Lux (soap)
Encyclopedia
Lux is a global brand developed by Unilever
. The range of products includes beauty soaps, shower gels, bath additives, hair shampoos and conditioners. Lux started as “Sunlight Flakes” laundry soap in 1899.
In 1924, it became the first mass market toilet soap in the world. It is noted as a brand that pioneered female celebrity endorsements.
As of 2005, Lux revenue is at 1.0 billion euros, with market shares spread out to more than 100 countries across the globe.
Today, Lux is the market leader in several countries including Brazil
, India
, Thailand
and South Africa
.
Developed by Unilever
, Lux (soap
) is now headquartered in Singapore
.
(today known as Unilever
) in 1899. The name changed from “Sunlight Flakes” to “Lux” in 1900, a Latin
word for “light” and suggestive of “luxury.”
Lux toilet soap was launched in the United States in 1925 and in the United Kingdom in 1928. Subsequently, Lux soap has been marketed in several forms, including handwash, shower gel and cream bath soap.
Since the 1930s, more than 400 of the world’s most famous female celebrities have been associated with Lux. Marilyn Monroe
, Sophia Loren
, Natalie Wood
, Brigitte Bardot
, Demi Moore
, Catherine Zeta-Jones
, Sarah Jessica Parker
and Aishwarya Rai
are some actresses featured in Lux advertising campaigns.
Made with fine-texture, rich in fragrance, and manufactured using a method created in France, the first Lux toilet soap was sold for 10 cents apiece.
In 1931, Lux launched a campaign with older stars, “I am over 31”. The series of print ads had stars talking about preserving youthful skin. Lux also launched campaigns featuring interviews with Stars and Close Ups of Stars, bringing to life the ‘9 out of 10’ idea.
In 1934, Lux Radio Theater
, a long-run classic radio anthology series, was broadcasted on the NBC Blue Network (1934-35); CBS (1935-54) and NBC (1954-55). During the broadcast, various female stars would tout Lux Flakes as well as commercials during breaks.
Advertising commercials showed ordinary looking women with direct references to stars, such as Deanna Durbin
.
, Diana Rigg
and Samantha Eggar
.
The bathing ritual, the ‘fantasy’ element that has been the imagery of Lux, was created in this era. The brand also moved forward with launching LUX in the Middle East, entering a more conservative market.
and Natalie Wood
.
, Raquel Welch
and Cheryl Ladd
were some famous celebrities used during this time.
This period launched product brand extensions Shower Cream and Gels and Lux Super Rich Shampoo in Japan and China.
In 2005, Lux encouraged women to celebrate and indulge their femininity with the “Play with Beauty” philosophy, with stars like Aishwarya Rai. The brand also connected with consumers to take a more ‘active’ stance on beauty.
From 2008, building off the brand’s root strengths, focus has shifted to beauty (vs. femininity), appealing to consumers’ fantasies and aspirations. Lux believes that ‘beauty is a female instinct that shouldn’t be denied’ and showcases the pleasure that every woman enjoys from using her beauty, encapsulating that idea in a simple phrase: Declare your beauty.
Today, LUX products are manufactured at 71 locations with more than 2000 suppliers and associates providing the raw materials. It
has key markets in Pakistan, Brazil, USA, China, Bangladesh and South Africa, and is a market leader in India (for soap bars), Brazil, Saudi Arabia (for soap bars), Bangladesh and Thailand.
published by Trust Research Advisory. This list includes the most trusted brands in India.
Unilever
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....
. The range of products includes beauty soaps, shower gels, bath additives, hair shampoos and conditioners. Lux started as “Sunlight Flakes” laundry soap in 1899.
In 1924, it became the first mass market toilet soap in the world. It is noted as a brand that pioneered female celebrity endorsements.
As of 2005, Lux revenue is at 1.0 billion euros, with market shares spread out to more than 100 countries across the globe.
Today, Lux is the market leader in several countries including Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
and South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
.
Developed by Unilever
Unilever
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....
, Lux (soap
Soap
In chemistry, soap is a salt of a fatty acid.IUPAC. "" Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. . Compiled by A. D. McNaught and A. Wilkinson. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford . XML on-line corrected version: created by M. Nic, J. Jirat, B. Kosata; updates compiled by A. Jenkins. ISBN...
) is now headquartered in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
.
