The many shades of fairness

Rarely has marketers' collective vocabulary been so sorely tested. With a whole bunch of them entering the Rs 2,100 crore (The Nielsen Company data) market for fairness products - tempting consumers with synonyms for fairness: skin brightening, skin lightening, skin whitening, pink glow, glowing skin, sparkling glow, white radiance - marketers are trying every nuance in a category that, in the last three decades, has been attacked by dermatologists, units like the Maharashtra FDA (Food and Drug Administration), the I&B Ministry, women's groups and anyone who finds the promotion of fair skin regressive. Yet, fairness products dominate the skincare products spectrum with a value share of 47 per cent of the skin care cream market.

The entry of global brands in the skincare space in recent times provides more testimony - today, a marketer may be selling a face cream or a facewash, but if he is to capture India, chances are you will find him attaching an element of fairness to the product. What was once restricted to creams is now a leverage point across the skincare board. Marketers have to use every route available to get to the fairness plank because the dominant segment in skincare is itself monopolised by a single brand: Hindustan Unilever's Fair & Lovely (FAL), which has a 53 per cent share in fairness products.

White, whiter, whitest

The earliest FAL advertising simply explained how it worked without harming the skin. Once that was established, FAL went on to the romance angle, which it dropped only about a decade ago. This was of the someone-rejecting-and-then-accepting-the-girl variety. Romance gave way to finding careers or shaping one's own destiny (the cricket commentator ad), and finally, affecting change (FAL Foundation is an effort towards that).

But the Kaash Mera Beta… ad turned into a 'social problem' for the makers - it was pulled off. In fact, FAL's ads have often run into trouble with women's groups for a regressive portrayal of women - an accusation that the brand contests by saying that it is merely mirroring reality. "If one shouldn't sell fairness creams, one shouldn't sell cars, jeans or anything that makes people aspire to something they want," says Balki.

FAL enjoyed a monopoly until CavinKare's Fairever decided to go national in 1999. It brought about an element of Ayurveda to its product and communication, which FAL countered with its own Ayurvedic range. In the next few years, a number of Indian brands appeared in the space including Godrej Group's FairGlow, Elder Pharmaceuticals' FairOne and Emami Group's Gold Turmeric and Naturally Fair.

Among the first companies to take fairness beyond creams was Godrej, with FairGlow being launched as a fairness soap first and a cream later. Other players quickly followed with fairness soap launches, and this snowballed into fairness facewashes, no marks creams, fairness winter creams and so on. Fairness slowly started seeping into the skincare kit in more ways than one.

Who is the fairest of them all?

A decade ago, international brands like L'Oreal, Garnier and Olay flocked to India with global expertise in skincare problems, ranging from ageing to drying and acne. It took these companies a while to realise that if they were to truly capture India, niche probably wasn't the smartest way to go. For wider appeal, nothing beats fairness.

As none of these companies are global experts in fairness (western markets don't need such products), they trod the safe route: they didn't claim FAL's territory directly. Instead, they threw in an element of fairness in their international skincare products, and even localised some of their products to suit Indian skin textures.

"Indian society is variegated in its colour profiles, and this yen and craving for fairness exists everywhere, almost like a disease," says Harish Bijoor, brand strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults, musing that perhaps fairness is in fact sought after by Indians at large.

So, on the one hand, while FAL is adding other skincare products to its fairness portfolio, other brands are adding fairness to their existing skincare portfolio. The aim for both is to widen their fish-net. "And suddenly, fairness isn't 'regressive' anymore, it is fashionable and upmarket," Balki muses, and has turned into a base virtue in the skincare category now.

Most of the international entrants are making use of words such as skin-lightening/ brightening/ whitening or pink glow, instead of the old-fashioned 'fairness'. Could this be because of the negative connotation associated with that word over the years? "It is about differentiation. Global brands have realised that plain vanilla fairness won't work anymore, and that is why such terms are emerging," says Sumanto Chattopadhyay, ECD, Ogilvy South Asia, who works on Pond's.

Some feel skin-lightening could be what a brand resorts to when it is unable to fully meet the requirements to make a full-fledged fairness claim. In a similar vein, dark skin is being masked with terms such as 'my summer look' or 'the tan look' or 'an uneven skin tone'. Branding experts feel this could be because evolved women don't want to be talked down to anymore or be told that dark is ugly, even as they continue to crave fairness.

Marketers however, don't concede that they are using 'surrogate' terminology, instead, it is the logical next step, they say. Garnier Light, for instance, is positioned as a brand that gives its user a glowing skin. "Our research has shown that a woman today isn't looking for plain gorapan, she wants something more that tackles dark spots, the dullness of her skin or her uneven skin texture. So 'glowing skin' is a holistic halo of which fairness is a part," explains Richa Singh, marketing manager, Garnier India, clarifying that the aim is not to shy away from fairness. "If I have a moisturiser and combine it with a whitening property, I don't have anything to lose, it is my consumer who will gain."

This kind of convergence of product benefits is similar to some other product categories: for instance, a coffee mix that combines instant coffee powder, milk and sugar in a sachet, shampoo with hair conditioner. It is vital to note, however, that it is not likely that one fairness product can replace the need for another, for instance, a fairness facewash won't do away with the need for a fairness cream, instead it will simply cater to a new need. If a few years ago, a woman were to use one cream, today, with better economic conditions, it is a plethora of products that she would like to use.

The user of fairness products is more evolved than before. But the traditional fairness cream still has its loyalists amongst the lower SECs. South India is the largest market for fairness with a 36 per cent share, North and West have 23 per cent each while the East is at 18 per cent. Whether it is fair or not, fairness products and their communication will continue to tempt marketers to try and get as many consumers as possible.

(Based on interviews with Devdutt Pattanaik, author, mythologist and chief belief officer, Future Group, Harish Bijoor, brand strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults, Naresh Gupta, until recently the national planning head at Publicis India, R Balakrishnan, chairperson and chief creative officer, Lowe Lintas India, Richa Singh, marketing manager, Garnier India, Sumanto Chattopadhyay, ECD, Ogilvy South Asia and inputs from The Nielsen Company).