MxMIndia

Tag: Nitin Paranjpe

  • The much-anticipated second edition of the IAA Leadership Awards was held at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Mumbai on Saturday

    Punit Goenka, Nitin Paranjpe, Punit Goenka, Shah Rukh Khan, others win honours at IAA Leadership Awards

    By Correspondent

     

    Nitin Paranjpe, who was until last recently CEO and Managing Director of Hindustan Unilever and is now President (Homecare) at parent Unilever, was awarded CEO of the Year at the much-anticipated second edition of the IAA Leadership Awards held at Grand Hyatt in Mumbai on Saturday.

     

    Zee MD and CEO Punit Goenka was named Media Person of the Year and Shashi Sinha, CEO of IPG Mediabrands was Media Agency Head of the Year. R Balki of Lowe Lintas was Creative Agency Head of the Year. Ramesh Narayan was presented with the Hall of Fame award while Dr Gulab Kothari and Arnab Goswami were Editor and News Anchor of the Year respectively. Uttar Pradesh governor, B L Joshi presented the awards.

     

    The event witnessed the presence of the who’s who of the Marketing, Advertising and Media industry as they competed against each other to win the coveted awards.

     

    The very successful awards night saw winners emerge from across 21 categories:

    Speaking on the occasion Srinivasan Swamy, President IAA India and VP-development, IAA Asia Pacific, and chairman, RK Swamy BBDO said, “While management is about doing things right, leadership is about doing the right things; Today I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to all the winners who have outdone themselves this year as well as every nominee for showing what leadership means. I am glad to see another successful year at the event this year and look forward to many more years to come.”

     

    This year’s edition of the IAA Leadership Awards was presented by general entertainment channel Colors. Speaking about this initiative, Raj Nayak, CEO, Colors, said: “To recognize, encourage and celebrate excellence in leadership – that is what we have done at the IAA, a vibrant association which I have had the opportunity to lead. I would like to thank IAA for giving us the honour to be associated with this event, and congratulate the winners for their outstanding contribution towards the growth of the industry. We look forward to growing this association with the IAA year-on-year and applaud the hardwork of individuals on this national platform.”

     

    The awards presentation was followed by a celebratory party hosted by Mr Nayak and the Colors team.

     

    IAA Leadership Awards

    Categories

    Winners
    CEO of The Year Nitin Paranjpe, Hindustan Unilever
    Media Person of The Year Punit Goenka, Zee Network
    News Anchor of the Year Arnab Goswami, Times Now
    Editor of the Year Dr. Gulab Kothari, Rajasthan Patrika
    Hall of Fame Ramesh Narayan
    Brand Ambassador OF The Year: Male Shah Rukh Khan
    Brand Ambassador OF The Year: Female Priyanka Chopra
    Media Agency Head of the Year Shashi Sinha, IPG Mediabrands
    Creative Agency Head of the Year R. Balkrishnan, Lowe Lintas & Partners
    Marketer of the Year: Banking Kartik Jain, HDFC Bank
    Marketer of the Year: Insurance Sanjay Tripathy, HDFC Standard Life Insurance
    Marketer of the Year: Auto: 2 Wheeler Anil Dua, Hero Moto Corp
    Marketer of the Year: Auto Passenger Vehicles Rakesh Srivastava, Hyundai Motor India
    Marketer of the Year: Mobile Services Shashi Shankar, Idea
    Marketer of the Year: Mobile Devices Shubhodip Pal, Micromax
    Marketer of the Year: FMCG: Personal Care, Laundry and Toiletries Arun Srinivas, Hindustan Unilever
    Marketer of the Year: FMCG: Foods & Beverages Rajesh V.L., ITC Limited Foods Division
    Marketer of the Year: FMCG: Consumer Durables Sandeep Tiwari, Samsung India Electronics
    Marketer of the Year: Home Improvement Kumar Pillay, Ultratech Cement
    Marketer of the Year: Household Products Sonali Dhawan, Proctor & Gamble
    Marketer of the Year: Ecommerce Ravi Vora, Flipkart.com
  • Sales growth of more than a dozen key consumer goods categories in the June quarter was lower than both the previous quarter and the year-earlier period

    FMCG majors feel the pinch as consumers cut spending

    By Sagar Malviya

     

    It’s official: rising prices and slowing growth are making Indians check their household shopping list from soaps, shampoos and skincare to packaged groceries and food items.

