CREATIVE BRIEF – WHISPER SANITARY PAD

 INTRODUCTION
Whisper was launched in 1989 by the Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health
Care Limited (P&GHHCL), the same company prominent for its Old Spice
products. Periods was something no one talked about openly and advertising
about menstrual hygiene products was unheard of. Since then, Indian women
have changed from being almost completely cloth users to about 50% of them
(in urban areas) now using pads. And, Whisper has been at the head of the
charge to drive this change. Whisper has been notable for its revolutionary and
informing advertisements and has an extensive history with campaigning.
Recently, whisper had again turned head with the first ever display of red fluid
on pads to symbolize period blood rather than the glossed over blue liquid
which was used commonly for years by both the competitors and the company
itself. Thus, Whisper® has always been a product of the company that has also
focused on actual social work rather than blindly selling a product.
 PRODUCT SUMMARY
In 1989 Procter & Gamble India (after change in name from RHL) launched
Whisper the breakthrough technology sanitary napkin at first time. In 1991 the
company had launched Ariel detergent and in the same year the Mandideep
(Bhopal) Factory started its operations. During the year 1993 P&G had divested
the Detergents business to Procter & Gamble Home Products. Goa Honda
Factory of the company was started its operations in the year 1996 for
manufacture the Vicks VapoRub. After two years in 1998 Goa Kundiam
Factory started its operations for manufacture the Whisper pads. Whisper was
launched in 1989 in India which now accounts for 42% share in the sanitary
napkin market in India. Whisper since the very beginning has been perceived as
a premium product. With its high-quality sanitary napkins, huge range of
variety of sanitary napkins and ease of availability consumers are willing to pay
a premium price for their favourite product. In 2000 the company had
introduced Whisper Ultra Vicks Plus Medicated Lozenges and re launched
Vicks Action 500+. To make Indian consumers affordable the company had
reduced its prices on Whisper in the year 2001.
As far as branding of Whisper is considered, it is one of the classic examples of
brand building in the country. It entered the market when Johnson & Johnson’s
Stayfree was already a key player in the market under the female health and
hygiene sector. With time and development, it expanded its product line with
new products Whisper Ultra Clean and New Whisper Ultra Soft, but at the same
time, also faced competitors like Stayfree. Therefore, in order to retain its
position as a leading brand in the minds of its consumers, Whisper needed to
connect at a more personal level with its consumers. The first step towards
creating a distinct positioning was establishing the brand tagline – Have a
Happy Period. The use of word ‘Period’ implied breaking the taboo of
menstruation periods. No other brand had taken this step ahead before, which
distinguished Whisper as a bold and confident brand.
The initial Whisper ads featured sensitive ads on mothers educating daughters
about sanitary napkins, thus positioning itself as informative and depicting how
Whisper is recommended by mothers too who have been using sanitary pads for
years. Even in the current ads, Whisper encourages young girls like athletes or
sport players to not let periods being a hindrance on their way to success. Still
Whisper positions its brand for teenage and young girls. However, a campaign
works better if it is created for different age groups. But with its unique
marketing strategy of focusing on the social issues, Whisper has attained a
premium brand status because of its high-quality sophisticated packaging,
surpassing the market position higher than Stayfree. To break through the
competition, Whisper recently came with a social campaign – Touch the Pickle,
designed with the aim to bust the cultural myths surrounding menstruation in
Indian communities that a menstruating woman should not touch the pickle jar
because it will be spoilt.

 OBJECTIVES
i. To capture the large share of the market.
ii. To provide maximum customer satisfaction.
iii. Continue product modification and improvement effort to increase
customer benefit and reduce cost. To meet the highest international
standards of quality.
iv. To expand production capacity
MISSION: “Whisper encourages women to embrace their bodies and celebrate
life. Widely preferred by women across the country, Whisper sanitary pads are
created to offer complete protection and comfort during your period days.”
VISION: To reduce the taboo of periods while constructing a safer menstrual
lifestyle.
 TARGET AUDIENCE
Whisper serves people who deal with menstruation as their target audience.
Even with the same product, Whisper has formulated different versions of it to
fit a diversified customer base of different requirements and body, flow &
comfort types. Still Whisper positions its brand for teenage and young girls.
However, most of the advertisements focus on the younger generation of girls to
educate about the situation.

