Gorakhpur’s booming beauty biz prompts Dabur to roll out facial bleach brand for rural women

A chance visit by executives of fast moving consumer goods major Dabur to Uttar Pradesh’s famed Gorakhpur area, known for its terracotta pottery, laid the foundation for rolling out its facial bleach brand in the hinterland.

The small town has more than 450 beauty parlours, and is a shining example of the scale of beauty awareness amongst rural consumers. For the company, it was an opportunity to leverage its Fem bleach brand.

“We were in the process of enhancing the penetration of personal care and beauty care products in the hinterland. With the improved footprint, we have seen demand for our facial bleaches come in from rural India,” said Sanjay Singal, Marketing Head-Skin Care, Dabur India.

Rural consumers are keen to emulate their urban counterparts with regard to skin care treatments, which has led to the increased usage of beauty and health care products in the region. The facial bleach business for Dabur had been reporting double digit growth.

The company has now decided to introduce a host of new products . With smaller packs priced at Rs 35 for single use, the company also launched a Rs 70 pack for beauty parlours, the contents of which could be used three to four times. Bigger retailers, known as big stock keeping units in the hinterland, were handed over bigger packs, good enough for 10-12 times usage.

“In the previous fiscal, Dabur doubled its rural footprint to reach out to villages with a population of 3,000. Last year, we had identified 10 states and certain high performance districts. We decided to double our rural focus and address 72 per cent of the rural FMCG potential,” said the official.

With the FMCG sector set to witness more than 50 per cent growth in rural and semi urban India this year, Dabur decided to capitalise on the growth potential in the rural landscape.

“Fairness is the single biggest beauty need of Indian women and our research among consumers show that there is a big and disappointing gap between what consumers expect fairness products to deliver and their current delivery technology,” said Singal.

“There is no better evidence of product delivery than the fact that over recent times, bleaching has become a very popular skin care practice with more and more women making it part of their skin care regime. This is evident from the fact that while the bleach market is growing fast, Fem as a brand has been growing at a rate two times that of the market.”

Since the mushrooming beauty parlours were also eager for herbal products, the FMCG major decided to add that as well to its portfolio.

“Dabur’s strong in-house research wing follows a ‘bush-to-brand’ approach. The company has an in-house nursery, which grows several rare herbs that go into various products. This research wing undertakes detailed tests on individual ingredients and products,” he said.

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