     

    Market researcher Nielsen’ data shows that sales growth of more than a dozen key consumer goods categories in the June quarter was lower than both the previous quarter and the year-earlier period, more than one industry insider said.

     

    Overall FMCG sales grew 11% in value terms in the June quarter, down from 12% in March and 17% in June last year, they said, quoting Nielsen data. Consumer goods companies confirmed the slowdown in demand. “The overall FMCG sector is seeing a slowdown in the last few quarters from double-digit growth few quarters ago to around 2% volume growth now,” Harsh Mariwala, chairman at Marico, said.

     

    Combined sales of companies including Hindustan Unilever, Dabur, Godrej Consumers, Emami, Marico, GSK Consumer, Nestle India, ITC and Colgate India grew 13% during the quarter ended June, down from 15% a year earlier and 22% in June quarter 2011. Mr Mariwala expressed hope that good monsoon rains and a boost in manufacturing will check the slide.

     

    “With a good monsoon and boost in manufacturing sector, we don’t expect demand to deteriorate further,” he said. With the rupee on free fall, however, not all share Mr Mariwala’s optimism. Analysts say the Indian consumer industry fundamentals are deteriorating and the tailwinds that supported the sector during the last couple of years are waning.

     

    “With sharp rupee depreciation and essential commodities like crude and palm oil firming up, the headroom for gross margin improvement looks a lot smaller in second half than in the first half of this fiscal year,” a JP Morgan report dated August 19 said.

     

    According to data, growth in overall non-food segment slowed to 13% in the year ended June from 15% in the year ended March. The biggest fall was in the male grooming segment where sales growth almost halved to 6% in June from 11% in March.

     

    Nitin Paranjpe

    Nitin Paranjpe, CEO of the country’s largest FMCG firm Hindustan Unilever, while declaring the company’s June quarter numbers last month had said, “There is a general slowdown across categories. We are witnessing a significant slowdown from early 2013 to the middle of 2013.” To overcome the slowdown in demand, companies are looking to increase or at least maintain their margins.

     

    “For the first time, we are offering incentives to our sales force to sell higher margin products and have constructed three buckets – gold for high margin, silver for medium margins and bronze are lower margin,” Sunil Duggal, CEO of Dabur, said. Salespeople get more money if they sell gold products.

     

    Companies with mass-market portfolios hope that consumers will continue to buy staples, even as they check spends on discretionary or premium products.

     

    Vivek Gambhir, managing director of Godrej Consumer Products, for example, said a lot of the growth slowdown has been at the premium end, and hence his company has been insulated by overall slowdown thus far.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2013, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish

     

  • Consumers have more choices but less to choose from, said the HUL chief in his keynote address at the Goafest 2013 Conclave, giving the ad industry a wakeup call to win back the trust of the people

    Paradox of choice is the issue: Nitin Paranjpe

    By A Correspondent

     

    It is time to listen, as the Goafest 2013 Conclave’s theme says. Hindustan Unilever MD and CEO Nitin Paranjpe did exactly that in preparation for his keynote speech. He asked his team to go out and ask TV viewers what they felt about advertisements, and to his dismay, he said, he discovered that practically everyone said they found ads an unwelcome intrusion.

     

    Thinking about what is troubling the industry today, Mr Paranjpe said, he had come to realize that the issues facing it are such that merely expecting agencies to fix them is not possible. We have to look at the larger advertising and marketing function, he said. He pointed out that the basic function advertising serves, that is, the human need to stand out, has not changed – the techniques and the medium have changed. The Why remains the same, the How has been transformed, he said.

     

    The consumer today is faced with the paradox of choice, Mr Paranjpe said. Consumers have never had it so good. There are lots of choices, yet there is little to choose between them. Differentiation is tougher, and the pressure makes for desperate attempts to stand out, leading to meaningless differences.

     

    In the days of Doordarshan, he said, there was no choice of channels and communication vehicles were limited to either the Hindi feature film or Chitrahaar, both sure ways of reaching one’s audience. Content was so bad that people waited for ads, he remarked. From that single channel to over 700 channels today, audience fragmentation has meant that it is difficult to reach people. Hence the bombardment of people with messages. Despite this, however, they remember nothing.

