The Hindu Business Line : All's fair in this market

RUPA has just finished college, is on the look-out for a job and a husband. Hers are what would be euphemistically called `dusky' looks but to those who matter, she is plain dark. And they `know' she doesn't stand too many chances of getting a good match. Her job prospects look gloomy too - and that also is attributed to her complexion. Rupa, a 21st century lass, though disheartened by her failure to land either guy or job, deals with it in a typically 21st century way - she uses a fairness cream and hey presto! jobs and eligible bachelors queue up to win her hand!

Sarcastic? Yes. Exaggeration? No. As you might well have guessed, Rupa is an amalgam of the various `heroines' of fairness cream commercials that we come across on TV everyday. As much as these ads get one's goat, the reality is that Indians at large, and most of Asia, for that matter, are partial towards light skin. And companies in the business of purveying fairness claim they are only fulfilling a need, not making a statement about what is beauty and what is not.

Hindustan Lever Ltd, which made a killing in the Indian market with Fair & Lovely (launched 1976), explains that people across Asia - from Japan to India - "historically have demonstrated a marked preference for skin lightening and glow". It is as much a consumer-desired attribute among people in this region as anti-aging or blonde hair are desirable attributes in the West. "Over 90 per cent of women in India cite skin lightening as a high-need area," maintains a HLL spokesman. The FMCG major also cites a newspaper interview quoting Mumbai cosmetic physicians Dr Rekha Sheth and Dr Jamuna Pai in support of its defence. "People don't feel shy any more and openly express their desire to look fairer. In fact, almost 80 per cent of people coming to me ask for this in some way or the other. Even if they come for another cure, it eventually boils down to wanting to get fairer," said Dr Pai, while Dr Sheth says "People are now openly asking for a solution to something that has been an obsession through the ages."

And the figures bolster these opinions. Of the Rs 3,000-crore cosmetics and toiletries market, the skincare segment accounts for Rs 1,200 crore. Fairness products account for a whopping Rs 700 crore of this segment. The annual growth rate is between 10 and 15 per cent. HLL, with Fair & Lovely, has a massive 53 per cent market share, followed by CavinKare (Fairever) with over12 per cent share and Godrej FairGlow with a 3.5 per cent share. Himalaya Drug Company recently made an entry into this segment and aims to capture two per cent share of the market. Other players such as Emami (Gold Turmeric and Naturally Fair) and Revlon (Fair & Glow) also have a presence. HLL has other fairness products under its Lakme and Aviance brands. Also, there are smaller brands operating in this vast market.

According to syndicated reports, the market grew last year by 2.88 per cent in volumes and 10 per cent in value. South is the largest market with 36 per cent contribution, with the North and West equally contributing with 23 per cent. The East contributes 18 per cent to volumes.

Category penetration, according to ORG, is at 11.6 per cent all over India. Andhra Pradesh is the highest penetrated with 14.5 per cent with Gujarat penetration at 2.8 per cent. Kerala, Gujarat and Bihar are the top three growing markets with Kerala growing by 40.37 per cent.

Fair & Lovely's success is a pointer to the craze for fairness products. In 2001, HLL's skin care business grew by 21.5 per cent, led among others by Fair & Lovely. In the first six months of 2002, HLL's skin care business has grown by 12.9 per cent, led once again by Fair & Lovely. The HLL spokesperson says Fair & Lovely, claimed to be the only patented fairness cream in the Indian market, is estimated to be used regularly by about six crore consumers. In India, Fair & Lovely is claimed to be larger than the next seven skin cream brands put together. It is additionally marketed in more than 30 countries. This correspondent also saw an African woman buy fairness cream by the bagful at a departmental store in Chennai!

Says Soumitro Banerjee, Executive Vice-President, Himalaya Drug Company, "This hang up with fair skin is a core need, we can't wish it away. Anyhow, nothing is radically wrong with it, look at all the Europeans and Scandinavians trying to get a tan. The grass is always greener on the other side."

