Joined L'Oreal India as General Manager Sales in January 2009, Satyaki Ghosh has gained the position of Director of the Consumer Products Division in 2012 with his hard work and dedication. In his current role, Ghosh is responsible for managing key brands Garnier, L'Oreal Paris and Maybelline. He has a good hold on his responsibility areas including marketing, sales and supply chain. Here is couple of key points highlighted by Ghosh in areas where adequate growth opportunities are still waiting to be untapped by beauty & wellness professionals and help you understand the present scenarios of the trade well.
Female consumers dominating wellness space
It’s the SHE (female consumers), we all are trying to woo. Among the retailers who are trying to woo the SHE, the happiest person is the brand like L'Oréal, which is only marketing to the SHE at large, almost 90 per cent. SHE is important. Oils remain important for companies like us do on conditioner. We want to sell face washes, but soaps keep selling. We are in the 21st century, modern consumer ups in modern trade, e-retailing is becoming big, but traditional retail remains and traditional beliefs remain. So that’s the big thing, premium brands are growing at the same time, small brands are growing.
Market revolution by sachets
India is a unique market where a small pack does not mean non-favourite. It means that I can afford it and it’s within my outlay. Outlay is the key here and it’s not about big brands making big impact. So, just to summarise what we say that premiumisation at the same time sachetization is important. Hair colour used to be a hair dye market, powder dye. L'Oréal came with various brands, this and that, revolutionized the brim market and then, Godrej created the hair colour sachet. It took our sleep away in L'Oréal. It changed the market, because consumer could get the same product at a very little price point. SHE is very comfortable with sachet and we could see brands like Dove, L'Oréal Paris getting into sachets at the same time, Indian brands challenging them at pack format strategy.
Potent male grooming market
Men’s Grooming in India is a $1 billion market, in US it is $33 billion market. Obviously the point is the opportunity is big, to go from $1billion to $33 billion. The point is, some years ago, there was no male grooming market, we were using creams available on the dressing table. Emami created Fair&Handsome and then Garnier created face washes for men, rolling success. So, people move from soaps, the young consumers’ first move and then the balance moved, but this market keeps going faster than nail-some number verses the female market. The male grooming keeps growing faster and new players are coming in like Himalaya, Ponds, Nivea, some are international competitors, some are revered Indian competition, but everybody is entering in this market. So how did it started for L'Oréal? It was a global trend. There were men grooming products. Our biggest brand is L'Oréal Paris and it was under L'Oréal men expert. L'Oréal Paris in India is almost luxury. The luxury division of our’s almost does not exist. So we thought, L'Oréal men expert may not be a great idea and we created a men’s section inside Garnier which was more affordable as a brand, and we launched it. The success that we have today of taking a global queue and taking it local, today, Garnier men has been a super success is now going to the US. So can almost say, a reverse innovation happened in this case. There was a trend, we took it, we customized it for India at a price that India could afford and at a formula that was suited to Indian skin and now it is going global.
Impact of digitization on beauty and wellness
Internet started in 2000; it took the country 10 years to get its first 100 million consumers in 2010. Than between 2010 & 2013, another 100 million consumers were target that’s 10 Crore. And if I was speaking at the end of 2013, it was 200 million consumers in one year between 2013-14; the country has added another 100 million consumers. So, you cannot imagine what 2015 could be. There are projections and beyond a point, the infrastructure needs will kick-in, that beyond a point, how many people will get 2G, 3G, 4G what not. But, growth opportunity is huge and am sure infrastructure companies will work on their infrastructure at lease. And the last thing we are seeing, as a company, as a brand is the Rurban (rural+urban) phenomenon as we call it in L'Oréal, it’s the rural consumer who has urban income, in the same catchment area in six years, the income has double. It’s too for every catchment area. It’s not Saket or Bandra that we are talking about, it’s everywhere in the country and that consumer does not have reach to a lot of products and that’s where I think eTailing has an opportunity and that’s where modern retail going out to Tier II, III & IV cities as an opportunity, that’s where brands with distribution and Mom&Pop stores have come out. These are the four key consumer trends that we wanted to talk about. Now, to give you an example of Men’s grooming.
Story of Indian Kajal gaining global demand
It’s nothing to do with global phenomenon, eyes for us has been in religion, in dance, in art, everywhere, and we always had a product called Kajal (kohl), affordable at Rs7 or Rs10 and your Dadi Maa always told you to put a teeka of Kajal on the small kid to avoid devil’s etc. and every woman, if ask, uses make up occasionally. So, what will cosmetic companies will do? You try to create an occasion which can make make-up every day. So you do some business, but of course you try to get a consumer inside and turn it into global phenomena. The Indian team worked with the Paris labs and created the first Rs150 twist-up Colossal Kajal by Maybelline. I think, the rest is history. I think, there was no category and Colossal Kajal has created the category. Now, every brand and their sister has a Kajal, even L'Oréal Paris has, which copied Maybelline because there was an opportunity and why not, but this phenomena is becoming big and L'Oréal launched it in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and in Pakistan, it’s gone to Afghanistan, it’s gone to middle east, it’s gone to middle East, its launched in Turkey with massive success, its launched in Germany and now US is trying to launch it. So that’s the complete Indian consumer inside that went global.
About Digital space
Only 50 per cent of the searches are branded. So, if you are a digital guy here and you are trying to maximize your SCO in Colossal Kajal, than you may not be hitting the right thing. May be you should look at what she needs, her recognition and somehow find the way to get your brand, if you are a brand guy. If you are a retail guy, you are at a right place because if she looks for Kajal, she’ll get it. She has a lot offering to come her way and searches are growing 100 per cent year-on-year.
Technology to integrate marketing campaigns
Earlier, marketing campaigns used to be 95 per cent TV, than print and than in some greatsome outdoors. Now, if you are a marketer, if you are planning a campaign and you don’t have digital there, or if you are a sales person and you don’t have Ecommerce on your site, I think you are missing the big picture. So what we are trying to tell here is, technology will enable, both sense of marketing to reach consumers in a better way in building brands and in selling products.
