MARKETING PROJECT

HINDUSTAN UNILEVER
HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LI M
LIMITED
FAIR & LOVELY FAIRNESS CREAM

SUBMITTED BY - NITIN
GOEL

9818922272, 9729627852

R.I.M.T
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Study of HUL in the FMCG Industry

Product: Fair and Lovely fairness cream

With the largest market share at 53% in the Indian market for fairness
creams and wide spread penetration in the global market, Fair and Lovely
has made its brand’s presence felt within few years of its inception.

Fair and Lovely fairness cream is a product from the portfolio of HUL,
India’s largest FMCG company with leadership in Home & Personal care
products and Foods & Beverages.

The objective of this study was –

 To study the SWOT matrix for the chosen product

 To study and analyze the behavior of consumers with respect to the

product

 To analyze the gap between the SWOT analysis and the consumer
behavior analysis

 To give recommendations on the basis of the study

 To reveal major insights gained

Methodology –
1. Collecting Primary data – This was done by conducting a market survey in
the form of a questionnaire.

2. Collecting Secondary data – This was done through various sources such
as online customer review and company’s website and marketing
management book by Philip Kotler.

They started there study with the research on various strengths,

weaknesses, opportunities and threats and then linking them in a SWOT
matrix. From the analysis of SWOT matrix they found that Fair and Lovely
had the first mover advantage in the fairness industry. The strong
distribution channel helps it in taking advantage of its opportunities such
as the social mindset of the people about fairness and the increasing
fairness fad. However, at the same time its poor advertising concept
poses a great threat to its credibility in the market.

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Then they carried forward there study by analysing the consumer
behavior by conducting a market survey. From the survey they found that
in case of Fair and Lovely, consumers display habitual buying behavior
and the purchase decision is influenced mostly by self or by the primary
reference group. We also found that the major source of information about
the product was TV advertisements though most of the people disliked
them. Also, Fair and Lovely enjoys a high share of mind among consumers
and is chosen by them primarily because of its quality and as such people
were satisfied with the product.

COMPANY OUTLINE
In the summer of 1888, visitors to the Kolkata harbour noticed crates full
of Sunlight soap bars, embossed with the words "Made in England by
Lever Brothers". With it began an era of marketing branded Fast Moving
Consumer Goods (FMCG).

Today, FMCG major Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) employs 36,000

people, including over 1,350 managers. It is one of the earliest MNCs to
have entered India. It introduced brands like Pears and Vim. Vanaspati
was launched in 1918 and Dalda came to the market in 1937. In 1931,
Unilever set up its first Indian subsidiary, Hindustan Vanaspati
Manufacturing Company, followed by Lever Brothers India Limited (1933)
and United Traders Limited (1935). These three companies merged to
form HLL in November 1956.

HLL formed a 50 : 50 joint venture with the US-based Kimberly Clark

Corporation in 1994, which markets Huggies diapers and Kotex sanitary
pads. HLL has also set up a subsidiary in Nepal, Nepal Lever Limited (NLL),
and its factory represents the largest manufacturing investment in the
Himalayan kingdom. In a historic step, HLL picked up 74 per cent of the
equity of Modern Foods from the Indian government. In 2002, HLL
acquired the government s remaining stake in Modern Foods.

Hindustan Lever Limited is now Hindustan Unilever Limited

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On June 25, 2007 Hindustan Lever Limited obtained approval from the
government for the change of the company name to Hindustan Unilever
Limited.

With this the company’s new corporate identity represented by a new logo
and the new name Hindustan Unilever Limited comes into effect.

The Company believes that the new name provides the optimum balance
between maintaining the heritage of the Company and the synergies of
global alignment with the corporate name of Unilever. Most importantly
the name retains “Hindustan” as the first word in its name to reflect the
Company’s continued commitment to local economy, consumers, partners
and employees. The new logo is symbolic of the company’s mission of
‘Adding Vitality to life’. It comprises of 25 different icons representing the
organization, its brands and the idea of Vitality.

