Sunlight soap is an iconic brand and one of the most enduring products around today.
Originally created by the Lever Brothers Corporation in 1884, Sunlight soap was the first household soap to be cut, wrapped and sold in a carton. The product arose from William
Hesketh Lever’s determination to revolutionise Victorian England's standards of cleanliness and hygiene (Unilever 2010). Sunlight soap went on to be one of the first internationally marketed products and dominated the early soap market throughout the British Empire
(Stephen 1991).
Sunlight Soap also has a long history in Australia, which began when the entrepreneurial
William Lever began producing sunlight soap in Sydney in 1895. The early success of sunlight soap in the Australian market was due mainly to intensive advertising campaigns that proved to be very successful and managed to position the product as a metaphor of value (Stephen 1991). Remnants of former signs, slogans and advertising initiatives and memorabilia are popular today among collectors.
Sunlight soap is made and distributed in Australia today by the Australian owned company
Pental, who has been providing the Australian and New Zealand markets with household products for over fifty years, including familiar brands such as Lux, Aim toothpaste and
Marther Gardner’s woolwash (Pental 2010).
In recent decades’ sales of not only Sunlight Soap, but also the whole ‘bar soap’ market has been in decline, as traditional products are being replaced by newer technology such as shower gels and liquid cleaners. Market share is being eroded as consumers’ move towards more advanced products that offer benefits such as additional minerals and moisturisers, a range of fragrances and pump action dispensers. (need reference, xxxx).
Despite recent advertising and pricing efforts to boost sales and retain market share that is being lost to the influx of new products, consumers are seemingly unresponsive with a 5.5% drop in sales for 2002 (Retail World, 2003).

Sunlight Soap stands in an advantageous position with regards to the economic choice between Sunlight Soap and its more expensive shower gel competitors. Sunlight soap can also promote the pure and simple make up of the product since it contains no heavy perfumes or strong colours that are characteristics of the more advanced products.
According to Pental, Sunlight soap still sells over 1 million packs of soap annually, and given the 100 year history, this speaks highly of the quality of the product (Pental 2010).
The recent global economic downturn has led to consumers looking to reduce discretionary spending (reference); this opens up opportunities for low cost necessities to reclaim some of the market share lost to the more expensive substitutes.
The recent outbreaks of the potentially life threatening influenza strains has placed an emphasis on the importance of basic hygiene.
The recent trend towards more environmentally sustainable products (reference) could be exploited by Sunlight soap, as it is a simple product packaged in cardboard.
The recent technological advance in the industry has place pressure on the more traditional soap products. The benefits of low technology soaps, such as low risk from long term use and portability should be emphasised.
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Sunlight soap has a long history of success
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It is relatively cheap
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It is simple and portable
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Minimal packaging
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Well recognised brand
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Pure soap
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Australian made and owned
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Technologically inferior to new products
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Low product awareness in younger generations
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Low novelty appeal
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Communal use form
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Necessity
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Large market share of close substitutes
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Slower economic conditions
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Competitive market
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New technological advancements
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Lots of close substitutes

The goal of Sunlight Soap is to maintain and improve the products positioning as a trusted and iconic brand in the personal and household cleaning markets. Marketing directors should be able to react quickly to changing customer demands, altering their original plan or creating and implementing new marketing activities to fulfill these customer demands.
The increasing popularity of shower gels and household cleaning sprays and powders reflects the decreasing popularity of bar soaps for both intended functions, and shows that marketing directors were unresponsive to the threats of competitors who were targeting customers who were after additional benefits, that were not delivered by Sunlight Soap.
The main perceived benefit of Sunlight Soap, it’s competitors in the personal hygiene and household cleaning markets are the same – for an object/person to be cleaner/more sanitary after using the product, compared to before they did. Shower gels offer various fragrances or flavours, to appeal to a wider range of people with different tastes and likes. So it can be assumed that Bar Soap products like Lux and Dove that offer different fragrances and
“exotic aromas” will be more successful in capturing market shares, compared to ‘no frill’ options.
Sunlight Soap is economically better in comparison to it’s competitors. (Prices???)
This plays a major role in the overall Customer Value relationship.
Customer Value = Customer benefits – Customer costs. Monetary price of the product is one such customer cost. The distribution of a product can be either a customer benefit or customer cost, (ie: the product is for sale in most shops, making it accessible, convenient – this is a benefit. The product is only sold in certain retailers, the customer has to locate one of these stores, and uses time doing this – this is a cost.) Sunlight Soap retails in most supermarkets, making it very available.
Sunlight Soap has a strong history in Australia, this gives Sunlight Soap an advantage to other Bar soap competitors that might try to introduce a new product to an established market. The fact that Sunlight Soap is an established brand, a household name and use-tobe everyday product means that the marketing directors are delegated the task of reviving the name, not establishing it. This saves money and effort.
In order to achieve the goals of improving market share, sales and

Sunlight Soap needs to be positioned and promoted as:
- an economic choice in the soap range for personal and household cleaning purposes.
- as a plain bar soap (no frills option) with a history in the Australian home
- a environmentally friendly option in regards to packaging (In comparison with shower gels, who use plastic bottles, Sunlight Soaps packaging is paper of a substantially less size)
Targeted to:
- Families/Singles with low income
- Consumers not interested in the associated benefits with other products, that offer fragrances and flavours.
- Consumers who will understand and appreciate the historic relevance of the product.
- Environmentally conscious consumers.
Pental. (n.d.). Retreived September 1, 2010, from http://www.pental.com.au/home
Unilever. (2010).
Sunlight. Retrieved September 1, 2010, from http://www.unilever.com/brands/homecarebrands/sunlight/index.aspx
Stephen, Ann. (1991). Selling Soap: Domestic Work and consumerism. Labour History, 61, pp. 57-69.