LG unveils personal care range in India

agencyfaqs! News Bureau

NEW DELHI

LG Household & Healthcare, part of South Korea-based $80 billion diversified conglomerate LG Group, on Wednesday launched its household and personal care range of products in India. To start with, the company plans to import products such as shampoos, soaps and skin care solutions from its manufacturing facility in South Korea. Over the next couple of years, it hopes to introduce products such as toothpastes, baby care range and liquid detergents in the country.

Speaking to the media after the launch in Delhi, Y S Shim, chief representative (India and south-west Asia) of LG Household & Healthcare, said, LG would explore the possibility of setting up a manufacturing facility for the personal care range in India after creating a market for its products. "It might take up to two years. We are planning to set up a manufacturing base here; but we haven't set any time frame for that," he said.

LG's consumer products would be marketed and distributed in India by Universal Corporation Ltd (UCL), a south-based fast moving consumer goods distribution company, with a nationwide distribution and agent network. UCL specialises in marketing and distribution of consumer products - mostly that of MNCs - such as McVities biscuits of UK, Fillipo Berio Olive Oil of Italy and Jeanne Arthes Perfumes of France.

About the target market, Shim said, "We will initially market our products in metros and A-class towns only. Other cities would be included in a phased manner. We will cater to a niche market segment - to people who are quality conscious." When asked about the size of the potential market, he said that the LG range of products is not here just to compete for market share but ‘to capture the mind share of the discerning Indian consumer'. "Although the size of the market for niche products like ours is very small in India but as overall economy grows, we expect the market to grow significantly," he said, adding the company would try to touch Rs 25 crore in revenue in next three years.

Talking exclusively to agencyfaqs! Sajal Gupta, country marketing manager, LG Chem, said that the first phase of the advertising campaign for the new products would be concentrated in the print media. "We have booked space in magazines like Femina, New Woman, Vanitha, Meri Saheli, Eenadu, Awal Vikadam," added Nitin Agarwal, director, UCL. But both Gupta and Agarwal refused to give any indication of the company's marketing spends saying that it hasn't been firmed up yet. "We are using a south-based ad agency called Visage for the initial period, which would cover the next 12 months. Instead of calling this the launch phase, we would like to call this the distribution phase because our focus now is to make sure our products are distributed well and are easily accessible," said Gupta.

Informal chats that agencyfaqs! had with company executives present at the launch function indicated LG might eventually align the advertising of its consumer products with Lowe Lintas, the agency that currently handles the largest chunk of the company's consumer electronics advertising.

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