Contemporary Business Studies - Academy of Knowledge Process ...

International Journal of Contemporary Business Studies
Vol: 3, No: 1. January, 2012 ISSN 2156-7506
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Fair war: A case study on fairness cream
Dr. Sangeeta Mohanty, Assistant Professor
Academy of Business Administration,
Industrial Estate (S1/25),
Angargadia, Balasore-756001, Orissa, India
ABSTRACT
India’s fairness cream market is evolving at rapid speed, fuelled by television
advertisement by the celebrities and the rapidly changing lifestyles. India’s proactive
FMCG market has seen the significant growth in the cosmetic market in last two
decades and fairness cream accounts for the major part of the cosmetic market with an
average growth rate of 20% per annum. Indians are witnessing a paradigm shift from
traditional methods of using home products to modern methods of using branded
cosmetics and fairness cream to become fair. The particular paper aims at identifying
the popular brands of fairness cream and the reasons of choosing a particular brand. It
also provides a more comprehensive statistical analysis of evaluating consumers’
preference to various brands of fairness cream. The Participants were chosen randomly
from cities ‘Cuttack’ and ‘Bhubaneswar’, Orissa, 243 agreed to participate in the
survey but the data could be collected from 200 respondents only.
Key words: Fairness Cream, Brand, Consumer
INTRODUCTION
The concept of preferring the people with “fair-skin” has long been recognized socially and it has been
the psychological and social impact on women to be fair. But in the recent years, men too have started
giving importance on personal grooming, beginning with fair skin. The market for fairness cream was
restricted to woman only till 2005; but Emami catered to men with its product Fair and Handsome. Till
then fairness cream market dominates the cosmetic market covering male and female segments. It is clear
from television and matrimonial advertisements that the market for fairness creams in India is huge. The
increasing demand of fair bride and groom creates the field for the national and international players to
invest in the cosmetic markets and more particularly in fairness cream products to cater the needs of new
generations. The celebrities like Sonam Kapoor, Shah Rukh Khan, John Abraham and Katrina Kaif are
brand ambassadors for major fairness creams.
The growth in consumerism and the changing life style of Indian youth have led to strong demand for
fairness creams. India’s swelling middle class is redefining lifestyle pattern with adoption of western
values and growing brand consciousness; creating opportunity for the global players in fairness cream
market. The Indian market is experiencing stronger demand for fairness creams due to the increased
media and untapped markets targeting the rural segment. Another key driver is the increased penetration
level of male spending behavior on cosmetics. The fairness product market has captured the people from
360 0 angle. The easy availability of these products has made the business to expand. The potent source of
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