The Hindu Business Line : Cuticura looks to Chennai Open for its brand makeover

Aiming high
Cuticura hopes to grow to Rs 15 crore in fiscal 2007 with the addition of deodorants.
Plans to get into other categories as well.

NOVEL INITIATIVE: Cuticura cheerleaders at the tournament in Chennai. — K.V. Srinivasan

Chennai , Jan. 3

The Cuticura Girl all those years ago was a tennis player. After its revival a few years ago, it's again tennis that Cuticura is allying with to build itself as a women's grooming brand.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr K.A. Murali Sundar, General Manager (Marketing), Dorcas Market Makers, said Cuticura's status as the official deodorant partner at the Chennai Open 2007 tennis tournament would give the brand a big boost.

Dorcas is the marketing arm of Chennai-based Cholayil, which makes Medimix and acquired the Cuticura brand about six years ago. Cuticura, till recently a talcum powder brand, entered the deodorant segment in May 2006.

Cheerleaders

Cheerleaders dressed in the Cuticura colours perform at the matches in the tournament.

Roadshows and promotions are on at retail outlets to choose 20 girls who would get a photo-op with one of the tennis players, he said.

According to Mr Sundar, the cheerleading act is probably a first at a tennis tournament, definitely in Chennai at least, and brings life to an otherwise serious sport. Cuticura is trying to build equity as a smart, women's grooming brand and the tennis imagery would work to its advantage.

In the last two years, Cholayil has been trying to give the brand a makeover — it used the family as a platform earlier but for this generation, it needs to project itself as "bold and strident," he said. These qualities manifested themselves in the company launching a lavender variant of the talc and later, deodorants, he explained.

A Rs 10-crore brand last year, Cuticura hopes to grow to Rs 15 crore in fiscal 2007 with the addition of its deodorants.

The talcum market is estimated at Rs 600 crore not including the prickly heat powder variants, and the deo market at Rs 150 crore. Considering its deos are restricted to metros and mini-metros, its market share of 1.5 per cent all-India is not bad, said Mr Sundar.

It's doing well in all these markets and not just in Kerala, traditionally a Cuticura stronghold, he added.

The company is "moving very cautiously" with the brand but there is much potential to get into other categories.

Research is on to identify what will work well. Giving that people are spending more on personal grooming, there is an opportunity to take it upmarket, Mr Sundar said. Further, with rules on pack sizes being relaxed and non-standard pack sizes now allowed, pricing will undergo a big change, he added.

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