Wondering what is HUL marketing strategy in 2026?

What if one of India’s largest FMCG companies gave marketers a detailed look at how it plans to grow over the next several years?

That is essentially what Hindustan Unilever did at its Capital Markets Day 2026.

Under the theme “Winning in New India,” HUL laid out its strategy for returning to competitive, volume-led growth. The presentation is particularly interesting for marketers because it goes well beyond individual brands and advertising campaigns. It explains how HUL is looking at geography, consumers, channels, consumption, premiumisation, market making, new categories, brand building, distribution and AI as interconnected growth levers.

Here are some of the key marketing lessons from the first part of the presentation.

HUL: A Massive FMCG Business With an Even Bigger Opportunity

HUL reported FY2026 turnover of approximately ₹63,763 crore, with four major business segments: Home Care, Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care and Foods.

The company highlighted 21 brands with turnover of more than ₹1,000 crore, more than 85 billion packs sold annually and a distribution reach of around 9 million outlets. HUL also stated that nine out of ten Indian households use one or more of its brands.

These numbers explain something important about HUL’s strategy.

The company doesn’t need to build an FMCG business from scratch.

It already has scale, brands, distribution, consumer knowledge and category leadership.

The challenge is finding the next pools of growth.

And that is where the idea of New India comes in.

India Is Not One Market

One of the most interesting aspects of HUL’s presentation is its approach to segmentation.

Instead of looking at India as a single homogeneous market, HUL is looking at distinct growth cells.

These include differences in:

• Geography
• Affluence
• Consumer segments
• Channels
• Categories
• Media behaviour

The presentation illustrates opportunities across big cities, small towns and Tier 4 plus rural markets, while also considering channels such as online, modern trade and general trade.

This is a significant shift in how an FMCG marketer can think about growth.

The question is no longer simply:

“How do we sell this product across India?”

It becomes:

“Which consumer, in which geography, buying through which channel, needs which product and proposition?”

HUL’s management described the opportunity as a set of distinct growth pockets where the requirements for winning can be different.

The New India Consumption Opportunity

HUL’s strategy is based on its view that India’s consumption story still has substantial room to develop.

The company highlighted rising household incomes, changing demographics, increasing connectivity and the expansion of newer consumer segments.

It also pointed to India’s combination of large population scale and rising per-capita consumption as an attractive FMCG opportunity.

This leads to an important distinction.

Growth doesn’t necessarily have to come from finding millions of completely new households.

It can also come from getting existing consumers to:

use more, buy better and enter new categories.

That thinking is reflected in the four growth levers HUL has identified.

Four Growth Levers Behind HUL’s Strategy

HUL’s “Winning in New India” strategy is built around four broad growth engines.

1. Consumption — More Usage

The first opportunity is to increase how much consumers use.

For an FMCG company, this can be extremely powerful.

If household incomes increase, consumption patterns can change. Consumers may use products more frequently, use larger quantities or adopt products that were previously considered occasional purchases.

The opportunity therefore isn’t simply increasing penetration.

It is increasing usage per consumer.

2. Premiumisation — More Benefits

The second lever is premiumisation.

This means encouraging consumers to move toward products offering additional or superior benefits.

Premiumisation can involve better ingredients, superior efficacy, greater convenience, better formats, stronger sensorial experiences or additional functionality.

For HUL, this is particularly important because its portfolio allows it to operate across multiple price points.

The company has also indicated that premium brands receive disproportionately higher investment, reflecting the strategic importance of premiumisation.

3. Market Making — More Users

This is perhaps the most interesting concept for marketers.

Instead of simply fighting competitors for existing users, market making means increasing the number of people who use the category.

Consider a category with low penetration.

A company can either compete aggressively for existing users or try to convince non-users to enter the category.

HUL has developed what it describes as a market-making playbook around under-penetrated categories, using product superiority, education, sampling, distribution and marketing to expand usage.

This approach becomes particularly powerful when a company already has enormous distribution and brand-building capabilities.

4. New Spaces — More Categories

The fourth lever is entering new spaces.

HUL is looking beyond the categories in which it already has established positions and identifying selected areas where it believes it has a right to win.

Examples discussed around the strategy include areas such as protein and functional nutrition, hydration, healthy snacking, functional deodorants, masstige beauty and other emerging consumer needs.

The idea is not to enter every new category.

It is to identify attractive spaces where HUL’s capabilities, brands, science and distribution can create an advantage.

Three Enablers: Brands, Distribution and AI

The four growth levers are supported by three major enablers.

Crafting Desirable Brands

HUL believes its existing brands need to become more relevant and desirable for today’s Indian consumer.

This is where consumer understanding becomes critical.

HUL says it conducts more than 26,000 hours of consumer research, supplemented by a social-listening engine and AI-enabled forecasting capabilities.

The objective is not simply to make advertising more attractive.

It is to understand changing consumer needs and translate those insights into products, formats, positioning and communication.

Building a Future-Fit Go-to-Market

The second enabler is distribution.

HUL already has one of India’s largest distribution networks, but the company says the next step is to add specialisation to scale.

That includes strengthening capabilities in quick commerce, specialist channels, rural distribution and traditional general trade.

HUL has also created a dedicated quick-commerce organisation and is using tools such as AI-enabled availability and targeted performance marketing.

The message is clear:

Distribution is not just about being present. It is about being present in the right channel, with the right assortment and execution.

AI as a Moat

The third enabler is AI.

But HUL’s presentation makes an important distinction.

The company doesn’t view AI simply as access to a large language model.

Instead, it believes its competitive advantage can come from combining AI with proprietary consumer, commercial and operational data generated at HUL’s scale.

The company is looking at AI across areas including marketing, forecasting, supply chain, go-to-market and other functions.

That creates a potentially important distinction between using AI and building an organisation that learns faster because of AI.

What Marketers Can Learn From HUL

The most important lesson from the Capital Markets Day presentation is that HUL isn’t treating marketing as advertising alone.

Its growth model connects:

Consumer understanding → Product development → Premiumisation → Brand building → Distribution → New users → New categories

And underneath all of this is segmentation.

Different consumers.

Different geographies.

Different channels.

Different categories.

Different needs.

That is what HUL means when it talks about Winning in New India.

For FMCG marketers, perhaps the biggest takeaway is this:

The next phase of growth may not come from selling more of the same product to the same consumer.

It may come from finding more usage, more benefits, more users and more categories—and then building the products, brands, distribution and marketing systems required to capture those opportunities.

HUL already has enormous scale.

The strategy it has now presented is essentially about using that scale more selectively and more intelligently to find the next generation of FMCG growth in India.

Ready to transform your growth trajectory?

Maneesh Konkar is the Founder of Direction One Digital. Contact us for digital marketing agency services, corporate training & FMCG, B2B & digital marketing online courses. Email us at directiononeonline7@gmail.com