After revolutionising the shampoo market with low-unit price packs - called sachets - HLL is now lathering up a new revolution through ``bubbles''.HLL is test marketing a Clinic Plus shampoo bubble in the south, priced at Rs 8 and Rs 14. This is expected to go national by mid-2000. Says HLL marketing controller (personal products) Dalip Sehgal: ``The logic of a shampoo bubble is to upgrade the sachet user to the next in line higher volume in shampoos.''

While the Rs 8 Clinic Plus bubble comprises a volume of four normal sachets, the Rs 14 bubble consists of a volume of seven sachets. A normal sachet is priced at Rs 2.

Explaining the technology behind the bubble, Sehgal said: ``A shampoo bubble is neither a sachet nor a bottle. It works on the principle of capillary action, as in, the shampoo will not spill out after the initial use, and can be stored. It also enables the consumer to use the entire volume at the end of, say four uses in the Rs 8 bubble.''

A shampoo bubble will act as an intermediary between a sachet and a bottle. It will basically operate like a stepping stone for the consumer to upgrade to bottles.

Sachets revolutionised the Indian shampoo market (valued at Rs 699 crore today) to the extent that 70 per cent of the shampoo volume comes from sachets; with bottles forming the balance 30 per cent. The idea with sachets was obviously to grow volumes and to make the so called `premium' product like a shampoo affordable to the masses.

Even as the purpose was met and the annual shampoo growth zoomed up to a healthy 30-40 per cent then, the company was not content with the end result: The offtake ratio of bottles to sachets was heavily skewed towards sachets. Bottle volumes were more or less stagnant with consumers sticking to the convenience of using sachets.

This worrying trend, pushed HLL to work out the bubble strategy to convert consumers into using more volumes in shampoo. The target is to convert about 20 per cent of sachet users to using shampoo bubbles.

After accomplishing the test-marketing exercise for Clinic Plus bubble, HLL will replicate the same for Sunsilk shampoo, the second leading shampoo brand from the multinational's stable after Clinic. To popularise the concept, HLL is planning a sampling exercise along with the advertising strategy. HLL is a market leader in shampoos with a share of 72 per cent.