Individual Assignment

TECHNOLOGY PARK MALAYSIA

BMO11-3-M

Strategic Marketing Management

NPCMF1807MBA

HAND OUT DATE: 7th Feb 2019

HAND IN DATE: 11th June 2019
WEIGHTAGE: 50%
STUDENT ID: NP000269

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES:

1 Submit your assignment at the administrative counter

2 Students are advised to underpin their answers with the use of references
(cited using the Harvard Name System of Referencing)

3 Late submission will be awarded zero (0) unless Extenuating

Circumstances (EC) are upheld

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5 The assignment should be bound in an appropriate style (comb bound or

stapled)

6 Where the assignment should be submitted in both hardcopy and

softcopy, the softcopy of the written assignment and source code (where
appropriate) should be on a CD in an envelope / CD cover and attached to
the hardcopy

7 You must obtain 50% overall to pass this module

 
 
 Table of Contents
 
 
Acknowledgement ............................................................................................... 1  

Executive Summary  .........................................................................................................................  2  

1.   Introduction  ..............................................................................................................................  3  

2.   Objectives of the Study  ...........................................................................................................  4  

3.   Analysis  ......................................................................................................................................  4  
3.1   Industrial Attractiveness of fairness product  ...........................................................................  4  
3.2   Segment attractiveness of Fairness cream in India  .................................................................  5  
3.4   Competitive Analysis  ......................................................................................................................  9  

4   Marketing Mix Strategies  ....................................................................................................  11  

5   Tech trends and Strategies to enhance Indian Beauty Market  ...................................  13  

6   . Potentialities of Indian fairness products in global market  ......................................  14  

7.   Conclusion  ..............................................................................................................................  15  

References……………………………………………………………………16

List of Figures

Figure 1: Segment Attractiveness............................................................................................. 5

Figure 2: Market size of fairness product ................................................................................. 6
Figure 3: Fairness companies Profile ..................................................................................... 10
Figure 4: Marketing Mix ........................................................................................................ 11
Figure 5: Tech trends and Strategies ...................................................................................... 13

 
 
Acknowledgement
 
In preparation of my assignment, I had to take the help and guidance of some respected
persons, who deserve my deepest gratitude. As the completion of this assignment gave me
much pleasure, I would like to show my gratitude to Mr. Surendra Acharya for giving me
good guidelines for assignment throughout numerous consultations. I would also like to
expand my gratitude to all those who have directly and indirectly guided me in writing this
assignment.

Shruti Jaiswal

NP000269

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Executive Summary
 
 
The assignment analysis is all about the fairness products of India. The major players have
launched different creams. In the consecutive that have been shown resulted in having
jolting in the market share. The various marketing strategies have been followed to increase
the brand. Emami, Ayurvedic, Paras, amway etc are the other rivals, which usually affect the
market of these major players. Fairness cream around the globe is untouched territory till
mid 1970s. It has become a vital product for the Indian FMCG companies in increasing the
overall sales due to importance that is given by Indian consumers towards fairness.

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1. Introduction
 

Fairness creams have been in market since 1978 and have a significant market share in India. It
has become a vital product for the Indian youths, which turns the FMCG companies in
increasing their overall sales due to the importance given by Indian consumers towards
fairness. There are lots of advertisements prevailing in the country since many years, which
give preference to the fair skin only. The market of fairness products is expected to grow on
account of growing western culture, awareness regarding fairness products made with natural
or herbal ingredients, more focus towards looks & appearance that publicity to international
beauty as well as grooming trends and more international brands making it way into the Indian
market, brand endorsements by Bollywood beauties etc.

Moreover, today in India many of cosmetics and creams for the personality and for the beauty
have been introduced by many of companies. Fairness cream consists of wide range of cream
for fair, clear and soft skin. Some of the key players of fairness cream in market for women are
Loreal Paris, Fair and lovely, Fairever, ponds, Revlon, emami fairness cream, olay and garnier
light and for men there is Emami fair & handsome, garnier men, Menz Active and Fair one
men. The market research has predicted that the global skin lightening industry will reach
$10bn by 2015, led by the growth in India and china.

The opportunity for the fairness products companies is provided by the favorable
demographics such as young population, increasing working class population, increasing
female working population, etc. This growing need of the consumers, most of the Indian
domestic companies like Dabur, Himalaya, etc., and MNCs like L’Oreal, Amway have
entered the skin care products markets with different products. Though skin fairness products
are used worldwide, their excessive consumption will be mostly from the Asian and African
countries. The products have increased the competition among the companies with increasing
the wide range of products availability in the market, which continues and realizes that just
having fair skin is not considered as beauty but it compliments.

