Up close and personal

It was bad enough having to buy lingerie and sanitary napkins from male shopkeepers. Then came the large and modern retail stores where you picked up what you wanted. The rapidity and repetitiveness of scanning prices and billing one product after another conferred some anonymity on the buyer. But then, products that promised benefits more intimate then these, such as a fairness wash for the genital region, or a vagina tightening gel, began to make an appearance.

You wonder if you would be judged for buying them. The chemist’s round the corner does not seem to stock them. Even if it did, how could you ask the man at the counter? Not only this, some of these products, such as Clean and Dry, have whipped up a storm with their communication, prompting charges of racism, regressiveness, male chauvinism and mindless commercialism. Which prompts the question: How does it make business sense for companies to launch these products when they are difficult to buy?

Some companies selling such products would not speak to cat.a.lyst for this report. However, the people behind the curiously-named Pee Buddy, which is admittedly a different category of product but “intimate” all the same, did.

Deep Bajaj, Partner, First Step Projects, says he does not see why the communication should be offensive “if a decent, creative person is working on it”. (Pee Buddy is a paper funnel women can use to relieve themselves standing – women need not hold it in during journeys and in public spaces for fear of having to come into contact with dirty toilets.)

He says that ads for condoms and sanitary pads, bold and overt as they are, are everywhere now, and that they are not losing the plot either.

A pharmaceutical industry insider says that while the positioning of a product is important, so is the technology behind it. His firm markets a vaginal wash which is a “real biological need” to prevent infection, he says. He believes a “flirty” positioning such as fairness is unnecessary and takes the focus away from the valid need for such products. His product is marketed on the confidence plank. Such washes are a very big category in South-East Asia and Europe but will take about three-four years to achieve a certain level of visibility in India as awareness is low.

V Rajesh, retail expert and trainer, says brands such as Whisper have raised the awareness level of this category to one of personal/ functional necessity. “Women today have no qualms about picking up these products and even ordering them from kirana stores.” The emerging category of intimate goods he describes as “discretionary and even lifestyle products”.

Both Bajaj and Rajesh point to another dynamic that comes into play here – the target audience. Bajaj says his customer is an educated and aware woman who travels on work and pleasure, by air and by road. Typically, they frequent self-service and upmarket stores. “Even today, the majority is from the middle class and upwards. The consumer behaviour of such shoppers would be far more confident as they are better informed,” says Rajesh.

Women do find it awkward to ask the male staff for intimate-use products or even be seen picking them off the shelves but health and beauty stores are largely staffed by women, he points out. Such stores stock these products like any other; some display condoms and lubricants right at the entrance or near the till.

cat.a.lyst spoke to the staff at a couple of stores – men come with slips of paper if they need to buy feminine hygiene products, but women ask the female staff directly.

Durex, which markets condoms and other products for sexual well-being, says there is a lot of hesitation from both men and women. “Currently, men constitute the large majority of our consumer base,” says Nitish Kapoor, General Manager, RB India. In the majority of outlets, such products are kept under the counter but in modern trade and major outlets, they are displayed at par with some of the other products.

The pharma industry insider says shyness and embarrassment are not big issues nowadays. His firm prioritises chemists’ stores and modern trade to distribute these products. Online sales are only a small source of revenue but the digital technology is helping awareness spread far and wide and that is reflected in the fact that orders come in even from villages.

“E-tailing in FMCG is still at a nascent stage. We are witnessing incremental sales month on month through this channel but this is still not the biggest source of sales. Durex has seen a huge demand from Tier 2 towns and beyond where availability through an on-ground store is relatively less. With all media tools and properties available on the e-commerce channel, it becomes easier to reach out to a specific audience and in many instances helps us to track their journey to purchase,” says Durex’s Kapoor.

Pee Buddy’s Bajaj says 60 per cent of his target group is online. “If I’m online, I’m covered,” he says, adding that modern stores come next in the priority list. He points out that modern pharmacies sell all kinds of products, be it breast pumps or sexual wellness stuff. The customers are confident and the staff do not have the time or the inclination to meddle with their choice of goods, he says.

The anonymity that online shopping provides is a big advantage in this category. “Sites such as Shycart are leveraging this emerging shopper need while balancing the current consumer inhibition of purchasing such products openly,” says Rajesh. Apart from sites such as flipkart and snapdeal, there are thatspersonal, kamaastra and nextbigwhat that sell lingerie, personal care and sex-related products.

It’s early days yet. “In some stores, Pee Buddy sells 20-30 packs a week, some others, just three-four packs. We get orders online from places like Guwahati, Nagpur and Varanasi. It has found a market, but whether it’s profitable …” trails off Bajaj. Watch this space.

With inputs from Pradipti Jayaram

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