Business

HUL’s business activities are divided into four broad areas:

• Home and personal care (personal wash, fabric wash, home care,
oral care, skin care, hair care, deodorants and talc, colour
cosmetics)
• Foods (tea, coffee, branded staples, culinary products, ice creams,
Modern Foods ranges)
• New Ventures (Hindustan Lever Network, Ayush ayurvedic
products and services, Sangam, Pureit water purifiers)
• Exports (HPC, beverages, marine products, rice)

Brands

HUL s brands are household names across the country. They include
Lifebuoy, Lux, Surf Excel, Rin, Wheel, Fair & Lovely, Pond’s, Sunsilk, Clinic,
Pepsodent, Close-up, Lakme, Brooke Bond, Kissan, Knorr-Annapurna and
Kwality Walls.

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Distribution network

HUL products are manufactured in 80 factories. The operations involve

over 2,000 suppliers and associates. HUL’s distribution network,
comprising about 7,000 redistribution stockists, directly covers the entire
urban population, and about 250 million rural consumers.

FAIR & LOVELY

One of HUL’s super brands Fair & Lovely was launched in 1978, based on
a revolutionary breakthrough in skin lightening technology.

The Hindustan Unilever Research Centre (it is among the largest research
establishments in India's private sector, including pharmaceutical
companies, with facilities in Mumbai and Bangalore) deployed technology,
based on pioneering research in the science of skin lightening to develop

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Fair & Lovely. The formulation is patented. It is a patented and proprietary
formulation, which has been in the market for 25 years.

The brand today offers a substantive range of products, including

Ayurvedic Fair & Lovely Fairness cream, Fair & Lovely Anti-Marks cream,
Fair & Lovely Oil control Fairness Gel, Fair & Lovely for Deep Skin and Fair
& Lovely Fairness Soap. The latest has been the Perfect Radiance, a
complete range of 12 premium skincare solutions from Fair & Lovely.

SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS

At the Company level:

 Skin lightening technology – Hindustan Unilever Limited is the

first company which introduced a fairness cream – Fair and
Lovely - with the special skin lightening technology in India. This
gave HUL first mover benefit.

 Research centre – HUL s research centre is amongst the largest

research establishments in India’s private sector industry. This
enables it to speed up its research activities and develop
technologies based on latest market requirements.

 Strong distribution channel- HUL products are manufactured in

80 factories. The operations involve over 2000 suppliers and

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 associates. HUL s distribution network, comprising about 7,000
redistribution stockists, directly covers the entire urban
population, and about 250 million rural consumers.

 Company image- No one knows India or Indian consumers better

that HUL. Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is India's largest fast
moving consumer goods company, with leadership in Home &
Personal Care Products and Foods & Beverages. HUL s brands,
spread across 20 distinct consumer categories, touch the lives of
two out of three Indians.

 Wide range of products –HUL has time and again come out with
numerous products to cater to large segment of the society such
as fair and lovely anti-marks cream, fair and lovely oil control
fairness gel, fair and lovely facial face wash, fair and lovely under
eye cream, fair and lovely body lotion, fair and lovely fairness
soap etc. Recently it has come out with – Perfect Radiance – it
has a complete range of 12 premium skincare solutions.

At the Product level:

 Large number of Product variants- To cater to the different needs

of its customers Fair and Lovely has come out with numerous
variants of its fairness cream such as ayurvedic Fair and Lovely
fairness cream, Fair and Lovely multi-vitamin fairness cream, Fair
and Lovely anti-marks & blemish fairness cream, Fair and Lovely
skin clarity anti-marks fairness cream etc

 Added advantage of UV protection- Fair & Lovely is formulated

with optimum levels of UV sunscreens and Niacin amide that
provide wide spectrum protection against UV rays of the sun.
Specifically, this patented formulation offers a high UVA
protection, which is more relevant to Asian skin than plain SPF
protection creams sold in the West. Fair & Lovely Fairness Cream
contains no harmful ingredients or bleach, making it safe for all
skin types.

 Market share – Fairness industry accounts or 60% of sales,

bringing nearly $140 million every year. Out of which share of
fair and lovely is 50-70%. It is the largest selling whiteness cream
in the world.

 Overseas penetration – Fair and Lovely has great market

penetration even abroad. It markets its products to 38 countries
worldwide.

