Marico aligns Nihar Hair Oil business with Ambience Publicis

Marico has aligned the creative duties for its recently acquired brand, Nihar Hair Oil, with Ambience Publicis. Earlier, the Nihar brand was owned by Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL).

The size of the advertising duties is estimated to be around Rs 10 crore.

Ambience Publicis also handles other Marico brands such as After Shower and Parachute Therapy.

The agency-of -record for all Marico brands is Madison.

Saugata Gupta, head, marketing, Marico, says, “Ambience Publicis has had the experience of handling similar brands. This further influenced our decision to award the business to the agency. This will help facilitate faster integration for the brand.”

Rajib Sabnis, COO, Ambience Publicis, says, “Nihar has a strong base in the Eastern region. Now the company might opt to further consolidate its position in its existing market or may even look beyond it. Depending on the company’s decision on this, we will formulate the communication strategy.”

Talking about the media mix for the brand, Sabnis says, “The primary focus will be on television as Nihar is an FMCG driven business. However, there will be a lot of retail activity as well, apart from the print and below-the-line activations.”

Nihar fits snugly into Marico’s portfolio of personal and hair care brands and is in keeping with the company’s increased focus on the personal care and grooming segment. The acquisition is expected to help it strengthen its distribution in the Eastern markets and increase its presence in the perfumed coconut oil segment, which offers higher profit margins.

Nihar, through its brand, Nihar Naturals (Jasmine and Rose), spread over two segments – coconut oil and perfumed hair oil – has a market share of around 8-9 per cent in the coconut hair oil segment. The brand will add a little over 10 per cent to Marico’s current turnover, which stood at Rs 857 crore for the nine months ending December 31, 2005.

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