Portfolio Locked
Architecture, GTM, and shelf strategy finalised internally.
Research
Ideation
Strategy
Design
Self-Initiated Graduation Project
1969 · AHMEDABAD
It All Started From A Backyard
Karsanbhai Patel, a government chemist, mixed his first batch of detergent at home and sold it door-to-door at ₹3.50 a kilo - when Surf sat at ₹13. He named the brand after his daughter.
Quality belongs in every home.
1985 - 1988 · NATIONAL
Sabki Pasand Nirma
By the mid-1980s, the Washing Powder Nirma jingle had turned a detergent into a household phrase and a household phrase into 60% of India's detergent market.
60%
market share by 1988
1.72L
tonnes sold annually
1988 · HUL'S MOVE
HUL v/s Nirma
HUL had treated detergent as a premium category, owned by Surf for upper-income consumers. Nirma shattered that assumption with a low-cost mass-market product
HUL'S RESPONSE
In 1988, Wheel launched at price parity with Nirma : positioned as gentler on hands, with a blue formulation. An unprecedented move, and a quiet admission that a homegrown brand had become too big to overlook.
1991 ONWARDS · LIBERALISATION
The Changing Consumer
The 1991 liberalisation reshaped India's middle class, and the brands they aspired to. Disposable incomes rose, and expectations moved beyond clean clothes to fragrance, softness, and fabric care. Buyers began choosing brands that reflected upward mobility, not just affordability.
The brand's "affordable" image gradually got reduced to "cheap."
Women, as the primary buyers of handwash, needed to be appealed to directly, not the masculine audience the brand had built itself around.
Lifebuoy was now potrayed as a wash that protects children, rather than direct show of strength through sports based ads. The new direction spoke straight to mothers.
Help A Child Reach 5
48.7%
buy at supermarkets
50%
switch sometimes
63%
women decision makers
70%
nuclear families
format & loyalty
purchase behaviour
~200 bars / week
NIRMA DETERGENT CAKE
0
BANNER PLACEMENTS
1-2 packs/ week
SUPER NIRMA BLUE POWDER
final insights
Three threads ran through the research - a misread brand, a divided audience, and competitor playbooks that quietly point the way forward . This helped me create pathways Nirma can possibly explore for it's refreshed entry in the market.
01
Perception
Gap
Nirma is widely perceived as outdated, a brand belonging to the past rather than the present. It now appears stagnant in comparison to competitors that offer innovation in formats, packaging, fragrances, and lifestyle-driven communication.
The issue isn't loss of credibility, but loss of perceived progress.
Outdated,
not undeserving.
02
Consumer
Insight
Loyal consumers still trust performance, but have gradually shifted to brands with visible innovation.
For Gen Z, Nirma exists almost entirely as a cultural reference : nostalgic, but no personal relevance. The brand doesn't align with their lifestyle, aesthetics, or what they expect from brands they choose.
Trusted by some,
invisible to most.
03
Competitor
Playbooks
Social impact campaigns - Lifebuoy and Sunlight built emotional, modern relevance through purpose-led communication that re-entered public consciousness.
Portfolio diversification - Multi-format portfolios absorb input cost shifts; Nirma's single-format dependency leaves it vulnerable.
Two paths that
may be explored.
25-35yrs
AGE GROUP
Tier 1-2
CITY
Family
HOUSEHOLD
₹25-60k
MONTHLY HHI
the decision maker
Predominantly women aged 25–45 are primary buyers of detergent, balancing the needs of an entire family. They are thus practical, value-driven and deeply habitual in their purchases.
This audience doesn't aspire upward, they aspire sideways. Detergent has become a signalling product, what's on your shelf says something about your household. Sharma ji's wife switched back to Nirma matters more than any celebrity endorsement.
What Brings them as consumers
buying behaviour
PEER - INFLUENCED
VALUE - CONCIOUS
CULTURALLY ROOTED
NOSTALGIA AWARE
buying behaviour
BRAND TRUST LED
PRICE PRIMARY
CHANGE CAUTIOUS
VOCAL ADVOCATE
35+yrs
AGE GROUP
Tier 3-4
CITY
50yrs
YEARS WITH NIRMA
₹10-25k
MONTHLY HHI
the ones that stayed
Across Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns, a relationship that predates the competition. For many, Nirma was the first branded detergent their household ever used.
They've stayed longer than most. However, when competitor brands offered more in terms of quality, quantity and innovation, and Nirma choses to stay stagnant, a part of the consumer base is forced to make shifts.
why they matter
Playground 01
Diversity
India is incredibly diverse : different languages, climates, lifestyles, ways of living. Yet certain everyday experiences connect every household. Laundry is one such shared routine.
