'An unconventional product for unconventional people'

BRAND: Hindustan Latex is bullish about its recently launched female condom but the verdict for the pricey product will take some time coming.

Confidom, a female condom launched in India by Hindustan Latex a few months ago, is a revolutionary product "" in essence at least. As the product pitch on www.confidom.com has it "" "It's about choice.

It's about control...It's easy to carry around...". But at Rs 250 for a pack of two, there's only a small segment of the female population which can afford to be empowered with Confidom.

True. And the marketing effort will be concentrated at this small segment "" "SEC A+, 18-35, is the target group for us", says M Ayyappan, chairman and managing director of the company.

Price apart, the newness of the concept of a "female condom" itself may be a barrier. Various studies have indicated that a good 50 per cent of the population in India does not use any modern family-planning aids; also, among those who do, sterilisation, especially of the woman, accounts for more than half.

Condoms come next in prevalence, thanks to the government propaganda. Oral contraceptives rule the market for female contraceptives in the cities, a category that has expanded over the last few years.

Even Today's Vaginal Contraceptive "" a spermicidal gel that uses a similar marketing tack of empowering the woman "" has managed only 5 per cent market penetration.

Right positioning, however, could be the key to Confidom's success. Marketing activities thus have been apportioned a Rs 2.5 crore budget for the first year. From next month, the print and outdoor campaign for the product will be unveiled by RK Swamy BBDO.

"We are promoting it very carefully," says Ayyappan, "not emphasising the promiscuity aspect. Neither are we positioning this as a family-planning tool. This is instead an unconventional product for unconventional people."

The company is targetting sales of half-a-million piecesthis year. Medicine shops, retail chains, beauty parlours "" all the places a modern independent woman goes to "" are on the stock-points list. Now it remains to be seen whether she will go for the product.