 Packaging – In order to serve the needs of the lower middle class

people in terms of making the product affordable for them, fair
and lovely came out with pouches of different sizes. This

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 differential packaging helped it become popular among the new
buyers.

 Easy availability – Due to HUL s strong distribution network there

is easy availability of all its products.

 Fair and Lovely Foundation – The Fair and Lovely foundation has
been started by HUL with the view to empower women in India to
change their destinies through Education, Career guidance and
skill training. It has undertaken various projects and initiatives
that bring to life its vision for the Indian woman.

WEAKNESSES

 Product Lacks Natural Ingredients- In today’s world chemical is

out and natural is in. Since consumers are becoming more health
conscious, there is an increased demand of products with natural
ingredients. Where as Fair and Lovely contains only two natural
ingredients- milk and vitamin B3. Rest all the ingredients are
chemical based.

 Variants’ range is incomplete - There are now variants to suit

every “skin type” and every need – fairness creams are now
available for dry skin, for normal to oily skin, for winter use, for
use during the day, for use at night etc. There is even a fairness
cream for elbows. Not denying the fact that Fair and Lovely
fairness cream has wide range of variants but still the range is
not complete to satisfy all kinds of consumers.

 Poor advertising concept – The advertising campaign of fair

and lovely time and again invited loud public criticism. The
rationale behind its advertising concept was based on the fact
that still a major social stigma is attached to darker girls in the
Indian society. However it did not fell in the right place as HUL
failed to realise that broadcasting such advertisements can hurt
the sentiments of the people, which is what actually happened.

OPPORTUNITIES

 Increasing use of cosmetic products – In today’s world women is

becoming more passionate for beauty. Young girls want to be
beautiful as they get influenced by star casts, beauty contests etc.
Gone are the times when beauty was considered a god given thing.
It is now of topmost priority.

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  Fairness fad – In India where the majority of the people have
wheatish complexion, there is a constant desire in general to
enhance their complexion.
This paved the way for Fair and Lovely to dominate the market with
its pioneer fairness technology.

 Customer psyche - Across our country millions of girls as soon as

they are born are judged, not only for a fact that they are girls, but
for how fair or dark they are. “Mubarak ho aap KO ladki Hui hai,
chaand SA rang paya hai aapki beti ne!!!” It is the general
psyche of the people that fairer girls are preferred in all spheres of
life as compared to darker girls. This fact is very evident from the
various matrimonial advertisements that we come across.

 Social mindset – In the Indian society such is the mindset of the

people that they are always hunting for fairer brides for their sons.
Here in India people are always found advising, the so called ‘SAVLI’
girls to make constant efforts to improve their complexion and what
could be an easier way out for them than the application of just a
fairness cream to fulfil their dreams.

 Women Empowerment – The increasing stress that is being placed

on empowering the women in all strata of life makes the women the
new decision maker at home and at work She decides the way she
wants to spend her life and money.

THREATS

 Health conscious customers – Awareness of the fact that whiteness

products are harmful for the skin is growing fast among the masses,
making it difficult for fair and lovely to promote its products.

 Home-made remedies – Promotion of home-made remedies by

dermatologists are posing great threat to fairness creams. People
have started relying more on these remedies as they are natural
and have no side effects.

 Dermatologist’s reviews – Most of the dermatologists are very

sceptical about the efficacy of fairness creams. They are acting as
critics to such products claiming them to be drugs and hence
harmful for the skin. They also say that such products are
misguiding the society under the name of cosmetics.

 Increasing competition – Since the time HUL launched fair and

lovely, many companies such as AVON, L’OREAL, LANCOME, YVES
SAINT LAURENT, CLINIQUE, REVLON, GARNIER, SHEHNAZ, SYNERGY,
AVIANCE, ORIFLAME, LAKME, HIMALAYA etc. have come out with
similar range of fairness products.

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 Reaction to advertisements- There was a year-long campaign led by
the All India Democratic Women's Association against fair and lovely
advertisements as they discriminated on the basis of the colour of
the skin which was an affront to a woman’s dignity. This ultimately
led to the discontinuance of two of its ads.