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2. Objectives of the Study
 
 
• To analyze the industrial attractiveness of the fairness product.

• To examine the potentialities of Indian fairness Products into global markets

• To recommend marketing mix strategies.

 

3. Analysis

3.1 Industrial Attractiveness of fairness product

 
     
Industry attractiveness actually forms part of industry structure. It is necessary to
understand the industries in which the companies are immersed and what makes them
attractive from the general point of view. Industrial attractiveness was described by Michel
porter in his book competitive strategy (Porter, 1980). The elements of industry structure are
that which constitute industry attractiveness are industry potential, industry attractiveness,
industry profitability, industry barriers. It can be explained by porter’s five forces analysis.

• Competitive Rivalry: Fairness product has high competitive rivalry, as there are huge
brand names such as L’Oreal, Revlon, Nivea etc manufactured by giants like unilever and
protor & gamble that are strongly competing for market share. They also have entered into
all the market segments of the fairness industry. There is a high level of competition
shown in fairness industry highlighting the need to consider competitive rivalry as a high-
priority force in the company’s industry environment.

• Threats of new entrants: The fairness industry has a medium level of threats to new
entrants. The reason for this is huge capital requirement and cost of developing these
products; people trust only tested and tried brands for themselves, as the use of fairness
product is a sensitive issue.

• Bargaining power of supplier: The bargaining power of the suppliers in the fairness
industry is low. It usually refers to the price of the products. In the fairness product

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 industry the raw materials for the production process are procured from a number of
suppliers. There are large numbers of suppliers that are able to supply the same raw
materials to the industry. The cost of switching from one supplier to the other is almost
negligible if supplier tries to influence prices.

• Bargaining power of Buyers: In the fairness industry bargaining power of buyers is high.
It is due to increasing competition and availability of similar fairness product. In   the  
fairness   industry,   a   number   of   buyers   focus   on   quality   and   take   products   of   a  
particular  brand.  For  e.g.  Nivea  is  to  be  suitable  for  skin  and  products  from  any  other  
brand  may  cause  skin  problems.
   
• Threats   of   Substitutes:   Due to wide variety of fairness product in the market, the
customer is not satisfied with one fairness product they can easily switch to a product of
another band that will satisfy there needs. E.g. a Nivea user may switch to Vaseline,
L’Oreal or any other brand easily and home made solutions like Vicco turmeric, roop
mantra, lotus herbal, Himalaya herbal etc. the high level of innovation in the cosmetic
industry has made it difficult for any particular brand to overcome this threat.

3.2 Segment attractiveness of Fairness cream in India

Segment attractiveness varies from one segment to another that is based on market demand
competitive intensity and as well access to customers. Companies segment are attractive by
two methods, first includes that when the company earns the profit and secondly, when the
customer gets the hygienic environment, good quality of product then the segmentation is
attractive. Segment attractiveness for the fairness product can be explained with the help of
following diagram.

Figure  1:  Segment  Attractiveness  

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Market demand is the demand for given product that wants to purchase it. “ In the case of
fairness products the Indian market is experiencing stronger demand for fairness creams due to
increased media and untapped markets targeting the rural segments. The growth in
consumerism and the changing life style of Indian youth have led to strong demand for fairness
creams (Mohanty, 2012).”

Market Size: Fairness cream represents the major category in the skin care segment in India;
high value of fair skin has developed in market size of fairness creams. Market size of
cosmetics industry is estimated to be worth 1.5 billion dollars. The industry is growing at an
annual rate of almost 20%. The foreign investments and domestic players of beauty products
have led to a gradual rise in the Indian market. The estimated market size of the fairness cream
in India is approximately 800 crores. Market size can be explained with the help of following
figure.

 
Figure  2:  Market  size  of  fairness  product

The given bar chart illustrates the Indian cosmetic market size, by region, by value from the
year 2013 to year 2023. Overall, in the beginning it is seen that the highest cosmetic market
was taken by the northern region where as the minimum market was taken by eastern region
of India. The cosmetic and fairness market taken by western region is comparable to northern
region in the beginning. Moving towards the year 2014 to 2019, it is seen that the cosmetic
market was increased in every region. From the give chart it is expected that in foreseeable

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 future the highest cosmetic market will be taken by western region and the least market will be
covered by eastern region.

• Growth Rate: The global cosmetics market continued to grow steadily, spurred on by the
limitless diversity of consumer aspirations and by innovation. India’s FMCG market has seen
as significant growth in the fairness market for the last two decades and as fairness cream
accounts for the major part of cosmetic market. “The steady growth rate in
the Indian cosmetic and beauty service market has made the Indian government see it as a
source of potential revenue for the country (Bhattacharya, 2006).

