Game changer: Godrej launches paper-based mosquito repellent at Re 1 per strip

Godrej Consumer Products has announced the launch of ‘Good Knight Fast Card’, a paper-based mosquito repellent. Currently being piloted in India, the product is priced at Rs 10 for 10 strips. Upon using a strip (which takes around three minutes to burn), the product promises to keep mosquitoes away for four hours. The smoke-free product (after it burns) does not require electricity, differentiating it from the mosquito repellent coils and liquid vapourisers under the 30 year-old Good Knight brand.

The product, launched in Indonesia under the brand Hit, will see a national launch in India in two weeks, informed spokespersons.

On the launch of Good Knight Fast Card, Nisaba Godrej, ED, Godrej Consumer Products, said, “56 per cent of the population in our country does not use mosquito repellents. We felt that there is a need for a solution that is effective, easy to use, and at a price point that is attractive to the masses. Simple, innovative and economical, this format promises to change the way Indians look at mosquito repellants. All one needs to do here is fold, light, and blow out for instant protection.”

Sunil Kataria, COO, sales, marketing and SAARC, Godrej Consumer Products, said, “This is a completely new format that we have launched in India after a long time. We believe that the task will be to create this category. We as market leaders have created a lot of formats in the past and we see that as the core marketing task in front of us. The core TG audience for us would be 56 per cent of the country which is not using any branded home insecticides solution as of now. We see the business coming in from across the country as the stat of 56 per cent population not using home insecticides is not skewed to any particular State and is applicable across the country."

While there is a market across the country for the product, the bigger potential lies in rural India. Kataria explained, "While this product will be consumed in urban areas, it will open the market in rural areas. If you see the penetration in rural areas in insecticides category, is only 27 per cent. So, a lot of focus will go to rural activation for this product."

The product’s pan-India roll out has begun and the TVC will go on air in mid-October, he informed. JWT is the creative agency, while Madison is media AoR. The brand campaign will take on the tagline ‘Fattack se furrr’, demonstrating the instant effect of the product.

On the overall marketing strategy, Kataria said, "We will unleash a 360-degree marketing campaign which would include TV, radio, print, part of digital and a lot of rural activation. For print, we will use a lot of vernacular regional newspapers as we see consumption panning out from the hinterlands. The TVC would go on air across the country and DD among other GECs would be used. For digital, we will use  a lot of mobile interface because this is a product that we believe will do well in rural areas and today mobile penetration is very big all over India.”

The innovative use of mobile would be a ‘key pivot’ of the digital strategy, he added.