Market leader Godrej Sara Lee says it plans to take the growth of the market to 15-20 per cent against the decline of around 20 per cent last year. As a first step, it has relaunched its flagship brand in mosquito mats, GoodKnight, as `GoodKnight Supermat' with International Powerthrin. This, the company claims, makes the mat more efficacious compared to the earlier mat. Mats form 28 per cent of the total HI market.

Mat sales have picked up in the last three months, says Godrej Sara Lee vice-president (marketing & sales) Zozden F.D Lobo, indicating that the company's plunge into relaunching GoodKnight is aimed at exploiting this growth trend. Mats witnessed a decline of 19-20 per cent in the last 17-18 months. In August this year, the category saw a five per cent growth, which the industry feels marks the beginning of another boom time for the HImarket.

``Our strategy as market leaders is to grow the entire market, especially the markets of mats and refills, as these are a better form of protection against mosquitoes as compared to coils,'' says Lobo.

GoodKnight leads with a market share of 42 per cent in the mat market. The total share of Godrej with its mat brands including Jet and Banish was 68 per cent in August.

The total volume of the mat market was 33.6 lakh boxes (each box has 30 mats) in August, according to ORG-Marg (All India) data. Of this, Balsara's mat brand Odomos has a share of eight per cent. Reckitt & Colman's Mortein has a 10 per cent share, while Lever Johnson's Raid has picked up a share of six per cent.

The total size of the market in August 1998 was 31.83 lakh boxes. Godrej's total share has gone up from 60.7 per cent last year to 67.2 per cent. The share of Mortein has increased from 8.7 per cent last year to 10.3 per cent in the same period, while Raid witnessed a jump from 4 per cent to 6.5 per cent. Casper's shareremains unchanged at 5 per cent. The market share of Balsara's brand Odomos has, however, dropped to 8 per cent in August this year from 14.2 per cent last year.

Godrej Sara Lee has attempted to make the brand name stronger with new equity graphics, with the brand name highlighted and GoodKnight mat rechristened as GoodKnight Supermat. This has been backed by a press and television ad campaign.

Says Lobo,``The International Powerthrin formula provides a mosquito free zone for full 12 hours, which is four hours more than the earlier mat.''Moreover, in a price sensitive market like this, the price of the new GoodKnight Supermat has been maintained at Rs 45 per box of 30 mats and an introductory consumer offer of 3 mats free per pack. In order to plug all price points, Jet mats have been priced at Rs 43 for a pack of 30 mats.

To further strengthen GoodKnight's equity position, all product packs carry a special mnemonic which says `Anti-mosquito specialist', adds Lobo, explaining that this will demonstratethe commitment to provide a ``mosquito-free zone''.