Zydus Wellness' Everyuth goes for an image makeover in beauty market

The company looks for a wider berth in the country's burgeoning beauty market, redesigns and rebrands its flagship brand

It is a 27-year old homegrown beauty brand and yet, at a time when the market is bustling with new labels, products and consumers, Everyuth from Zydus Wellness finds itself pushed to the back of the shelf. How does the homegrown beauty label, one of the early adopters of the ‘natural-herbal’ tag, make its way back into the reckoning? 

Everyuth lost its way because the company believes it was not quick enough to understand what customers want. Further, in its core segment of face care products, there was a rush of new brands with a value proposition that customers understood better. 

To get its niche back, Everyuth is going for a complete overhaul, it has changed the design of its pack and is repositioning the brand. “We were always the trendsetters. Hence, for us, to make up for the lost position meant relooking at the brand in a completely new way,” says Tarun Arora, chief operating officer, Zydus Wellness. 

The company says that the brand has grown faster than the overall skin cleanser category that stands at Rs 24 billion today. Zydus clocked more than Rs 5 billion from operations in FY18 with a CAGR of more than 14 per cent (including GST) since FY16. In the face wash segment, which is expected to be around Rs 20 billion, Zydus is among the top 10 players. The current market share by value of Everyuth scrubs stands at 33 per cent, while that of peel-offs stands at 86 per cent, the company claimed. However, these are narrow niches and face-care has evolved into a bigger and more diversified play within the beauty market.

Fixing the target

The beauty business in India is expected to triple in the next five years. So says a report by KPMG that also puts India’s beauty and wellness market at Rs 803.70 billion by 2017-18. India stands to grow twice as fast as the markets in the US and Europe. Of this growth, the herbal beauty business will continue to drive the growth of the beauty industry.
 

Nielson’s 2018 report on “The future of beauty” puts across three trends that are redefining the beauty industry standards. First is the dependence on natural care products. But this natural product varies from one person to another across the world and the “difference” leads to the second trend that is, “personal” choices will likely define the standards in the beauty industry. The third trend, as described in the report, is how well “connected” this industry is now. With more shoppers going online for purchase, sellers and brands have more ways to connect with them one on one. 

“Shopping for beauty products is no longer only about brand loyalty,” says N Chandramouli, CEO, Trust Research Advisory. A brand must evolve with the taste of its audience, he says. 

Everyuth says it is targeting the 18-24 year-old ‘girl-next-door’, earlier the product was aimed at women across all age groups. Describing the target audience, Arora said, “She chooses to follow her heart, is no longer afraid of skin problems, there is no more whining and crying.” 

Defining the brand promise

The company has decided to enhance its natural-herbal promise in the name of the brand and its pack design. Everyuth started as a natural product with fruit-based masks and scrubs, but the message was diluted as it failed to convey its unique positioning strongly and distinctly enough. Arora says there was a need to repackage the product from the perspective of its new audience. The labels will also carry a detailed list of ingredients, thereby following international norms on product disclosure.  

“We have redefined the brand strategy, its architecture. Most players in this segment are playing in niche markets. However, we have always cut across segments,” says Arora. Cutting across segments has its own set of challenges though. As Chandramouli puts it, what may work for an audience in the north, might not work for an audience in the south. “The challenge for any brand now is to address customers at the zone level and not just cater to cities alone,” he adds. 

Talking about the skin lightening market and how it has changed, Chandramouli says that such products that were once sold mostly to urban audiences now find a bigger play in the hinterland. “Fairness creams are no more an urban market. Also, people are no longer conscious about their skin colour, they would rather have high self-esteem, and it is this change that the brands need to capitalise on,” Chandramouli says. 

Brands, especially in the beauty market, must also have a comprehensive digital plan. Zydus says it has tied up with stand-up comedians, forged influencer associations and associated with popular web series to engage customers and not “force them into buying the product,” says Arora. “There has been about a 2 per cent ramp up in e-commerce (offtake of the brand). The brand hopes to touch 3-4 per cent in the next quarter and has lined up products exclusively for e-commerce portals in the next calendar year,” he adds. Overall Everyuth is hoping for an 8 per cent share of the market. But before it can get to the target numbers, it still has some way to go with the group of young consumers on its radar.