• Market potential: As, Market potential is defined as the total of the market size for a fairness
product at a given period of time, which is always calculated at the specific time. The
measurement of a market potential of fairness product is usually done by two ways in India
i.e. by sales value and by sales volume. The sale for the fairness cream in India has been
increasing at a steady pace, which refers to an increase in the market share of the FMCG
products in the Indian market.

Competitive intensity is defined as the extent in which companies have specific industries
exerts pressure on one another. It includes number of companies, ease to entry, and substitute.
There are number fairness companies in the world 2019 that includes L’Oreal, Unilever,
proctor and gamble, Coty, Johnson and Johnson etc. Consumers in the beauty products market
are extensively demanding for innovative and multifunctional beauty products. Ease to entry
in the cosmetic industry includes the power held by suppliers and buyers. In the cosmetic
industry, there are many competitors. Therefore a high threat of substitute products. If
manufacturers sell their products at higher prices, or if the products are of low quality, then
consumers are able to purchase substitutes from the many competitors.

Market access includes customer familiarity, channel access, company fit. The the fairness
product in market is dominated by key multinational corporations including Olay, Avon, and
L’Oréal, which provide a vast array of over-the-counter products in the beauty and skincare
industry. There are wide variety of distribution channels such as supermarkets, department
stores, etc., offer a wide array of cosmetic products and provide a convenient medium for
selection of the desired product.

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Technological trends: In India around 49% of customers use social media among the user of
fairness cream and products, customers get influenced or get attracted by the fairness product
advertisement on social media like twitter, Facebook, instagram, specific supermarket apps
etc. Even the fairness product companies do the target market among the company’s social
media. Due to the advancement of Internet, most of the customers feel reliable to buy the
fairness products online. It is estimated that nearly 29% of the fairness product users by the
product online in India. For e.g. Amazon is the biggest online seller of the fairness product
and other lots of online websites.

3.3 Market analysis

The fairness industry in India is valued about 622.7 million. However in India, the market for
fairness products is at a very nascent stage. The business for the fairness product in India is
expanding at a rate never witnessed before and it includes increased awareness amongst
consumers, progress in technology and other such concepts. The fairness products that is
available in the market is segregated into facial cream cleansers, sunscreens, anti-wrinkle
creams, dark circle removing creams, moisturizers, toners, fairness creams etc. nearly 60% of
the fairness product market consists of facial creams, moisturizers and skin care products.
However, the few years, men and women have become a favored target audience. Over the past
5 years total demand has grew by 60%.

Indian cosmetics industry is driven by the high personal disposable income of people, rising
awareness towards body aesthetics, coupled with increasing demand for herbal cosmetic
products, recent cosmetics business market analysis reveals that many international companies
are now outsourcing cosmetics to India. The top ten leading fairness product brands in Indian
market are Lakme, lotus, Biotique, L’Oreal, Shahnaz Husain, Revlon India, Mabelline,
Himalaya, Colorbar and Elle 18 (Jothi, 2015).”

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3.4 Competitive Analysis
 
The various brands for fairness cream available in the Indian market has hence the
competition and is quite fierce in this particular segment. Some of the key players in the
Indian market include Hindustan Lever Limited i.e. Godrej – Fair Glow, HLL – Fair &
Lovely, Emami’s – fair & Handsome, Cavin Kare’s – Fairever, etc. The left shares are being
covered by Vicco & Himalaya. The existing players in Indian cosmetics market majorly focus
upon improving the quality of the product, which they are offering to target market & there
would be some near competitors in the markets would be ready to investigate the Indian
cosmetic industry, as it is one of the most booming segments. In the 800 crore market of the
Indian fairness industry, there has been cutthroat competition amongst the various brands
available. For e.g. Lakme, owned by Hindustan are the number one cosmetic brands in India.
Its major competitors are MAC, L’Oreal, Maybelline, covergirl, colorbar etc.

The entry of more number of cosmetic brands in the Indian market has also been motivated by
growing demand and branded products between people due to hostile advertising strategies of
players coupled with immense western influence. Herbal cosmetics industry is driving growth
in the beauty business in India and is expected to grow at a rate of 7% as more people shun
chemical products in favor of organic ones, from analysis I found that the Indian cosmetics
industry has a plethora of herbal cosmetic brands like forest essentials, biotique, Himalaya,
Blossom kochhar, VLCC, Dabur, lotus and many more. The competitive analysis can be
explained with the help of following figure.

