'Dream to hope'

The money is where the market is - and beauty product advertisers are creating region-specific ads and promotions for television audiences.

"Westward ahoy," may be the buzzword for the Indian economy but its giant beauty industry is creating bylanes into the regional market with almost 24 per cent of the ads going to the regional channels.

And the increasing purchasing power of the regional market is ensuring a steady demand-supply relation between the beauty products and consumers. What's interesting, the advertisers are not restricting to dubbing their ads in different languages anymore, but are even creating region-specific ads.

The beauty industry in India is growing like never before, and with it is growing the ad volume in television for the sector. Compared to the previous year, 2006 saw a 49 per cent increase on television ad volumes while regional channels were dominated by beauty product ads.

Prasoon Joshi, chairman, McCann Erickson India, which handles L'Oreal, says, "The budget for advertising has certainly gone up and at times we are approached to create region-specific ads, especially for the south and east. I think advertising has also started moving towards real people, from dream to hope. It's aspirational and believable."

The growth in regional advertising in terms of number of ads and airtime can be attributed to numerous factors. And yes, aspiration is one of them. This, coupled with awareness and readily available liquid money, has made the smaller cities more brand and fashion conscious.

The retail boom is another factor contributing to increasing regional ads. "With retail, primarily malls, moving into these markets, it gives the advertisers a wonderful method of showcasing their products. So, it makes absolute business sense to get into robust marketing communication in different regions," says Siddhartha Mukherjee, director communications, TAM India Research.

The beauty product market is also piggybacking on the fashion apparel industry, which is doing well in the regional market and creating a demand for beauty products.

However, media planner Hiren Pandit of Mindshare believes that the beauty companies may not target their top-of-the line segment towards the regional market.

"The question really is if the regional market is opening up to these beauty products. I think it is but at the same time the regional market will redefine beauty as per its own needs."

While L'Oreal was the leader in terms of number of ads, Paras Pharmaceuticals came second and Hindustan Lever finishing third.

Shashi Sinha, CEO, Lodestar Universal, media planners for L'Oreal, says, "Every beauty product company is targeting a region where it is most in demand. So, for some it may be the south while for others it may be the east. The beauty market is booming and overall spends are going up, on which account the regional advertising is witnessing growth."

Though experts state that national and regional, both are growing, they also agree that regional ads might be the next option for beauty product companies that want to capture a larger share of the market.