Goliath! I hope all of you remember the name. It comes in the phrase David Vs Goliath. It is very commonly used to describe how small companies have dared to dream big and have actually won major market share in spite of the Goliath's - bigger, deep pocketed businesses. The classic one is that of Nirma who despite being small, could take the lead in market share of detergents. We also have Chik shampoo who took on the Goliath and created a new market out of the same product.
In both the cases, the Goliath happened to be Hindustan Unilever. It has to be because it is simply so big and has a spread of several brands. Coming back to the story of David Vs Goliath, many may remember the names but not the story. Goliath was a giant who used to trouble people. People were frightened to fight with Goliath. They said, he is so big. How do we fight him? David was quite small in comparison. He said to people, 'Yes, he is so big. Whatever we throw at him will hit him.' You see the difference. How same thing can be seen in different way just because of the perspective. In the end, it is David who takes one stone and hits Goliath's eye (Yes, you might call it proverbial 'Bull's Eye'), after which Goliath could not simply gather himself and lost the fight.
David's of today have to find different ways of establishing their product and their name, simply because the bigger companies are too big. They have the financial wherewithal to come back stronger or just replicate what you did. You could see how HUL responded by coming with new mass product 'wheel' to tackle with Nirmal. It also soon came up with small sachets of shampoo, washing powder after they followed the idea of Chik shampoo. Chik had altogether found new market in rural areas where people don't like to buy in bulk. The 50 paise / Re 1 shampoo packet was a hit in rural areas as many bought the use and throw small packets. Goliath simply had to follow.
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