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Kolkata based FMCG company Emami has decided against a national launch for its kids talc under the Boroplus franchise. After testing marketing the product in Andhra Pradesh last year, the company is sceptical about the acceptance of its kids talc in a category dominated by MNCs such as Johnson & Johnson.
“We are not going to be aggressive about the baby talc category unless there is a good enough differentiator for the product. After test marketing baby talc in Andhra Pradesh last year we are re-visiting the category and still trying to get some learning about the acceptance of baby talc when there is already a market leader J&J,” said N. Krishna Mohan, CEO, Sales, Supply Chain and Human Capital.
Boroplus already has a prickly heat powder under its franchise and extending it as baby talc might not work. As Mohan says, “Talc is mainly used in the SEC B & C segments of the population. Our biggest challenge would be to get these set of consumers to buy more than one talcum powder as most would not like the idea of buying separate talc for kids. Besides the challenge for any marketer is to create a differentiator and unless we have one we will not be investing behind this category or get into immediately.”
Emami was targeting kids in the 5-12 age group with another prickly heat powder positioning it as a ‘total defense’ talc. Bororplus also has products such as antiseptic cream and lotions with actress Kareena Kapoor endorsing it.
The FMCG company intends to focus on the hair care and skin care categories but would like to stay away from saturated and penetrated categories such as soaps and shampoos dominated by MNC companies.
“We do have soap under malai kesar but we are not focusing on it. Even shampoo is not category that we are considering as the gestation period to establish these products is long and these are already well-entrenched categories dominated by MNC brands,” adds Mohan.
But it certainly intends to add more products under its largest selling Navratna oil where it is the market leader with a 54 per cent share in the category. “Navratna is a Rs 600-crore brand today and we would introducing more products under it which may not be in the hair care category,” added Mohan. Navratna has also been extended as talc and has high profile brand ambassadors such as Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan.
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