by 
The Recent launch of Menz active , by HLL and Fair and Handsome by Emami has
created quite a stir in the media , with the creation of a new category over night
While the product’s effectiveness and the “promised fair skin” still lingers a
doubt in the consumer’s mind , there is a much major issue that has been
completely overlooked.
Creating a new category (Fairness creams for men) and differentiating is
actually a good strategy , but whats the point of creating a category for
which people don’t have use for ?
When u pose a question such as what makes a man handsome , the
typical reply would be : Masculinity,height, confidence,humor and attire
Do u expect anyone to reply as fair skin ? Impossible !
The ads of Lux ,Fairever or Fair and Lovely usually emulates a typical girl
who aspire to become beautiful and have a fair skin like Aishwarya Rai.
Thus the fairness creams for women ..The aspirations for a guy on the
contrary is quite the opposite.
He tries to emulate a rough and tough , cool guy and probably aspire to become a
Sachin tendulkar or a Christiano Ronaldo or whatever his profession might be.
No one would even think of a concept of becoming fair ,as evident from that
fact that 90 % of the men do not even know the texture of their skin
or exact skin color.
The dream of possessing physical looks similar to another person , is strictly
confined to females and definitely not a guy ( Have u heard anyone
saying I wanna be as handsome as Tom Cruise?)
HUL has come up with survey results,reports indicate, that nearly 25 % of
men use fairness creams . A true marketer has to understand that the product
can be used in multiple ways by both sexes , probably even in a completely
opposite way . The purpose of using fairness creams by these men is not for
getting fair skin , as commonly misinterpreted in that report but actually for
skin protection from sun and to maintain a healthy skin .
Men do not care about their skin color , but they definitely worry about their
health of their skin.
The issue under concern is , whether do men really aspire for fair skin ?
So what is the major problem to be solved ? Positioning !
Solution : Adopt a repositioning strategy,and targets the men who worry about
their skin ,and needs a cream,which can protect their skin, and also one that
they can proudly take it with them anywhere
Create an ad , that depicts a salesmen or a traffic police getting their skin burnt
by the sun , and they are in desperate need of a solution to protect the skin.
The product then appears that acts as a boon to all the people who constantly
travel or exposed to the sun for a long time. ( Do not term it skin care ,and
give it a feminine name , like Fair and Handsome)
Probably a “Power Protector” ,”Blue Eyes” or “Freeze” cream can do the trick
Fair skin for men anyone?
this is in line with Peter Griffin’s famous quote:
Fat women are fat!
Fat men aren’t!!!
or something like that…..
good post. different one too . but … why are u making the guys (who are already using these) feel embarrassed !?? 😀
And u say ‘The dream of possessing physical looks similar to another person , is strictly
confined to females and definitely not a guy ‘. i dont think this line is 100 % true karthik. its just that the girls tell their dreams out and guys dont. else who wil not want to be like Tom Cruise and make all girls be behind them ??!?
ps: i am not telling this cause am a gal. also btw the nivea (i think the name is right.. its some cream) ad depicts sum tg like, a man gettin irritated by the scorching heat frm the sun and he applies it blah blah. guess ppl are gettin more sensible.
When u pose a question such as what makes a man handsome , the
typical reply would be : Masculinity,height, confidence,humor and attire
I completely disagree with you in this point. The above logic is a very old one in the Indian men section and it has changed a lot since then. It’s not only the quantitaive result of 25 in the survey but there is also some qualitative data which isn’t out. And that data is something like this: Seriously, there are men who seek creams for fairness. There are men especially around the high end segment who use the foreign creams and there are aspirers below this segment who want to use it but can’t do it bcoz of high costs. And since the past 2 years Fair and Handsome has solved this issue. And most of this aspirers are the just out of college people.
But I too agree with your point that some men do worry abt the sun and everything. So, my suggestion would be to focus the positioning of this cream in both the directions that is care from sun, dust as well as fair skin..
Good! Finally your MBA has got your mind thinking stratergies even for a fairly stupid product 🙂 Good work bro, maybe such companies would make more money by stealing your idea.If down two months we see an add in tv that goes in line with what you say, we know who they got it from 🙂
Good one.. An MBA in marketing finally pays off… 🙂
But a couple of thoughts from my side..
1) What is the success rate of the men fairness cream products in the market ? I Think the answer should explain a lot of your questions.
2) Irrespective of the fact that men need a fairness cream or not, the product is here to stay. And one major concern of all these men, righty quoted in your blog would be the fact that they CAN’T go around carrying this fancy cream with them.
“CAN’T” because our perspectives are not going to change. Fairness creams or sunscreens, these products are only widely accepted in the custody of men who are either in show business or gay !!
( ‘Cause rugged is still “in” , n you know that )
The companies thus have an overhead in creating a believable metrosexual man to sell their products like such. Guess, that’s the issue of the day!
good post
wow…!!!
thats some serious research involoved…!!!
but men who need them will always need them… men who are meterosexuals and into the glitzy glamourous world…
these products are essential for their survival…!!!
It clearly highlights that the author here has not done much research before drafting this article.
I have been in hostel for 12 years and i have seen many guys having a complex over the fair skin guys.There are many movies were in the actor who is dark feels bad about it and try out various creams and lotions to make him fair.An article in the local Tamil magazine said that actresses refused to work with an artist or actor(prefer not to mention his name)giving a reason that he is dark.
More over why would a huge company like HLL invest in such a “category”?, wouldn’t they have done a market research before launching or rather manufacturing such products!!!.
Guys do not say that they wanna look like Tom cruise or anyone for that matter its their personal pride.