Chennai-based FMCG company, CavinKare Pvt Ltd, which has had some spats with HLL regarding their respective fairness creams, is eager to point out that for Fairever, unlike its rivals, the communication is from the achievement and confidence platform. "There is nothing that cannot be changed," goes the tag line. "It is a statement made by the brand to energise and motivate the target consumer to pursue her aspirations... so the brand proposition is much beyond making people fair," says C. K. Ranganathan, Managing Director.

Godrej Consumer Products explains its stand thus: "We do not believe that fair skin as such is more beautiful than dark skin. It's the people who decide what is really more beautiful. If a particular consumer believes that fair and blemish-free skin would make her more beautiful, our FairGlow would help her get it."

Of late, it's not just fairness creams which claim to do the trick. There are fairness washes, soaps and under-eye creams, not to mention sachets, which promise fairness. HLL has even launched an ayurvedic Fair & Lovely, probably to cash in on the craze for everything herbal (and by extension, safe and non-chemical), while there are rumours that Cholayil, the maker of Medimix, will get into the fairness market too. K. H. S. Manian, Vice-President (Marketing & Sales), Cholayil, says that the efficacy of such a product will have to be proved before his company launches such a product. "Anybody can make claims. We have very good brand equity as a genuine Ayurvedic company and will launch something only when we are fully satisfied with our findings. So far, no product has been materially proved to impart fairness," he says, adding that Cholayil is researching a fairness product. Interestingly, the chief of a company which is into the fairness game, dismisses fairness soap and face wash as "hogwash", on the grounds that something that's on the face for barely two minutes cannot make a mark (pun unintended).

CavinKare is test launching its second fairness cream, called Chik Fairee. A mixture of rose, sandal and milk, unlike its predecessor Fairever, which contains saffron, the primary objective of the brand is to recruit and increase the penetration of fairness creams which currently stands at about 12 per cent. A 9 gm sachet of Chik Fairee is priced at Rs 2 and a 25 gm tube priced at Rs 10, unlike Fairever, which costs Rs 5 and Rs 27 for unit packs of the same size. "Being a low cost fairness cream, it will aid penetration into such households which till now do not use fairness creams due to the affordability factor," says a CavinKare spokesman.

With such a profusion of products, it would be interesting to look into the market for all these, the target audience and whether they use the cream, soap or face wash or a combination of them. And when one brand has so many variants, isn't dissonance likely to be created?

"Yes, for 20-25 years there's Fair & Lovely and then comes an ayurvedic version. Does it mean that the earlier version had harmful chemicals in it, if Ayurvedic implies safe and non-toxic?" questions an industry player. HLL, however, did not reply to Catalyst's question on dissonance.

According to CavinKare, there could be variants of products but appealing to different set of consumers. Also, every product, whether an extension or a variant, has an objective and forms part of a larger strategy. From the consumer's point of view, each variant is a unique product and must offer a distinct proposition to the consumer. If the product proposition is not distinct and clear to the consumer, there could be a risk of cannibalisation, especially if multiple products are offered to different segments which are overlapping in nature. "Sometimes cannibalisation may be intended by the marketer as a retention strategy against losing out to competition or upgrading consumer choice," says CavinKare's Ranganathan.

"Each variant must stand on its own to its loyal set of consumers. For example, if a loyal consumer of FairGlow wants to apply it many times during the day, the cream format is much more convenient to carry and use," says Godrej's Vice-President (Marketing), Rakesh Kumar Sinha.

Umesh Naidu, National Sales Manager (Consumer Products), Himalaya Drug Company, says the fairness promise alone might not help a product capture the market's fancy. "Which is why we see claims of nourishment and freshness being built into a fairness product," he explains, adding that this is what will set consumers buying. Ever since Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai made it big in international beauty pageants, there's been a lot more interest in `good looks', he says.

If it seems strange that something that requires prolonged usage can be vended in sachets, the manufacturers tell you it's not so odd, after all. Low-income consumers too are increasingly looking for such skin care products. Low unit price packs, like sachets, are to meet their needs within their budget, thereby facilitating consumption. Sachets, as with any other product, are intended to induce trials also. The cost per gram is substantially less in sachets.

A booming industry, lots of choice and no let-up in demand. So what if it's considered retrograde to wish for fairness? In with the big bucks, out with the melanin. All's fair in love and career, and consumer becomes queen.

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