Origins & History
The brand was founded by the Lever BrothersLever Brothers
Lever Brothers was a British manufacturer founded in 1885 by William Hesketh Lever and his brother, James Darcy Lever . The brothers had invested in and promoted a new soap making process invented by chemist William Hough Watson, it was a huge success...
(today known as Unilever
Unilever
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....
) in 1899. The name changed from “Sunlight Flakes” to “Lux” in 1900, a Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
word for “light” and suggestive of “luxury.”
Lux toilet soap was launched in the United States in 1925 and in the United Kingdom in 1928. Subsequently, Lux soap has been marketed in several forms, including handwash, shower gel and cream bath soap.
Since the 1930s, more than 400 of the world’s most famous female celebrities have been associated with Lux. Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
, Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren, OMRI is an Italian actress.In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance...
, Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
, Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a French former fashion model, actress, singer and animal rights activist. She was one of the best-known sex-symbols of the 1960s.In her early life, Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer...
, Demi Moore
Demi Moore
Demi Guynes Kutcher , known professionally as Demi Moore, is an American actress. After minor roles in film and a role in the soap opera General Hospital, Moore established her career in films such as St...
, Catherine Zeta-Jones
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Catherine Zeta-Jones, CBE, is a British actress. She began her career on stage at an early age. After starring in a number of United Kingdom and United States television films and small roles in films, she came to prominence with roles in Hollywood movies such as the 1998 action film The Mask of...
, Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker is an American film, television, and theater actress and producer.She is best known for her leading role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City , for which she won four Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Emmy Awards...
and Aishwarya Rai
Aishwarya Rai
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is an Indian film actress. She worked as a model before starting her acting career, and ultimately won the Miss World pageant in 1994...
are some actresses featured in Lux advertising campaigns.
Early beginnings
Lux’s early advertising campaigns aimed to educate users about its credentials as a laundry product and appeared in magazines such as Ladies Home Journal. By the early 1920s, it was a hugely successful brand and in 1924, the Lever Brothers conducted a contest that led them to a very interesting finding: women were using Lux as toilet soap.Building beauty soap credentials
Introduced in the US in 1924, Lux became the world’s first mass market toilet soap with the tagline “made as fine as French Soap”. In the first 2 years of launch, Lux concentrated on building its beauty soap credentials. Advertisements offered consumers “a beauty soap made in the French method” at an affordable price, with the promise of smooth skin.Made with fine-texture, rich in fragrance, and manufactured using a method created in France, the first Lux toilet soap was sold for 10 cents apiece.
1928 – 1940: 9 out of 10 stars
This era saw key launches of LUX in the UK, India, Argentina and Thailand. The brand concentrated on building its association with the increasingly popular movie world, focusing more on movie stars and their roles rather than on the product. In 1929, advertising featured 26 of the biggest female stars of the day, creating a huge impact among the movie-loving target audience. This was followed by Hollywood Directors talking about the importance of smooth and youthful skin. This pioneered the trend of celebrity product endorsements.In 1931, Lux launched a campaign with older stars, “I am over 31”. The series of print ads had stars talking about preserving youthful skin. Lux also launched campaigns featuring interviews with Stars and Close Ups of Stars, bringing to life the ‘9 out of 10’ idea.
In 1934, Lux Radio Theater
Lux Radio Theater
Lux Radio Theater, a long-run classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network ; CBS and NBC . Initially, the series adapted Broadway plays during its first two seasons before it began adapting films. These hour-long radio programs were performed live before studio audiences...
, a long-run classic radio anthology series, was broadcasted on the NBC Blue Network (1934-35); CBS (1935-54) and NBC (1954-55). During the broadcast, various female stars would tout Lux Flakes as well as commercials during breaks.
40s & 50s: Romancing the consumer
Using movie star as role models, Lux’s strategy was to build relevance by looking at beauty through the consumer’s eyes. While still retaining the star element, the focus shifted to the consumer and the role of the brand in her life.Advertising commercials showed ordinary looking women with direct references to stars, such as Deanna Durbin
Deanna Durbin
Deanna Durbin is a Canadian-born, Southern California-raised retired singer and actress, who appeared in a number of musical films in the 1930s and 1940s singing standards as well as operatic arias....
.
