It’s not everyday that I’m impressed by something as insignificant as a soap box! But ITC’s Vivel really goes the extra mile for a measly soap cardboard carton!
Vivel’s new Luxury Creme range (comes in 2 variants – Shea butter and Olive butter) comes in a fabulously rich packing that I’m yet to see for any soap in India!
A few observations before showing you how it looks.
1. For a ‘luxury’ soap, INR 25 seems mighty low. So the perceived value for a customer may be quite high, at that price.
2. Again, for that price, the packing is nothing short of brilliant! Most soaps in India come in paper packing that you discard after removing the soap. Some (like Dove) come in cardboard cartons, but are also usually priced much higher.
3. At 72% TFM (the Shea butter variant; strangely the Olive butter one comes with 74% TFM), it seems mighty low (for a luxury soap; but that perhaps explains the price) in comparison to the highest TFM I’ve seen among Indian soaps – the old (original) Cinthol…at 79%. That Cinthol happens to be my all-time favorite soap…I seem to go back to it after trying out new soaps occasionally.
4. Also in comparison, ITC’s premium range of soaps with the Fiama Di Wills (Skinsense – soft green) brand name retails for INR 45 and DOES NOT mention any TFM rating in its carton. I wonder if some soaps are exempt from mentioning the TFM rating. Most importantly, this INR 45 soap comes in a normal looking carton!
5. This soap’s carton comes shrink-wrapped and there’s a handy strip to start peeling the wrap too – you may open the entire thing in the least clumsy manner and have an intact carton after removing the soap. When you peel off the wrap, there are helpful instructions on the side, with perforation. You just need to use your finger tips to cut through it and voilà …you have a perfectly opened pack of soap box! For a INR 25 soap, that’s a LOT of effort in terms of product packaging design, but yes…it all looks beautiful and perfect!
6. The soap smells good – you thought I’ll never come to the actual point of the damn soap, huh?
7. There doesn’t seem to be a website for the Vivel range and the only site as per ITC (http://www.vivelultrapro.com) talks about their new shampoo range and features Telugu superstar Mahesh Babu. I understand that the product may have only been launched in Andhra Pradesh (so far…may be) and I also agree that Mahesh Babu is a very big star (in a few states), but using him all across a ‘website’ which ideally doesn’t have any geographical boundaries? Interesting tactic. On the other hand, Fiama di wills has a good looking site that completely lost all it’s goodwill by being excessively flash heavy – I closed it as soon I tried to open it. Flash for websites needs to die, like now – HTML5…where are you?
Now, take a look at that carton!
PS: While we are talking soaps, think about your soap application sequence while bathing! I believe we all have a sequence but don’t think about it enough – for example, we may start at the chest; then torso, then hands. Private parts next…legs and perhaps finally, face. Do you have one? Do you stick to the same one unconsciously? Or, do you change it to alleviate boredom during bathing? Yes, I do think of such esoteric topics in life!