India 2007: The Youth Will Dictate the Market


The Indian skincare, toiletries and soaps market including fragrances is fast experiencing the tremors that would shortly change the very foundations of a market that has, till late
1990s, been rather sluggish in terms of new product launches, retail presentation and purchasing power (read attitude) of the consumer. The last decade has seen a sudden evolution of retail, deluge of brands entering the Indian market and bombarding the Indian consumer with options and tactile presentation of packaging, colours and images of luxury and wellbeing like never before. Add to this the ideal ambience of more than 60% of Indian population being below the age of 35 years with disposable incomes, almost no financial responsibilities towards the joint family, this is fast becoming a generation that loves to splurge with or without understanding the value for money clause. Also interesting are data like - 30 per cent of urban India is under 30 with a 10.6 million consuming class residing in the top 23 cities. Perhaps it’s in keeping with this set of trendy and demanding consumers that each brand is evolving it’s set of strategies in terms of launching Gen Next products along with extremely focused marketing and promotions.
The FMCG Way
The biggest of them HLL, with presently big brands that rule the roost in the Indian beauty market, has begun to entice the young consumer with brand ambassadors, active websites and pitches with youthful stories (Fair & Lovely Menz Active and talent hunt in cricket etc.) Brand ambassador for Lakme being herself a young Bollywood star Ria Sen, the group has innovated by launching the Sunsilk ‘Gang of Girls’ website- an interactive portal that touches the needs of the youngsters for makeup, makeovers, gossip and more.
The L’Oreal group with over 15 years of presence in the Indian market has brands like Maybelline that is positioned as one that “creates accessible cosmetics with a cool urban edge”. Launched in India in 1998 Maybelline was the first to give the Indian mid-segment
consumer a chance of upscaling the look of her vanity case. From then to now, the various product lines from L’Oreal including Garnier Nutrisse hair colour have had a young sound to them (recently roped in young Bollywood starlet Kareena Kapoor) . L’Oreal Paris involved itself with the Elite Model Look, another path to approach the college going segment, perhaps.

The Ayurvedic Inheritance
Given the modern methods and more trendy products from these groups, one wonders about the positioning of more traditional Ayurveda based brands like Himalaya and Lotus Herbals. Explains Ravi Prasad, President, Himalaya Drug Co.“Besides our impressive portfolio of products for the youth, what is also working in our favour is the fact that we are a scientifically backed and research oriented Ayurvedic company targeted at the modern Indian consumer who is increasingly interested in traditional and natural methods of healthcare. The fact that India’s youth is becoming more health conscious with Himalaya’s advantage being enhanced by the fact is that we are not a company that ‘also’ does herbals- we ‘only’ focus on head-to-heel herbal healthcare and have done so for over 75 years. The youth is aware of this differentiator and as such when it comes to herbals, Himalaya enjoys top brand recall”. Himalaya derives nearly 30% of it’s busuness from youth and“products which are popular amongst youth are those which offer solutions to problems. For instance, specific-action scrubs, face washes, moisturizers, creams or shampoos are more popular than generic products” adds Prasad. A rather young brand amongst the herbal one’s, Lotus Herbal has been aggressive in introducing and marketing it’s product lines with nearly 65% of it’s business coming from below the 25 years age group. Shares Nitin Passi, Director Marketing, Lotus Herbals, “Infact our brand connects with the youth very well due to the modern packaging, visuals etc. Apart from antiageing and anti-wrinkle products all the products are being used by this segment”. Lotus for the first time in the country, launched sun blocks for children and have had promotions specially targeted at the youth including one’s at music and video outlets like Planet M. In fact most brands are increasingly seen introducing and running product promotions at coffee bars like Café Coffee Day and Barista (Lakme when it launched it’s Matte Finish Range, Cavin Kare’s Spinz, Elle 18 with lipsticks). Whether it is the age old brand Emami roping in cricketer Saurav Ganguly (Sona Chandi Chyavanparash) and Kareena Kapoor (Boroplus), the theme has to be young even if the brand is ancient.
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