60s: Romancing the brand
The 60’s saw a shift in advertising to product stories and the romanticizing of brand through its “sensorial & emotional” dimensions. This was the era of ‘the film star feeling’ and the ‘Golden Lux’, featuring stars such as Sandra DeeSandra Dee
Sandra Dee was an American actress. Dee began her career as a model and progressed to film. Best known for her portrayal of ingenues, Dee won a Golden Globe Award in 1959 as one of the year's most promising newcomers, and over several years her films were popular...
, Diana Rigg
Diana Rigg
Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE is an English actress. She is probably best known for her portrayals of Emma Peel in The Avengers and Countess Teresa di Vicenzo in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service....
and Samantha Eggar
Samantha Eggar
Samantha Eggar is an English film, television and voice actress.-Early life:She was born Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar in Hampstead, London to an Anglo-Irish father and a mother of Dutch and Portuguese descent...
.
The bathing ritual, the ‘fantasy’ element that has been the imagery of Lux, was created in this era. The brand also moved forward with launching LUX in the Middle East, entering a more conservative market.
70s: Dimensionalizing beauty
Reflecting the shift in beauty trends in the 70s, the Lux stars stepped down from their pedestals and were portrayed as multi-faceted women with natural, wholesome beauty that the ordinary consumer could relate and aspire to. The executions were more of ‘a day in the life’ of the stars with focus on their ‘natural beauty’. Stars included Brigitte BardotBrigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a French former fashion model, actress, singer and animal rights activist. She was one of the best-known sex-symbols of the 1960s.In her early life, Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer...
and Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
.
80s: Owning the category space
Establishing itself as THE beauty soap for stars and beautiful women, the 80s emphasized the importance of skin care – the first step to beauty. LUX was launched in China at this time. Sophia LorenSophia Loren
Sophia Loren, OMRI is an Italian actress.In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance...
, Raquel Welch
Raquel Welch
Jo Raquel Tejada , better known as Raquel Welch, is an American actress, author and sex symbol. Welch came to attention as a "new-star" on the 20th Century-Fox lot in the mid-1960s. She posed iconically in a animal skin bikini for the British-release One Million Years B.C. , for which she may be...
and Cheryl Ladd
Cheryl Ladd
Cheryl Ladd is an American actress, singer and author. Ladd is best known for her role as Kris Munroe in the television series Charlie's Angels, hired amid a swirl of publicity prior to its second season in 1977 to replace the departing Farrah Fawcett-Majors...
were some famous celebrities used during this time.
90s – Early 2000s: Advanced skin benefits
In the 90s, Lux moved from generic beauty benefits to focus on specific benefits and transformation. More emphasis on functionality and variant associations with different skin types as well as mention of ingredients. The communication was far more regional specific and localized, using stars like Malu Mader and Debora Bloch.This period launched product brand extensions Shower Cream and Gels and Lux Super Rich Shampoo in Japan and China.
2000s: Beyond movie stars
In early 2000, the focus shifted from specific skin benefits to a stronger emotional space. The brand provided the link between the aspirational role models and real life with the campaign, ‘Lux brings out the star in you’. The benefit was now more than just beauty, it was also about the confidence that comes from beautiful skin.In 2005, Lux encouraged women to celebrate and indulge their femininity with the “Play with Beauty” philosophy, with stars like Aishwarya Rai. The brand also connected with consumers to take a more ‘active’ stance on beauty.
From 2008, building off the brand’s root strengths, focus has shifted to beauty (vs. femininity), appealing to consumers’ fantasies and aspirations. Lux believes that ‘beauty is a female instinct that shouldn’t be denied’ and showcases the pleasure that every woman enjoys from using her beauty, encapsulating that idea in a simple phrase: Declare your beauty.
Today, LUX products are manufactured at 71 locations with more than 2000 suppliers and associates providing the raw materials. It
has key markets in Pakistan, Brazil, USA, China, Bangladesh and South Africa, and is a market leader in India (for soap bars), Brazil, Saudi Arabia (for soap bars), Bangladesh and Thailand.
Awards & Recognition
In 2011, Lux was listed in The Brand Trust ReportThe Brand Trust Report
The Brand Trust Report, India Study, 2011 is published by Trust Research Advisory . The book is a result of a syndicated primary research on Brand Trust that generated 10,00,000 data points and 16,000 unique brands from over 10,000 hours of fieldwork conducted in 9 cities TRA’s study partners in...
published by Trust Research Advisory. This list includes the most trusted brands in India.
External links
- Official Website
- Unilever Wiki pageUnileverUnilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....