• One of them showed that some parents were unable to find a

groom for their daughter, because she was DARK and in the
end they got her married to a middle aged man.
• The other one showed greater job success for fairer girls. The
ad showed a dark girl got rejected for the post of cricket
commentator and later after using fair and lovely got selected.

 Inferior brand perception – Due to Fair and Lovely’s relatively lower

priced products, it is perceived as a lower end brand. People have a
perception that lower priced products are inferior in quality and this
perception of theirs acts as a disadvantage to the company.

 Negative word of mouth publicity – Fair and Lovely has received

quite a few negative reviews from the public stating the
ineffectiveness and/or harmful effects of using the product.

SWOT MATRIX- THE LINKAGES

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 STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

S1) Skin Lightening Technology W1) Product Lacks Natural Ingredients

S2) Largest Research Centre W2) Variants’ Range Is Incomplete
S3) Strong Distribution Channel W3) Poor Advertising Concept
S4) Company Image
S5) Wide Range Of Products
S6) Large Number Of Product Variants
S7) Added Advantage Of UV Protection
S8) Largest Market Share
S9) Wide Overseas Penetration
S10) Differential Packaging
S11) Easy Availability
S12) Fair and Lovely Foundation

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

O1) Increasing Use of Cosmetics T1) Health Conscious Customers (S7,W1)

(S3,S5,S6,W2) T2) Home-made Remedies (S5,S6,S7,W1)
O2) Fairness Fad (S1,S2,W1,W3) T3) Dermatologist’s Reviews (S8,S7,W1)
O3) Customer Psyche T4) Intense Competition
(S3,S11,S10,W1,W3) (S3,S8,S9,W1,W2,W3)
O4) Social Mindset T5) Inferior Brand Perception (S4,S8,W3)
(S3,S10,S11,W1,W3) T6) Negative Reaction To Ads (S4,S8,W3)
O5) Women Empowerment (S12) T7) Negative Word Of Mouth Publicity
(S4,S6,S8,W1,W3)

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS

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INTRODUCTION

Consumer behaviour is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the

processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services,
experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have
on the consumer and society

To study and analyse the behaviour of consumers with respect to the product
Fair and Lovely fairness creams for women, we adopted the methodology of
taking market survey in the form of printed questionnaire.

The key objective of our survey is to study and analyze the behaviour of
consumers of fairness creams with respect to:

 Mind share

 Market share

 Buying roles/behaviour.

 Factors affecting purchase decisions

 Purchase behaviour

We approached women of all ages from varied backgrounds in terms of

occupation and marital status. To be specific, out of the sample survey of 40-
76.3% were in the age group of 18-30, 13.2% between 30-40, 7.9% were 18 or
below and 2.6% were 40 and above.

The demographics of the sample surveyed is given below in the graphs.

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As we can see from the above diagram 52.6% of the women surveyed were
working, 31.6% were students and 15.8% of them were housewives.

As far as marital status of the sample is concerned, 63.2% were single and
36.8% were married.

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ANALYSIS OF THE SURVEY CONDUCTED

The analysis of the survey shows that the demand for fairness creams is quite
reasonable. 36% of the people surveyed were already using fairness creams and
out of those who were not using any fairness creams 33.3% were willing to try
one.

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BUYING ROLES

There are five roles people play in a buying decision i.e. initiator, influencer,
decider, buyer and user. In the case of our product the initiator, decider,
buyer and user is the consumer itself .

The influencer is another factor which comprises of the reference groups of the
individual. In our case the only influencing group is the primary group
which comprises of family and friends. The secondary group has negligible
relevance in influencing the buying decision of the consumer.

BUYING BEHAVIOR

The highlighted region of the table below shows the buying behaviour of our
product consumers.

High Involvement Low Involvement

Significant differences Complex buying Variety-seeking buying
between brands behaviour behaviour
Few differences between Dissonance-reducing Habitual buying
brands buying behaviour

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High involvement products bear a high risk of a wrong decision because of high
prices and lack of knowledge about different brands. This leads to extended
search and careful evaluation of alternatives.