I agree the cream may not make pple fair but its business and the companies have made pple to believe in their products.But that is business thats how it works,because they have found the need for such a product in the market.Before the mens fair creams were launched,guys used to use the womens fair cream and thats wat their ads clearly says.
p.s:these are market facts and not anything against the author.
you’ve got it wrong boss … there is a steady growth in group of men who wants to look “beautiful” and there is also a group of women who like ‘beautiful’ looking ‘chocolate’ men (unlike the masculine, rustic , the great khali types)
@Managemarketing
Very true sir ,
but its still a very tiny percentage out there who aspire to be fair, and i perceive , they are much comfortable using Fair & Lovely or Fairever , already available at home, rather than purchasing one for themselves. And i guess it mite not be a profitable market to be in
and sir , if u meant the scene in Sivaji where Rajni becomes fair to woo his girl , i guess its little exaggerated ,though fun to watch
Even today , a modern women would still laugh her wits out if a guy admits to applying fairness creams or even carrying one..
Good post. Yet, HOT CHOCOLATE is very popular! 🙂
5 years ago, a friend conducted a survey of several hundred people on the use of fairness creams for a thesis.
Interestingly, a majority of men and women were against the use of fairness creams, but 50% of them (both men and women) used it anyway.
It turns out men and women like fairness creams more than they will admit they do, which is why the product is so profitable.
Well, frankly to be straight on ur face , while reading ur post oops blog , i was thinking either this guy in some technie with a interest in marketing or a Fresh hyperactive MBA . when i read ur bit of profile, got the answer latter.
Brother The product u r talking is a hit product , and why its hit for the simple reason it talks about a need (latent u can call) and the answer to that.
Every body wants to have Clear fair complexion. Man were using fairness cream and companies created a seprate pdt for it . Cool simple.
No jargon simple need -gap / alternate pdt usage filling.
Secondly talking about “macho man ”
1) Metrosexual nonsense is latest fad ; from a marketing perspective thats in.
2)Now talking about “macho man”: Classic example of all imgae failure in “Marlboro” High Brand imagery, imapct but ever reducing sale.
Marketing basically is all about seeing life with naked eye than putting a grab of Jargon (to be done by MBA s like us) , and not other way around
Ya , for ur information about fairness market and background, i wud luv to give u bit of gyan.
a) Most of the fairness cream are good at two thing 1) Anti Tan removal 2) Excellent sunscreen:Titanium/avobenzene etc
b) The kind of climate we have in India and kind of life /or lifestyle we led. We definately need sunsprotection.
c)Basically these fairness cream are more of Sunscreen with added gyan like tulsi chandan etc
d)World top notch Skin Expert / Dermatologist having been talking vehmently about suncreen usage (now if u google more , u vl get this nonsense abt titanium being a carcinogen, do bit more google and u vl get right answer
e)In spite of all helluva created by dermatologist/cos sunscreen penetration is not all that high, and its sale id skewed towards in Summer.
f) Fairness cream was the marketing child taking all above parental issue into consideration also touching soft social point (fair look)
So brother thats how companys work
First info than Marketing gyan
Not other way around
Ok : Talking about myself : i have roughly 8 -10yrs exp in psl care industry and yes I am an MBA like you and yes like you , i am a B Grade institute pdt.(i cant be wrong on this, i am sure u r not an IIMS guy).
Now you are talking about masculanity , height , confidense are you talking about some magic pills or Confidence building course or pdts.
Such Soft touch points are portrayed in execution , must notice all the guys in fairness cream eventually look like Adonis (Tall , lean structure with perfect face cut) and have girls swooning on them and are confident.(remember that Key situation)
frankly i am sick of “fairness Cream Bashing “
few points…
1- do men have skin? yes ..
2- healthy skin looks good.. feels good.
3- fair or dark.. it should be healthy. these days its none’s preference. have you heard of term metrosexuality?
4- so far 90% of the men i have known in my life use fair&lovely,and LUX and it suits them.. 🙂
5- handsome is a term which is widely used for women as well as far as my readings go..
and as for promotion.. i guess the HLL data must be shared. well .. the point is everyone likes to look beautiful and have rights to do so.
overall.. nice discussion n post..
http://blog.poonamparihar.com
bro kartik evry human being is concernd abt hisher looks-lts chek out wat u said -Masculinity,height, confidence,humor and attire yeah sounds good.but u knw in te same movie ragani appears to be a fair guy n it took te crew of tefilm 1 year to give him tat look
not by make up bt te special effects kind of grafting or sometin.c dude wat abt te guys who got afai n radiant skin from birth wit all oter stuffs a needs to have for exmole salman or as u said tom cruise tey do cincern abt their skin color bro its a fact of crse aint feminin stuff looooooooool!cus both wemen n men got fair goodlookin n radiant skin n for kind in formation almost all leadin anti agin brands like clinic,amway products especially whitenin,anti wrinkle n so on come as a uni sexual products.tese are te world class products n tey got tec developed by nasa n all for ex one of tese companies using a tecnolgy for maping facial skin devlpd nasa for mapin moons surface so wen tey laung a unisexual product wat u say tey r jst kidin us c bro if u were a fair guy n u got dark due pollution n uv rys nal u wl defenetly wory abt ur skin tat does include ur fairness bos for exnple ter r pple who do tke care of ter teeth both gals n guys so we cant blame tem for tat so r tey about face n skin n all if ur a dark guy u mst hve tht of gettin fair dude n u need not 2 b feelin weird abt it as i said b4 both men wemen want to look good so r tey noticin each oter.pls remember frm te encient time our great wariers too usd to tke care oof their skin comprd to modern men.so let it b a man or gal beauty is all about dark or white a good complextion fit body n positive attiude even if ur r drk if ur givn good supplments n exrcise tips n all wat u need ul lk at ur beauty n proud to b a maaaaaaaan bro!
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