Sumita Vaid
Advertising

Elder Pharma awards Fairone fairness cream to Everest

Elder has signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Shahnaz Husain Herbals to manufacture and market Fairone

Everest Integrated Communications has been awarded the advertising duties for Fairone, a fairness cream, by Mumbai-based healthcare major Elder Pharmaceuticals. When quizzed about the size of the business, agency executives described it as "healthy".

Well, size does not seem be to a concern for the agency. Everest is more excited about the prospects of working on a fairness cream brand. The account may give a creative 'kick', but establishing a relatively new brand in the fairness cream market, dominated by HLL's Fair & Lovely and CavinKare's Fairever, is a daunting task.

Mahesh Chauhan, president, Everest, is unfazed by the enormity of the challenge. "We are aware of the challenge. After all, it's not rocket science. Simply put, our task is to establish the superiority of Fairone vis-à-vis Fair & Lovely and the rest."

Besides Fair & Lovely and Fairever, the other players in the market include Godrej FairGlow, Fairness Cream from Himalaya Drug Company, Gold Turmeric and Naturally Fair from Emami, and Fair & Glow from Revlon.

For obvious reasons, the agency is not ready to talk about how it plans to get a foothold in the estimated Rs 750 crore fairness cream market. But Chauhan sounded confident about the agency's gameplan.

Fairone is actually a product invention of Shahnaz Husain Herbals. Elder Pharmaceuticals has signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Shahnaz Husain Herbals to manufacture and market Fairone.

The agreement, valid for 20 years, involves sharing the composition formula of Fairone, and using the name 'Shahnaz'. Elder, in return, will pay a certain amount as royalty to Husain.

For Elder, entering the fairness cream market is a step towards positioning itself as an integrated healthcare company, rather than just a pharmaceutical company. Besides Fairone, there are many more over-the-counter-products in the pipe line.

At the moment, Fairone is available in parts of western India. The plan, of course, is to roll out the brand nationally. However, the road map for expansion is yet to be finalised.

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