 FORMAT OF ADVERTISMENT
The commercials of Whisper have fulfilled a fantastic job in sending messages
both subtle and loud when it comes to advertising. Recently, the company was
under the limelight with the display of launching a regional campaign
in May 2021 that showed period blood with the help of a red
liquid and thus normalizing period blood. It is not treated as a separate,
rebellious campaign where the company tries to prove how it is revolutionary to
show period blood, as period blood. It is just like any other Whisper
advertisement. The truth is, it is just doing the bare minimum and treating it like
it is. Whisper has also run active movements like #KeepGirlsinSchool with its
film campaign “The Missing Chapter.” The initial Whisper ads featured
sensitive ads on mothers educating daughters about sanitary napkins, thus
positioning itself as informative and depicting how Whisper is recommended by
mothers too who have been using sanitary pads for years. Even in the current
ads, Whisper encourages young girls like athletes or sport players to not let
periods being a hindrance on their way to success. Still Whisper positions its
brand for teenage and young girls. However, a campaign works better if it is
created for different age groups. Other than print advertisement, they also do
other formats of advertisement like TV, print, outdoors, and digital.
 COMPETITORS OF WHISPER
i. Stayfree
ii. Comfy
iii. Wonderize
iv. Paree
v. Sofy
 vi. Clovia
vii. Hush
viii. ActiveCare
ix. Miracle Choice
x. Carmesi
 SLOGANS/ CATCHPHRASES AND ADVERTISMENT
STRATEGIES
The first step towards creating a distinct positioning was establishing the brand
tagline – Have a Happy Period. The use of word ‘Period’ implied breaking the
taboo of menstruation periods. No other brand had taken this step ahead before,
which distinguished Whisper as a bold and confident brand.

A campaign works better if it is created for different age groups. But with its
unique marketing strategy of focusing on the social issues, Whisper has attained
a premium brand status because of its high-quality sophisticated packaging,
surpassing the market position higher than Stayfree. To break through the
competition, Whisper recently came with a social campaign – Touch the Pickle,
designed with the aim to bust the cultural myths surrounding menstruation in
Indian communities that a menstruating woman should not touch the pickle jar
because it will be spoilt.

 BUDGET COST AND MANUFACTURE COST

For the year 2021, on a chart with particulars in Crores, the net sales was of
3574.14 of which 714.27 remained as the net worth, excluding of all
expenditures. They also received a depreciation of 47.66 crores through
marketing strategies of discounts, coupons and offers. It is recorded that
Whisper paid the total tax of 218.10 crores in 2021 alone. They had a shared
capital of 32.46 at the beginning of the year. The total operating profit margin
was of 25.84%.

On 1 April 2017 promoter shareholder of Procter & Gamble Hygiene and

Health Care viz. Rosemount LLC transferred 10.88 lakh shares (3.35% of
shareholding) held in the company to another promoter group company Procter
& Gamble Overseas India B.V. the Netherlands.The Board of Directors of
Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care at its meeting held on 5 May 2017
declared special interim dividend of Rs 362 per share from accumulated surplus
from profits of earlier years and the current year. The dividend demonstrates the
company's intent to reward shareholders for strong results in a competitive
market environment.
  ANALYTICAL PIECE
Whisper predominantly focused on two things: awareness and access. To know
the importance of good menstrual hygiene the company launched school
education program where workers went to schools across the country to educate
young girls on periods and the necessity of hygienic practices. This program is
still going strong with 60 lakh girls being educated each year across the country.
To remove the stigma around sanitary pads and bring them out of the black
plastic brown paper bag environment, the brand put the product front-and-center
of the retail-environment where actual transactions happen. There are still a lot
of people who are uncomfortable handling pads but the advent of modern retail
formats have helped in a huge way to tackle this barrier. With a view to further
break the taboo around periods and the superstitions associated with it,Whisper
came out with our award-winning campaign ‘Touch the Pickle’ and focused on
challenging the myths around periods and sparked a nation-wide conversation
around these archaic practices. This campaign also earned India its 1st Grand
Prix in the inaugural Glass Lions at the 2015 Cannes Lions. Around 30 Lakh
people directly participated in the campaign and we earned around 1200 Million
Impressions across different media. During the launch, the category was at Rs
34 crores and today it stands at around Rs 3400 crores. This is a testament to the
fact how far the Indian markets have come. Through the “Keep Girls in School”
program, it was bought to light that 1 in 5 girls are dropping out of school each
year and we do not even notice. To bridge this gap, the company reinforced the
pledge to double the impact of existing menstrual hygiene education program
by reaching 5 crore girls by 2022.
Whisper has also tied up with UNESCO to touch the lives of 18 million girls
and through their assistance get Menstrual Hygiene included as a subject in
school curriculums across the country. They also partnered with Network 18 for
a “Period of Pride” campaign through which they wanted to normalize
conversations around periods and make people aware about the importance of
period education in the country. Through the campaign, the brand created a
petition to have MHM education included in school curriculums across the
country and aimed to get a million signatures on the petition, post which we
would submit the same to the HRD ministry & request them to action on it.