     

    People are not interested in seeing our ads, Mr Paranjpe said, and advertisers are getting away with it because consumers do not really have much choice. But once the choice comes, he said, people will not watch ads. The cost of digital video recorders is getting lower, and with a DVR in every home, it is unacceptable that we do nothing about it, he said.

     

    The impact of social media

    Mr Paranjpe said social is transforming word-of-mouth, enabling it to become dramatically more powerful. The proverbial six degrees of separation between individuals has now shrunk to four degrees.

     

    He said the digital revolution calls into question the precept that advertisers are the creators of content. Now, the ability of every individual to create and share content is catastrophic for marketers. In some cases the assumption that the marketer has control over social content is a mistaken one, as social media users take ownership of the content, make up their own minds about it, and it can even backfire on the marketer. He cited the case of the Vodafone #mademesmile hashtag campaign, which resulted in embarrassment when questions of tax evasion were shared using the company’s own hashtag.

     

    Brands cannot control content any more, and in such a scenario how do we brand, how do we market? Mr Paranjpe said marketers need to profoundly rethink branding. “Yesterday was creating a myth around branding. Myths which are not founded on truth cannot survive. Today and tomorrow, branding is about finding the truth and sharing it,” he said.

     

    Winning back the trust of the people is key, he said. “If people trust you, they will buy, recommend, share. Why don’t we do that?”

     

    Touching on consistency, Mr Paranjpe said creativity is remarkably powerful but if it is not consistent, there is no coherence and the brand loses equity. “We underestimate the role, the power of consistency,” he said, adding that there is no disconnect between creativity and the ability to create value. “We only assume that discipline kills creativity.”

     

    Giving purpose and meaning to advertising

    The context around us today, Mr Paranjpe said, is that trust and confidence in business is at its lowest. Business cannot survive if we don’t address this. Events such as Occupy Wall Street will bring down brands, companies, governments if we don’t act responsibly.

     

    Consumers today are more aware and concerned about big issues, but feel helpless to do anything about them. There are challenges and opportunities for brands here, Mr Paranjpe said, as a brand is basically a product to buy and an idea to buy into. Smaller brands are doing this, and big brands have to follow suit. It is possible to run a commercial enterprise while doing good, he said, and consumers who feel for the cause will gravitate to the brand which empowers them to do something about it.

     

    The situation today is that people are cynical about brands, and about advertising and marketing. Brands have an opportunity to change this, he concluded.

     

    Photograph: Shailesh Mule/Fotocorp

     

  • The two-day Indian Magazine Congress which begins in Mumbai today is a must-attend event for stakeholders

    Growth mantras beckon @ IMC 2013

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    By the time you read this, the seventh edition of the Indian Magazine Congress (IMC) would have been be kicked off by AIM president Tarun Rai. The two-day conference has been organised by the Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) and is the most significant gathering of the magazine industry in India. The attendees include people from the Indian magazine fraternity including representatives from the Ministry of Information, Magazine Publishers, Media owners, Marketers and advertisers, Media planners and buyers, Magazine Editors, Brand Managers, Circulation specialists, Magazine Distributors, Researchers, Media and financial consultants and Industry analysts.

     

    Tarun Rai

    According to recent IRS figures, the magazine industry is definitely facing tough times. However, Mr Rai opined, “All media is facing tough times. In fact, as per the latest Madison Media Outlook, magazines have done better than projected by showing a growth of 4.5 percent over 2012. And yes, publishers do recognize that the economic environment of the country is tough and advertising spending will be more conservative.”

     

    The theme ‘Magazines: New Directions. New Opportunities’ will explore the digital opportunities for the magazine industry. Mr Rai said, “Digital is the big opportunity for magazines. We have now more vehicles to take our content to people. More easily. The challenge, though, is to quickly learn to repurpose our content for digital. To equip our people through training to best exploit the digital opportunities. To recruit new talent where needed.”

     

    The line-up of speakers is as impressive as the theme itself.

     

    “Yes, we do have a great line-up of speakers. We have very senior professionals from media, marketing and creative. We also have 15 international speakers who have flown down specially for the IMC. The delegates cannot afford to miss any session starting with the opening address of Nitin Paranjpe,” said Mr Rai.

