Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Dec 02, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Dec 02, 2004 |
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Marketing
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Strategy Ozone to foray into fairness cream market with Nomarks Sindhu J. Bhattacharya
New Delhi , Dec. 1 THE Rs 1,000-crore fairness cream market is in a churn. Dominated by Hindustan Lever Ltd's (HLL) brand Fair & Lovely (which commands 70 per cent market share according to industry estimates), the market is likely to witness a new entry within the next couple of days with the Delhi-based Ozone Ayurvedics' Nomarks Fairness Cream. Anticipating stiff competition from existing players, Ozone has earmarked Rs 8 crore for advertising and marketing for the new product over the next four months. "We launched anti-blemish Nomarks cream two years ago. This product will now be upgraded to a fairness cum anti-blemish cream and the launch will happen in the next couple of days," the Managing Director, Mr S C Sehgal, told Business Line. He said `Nomarks' is a Rs 4-crore business and the company has already launched several product extensions after the initial anti-blemish cream was launched. These include an elbow cream, a face wash, two different face packs and a scrub soap. Meanwhile, taking a strong exception to an advertisement by HLL last week claiming that 82 per cent of all people who tried Fair & Lovely Anti-Marks cream experienced removal of blemish marks against only 57 per cent of Nomarks Cream users and 42 per cent of Garnier Light users, Mr Sehgal said these results were based on "an internal study, conducted on just 30 women. The authenticity and correctness of this data is questionable". When contacted, an HLL spokesperson said "HLL established the superiority of Fair & Lovely Anti-Marks Cream through clinical studies done by the Hindustan Lever Research Centre and validated by reputed independent dermatologists. Essential to such studies are the panel size and the duration. "The study was conducted on 30 consumers, whose skin colour is representative of consumers across the country. The panel size is statistically valid and recommended by an external renowned statistician. The study itself, done for over six weeks, has been validated by reputed independent dermatologists. HLL is fully confident of the superior formulation of Fair & Lovely Anti-Marks Cream". Besides entry into the fairness cream market, Ozone is also expanding operations. It is setting up a marketing office in Britain and also planning up to Rs 12-crore investment in establishing a manufacturing facility there for making products such as an anti-freckle cream, ear drops and after-shave antiseptic creams. Ozone Ayurvedics is eyeing Rs 50-crore sales turnover this fiscal against Rs 30 crore it posted in 2003-04.
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