Advertising of Lux in India
Selection of Media:
There are number of Sources available for passing the product message. These are as follows;
Television
Radio
Outdoor- Billboards,
Magazines
Newspapers
Brochures
Internet
Lux has made it a point to use every above source for its advertisement. However the most frequent source used is television.
Lux was launched in India in 1929. Its slogan was “the beauty soap of film stars.” The first advertisement was by actress Leela Chitnis as the brand ambassador. It has heavily advertised in India using Bollywood actresses as its brand ambassadors from Asha Parekh, Mala Singh, Hema Malini, Rekha, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra and Katrina Kaif in the latest ads. The brand had used male actors only twice in its advertisements – Shahrukh Khan was featured on the completion of the 75th years of Lux soap brand in 2005.

Lux ad with the brand ambassador Leela Chitnis.

Shah Rukh Khan with the four Ladies

Aishwariya Rai Bachchan with Abhishek Bachchan.

Abhishek Bachchan came along with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the year 2009 which was aired along with a promotional offer. Katrina Kaif has been roped in to becoming the brand ambassador of Lux. In the advertisement of July, 2012, that stars both Katrina Kaif and Shahrukh Khan in the campaign, endorsed two variants of the Lux soap – Lux Peach and Cream and Lux Strawberry and Cream. The fragrance of the new Lux soap stands for love and sensuality and the ad uses the slogan – “Bekaboo” meaning uncontrollable. The duo was seen for the first time in an ad because of their recently released film “Jab Tak Hai Jaan.”

Recent Lux Add featuring Shahrukh and Katrina
Today Lux advertising has been reduced to some extent because of the brand awareness in the minds of customers. The year 2013 saw Tamil film star Dhanush and Sonam Kapoor in their advertisements and in their latest promotion that was aired on December 1, 2013, bollywood’s current favourite Deepika Padukone and Imran Khan are seen swooning to yesteryear's famous number, "Roop Tera Mastana” which replaced Katrina Kaif as the latest brand ambassador of the beauty product.

Marketing Strategy of Lux
The FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) market is highly competitive, one that is rife with the advent of newer brands. In a capitalist set-up, there begins a system of hard selling and introduction of more innovative products to boost sales and garner a larger consumer base. Advertising is a major player in the arena of marketing. For this, it becomes essential to understand the purpose behind the launch of a product, its various utilities and the trajectory it has mapped in the market.

The soap selected for the study is the globally acclaimed Lux, a product owned by Unilever. In India, Lux is owned by Hindustan Unilever, an offshoot of its Anglo-Dutch counterpart and one of India’s largest FMCG companies. A luxurious brand, touted as the ‘beauty soap of the film stars,’ Lux has been a consistent ubiquitous part of the Indian household and one of India’s most trusted personal care products. With generation after generation of women sustaining a product in the market, consistent with its former glory, a statistic mentioning that three in every five Indian consumers use Lux may not seem entirely far-fetched.

Lux has always marketed itself as a product used by the stars. A common refrain associated with such a promotional strategy says ‘if it is good enough for the stars, it is good enough for me.’ Marketing covers the four main aspects, when it comes to any product that needs to be sold in a market, namely the: product mix, price mix, place mix and promotion mix. The marketing mix of Lux shall be examined from the perspective of the four P’s in marketing. Price mix: A sound pricing strategy induces a consumer to purchase a certain product. It proves to be a worthy incentive. In a country of wide economic disparities like India, the price of the product takes precedence over the quality, for the less affluent.

When Lux was launched in 1929, the pricing was kept high so that the product could make up for its manufacturing cost. The prices were later reduced in order to penetrate a greater market segment. As of now, the product pricing is competitive i.e. on par with those of the competitors.

Place mix: The place mix refers to not just the distribution channels of a product, but also the geographic location of its availability which greatly affects its accessibility. Lux was earlier sold only in major cities at the time of its launch. Post 1950s, the distribution network continues to be expanded to include smaller towns.

Promotion mix: A hoarding on one of the more prominent locations in Mumbai once said, “Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you’re doing, but she doesn’t.” And thus, promotion seeks to bridge the gap between ignorance and purchase.
This Hindustan Unilever product has focused on wide promotions most of which has been short lived. Apart from tagging itself as a beauty brand made for the stars, it has even designed short term promotions for sales. One of the famous ones being:
“The Lux Gold Star Offer” – This was one of the most popular promotions which offered gold coins in few selected soaps.
“Star Bano Aish Karo” – This offer gave a chance to few lucky winners who got a chance to live a day like Aishwarya Rai Bachchan with gift offers worth Rs.50,000 from Shopper’s Stop and beauty makeover by Michelle Tung and Neeta Lulla (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s favorite stylist and designer). The bumper prize was dinner date with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan herself and later in 2009 the same offer changed into a dinner date with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan together.
“Har Star Lucky Star”- This came at the time when Shahrukh Khan was aired in Lux advertisements when the brand had finished 75 years. In this offer, selected Lux soap packets had stars printed with number 75 inside the wrapper. The lucky winners got the opportunity to avail free supply of Lux soaps for a year. Online Contests - Play the supercharged version of the hit puzzle game, Bejeweled. Create rows of 3 or more identical stones and you could win a trip for two to a five-star Resort in Goa.
Lux also promoted its self by sponsorship of various television programmes.one of the most rated in trp and viewers favourite channel Zee’s “Dance India Dance’’ show was sponsored by lux .

The Lux Style Awards is an award ceremony held annually in Pakistan since 2002. The awards celebrate "style" in the Pakistani entertainment industry, and honour the country's best talents in film, television, music, and fashion. The Lux Style Awards is considered one of the nation's premier award show events. The awards have been dubbed "Pakistan's Oscars" and described as “ 'the' awards ceremony in Pakistan.’’

They also have ongoing promotional offers like buy 3 get 1 free, Shower Gel and Soap Bar combo packs etc.