Low involvement products bear a low risk of a wrong decision because of low
prices and considerable knowledge about different brands.

Fairness creams are classified into 3 categories on the basis of their price:

1. Low end product

2. Middle end product

3. High end product.

According to their willingness to spend people choose one of the above

categories and then display habitual buying behaviour within each category as
there are very few differences between brands in the same category.

Fair and Lovely belongs to the low-end product category as most of the people
find its pricing either cheap or affordable as per the survey. Also, people have
considerable awareness about various brands in this category (98% of the
people surveyed were able to recall more than 5 brands of fairness creams) so
they show low involvement in buying decision and as said earlier that there are
few differences between brands in the same category consumers display
habitual buying behaviour. Habitual buying decisions are based not only on
own experience but also on the experience of reference groups.

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BUYING DECISION PROCESS: THE FIVE-STAGE MODEL

Every consumer passes through three stages of buying process before actually
buying the product. The next stage consists of taking the purchase decision
based on the evaluation of the previous 3 stages and is followed by the last
stage of the buying process which is the post purchase behaviour as depicted in
the flowchart below.

This model implies that consumers pass through all five stages in buying a
product.
This may be the case in high-involving purchases. In low-involvement
purchases as in case of Fair and Lovely, consumers may skip or
reverse some of these stages.

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 PROBLEM RECOGNITION

The buying process starts only after a consumer recognizes a problem or a need
which could be solved or satisfied through some available product in the market.

In the case of fair and lovely we analyse that the need for the product
develops from the society level as we can see from the figure below that
most of the people in our society consider fair complexion to be an important
part of one’s personality and one’s acceptance in the society.

How important is fair complexionin our

society?
1%

5%
11% Very important
Important
39% Somewhat Important
Less important
44%
Not at all important

Our next question in the survey was what would people prefer to enhance their
complexion and we found out that around 18% of the people look for fairness
creams to satisfy the need of fair complexion which can be seen from the pie
chart below:

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Thus we see there is a need for fairness creams which emerged through the
need to get fair complexion.

INFORMATION SEARCH

Since the need has arose, now the consumer goes on looking for information
regarding fairness creams that can satisfy her needs. A consumer seeking for
information will go in 2 kinds of search namely; milder search state called
heightened attention and the other is active information search. Since fairness
creams do not come under the category of very expensive products, the
consumer goes in for the milder search state.

The survey shows that TV advertisements played the most important part in
spreading awareness and providing information about various Fair and Lovely.

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 How do you know about Fair and Lovely?

EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES

In the evaluation stage the consumer forms preferences among the

brands/products in the choice set based on various attributes of the product that
deliver the most sought after benefits.

In case of evaluation of our product the average consumer attaches maximum

weightage to quality followed by the popularity of the brand to evaluate the
product. As evident from the graph based on the survey conducted, nearly 48%
of the people surveyed rate product quality as the highest while selecting
a fairness cream. Nearly 39% of the people consider popularity of the
brand as an important factor.

The consumer ascertains equal but low importance to other attributes of the
product such as price, packaging and easy availability in case of fairness creams.

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Based on the above product attributes the five most preferred brands
in the market according to the survey are- Fair and Lovely, Garnier,
Revlon, Lakme and Fairever.

Out of the above mentioned brands Fair and Lovely enjoys the highest
market share at 60%.

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 PURCHASE DECISION

After evaluating various alternatives consumers usually form an intention

to buy the most preferred brand. Even if consumers form brand
evaluations 2 general factors can intervene between the purchase
intention and the purchase decision-

 Attitudes of others – The extent to which another person’s

attitude reduces the preference for an alternative depends on the
intensity of that person’s negative attitude towards the consumer’s
preferred alternative. People’s perception about the
ineffectiveness of Fairness creams and it being harmful to
the skin played a major role in the decision of not buying the
product as analysed from the survey.

Also, in case of Fair and Lovely as T.V. advertisements are the

main source of information, the perception of people about the
advertisements plays an important role in purchase decision.

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The graph shows a general negative attitude of the masses towards
the Fair and Lovely advertisements which adversely affects the
purchase decision of the consumers. The advertisements are failing to
create an impact on the people as half of them consider them to be just
ok and a whopping 39.5% find the advertisements poor.

