Men grooming: A serious business

Encouraged by a survey's result, which suggest more Indian men have started experimenting with their looks, specially facial hair, Philips India has launched a new product, Body Groomer. With this Philips has created a new product category, in which it sees a huge potential. Aarushi Agarwal, Director Marketing (Personal Care), Philips India, throws more light on this category in an interaction with Ankur Gaurav of indianretailer.com.

Ankur Gaurav (AG): How big is the men grooming market in India and how fast is it growing?

Aarushi Agarwal (AA): The market for grooming devices that we are looking at is expected to be of around Rs 1,500 Crores. The industry experts expect the market will to a size of Rs 3,000 Crore in the next three years.

AG: How are you expanding your reach?

AA: Phillips has not really expanded into the tier 3 markets but has tried to expand the distribution centers into different kinds of outlets. Earlier if you wanted to shop this product, you would go to consumer electronic outlets but now these products are also available in cosmetic stores as well. Approach is more to be present where the consumer is. And majority of the consumers are in tier 1 and tier 2 cities and so we are expanding it there.

AG: In total, how many touch points will this product be available in, across India?

AA: We are obviously expanding but at present it will be available in 500 to 750 stores for sure.

AG: Your product’s launch was encouraged by the results of a survey. What were the most interesting things which came  out of the survey in India?

AA: There were two interesting results that came out of the survey. First is that, men have started loving to experiment with a little bit of hair on their face. Earlier it was unacceptable to have any, may be for journalists yes, but in the corporate world, NO. Survey indicates that has changed. Second is that, men have started removing body hair for various reasons such as hygiene or for celebrity requirements.

AG: How are you marketing and promoting the product?

AA: Last year we had this campaign featuring John, about facial hair. We talked about ‘who you gonna be today’. We have this application on facebook which encouraged you to try out different looks and send us the picture there. This year we are focusing on the body grooming. The aim is to promote the brand as a product which gives services to the consumer from head to toe.

AG: According to John, the USP of the product is that it can be used under the shower as well. What is it according to you?

AA: The biggest USP of the product is that it allows you to remove the hair completely or you can have little hair. You can check that the hair is not popping out from your white shirt. Many men do not want to remove the body hair completely but you can have a trimmed look. That is my clear USP.

AG: Which all cities are you targeting this year?

AA: We are targeti, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Indore and Chandigarh. These are the places where we will be focusing.

AG: What will be your marketing strategy for this product?

AA: I think our stress will be online marketing. We already have half a million fans on our facebook page. We will not be focusing on the print media as we realize that our consumers do not really consume print. Consumption of most of the news happens on your mobile phones or laptops nowadays. Apart from online we will also focus on in store activities to promote our brand. We are looking at the cosmetic channel, where we were not present. Our fastest growth drivers are distribution in the right channel. We have also started selling online, which is going great for us. And the third channel is the stores where you find speakers and mobile phones where we are expecting our sales to come from.

AG: Where is this product manufactured?

AA: It is manufactured in Holland and then it is 100 percent imported.  Since it touches your skin, we become very conscious about the quality of the product.

AG: What will you comment about the competitors and other players ?

AA: We actually do not have any competitors as such. There are certain unorganised players, including certain Korean and Chinese brands present in the market. I would say we are very much the category creators. We are the ones who are spreading awareness about such products in India. We are definitely number one even if the unorganised market is taken into consideration.