S.N0   Key  Players   Main  products   Price   Market  

Share  
1   Garnier   Garnier Light for daily Rs 99 for 19.00%  
Fairness Moisturizer   18g.  
  Garnier Overnight Rs 99 for 19.00%  
Peeling Fairness Cream 18g.
2   Olay Olay Natural White Rich Rs 307.50 11.9%  
All in One Fairness Night for 50g.
  Olay Natural White Rich Rs 307.50 11.9%  
All in One Day Cream for 50g.

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 3   Pond's Pond's White Beauty Rs 219 for 24%  
Lightening fairness 50gm.
cream
  Ponds Age Miracle Day Rs 299 for 24%  
Cream 30gm.

4   Lakme Lakme Perfect Radiance Rs 170 for 50%  

50g.
5   Clean & Clear Clean & Clear Fairness Rs 120 for
Cream UV Sunscreen 40g. 5%
 
6   Neutrogena Neutrogena Fine Rs 235 for 11.9%  
Fairness Cream 50gm.
7   Himalaya Himalaya Fairness Rs 65 for 50%  
Cream 50g.
(Sources:  Annual  Report  of  the  respective  company,  2018).  

Figure  3:  Fairness  companies  Profile

This figure explains different key players of the fairness cream and shows the products that
are being supplied to the market by the key players. Market share of some products are high
and for some products it is low.

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4 Marketing Mix Strategies

 
Marketing mix means the product, distribution, promotion and pricing strategies to produce
and carry out exchanges and achieve the target markets. "Marketing mix are interrelated
actions and solutions to meet consumer needs and to achieve the company's marketing goals, a
whole". (Isoraite, 2016). Marketing in a fairness industry is a continuous change of strategy as
such that any cosmetic company stands very much being the competition if they don’t change
their way of marketing.

According to (Harrigan & Hulbert, 2011) marketing mix is helpful to the marketing
perspective of a fairness industry that where to get the best possible return of money. There
are 4P’s have been associated with the fairness marketing mix. It can be explained by the help
of following figure: -

 
 

Figure  4:  Marketing  Mix

• Product: The Fairness product should meet with the need of consumers demand. It should
be what consumers are buying that particular cosmetic product. Brand, service, packaging

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 plays an important role in the case of product. Fairness product uses the best technology in
the world of lightening products. The brand principal of the company is rescripting
history’ and it has periodically innovated and experimented with its products to maintain
its quality and that remains on the top.

• Price: The main elements of price are discount, offer price, and credit policy. Price is one
of the most important marketing mix items and many scientists consider the price as one
of the most important elements of the market, which increases profits and market share.
For pricing, the fairness product brand follows competitive pricing strategy in its
marketing mix. This strategy is generally used when different companies are selling
products of similar kind with almost same characters. For e.g. Ponds face a tough
competition from brands like Lakme, Himalaya etc and Maybelline is a premium product
and targets to the affluent urban female and working-class women.

• Place: Place is also an important element of marketing mix that is also called the
distribution, which is defined as process and methods by which products or services reach
customers. The fairness products should be available at comfortable reach of targeted
people. It can be at street, shopping mall or via e-commerce. Each of their products is
available at department stores, pharmacies, salons, cosmetics stores, own brand boutiques
and even e-commerce websites. For e.g. mac products are available online via some
specific channels only. In the year 2017, MAC products could be purchased online method
at Ulta Beauty.

• Promotion: The last 4P marketing mix is promotion, which helps to increase consumer
awareness in terms of their products, leads to higher sales and helps to build brand loyalty.
Promotion includes advertising, publicity, and sales promotion. Fairness products have
created a name for itself by working with professionals from the world of fashion. With the
help of TV and the use stars or giving emotional or funny advertisement etc. for this
purpose. For e.g. Ponds has always believed in promoting the brand. Even in early days,
they used the print media as their promotion. The fairness products marketing campaigns
include ads on billboards magazines, banners, and newspapers. In the case of fair & lovely
Yami Gautam is the current brand model of Fair and lovely products and her ads in
television have become popular, “different advertising has been conducted on the
advertising ethics and the use of the fear appeals. The ethical marketing shows, as the

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 obsession is between urban and middle class that is trickling down, before fairness product
only targeted the women that includes fair brides but now it is also been promoted for the
men, this shows the ethical marketing (Sarkar, 2017).”