 Unanticipated situational factors – These may erupt to change

the purchase intentions. These situations are irrelevant in case of
our product as it is a low end product and purchase frequency is
low.

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 POST PURCHASE BEHAVIOR

From the survey we found that majority of the people using fairness
creams are satisfied with the brand which they are presently using. As the
brand satisfaction level is very high they also recommended it to others.

Would you recommend your brand to others?

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 GAP ANALYSIS

SWOT Analysis and Consumer Behavior Analysis, of the product Fair and
Lovely fairness creams, when studied together revealed points of
similarities as well as contradictions between the two.

Contradictions

• The increasing importance and popularity of home-made and herbal

products in the market has been a threat to the success of Fair and Lovely
but at the same time we also find that the increasing use of cosmetic
products can be an opportunity for the product. Contrary to this, from the
consumer behavior analysis done by the survey we found out that the
threat by home-made and herbal products has overpowered the
opportunity in cosmetic products as more than 50% of the people said
that they would prefer to use home made products than cosmetics for a
better complexion.

• The growing fashion fad among the youngsters is supposedly an

opportunity for HUL to market its product Fair and Lovely as majority of
the people with a wheatish complexion have a constant desire to enhance
their complexion. But negating this, as observed from the consumer
behavior, people in general are not willing to put in an effort for the same
and claim to be satisfied with their complexion. Two-thirds of the
respondents who were not using any fairness cream did not show any
interest in trying one and 36% said they were satisfied with their
complexion.

• The threat posed by the negative word of mouth publicity of Fair and
Lovely according to the SWOT analysis has been completely negated by
the findings of the survey. A whopping 93% of the people using Fair and
Lovely said they were satisfied with the product’s quality and
effectiveness and thus would recommend it to others as well.

Similarities

• The most visible weakness of Fair and Lovely is its poor concept of
advertisements, the rationale behind which is based on the fact that still a
major social stigma is attached to darker girls in Indian society.
Consumers do identify with this point as almost 40% of them find the
advertisements to be poor and 50% find them just OK.

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 • As identified from the SWOT analysis of Fair and Lovely, one of its major
opportunities lies in the social mindset of people in India wherein fair
complexion for girls is considered to be very important. This has been
aptly substantiated by the market survey conducted by us where almost
85 % of the respondents considered fair complexion in Indian society to be
quite important.

• One of the threats to Fair and Lovely is its inferior brand image as
perceived by the consumers. Due to its relatively lower price, as agreed to
by the consumers (36% of the respondents find the pricing cheap while
61% find it affordable), Fair and Lovely has been categorised as a low-end
product. This factor is indeed acting as a deterrent to the growth of the
product.

• The increasing empowerment of women has led to the emergence of

women as the new decision maker at home and at work which is an
opportunity for Fair and Lovely as its target market is the women from
different spheres of life. This has been reflected by the survey as well
where 50% of the women said their decision to buy the product was taken
by them only and was not influenced by others.

• The reviews aired by the dermatologists have been negative for the
fairness creams. Most of the dermatologists are sceptical about the
efficacy of these creams and find them harmful for the skin. This has been
supported by the consumers as 35% of the people from the survey
perceive fairness creams to be ineffective and harmful.

SUGGESTIONS

• Change the Advertising Concept- TV advertisements have emerged as

the only major source of information about Fair and Lovely to the
consumers from the survey. However, at the same time, the consumers
have clearly indicated their dislike for these advertisements and hence
there is an urgent need for Fair and Lovely to change its advertising
concept as they are leaving a negative impact on the minds of the
consumers.

• Include Dermatologist’s And Consumers Reviews in

Advertisements - There is an increasing belief in the consumer’s mind

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 that fairness creams are ineffective and harmful to the skin. In order to
change this perception and validate the effectiveness of its product, Fair
and Lovely should include the views of dermatologists and its existing
customers in its advertisements, as it is said that a best advertisement is
a satisfied customer and people instantly relate to it.

