly phased out to make sure that users don’t face any inconvenience, shared Kataria.

GCPL’s performance in a tough year

While Kataria agrees that the slowdown has affected most companies, he feels that their singular focus on growing volumes has worked in their favour. “Our results show a 7% volume growth. Going forward, the recovery still might take some time, maybe a couple of quarters. But our focus will continue to be on driving value and volume,” he said.

So did marketing budgets take a hit due to the slowdown? “Not at all! We have done 6 launches in the last 6 months. That’s another way to drive volume growth where you give consumers more differentiated benefits so that they say that its worth paying for.

Marketing plan

While the brand is planning a high-decibel digital campaign that will comprise 6 digital films, it will also invest on TV. “This will be a digital-heavy campaign but not a digital-first campaign. This is a large brand and we reach around 6 crore homes and we want all those homes to upgrade to this machine in the next 12 months. We are also looking at a huge behavior change. So we definitely need a mass medium like TV to first spread awareness,” he shared.

The brand will launch the campaign in the next two weeks.