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Will Pond's for men find enough takers?

HUL's reported plans to extend the brand to men's grooming could face hurdles in attracting men in the masstige segment with its strong feminine associations

Viveat Susan Pinto Mumbai
Last Updated : Apr 17 2014 | 9:40 PM IST
For years, the Pond's Dreamflower Girl weaved her magic over Indian women conveying the message that if consumers used the brand's talc or creams it would make a world of difference to their skin. This dream that skincare brand Pond's assiduously continues to sell has helped it turn in revenues of Rs 1,000 crore for promoter Hindustan Unilever (HUL). Pond's remains a key product in HUL's portfolio with a range targeting everything from skin cleansing to fairness, beauty and ageing. India also ranks among Ponds' key markets globally, besides Spain, Japan and Thailand, according to industry experts.

So, when reports trickle in about Pond's being extended to the men's domain, it raises the question: Will the transition be easy?

This is not the first time HUL has extended an existing brand to men's personal care. While its top-selling men's deodorant brand Axe now has body washes, it had launched Vaseline men's grooming products and a fairness cream under Fair & Lovely (F&L). While the latter has done well in gaining share in men's fairness product market, Vaseline's range has not fared as well. Pond's and Vaseline are masstige brands where the male consumer is more conscious of the connotations of the brands he flaunts than Fair & Lovely's mass audience. Garnier Men's, again in masstige and an extension of a women's line, too, has not had spectacular growth, and neither has Nivea for Men. While the male grooming category is growing in double-digits, pegged at nearly Rs 4,000 crore per annum, analysts are not completely sure how far extensions into the men's space for Pond's will work.

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"Pond's has been known as a feminine brand, and I am not sure whether one can take a feminine product into the men's domain because there are very different set of attributes that you attach to a male-skewed product," says Harish Bijoor, chief executive officer, Harish Bijoor Consults. "Brands have a brand language and tinkering with it would mean upsetting the equity it enjoys with its core set of consumers," he says.

HUL is said to be mulling the launch of a men's face wash and moisturiser under Ponds. Both segments remain small in the overall men's grooming space with deodorants, fairness creams and shaving products still calling the shots.

Sector analysts say that if HUL can successfully navigate the challenge of not hurting the core brand equity, then Pond's' extension into the men's space could work. "Products such as face wash and moisturisers are not completely out of place when speaking of Ponds ' core promise of beauty. Men today are as conscious of how they look as women, and as long as Pond's manages to be relevant to men, then I think, its extensions into the male grooming space should work," says Gautam Duggad, vice-president, research (FMCG & Retail), Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Brand experts point out that most products have a point of elasticity beyond which a company cannot extend it. "You can play around only to the extent the brand has the necessary space available, beyond which it can be detrimental," points out Bijoor.

But the flip side is that creating new brands for every new category can be risky, say analysts, with the cost of creation being steep, not to mention that managing a host of brands can be cumbersome. "There are companies that have a plethora of brands, but they have the wherewithal to manage it," says Duggad. "Despite this, companies still abide by the principle of umbrella brands and sub-brands under it in a bid to leverage the equity that the core brand enjoys," he says.

In male grooming, HUL is not the only one to take the mother ship into multiple areas. In the last one year, Emami extended its Fair & Handsome fairness cream into face wash (leads in men's skincare). Similarly, Procter & Gamble took its popular Head & Shoulders shampoo into the men's domain with a male-centric variant. Marico is keen to expand its male grooming range, based on the knowhow it has gained from acquired brands across geographies (over 25 countries). For example, it is bringing product knowledge gained from Vietnam to its Indian acquisition Set Wet. The company already has a range of deodorants, hair gels and hair waxes under Set Wet and is expected to look at more grooming products such as body sprays, according to industry sources.

Should HUL launch its range of Pond's men's grooming products, it has to be seen whether men take to it as easily as they have to its traditional Pond's talc range.

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First Published: Apr 17 2014 | 9:40 PM IST

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