Tone of Voice
RELATABLE
INCLUSIVE
CULTURAL
SIMPLICITY
The Role
A common thread that connects India, present in every home, across every region.
The Approach
Metaphorical, emotional, relatable. Surfaces the feeling of shared experience that laundry quietly creates across households.
Playground 02
Familiarity
Some brands simply stay present in the background of daily life, neither demanding attention nor needing to. Nirma is one of those brands. This playground is about reassurance.
Tone of Voice
COMFORT
SAFETY
TRUST
CARING
The Role
Of a family member : a constant, quiet presence that doesn't need to announce itself to be valued.
The Approach
Metaphorical. The brand isn't sold as a detergent, but felt as a relationship, drawing on the language of continuity and belonging.
BRAND TRUTH
Nirma was born within India - a homegrown identity built for the everyday realities of Indian households.
Over time, it has become a familiar presence in homes: simple, dependable, and deeply rooted in the way people live and clean.
CONSUMER INSIGHT
In a world overflowing with options, Indians don't ultimately decide with logic, they decide with feeling.
What feels familiar feels safe. Familiarity, in the Indian context, isn't complacency. It is the highest form of confidence in something.
RELATABLE
INCLUSIVE
SIMPLICITY
COLLECTIVE JOY
FAMILIARITY
01
02
03
what's refreshed
Packaging redesigned with contemporary language, retaining iconic visual cues
Formulation kept almost entirely intact, only changes deemed necessasry
Clear on-pack communication of what's changed, if anything
Updated structural format across SKUs
who it's for
REGION
Tier 2-3 & rural India
AGE
35+ Years
MONTHLY HHI
₹10-25K
To be distributed through kirana stores, rural retail, wholesale leveraging the existing 2-million-outlet network.
Deep rural penetration through NCCL's parallel channels and 2,000+ Nima distributors.
pricing tiers
POWDER - 800G
₹30-35
POWDER CAKE
₹65-70
LIQUID - 1L
₹210-15
TRIAL SACHET - 30ML
₹5-10
formation
Universal compatibility - top-load, front-load, and hand-wash
Quick-dissolve, low residue, improved fragrance, effective stain removal
Gentle on hands and fabrics, with built-in colour care, no variants needed
who it's for
REGION
Tier 1-2 urban / semi-urban
AGE
25-45 Years
MONTHLY HHI
₹25-60K
PHASE 01
Urban / semi-urban modern trade, Tier 1–2 kirana, e-commerce.
PHASE 02
Tier 2–3 kirana via Nirma's existing distribution.
PHASE 03
Rural sachet penetration through NCCL channels.
pricing tiers
REGULAR - 1L
₹160
REFILL
₹210-220
BULK - 5L
₹270
TRIAL SACHET - 30ML
₹10
Phase 1 : Pre - Launch
Phase 2 : Launch
Phase 3 : Expansion + Embedding
hover to inspect!
TRADEMARK CONFLICT
CATEGORY CONFUSION
GENERIC + VISUAL CLASH
TYPOGRAPHIC IMBALANCE
GENERIC + IMBALANCED
NO IMAGERY
01
Carries visual imagery : clothes blooming after a wash, freshness opening up. Distinctive and specific to the product.
02
Appropriate for a liquid line without being literal. Tonally distinct from Classic, without feeling like a different brand entirely.
03
Held its own typographically beside the Nirma logotype : full visual weight, clean rhythm.
hover to inspect!
The Enroachment
As the Ra was adjusted, thickened, and given a construction logic closer to the other letterforms, it began to encroach on the territory of the Ta (ट), moving away from the character of the original rather than refining it.
The Problem It Posed
For a reader already familiar with the name Nirma, the distinction held. For anyone encountering the mark fresh, the similarity created a genuine misreading. A logotype that requires brand familiarity to be read correctly is one that hasn't fully resolved its own legibility - the same problem that existed in the original.
hover to inspect!
hover over the illustrations to appreciate the details! :)
STARBURSTS
CLAIM BADGES
HEAVY TYPE
BOLD COLOR
ACTION IMAGERY
THE SOURCE - 1969
EXPLORATION A
EXPLORATION B
EXPLORATION C
hover over the dieline to see the details! :)
hover over the dieline to see the details! :)
EXPLORATION A
EXPLORATION B
EXPLORATION C
EXPLORATION D
hover over the bloom line to see the details! :)
This was one of the first full-fledged client brand projects I'd taken on end to end : a genuine test of translating a client's vision into a complete brand experience in under a month.
The countless hour-long meetings turned out to be the most valuable part, teaching me how to listen for what a client actually wants rather than just what they say.
I learnt to balance that vision against what an audience in Kolkata would genuinely respond to : grounding the brand in real, local context.
Most of all, I came away understanding how to shape and steward an entire brand experience, and how to give it a voice built to last.
