Elasticity charge

Lever hopes to position Pond's as an advanced skincare specialist.

For decades, Pond's in India has been popularly associated with talcum powder and cold cream, an association that Hindustan Lever, the brand's marketer, has tried gently altering in the past, and is now trying again.

Well, a little. Towards the end of May, the company widened its Pond's International offer basket, aimed at the market's upper end, to include products that meet specific needs.

Ashok Venkatramani, vice-president, skincare, Hindustan Lever, reasons that the time is just about appropriate. The upper-end Indian has high disposable income, sufficient exposure to international brands and trends, and a growing willingness to spend on advanced skincare solutions.

The company has launched three new product lines: Botanical Hydration, Age Solution and Double White, all aimed at women in the 25-45 age bracket, and with clear usage instructions. Double White, for example, has separate products for day and night application.

At present, these products retail through 100 outlets in 14 cities, which Venkatramani says will be doubled over the next few months.

The bulk of the promotional spend, he adds, is directed towards point-of-purchase (POP) displays and so on, with some advertising in premium magazines for added exposure.

This gels well with the idea of direct customer engagement, being pursued through a team of beauty advisors at Pond's retail counters who recommend solutions after making an analysis of the customer's skin tone, type, melanin content and other attributes. The company claims that this is the first time something of this sort is being undertaken on this scale.

To some extent, it also keeps niche skincare solution providers from laying claim to the specialised skincare market. The recent spurt in upper-end consumption of such imported brands as Neutrogena may be another reason that makes Pond's move so timely.

From the perspective of a mass marketer, however, India's upper-end segment is still in its nascent stages, forming only about Rs 200-300 crore of the overall Rs 2,500 crore spent annually on skincare.

"Going by what has happened in China and other countries in the region," says Venkatramani, "five years down the line, this segment will be really big."