Mosquito, the Spanish word for Little Fly, in India is allegedly the root cause behind infecting nearly 40 million people in the country, every year. Not only this, malaria in India is considered to be a public health problem in several regions as about 95% population in the country resides in malaria endemic areas and 80% of malaria reported in the country is confined to areas consisting 20% of population residing in tribal, hilly, difficult and inaccessible areas.
That being said, the household insecticides market in India is believed to be around Rs 6,000 crore as per several reports and for Godrej Consumer Products, the same is a ‘fairly big business’ for one of the core purpose of the brand is to aid the government’s efforts in making India malaria free and arming consumers with protection from dengue.
All of this, collectively make mosquitoes one of the deadliest species on earth in terms of being the highest taker of human lives as the insect has already won the race for survival of the fittest as the insecticide market is largely being dominated by illegal incense sticks and the insect itself has developed a resistance for a lot of drugs itself.
Developed in 2008, Transfluthrin, a molecule which is used in the making of a vast majority of insecticide products, has over the years become less and less effective in terms of mosquito repellency, giving birth to the need of discovering a newer and more effective molecule.
While a lot of R&D work has been done to ensure that consumers stay satisfied with the solutions they get against vector-borne diseases, cracking the code in the current times after a decade long of hardwork is Godrej Consumer Products who has discovered, patented and is going to be using ‘Renofluthrin’ molecule in all of its mosquito repellent coils and liquids under the brand name- Good Knight.
Elaborating on the mosquito-molecule altercation in his interaction with Marketing Mind, Ashwin Moorthy, Chief Marketing Officer, Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL), stated that since there had been no innovation and discovery of new molecules in mosquito repellency category for a while now, it was only a matter of time that mosquitoes became more resistant and consumers, on the other hand, became increasingly less satisfied with the solutions they were getting.
“Because of this lower satisfaction rate amongst consumers, the floodgates of illegal, non-registered and unchecked safety incense sticks opened in the country and over the years, the same were not only smuggled into the country illegally, but a lot of local manufacturers also began using them in insecticides and distributing it quite widely among consumers, catapulting a majority of growth in the insecticide market in the recent past, without people realizing the detrimental effects it had on their own health,” he said.
Taking into consideration all of this, coupled with the brand’s purpose-led core, Godrej Consumer Products has now introduced Renofluthrin- a molecule which is believed to be twice as effective as the old molecule and has been developed by the company under very stringent protocols of testing.
“Over a 100 different tests including clinical trials under the aegis of the government and government registered laboratories have been conducted on Renofluthrin and it is only recently that the same has got approved by the insecticide board and the registration committee. Hence, as part of commercializing the molecule for which we had already filed the patent in 2015 and is exclusive to Godrej Consumer Products, we are bringing this to life by adding it to our brand- Good Knight across all formats- liquid vaporizers, legally registered incense sticks and coils,” stated Moorthy.
That being said, he also mentioned that while the brand is going to leverage Renofluthrin as a constituent in Good Knight products, the company will have to take a decision on using the molecule on its other brand- HIT in the longer term.
In his views, this development is a ‘big news’ for three reasons- molecular breakthroughs and patents are very rare in India, it gives Godrej Consumer Products the ability to serve consumers with efficacious and safe mosquito prevention solutions and reduces the need for consumers to seek alternatives which may be illegal or harmful for them.
“For us at Godrej Consumer Products, Good Knight is a really large brand as it reaches about 30 lakh outlets in India and over a third of Indian consumers already use the brand. Hence, as we launch the new molecule, we are hoping that a large number of Indians who use insecticides are quickly able to access the molecule. And for this purpose, we will be marketing it quite heavily so that the consumers who don’t use us today also become aware and can start using our solutions containing Renofluthrin from hereon,” he said.
Elaborating on the production and distribution of the same, he mentioned that the same has been launched by Godrej Consumer Products in the liquid vaporizer format (Good Knight machine and liquid) and will also come to the brand’s coils going forward. As of now, the same is already present in incense sticks.
Being the CMO of Godrej Consumer Products who is a parent to Good Knight, he not just put the spotlight on the newly discovered molecule but also pointed out that from a brand standpoint, the focus will always be on the outcome- consumers deciding if they like the product or not based on the outcome they receive from it.
“This outcome often comes out in a twofold nature- one is that they will see much faster action than they were doing today as Renofluthrin is twice as fast as what we have today in terms of knocking down mosquitoes and secondly, because it is more efficacious molecule, what will happen is that the effectiveness of the vaporizer will last in the air for a two hour period even in cases when there is an electrical power cut. Hence, this is how we will exactly be marketing our product to the consumer- by making it more perceivable rather than using the molecule as a mere front,” he explained.
Furthermore, he also opined that the molecule is just a reason to believe but the benefits that he shared are for the consumers to see.
“As a brand, our ad spends continue to be at the higher end of the industry because we see that in housing and sector in particular, our responsibility is to build consumer awareness and grow the category. And for the insecticide category, we would like for it to move to a double digit volume category in the medium term as the growth has been much lower in the past few years because of lack of efficacy and the growth of illegal incense sticks. Hence, we see this move being quite revolutionary in terms of both- how it serves the consumers’ needs in terms of protection from mosquitoes and the impact of the same on sales being quite high as our prices continue to remain the same as it is today,” he said.
This, coupled with the fact that India is a tropical country where the issue of mosquito varies with seasonality, almost half of India uses mosquito repellents across the length and breadth, of which, Moorthy stated that a third of Indians use Good Knight, which is why the brand is going widths of marketing right from wall paintings in Rural India to advertising on TV, which amounts to a bulk of Godrej Consumer Products’ adspends, to digital advertising on YouTube and OTT platforms and also marketing on Connected TVs in affluent India.
“Good Knight is a pan-Indian brand- it is essentially a very urban brand with rural consumers also coming into its fold as there is a very high need for efficacy across the country and most consumers across India have been accessing it through illegal incense sticks. Hence, with this molecular breakthrough and with significant investments in rural media, we plan to make Good Knight’s reach and distribution quite dominant in rural areas. Recently, we also expanded our brand program to rural outlets as well since we want this to be more available across the breadth of the market,” he said whilst commenting on how the brand perceives and targets the India-Bharat equilibrium.
Moreover, he also highlighted that for Godrej Consumer Products, Good Knight is a brand which is extremely close to the company in terms of its purpose, size, business and even iconicity for it has the potential to make a difference in the lives of millions of Indians.
