Mary Kay Expands Footprint; Products in India

After successfully marketing and selling its products through its beauty consultants across India’s major cities, Mary Kay is planning to invest more in strengthening its presence in the northeast region of the country in cities such as Dimapur, Kohima, Aizwal, Mizoram, Nagaland and Guwahati. The company seeks to expand its business in these traditionally slow markets in order to empower the women of the region.

According to Hina Nagarajan, Mary Kay’s India manager, the company is also expanding its portfolio of products to meet the growing demand from the region. She adds that Mary Kay expects great things from the growing market in the northeast. In fact, this expansion plan is part of the company’s aim to invest $20 million there in the next five years.

Facial Care Segment Sees Highest Growth

According to a recent report released by research firm RNCOS, facial care is the fastest-growing segment in India’s skin care category. The market research report, “Indian Cosmetic Sector Analysis (2009–2012),” states that increasing awareness about personal grooming will lead the skin care market to register a strong compound annual growth rate of nearly 13% through 2012, reaching $365 million.

The success of this sub-segment is largely driven by the facial creams—including moisturizers, fairness creams, and day and night creams. Although, the demand in this segment has been primarily driven by female consumers, the trend is quickly changing. Increasing influence of media and exposure to the Western culture are bringing about tremendous shift in the mindset of male consumers in India, who are now demanding more skin care products in a bid to enhance their looks. This will further spur the growth of the Indian skin care segment.

In addition, female consumers are increasingly becoming skin savvy and understand the need for targeted products. They have moved from all purpose moisturizers to specific creams that include antiaging and skin-whitening benefits. Further, the target consumer is mostly women 25–45 who are working, have more dispensable income and are ready to experiment in order to look groomed and younger.

In All Fairness

In the past five years the skin care market for men has seen major change. It started with a demand for products that were created specifically for male skin types. Now the market is moving toward a new skin care segment that has traditionally seen women as the target consumer—skin-whitening or skin-lightening products for men are now focus categories for major skin care brands in India.

Nivea was one of the first to enter this market, followed by Indian skin care company Emami. Recently, Garnier, too, launched a Garnier Men range—along with a campaign to push specific skin-lightening products, including moisturizer and face wash, to Indian men. Interestingly, this market segment has potential, as recent data given by Vaseline (which also has launched its skin-whitening range for men) states that about 38% of Indian men use fairness products—demonstrating a high growth potential. The market is expected to grow 25% annually in the next five years, according to a statement from Vaseline.

Vaseline Solves Male Skin Issues

With the men’s grooming segment showing tremendous growth potential, especially skin whitening, Vaseline, which until now has been focussing on body care products for women, has created a new male grooming range branded Vaseline Men. Under this banner, the brand has launched a whitening and spot-erasing cream, Vaseline Men AntiSpots Whitening Face Cream. And instead of pushing the products as simply a skin whitener, Vaseline is telling men that using the cream will help reduce dark spots and patchy skin, leaving behind a clear, fairer skin. The cream aims to reduce five different kinds of dark spots—sun spots, acne spots, pimple marks, freckles and dark patches. The new brand aims to make fairness creams a part of men’s daily grooming regimen.

H2O+ Revives Market Presence

During the past couple of years, marine-based skin care brand H2O+ was having a rough run in the Indian market. The company had to shut several shops and rework its retail strategy. However, the brand decided to strengthen its presence in the summer 2010 by launching a slew of new and innovative skin and hair rejuvenation solutions in the market—launching an array of bath and body products to cater to every skin type in the Indian market. The products range from milk-based shower gels, aquatic shower gels, almond bath products, lemon bath gel, guava flavored beauty products and marine shower creams. In addition, it has also launched hair care products—including marine-based shampoos, shampoos rich in milk constituents, marine and milk conditioner.

Commenting on the Indian market needs, the company’s CEO said that the products have been chosen to meet specific hair care and skin care needs of Indian men and women. To attract the customers afresh, the company plans to offer special deals on select products—especially its range of cosmetics and spa jumbo packs—toward capturing a better market share.

Garnier To Banish Body Odor

In order to compete with Dove and Nivea in the antiperspirant space, Garnier—which primarily markets skin care and hair color solutions in India—has launched an exclusive range of deodorants for men and women in India. The product is enriched with active mineral perlite, which the company claims has five times the absorbing power of talc, resulting in long lasting freshness and protection from odor. The company is focussing on both male and female customers with this range, and has signed in celebrities to promote the products in the market. The Mineral Deodorants line comes in four variants to meet specific needs.

Neutrogena Celebrates First Anniversary

Johnson & Johnson’s Neutrogena brand just marked its first anniversary in the Indian market, finishing a successful year with the help of two leading Indian actresses endorsing two separate ranges. The brand celebrated at its first ever Neutrogena flagship boutique in the world, located in Mumbai, in June. The store provides its customers a unique experience and a range of Neutrogena products to choose from. A qualified, consultant dermatologist, aided by a state-of-the-art Tru Vu system, enabling shoppers to better understand their skin and its needs. This, and the expertise of well-trained beauty advisors, ensures the shopper makes the “right” choice from a wide range of products available to suit different skin types. The Neutrogena Store houses exclusive products, such as the Neutrogena Ageless Intensives and Neutrogena Men ranges, along with widely available and popular Deep Clean, Ultra Sheer and Fine Fairness ranges.

Priyanka Bhattacharya is a writer and journalist covering the beauty, health and wellness industries in India. She is the contributing beauty features writer for several leading Indian women’s magazines.

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