• Improve Existing and Introduce More Variants With Natural

Ingredients - Nowadays there is an increased demand of products with
natural ingredients since consumers are becoming more health conscious.
As per the survey also we found that customers are more inclined towards
home made and herbal products. In order to satisfy the consumer needs,
the existing products should be improvised with natural ingredients. Also,
since the range of product variants is not complete, for example there are
no variants to suit different skin types, coming out with such variants
made up of natural ingredients will help Fair and Lovely to increase its
customer base to a large extent.

• Promote Other Existing Product Variants - HUL offers a range of

products at Fair and Lovely brand level such as anti marks cream, oil
control fairness gel, under eye cream etc. But this strength of Fair and
Lovely has not been utilized properly as these products have hardly been
promoted and most of the people are not even aware of it. So, to gain
popularity among the masses and cater to a larger number of customers,
Fair and Lovely should give due importance to the promotion of these
products.

• Display at separate counters/stalls in big shops- Since for Fair and

Lovely fairness cream, consumers have habitual buying behavior, it is very
important to have good display of the product everywhere so as to have
greater share of mind of the people. For this purpose like various other
cosmetics brands have separate counters in big shops, Fair and Lovely
should also have similar counters where complete range of Fair Lovely
products is available.

• Keep Beauty Assistants (BA) - Fair and Lovely should appoint BAs on
commission basis and keep them in various retail shops and Fair and
Lovely separate counters. This will give two advantages, firstly they will
have lot of passion to sell the product and secondly they will help remove
the perception of people about its ineffectiveness and harmfulness, on a
personal basis.

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 CONCLUSION

As a consumer’s first step in the buying process is understanding the

need, in the same way for a company the first step of launching a product
is understanding the consumer needs. HUL rightly judged the social
mindset of Indians, understood their needs and accordingly launched in
1978 Fair and Lovely fairness cream and till date enjoys the first mover
advantage.

Fair and Lovely has the largest market share in the Indian fairness
industry. One of the reasons for the above is its strong distribution
channel and the affordable pricing. However, the fact that the consumers
are becoming more and more health conscious and thus shifting to home -
made remedies and herbal products is posing a great threat to the
industry and all the more to Fair and lovely as the product lacks natural
ingredients.

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Since Fair and Lovely is a low end product, consumers display habitual
buying behavior. Also the major source of information about the product is
TV advertisements which is perceived to be poor indicating another threat
to it. Though there are many competitors, Fair and Lovely enjoys the
highest share of mind of people. Also people mainly buy fairness creams
on their perception of the quality of the product and those who do not buy
them are either satisfied with their complexion or find them ineffective
and harmful. The biggest asset for any company would be its satisfied
consumers and fair and Lovely is privileged to have them.

The comparative study of the SWOT and the consumer behavior analysis
showed that the company rightly realises the threat that the negative
reviews of dermatologists are posing a threat to it and at the same time
there was a misconception that there is a fairness fad as most of the
people are satisfied with their complexion.

While working on this project we gained a lot in terms of learning the

market dynamics. We realise the importance of marketing concepts such
as SWOT matrix, consumer behavior and their contribution in the success
of any product. The major insight gained was the acceptance of the fact
that a lot of research work is required to form any strategy for the
company. Last but not the least, consumers and their satisfaction always
remain at the top of a marketer’s priority list.

Name:
Age: ____ /____ approx
Marital Status:

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Occupation:
Skin Complexion:

Questions:
1. Do You Use Any Fairness Cream:
Yes
No
2. Would You Like to Try any Fairness
Cream? :
Yes
No
3. How important is the Fair
Complexion in Our Society:
____ %
4. What would you prefer for a better
complexion? :
___________
5. How do you know about fair &
lovely? :
_____________
6. Which is the most preferred product
attribute? :
_____________

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7. Which brand do you use? :
_____________
8. Reason against the product:
______________________________________________
______________________________________________

9. Perception about Fair & Lovely

advertisement:
Excellent
Good
Ok
Poor

10. How frequently do you buy fair &

lovely? :
_______________
11. Are you satisfied with your brand?
Yes
No

12. Would you recommend your brand to

others? :
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 Yes
No
Date: Name with Signature

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