     

    The speakers include names such as Chris Llewellyn, President and CEO, FIPP, UK; Peter A. Kreisky, Chairman, Kreisky Media Consultancy, USA; Andrew Duck, Managing Director, Audience Media, Vietnam; Fabrizio D’Angelo, MD, Hubert Burda Media, Germany; Mike Lovell, International Director, Meredith Corporation, USA; Sandra Gotelli, International Publisher and Head of Licensing, Mondadori, Italy; Torsten Klein, President, Gruner + Jahr International, Germany.

     

    MxM India brings to you the profile of the not-to-be-missed-speakers.

     

    Chris Llewellyn has been serving as Federation of the Periodical Press (FIPP) president and CEO in the organisation since 2009. He has been a member of the FIPP Management Board since 1999, and served as its chairman between 2005 and 2007. FIPP is the worldwide magazine media association that represents companies and individuals involved in the creation, publishing or distribution of quality content, in whatever form, by whatever channel, and in the most appropriate frequency, to defined audiences of interest.

     

    Peter Kreisky founded Kreisky Media after being at the helm of Mercer Management Consulting’s worldwide media and entertainment practice for 10 years, preceded by a career at McKinsey & Company and CBS Inc. His experience spans Europe and North America, in just about every sector of the media industry. The Kreisky Media Consultancy provides corporate strategy and management advisory services for top management, focused exclusively on the media and entertainment industry: magazine, book, and newspaper publishing, digital media, the Internet, television, music, motion pictures, information, advertising, media retailing.

     

    Audience Media is an innovative company offering the latest multi-media marketing and communication solutions to clients around the world, including Photo Review Australia, BBC Good Food and PrintNZ. The company was founded in 2011 by Andrew Duck, Rolf Rohwer and Mike Coker. Audience Media intends to stay at the forefront of developing technologies.

     

    Fabrizio D’Angelo, head of Hubert Burda International, has also served as FIPP’s Vice-Chairman. In February 2012, Hubert Burda Media pooled its international print activities in a new umbrella organization, Burda International (BI). It was then that Burda CEO Dr. Paul-Bernhard Kallen appointed Fabrizio d’Angelo as Managing Director. However, Mr. d’Angelo has been in charge of BHI since December 2008.

     

    Mike Lovell leads the licensing of Meredith’s leading consumer brands outside the U.S. Meredith is the leading media and marketing company serving American women. It is the industry leader in creating content in key consumer interest areas such as home, family, health and wellness and self-development and uses multiple distribution platforms – including print, television, online, mobile, tablets, and video – to give consumers content they desire and to deliver the messages of its advertising and marketing partners.

     

    Sandra Gotelli of Mondadori, Italy has been managing the International editions of Mondadori Magazines since 2006, which includes: 15 Grazia editions (7 weeklies, 1 fortnighly, 9 monthlies); Casaviva: 7 editions, Interniand Sale & Pepe. Mondadori is one of Europe’s top publishing companies.

     

    European Gruner + Jahr International (G+J) publishes close to 285 print titles and accompanying homepages in over 20 countries, has printing plants in Germany and the United States, and owns professional websites. In 2012, the group bought India-based startup SeventyNine, a mobile media distribution and analytics platform for Rs 38 crore. In January 1998, Torsten-Joern Klein joined G+J AG, where he was named Publishing Director of Berliner Zeitung and Berliner Kurier, published by Berlin Newspaper Publishing Group. From 2000 through the end of 2003, Torsten- Joern Klein was Managing Director of Berlin Newspaper Publishing Group, responsible for all of Gruner + Jahrs newspaper operations in Berlin. He was appointed member of the G+J Executive Board in January 2004. He is President of G+J International and has the responsibility for all magazines and online activities of Gruner + Jahr outside Germany.

     

    On the one hand we have BusinessWorld turning fortnightly, and on the other Discovery Channel Magazine announcing its entry into India. This may be the right time to take home received knowledge, and follow it to grow and progress.

     

  • He is the only CEO in the past two decades to be recommended by the board for a second stint

    HUL on a roll with Nitin Paranjpe at wheel

    By Kala Vijayraghavan & Sagar Malviya

     

    When Nitin Paranjpe took over at the helm of Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) in April 2008 at 44, he became the youngest chief executive to head the Anglo-Dutch consumer products giant’s Indian operations. Now Mr Paranjpe has another one for the record books – he is the only CEO in the past two decades to be recommended by the board for a second stint.

     

    The man, who joined HUL way back in 1987 as a management trainee, has been reappointed managing director & CEO for another five years beginning April 2013. The longest serving head of HUL was Ashok Ganguly, who was chairman from 1980-1990.

