Are HUL's best days behind it?

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Intermission's second episode on Bajaj Finance is out now on Youtube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. What happened to the company that once understood India better than anyone else? For decades Hindustan Unilever has dominated kitchen pantries and bathroom cabinets across the country: Surf Excel in the laundry, Brooke Bond in the kitchen, Clinic Plus in the bathroom. It was the undisputed gold standard of brand building in this country. Well, until it wasn’t. Case in point: a couple of weeks ago, a journalist shared a chart from an HSBC report on social media.The chart listed some of HUL's biggest brands — Ponds, Lux, Rin, Lifebuoy, Kissan, Surf, Glow & Lovely, Vim, Bru — and showed where each of them stood ten years ago versus today.Turns out, most of them have barely grown, if at all. Something has shifted at the company that was once India's consumption barometer. The brands that generate genuine excitement today aren't HUL brands. More often than not, they are scrappy D2C upstarts that, on paper, shouldn't stand a chance against a behemoth like HUL.In the latest episode of Two By Two, we try to answer one simple question: Are HUL's best days behind it?Two By Two hosts Praveen Gopal Krishnan and Rahel Philipose are joined by Seetharaman G, Deputy Editor at The Ken and Sandeep Nair, co-founder of marketing consultancy firm, David and Who. Both of them see this story play out in opposite ways. And that's where it gets interesting. Tune in. Read more:- Is HUL still the envy of the FMCG world?______This episode was mixed and mastered by Rajiv CN, our resident sound engineer.If you liked this episode, share it with your friends, family and colleagues. And if you have thoughts on the discussion, write to us at twobytwo@the-ken.com.