Emami rebrands ‘
Fair and Handsome’ grooming
product as ‘
Smart and Handsome’
Emami rebrands ‘Fair and Handsome’ grooming product as ‘Smart and Handsome’
Updated - January 09, 2025 at 10:27 PM.
Selling products for their fairness-enhancing quotient is regressive
By Mithun Dasgupta Meenakshi Verma Ambwani
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Mohan Goenka, Vice Chairman & Whole-time Director, Emami Ltd | Photo
Credit: DEBASISH BHADURI
FMCG maker Emami Ltd on Thursday announced a rebranding of its major male
grooming brand “Fair and Handsome” to “Smart And Handsome” to address the
consumers preference for “redefining fairness” and tapping into almost all
segments of the highly-growing market.
The rebranding of the₹250-crore brand, which enjoys a market leadership of
around 65 per cent in India’s male grooming category, is also aiming at
addressing the issue of the recent tepid performance. The company has a plan
to grow this brand, launched in 2005, to around ₹1,000 crore in the next three
to four years with new product rollouts.
According to business• Экономика » Бизнес and brand strategy specialists, this rebranding was on
expected lines as the society at large is re-inventing older notions and
creating newer ones. “Fair” is no longer considered to be positive.
Fairness vocabulary
“The fairness vocabulary is going to change in India. People have started
redefining fairness as whitening and glowing. They have started calling it
different things than fairness, particularly the young consumers. But the need
for fairness exists in India. That still exists predominantly across, more so
in the masses and in the rural areas,” Mohan Goenka, Vice Chairman and
Wholetime Director, Emami Ltd, told businessline , when asked about replacing
the word “fair” with “smart “in the new brand name.
“The fairness market is not growing. It is stagnant for the last few quarters,
and the other male grooming categories are fast growing, whether it is
deodorant, haircare and beard or whether it is any other category in the mail
grooming market. I cannot sit idle and just wait for the market to grow. I am
the leader and I will have to grow the market,” Goenka said, explaining the
reason behind the major rebranding exercise of one of its iconic home-grown
brands.
Interestingly, Emami did this rebranding exercise around two years ago for the
international market, except in Bangladesh.
“Luckily, in the international markets the brand name was changed two years
ago. There challenges were different. All the multinational companies changed
the brand name from ‘‘fairness’‘. In some countries also there were government
compulsions. And, also in some of the international markets, especially in the
Middle East, modern trade stopped buying products tagged with “fairness”. So,
we had to change the brand name,” Goenka said.
Of the total revenue under the brand, around 35 per cent comes from the
international markets. The Middle East, SAARC and Africa are the prominent
overseas markets for this brand.
Business• Экономика » Бизнес and brand strategy specialist Harish Bijoor said, “This rebranding is
on expected lines. This is because the society at large is re-inventing older
notions and creating newer ones. And in this notion creation game, fair is no
longer considered to be positive. So to that extent “fair” had to be dropped
and Emami has done the right thing.”
Angel investor and business• Экономика » Бизнес strategist Lloyd Mathias said, “The terms “fair”
and “dark” are not politically expedient name. Emami is directionally moving
into a more positive space with this rebranding by focussing on broadening the
appeal of the brand especially in terms of attracting younger consumers.”
Significantly, in 2014, self-regulatory body Advertising Standards Council of
India had released guidelines stating that any advertising should not
reinforce any negative social stereotypes basis on skin colour. In 2020,
companies like HUL and L’Oreal India made changes to ensure their branding and
marketing strategies are not harping on “fair” skin
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Published on January 9, 2025