     

    Of course, there is little guarantee that Mr Paranjpe would continue as CEO till 2018, what with previous CEOs – from Keki Dadiseth to MS Banga – going on to assume larger responsibilities at the parent company, during their stints.

     

    Paranjpe’s imminent second stint is just what the doctor – Unilever CEO Paul Polman – ordered. In 2010, Mr Polman, the first outsider to head the $40-billion consumer goods giant, mandated longer tenures for the top and middle management. Polman’s directive was to ensure greater organisational stability while tackling increasing competition and business volatility. The CEO’s view was that management stability would ensure quicker decision-making and accountability.

     

    That’s certainly been the case at HUL; and those benefits have translated in creation of shareholder value. When Mr Paranjpe took charge in 2008, the HUL stock was quoting around 230 levels. Today it is 87per cent higher at a little over 430; the benchmark Sensex has fallen 2.8per cent during the same period.

     

    Over the past two years, Mr Paranjpe added some 4,500 crore – quite literally the size of some mid-sized rivals – to its top line by increasing sales from Rs17,873 crore in fiscal 2010 to Rs22,394 in fiscal 2012 – a compounded annual growth of 12 per cent. “We want to set goals that are so audacious that, even if they are missed, the performance is still heroic,” Mr Paranjpe told ET.

     

    “There is an obsessive focus on the consumer that goes beyond just slogans and ensures execution. We are now gearing the organisation to future-proof the business through innovation, improving product quality, dramatically raising execution capability and ruthlessly focusing on costs,” he added. And then there’s the supply chain where the CEO says he “wants to be the best at both ends of the market, the top and bottom. There will be no compromises at any end.”

     

    The relentless consumer focus – the shareholder cannot be ahead of the consumer, avers Paranjpe – manifests itself in initiatives like Mission Bush Fire, an employee-led market execution and customer interaction exercise initiated in 2010 to get the home & personal care giant to connect with the market place. HUL CEO Nitin Paranjpe and every member of the company’s management committee participate in this project to get direct feedback on how HUL brands are faring.

     

    “Bush Fire has resulted in a 40 per cent spike in sales in stores wherever the initiative has been implemented, according to internal company estimates. And HUL managers say Paranjpe has led from the front. “There is nothing he expects us to do that he has not done himself. Nitin is out on the road making customer visits almost 15 days a month,” said a senior company official.

     

    Analysts are calling it a dream run. Abneesh Roy, associate director, institutional equities, research, Edelweiss Securities said: “HUL is in a growth phase with Paranjpe leading from the front with vigour and stability. His reappointment is a move by Unilever to reward his performance and execution capabilities as CEO.”

     

    HUL’s sales have been growing not just by value over the past several quarters, but also consistently recorded volume growth that is ahead of the market. Despite a spurt in input costs and aggressive spends in ramping up distribution, HUL has maintained its 2008 operating margin at 14.1 per cent during the last fiscal year.

     

    Company watchers say Mr Polman too deserves credit for HUL’s outperformance as it was the global CEO who injected a sense of aggression and put in place a performance culture across Unilever globally by linking rewards to results. For instance, it was Mr Polman’s decision to hike variable pay to as much as 50 per cent of total salary from 30 per cent as this would lead to hefty bonuses for those who deliver and penalise those who don’t. “We want to strengthen our performance culture and be intolerant of incompetence. Consumer centricity must be a non-negotiable in business and so we have put a lot of pressure internally so that we delight externally,” said Mr Paranjpe.

     

    Source: The Economic Times
    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

     

  • Hindustan Unilever's shift to personal products after soaps and detergents

    Lever wants more lather from personal care products

    By Kala Vijayraghavan & Sagar Malviya

     

    In the 1920s and 1930s as radio caught the imagination of Americans, Procter & Gamble (P&G) moved in to sponsor programmes, giving birth to the term ‘soap opera.’ Over the decades, P&G even began producing soap operas. Suddenly something changed a year ago. The maker of Tide detergent and Ivory soap discovered Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and its countless cousins. By the end of 2010, P&G announced that it had bid goodbye to its association with soap operas and instead embraced social media.