5 Tech trends and Strategies to enhance Indian Beauty Market

 

Today there are lots of tech trends and strategies that have been enhancing the Indian beauty
market. Some of major tech trends include personalization and AI, virtual ‘try on’ apps
smart skin tools, printed make up, 3D or ‘e-make-up’ as we know 50% of women complain
about the shade because they are not getting the right shade for their face and they try many
shades before purchasing from cosmetics so for this there is facial skin tone using to
handheld colorimeter which a type of digital scanner and which makes easier to choose the
shade, other is improvement for image recognition and face tracking tech for lipstick and
eye shadow. 3D is one of the latest beauty tech trends, which don’t involve wearing real
cosmetics, and includes AR filters on snap chat and instagram. The following figure
explains the tech trend strategies.

Figure  5:  Tech  trends  and  Strategies  

 
 
 
 
 
 

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6 . Potentialities of Indian fairness products in global market
 
 
 
The overseas market have a great demand for Indian herbal and natural Fairness product and
export to countries like UAE, the USA, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Japan
Malaysia Nepal etc. By region, the Indian skin lightening products market includes Europe,
North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. India is
endorsing a boom in the cosmetic industry, which is growing twice fast of the markets
internationally. The increasing awareness of beauty products along with the rise of disposable
income is expected to boost the industry thus makes the Indian market extremely important.

The countries in the Asia report represent some of the largest and high potential markets for
export-led growth for the U.S. fairness products. The worldwide Indian cosmetics market is
underpinned by the continuous growth in online beauty spending, the expansion of social
networks, consumer interest in new, different and premium products, the acceleration of
urbanization, the increase in the number of seniors worldwide, and the growth of the upper
middle classes. The major growth in the fairness market in last two decades and the fairness
cream accounts to the main part of the cosmetic market with an average growth rate of 20%
per annum.

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7. Conclusion
 

Fairness creams being one of the most preferred FMNG products has now created a strong
impact in every individual’s life. It manufactures should continuously hit the individuals
through extensive advertising on the television platform which will eventually create strong
brand. It has become a vital product for the Indian youths, which turns FMCG companies in
increasing their overall sales due to importance given by Indian consumers towards fairness.
The opportunity for the fairness products companies is provided by the favorable
demographics such as young population, increasing working class population, increasing
female working population. The growing opportunity most of the FMCG and MNCs entered
the fairness products segment with their respective products.

Industry structure is that which constitute industry attractiveness are industry potential,
industry attractiveness, industry profitability, industry barriers. It can be explained by porter’s
five forces analysis. There are huge brand names such as L’Oreal, Revlon, Nivea etc. are
strongly competing for market share. The fairness industry has a medium level of threats to
new entrants. It has a medium level of threats to new entrants. Segment attractiveness is one
that offers solid current or long-term profit potential for the business. It is important to note
that the industry has been growing at an annual rate of almost 20%.

Fairness cream sales in India has been increasing at a balanced pace, which refers to increase
in the market share of the FMCG products in the Indian market. Over the past 5 years total
demand has grew by 60%. Some of the key players are Hindustan Lever Limited i.e. Godrej –
Fair Glow, HLL – Fair & Lovely, Emami’s – fair & Handsome, Cavin Kare’s – Fairever, etc.
Marketing in a fairness industry is a continuous change of strategy as such that any cosmetic
company stands very much being the competition they don’t change their way of marketing,
brand, service, packaging and plays important role in case of product. The fairness product
brand follows competitive pricing strategy in its marketing mix. This strategy is generally
used when different companies are selling products of similar kind with almost same
characters.

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References
 
 
Bhattacharya,  P.  (2006).  Indian  cosmetic  markwt  Ready  for  big  leap,  global  cosmetic  
industry.  174  (1),  42-­‐44.  
Isoraite,  M.  (2016).  Marketing  mix  theoritical  Aspects.  Marketing  mix  theoritical  Aspects  
,  4  (6).  
Harrigan,  P.,  &  Hulbert,  B.  (2011).  the  journal  of  marketing  education.  The  new  
marketing  DNA  as  a  model  for  marketing  education  ,  253-­‐272.  
Jothi,  A.  (2015).  A  study  on  infuence  of  demographic  factors  on  customers  preference  
towards  cosmetic  products  ,  39-­‐48.  
Mohanty,  D.  (2012).  International  journal  of  Contemporary  Business  Studies.  A  case  
study  on  fairness  cream  ,  3.  
Porter,  M.  (1980).  Competitive  Strategy.    
Sarkar,  P.  (2017).  Ethical  norms  in  fairness  cream  advertisement.  Ethical  norms  in  
fairness  cream  advertisement  ,  7/  Num:  2  (Dec  2016).  

 
   
     

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