Fair & Lovely Max Fairness: Adding layers of confidence

The new TVC for Fair & Lovely's male fairness cream figures a new way to preach the brand's age old art of 'how to get what you want' with renewed confidence

It's not every day that one comes across a prospective employee and an employer, sounding equally daunting and brimming with similar levels of confidence during a job interview, such that you can hardly differentiate between the two. Fair & Lovely's (FAL) commercial for its latest offering, Max Fairness, targeting the mass male fairness cream segment, gives a peak into this situation.

The TVC opens in a board room where an interview is being conducted. A young man throws a volley of questions at another, who responds with confidence. As the question and answer round ends, one realises that the questions were actually being asked by the interviewee, who, rather than waiting for the interviewer to make an offer, asks confidently about his joining date. The camera zooms in to show an entire panel of interviewers impressed with the confidence of the prospective employee - who manages an on the spot offer.

The ad gives away promises prevalent in the category, such as maximum sun protection, spot reduction and skin lightening.

The campaign has been cracked by the team at Lowe Lintas Mumbai, including Madhu Noorani, executive creative director; Neha Mitra, creative director; and Anupam Basu and Seema Hethya handling copy and art, respectively.

The direction was by Uzer Khan of 30 Seconds of Fame.

Though the idea of success in career with the use of a fairness product resonates in this ad as well, the last film for Fair & Lovely Menz Active, with the punch line 'Badaldo apni kahani', touched upon the skin care issues faced by men - including overexposure to sun due to regular use of motorbikes.

Earlier, in March, HUL had extended its Vaseline skin care brand to the men's grooming segment with the introduction of the 'Vaseline for Men' skin care range including fairness creams, face washes, body lotions and body washes.

Discussing how HUL's different offerings are targeted at different sets of target groups in terms of psychographic and demographic segmentation, Govind Rajan, general manager, skincare, Hindustan Unilever, says, "Fair & Lovely has always been positioned as a brand that helps you to get where you want. We are doing the same with this multimedia campaign, keeping men in the age group of 18-35 years as our focus."

According to a recent research by JP Morgan, the men's fairness segment is currently estimated to be about Rs 4.1 billion and is growing ahead of the overall skin care market in India. Fairness creams and products command 46 per cent share of the overall Indian skin care market.

Currently, besides Max Fairness, there are four variants of Fair & Lovely available in the market, including Fair & Lovely Multivitamin Cream, Fair & Lovely Ayurvedic Cream, Fair & Lovely Antimarks Cream and Fair & Lovely Menz Active.

According to the company's latest annual report, after soaps and detergents, which is the biggest revenue churning segment for HUL, personal products comes second, contributing 28 per cent of the overall revenue.

Kiran Khalap, co-founder and managing director, chlorophyll observes how the focus of communication in the category has shifted from showing sexual attraction as a result of using the product to success in one's career. He believes that marketers do not approach men's fairness segment in a way that is very different from the female one.

"Young professionals continue to be the main target group, especially those who are looking for their first - or may be the second - job, who are conscious about the way they present themselves," adds Khalap.

Impressed?

According to Raghu Bhat, founder director, Scarecrow Communications, the departure from 'girls will be impressed' to 'boardroom will be impressed' is a welcome move.

"This means the fairness creams are being targeted to slightly older males as well. The idea of 'creating an impression' is not new, but I did find the treatment and sound track riveting. Short snappy dialogues create the effect of a verbal fencing match - and the twist at the end adds the much needed touch of machismo - something this category thrives on. It's not as memorable as the Fair and Handsome ad. So some aspects of the communication need to be strengthened," he adds.

Sandip Mahapatra, vice-president and head, planning, McCann Erickson Delhi feels that men's fairness is not an easy category to go mainstream with. "Respectfully, the idea of fair skinning is a difficult one to carry off. Some amount of over-compensating is, therefore, understandable. I am surprised though that we're borrowing from a shaving construct to get to the main point."