     

    Back home, P&G’s global rival Unilever too is moving along similar lines. It’s not as if the Indian affiliate, Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), is washing its hands off soaps. Rather, soaps and detergents are no longer the biggest winners for HUL. The new hero: the personal care portfolio – from Pond’s cream to Dove shampoo – which now accounts for three fifths of profits as against two fifths eight years ago.

     

    At 47%, soaps and detergents still contribute the most to the top line but only a third of profits. Personal products (PP) account for 28% of sales and that will keep increasing in the years ahead on the back of new product launches, new category creations and brand extensions. Consumer analysts at Standard Chartered Research expect “continuous launches in the fast growing personal care segment such as Vaseline for men, Pond’s Gold radiance, Dove hair care range to increase PP’s contribution to 32 per cent in 2013.”

     

    That shift will be even more pronounced in the years to come. For two reasons: Unilever’s CEO Paul Polman wants three fourths of the global operations’ sales to come from developing markets. And most of that growth is going to come from health and personal products as awareness levels and exposure to new lifestyles increase in countries like India and China.

     

    What’s more, soaps and detergents are well penetrated categories where growth rates have to taper off sooner than later. Cut-throat competition on price with P&G and a rush of domestic brands will also play its part in slowing growth in this segment. On the other hand, penetration levels in personal care and packaged foods are still in low double digits.

     

    “Our strategy is consumer-led,” explains HUL CEO Nitin Paranjpe in an emailed response. Growing affluence levels, a younger population and changing aspirations and attitudes towards consumption are driving growth in personal care and packaged foods, Paranjpe points out. “Our investments in these segments reflect the changing consumption structure in India.”

     

    Hair care or shampoo is clearly HUL’s mainstay in PP. With brands like Clinic Plus, Sunsilk and Dove, the consumer products giant has a share of just under 46% of the shampoo market. The other pillars of growth are skin care where, in the premium fairness category in urban areas, HUL has almost 38% of the market in the bag.

     

    Meantime, HUL has also been entering other categories. Over the past year, for instance, it extended the Dove brand into face wash and launched the Sure brand of antiperspirant deodorants for men. Fair & Lovely(FAL) has also been extended to FAL Multi Vitamin Face Wash and to the Anti Marks Eraser Pen.

     

    Bringing in international brands like Sure is one part of the game plan. Extending some of HUL’s timeworn brands – including those of soaps and detergents – is the other prong. For instance, mass soap brand Hamam can now be seen in the hand wash segment; and the Rin detergent bar has been stretched into fabric whitening. And one of HUL’s oldest brands Vaseline has found its way into male grooming segments such as skin cream, face and body wash.

     

    In a recent internal presentation, marketers let on that HUL has a 30% share in the hair conditioner category worth 27 million euros, which is growing at 40% annually. Business in the face cleansing segment has doubled in a year through deployment of a portfolio of brands including Ponds, Pears, Lakme and Fair & Lovely. The presentation also made the point that “in the case of premium skin care products we are focusing on premium skin lightening and anti-ageing with Ponds, Vaseline in hand, body wash and men’s grooming.”

     

    If Paranjpe and the HUL top brass are keen to pump up the PP volume, it’s also because profit margins are higher there. Analysts reckon that operating margins in PP are 25% whilst in soaps and detergents they have declined from highs of 14% a few yeas ago to 7.5-9% now.

     

    Rivals, however, sound a note of caution. “The personal care industry was seen as a high margin business, but the recent spike in raw material prices and the disruptive competition in the market have seen margin profile of this business change completely,” says Dabur India CEO Sunil Duggal. Analysts reckon that margins in PP would have come down by 150 basis points over the past 3-4 quarters.

     

    Adds Harsh Agarwal, Director, Emami: “There is a misnomer that the personal care segment has very high margins. But it may not be so in mass-priced products where gross margins depend purely on the brand’s pricing power.”

     

    Just like in soaps and detergents, HUL too has to reckon with intensifying competition in PP. Emami with brands like Fair & Handsome, which is a market leader in skin care for males with a 60%share. In 2010-11, Dabur’s skin care portfolio reported a near 17% growth led by robust growth across the Fem, Gulabari and Uveda brands.

     

    And a clutch of international cosmetic and personal care majors from L’Oreal to Shiseido are keeping HUL on its toes in higher end segments. Still, with relatively new-found categories face wash, hair conditioners and anti-ageing creams opening up, HUL may well be looking at a fairer and lovelier in the road ahead.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2011, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved