FMCG major ITC has entered the Rs. 1,700-crore fairness cream market by launching the product in Kerala.
Sandeep Kaul, Chief Executive of ITC's personal care products business, told The Hindu that “Kerala is the first market we have forayed into and over a period, we will extend to more markets. The market size is estimated at Rs. 1,700 crore and is estimated to be growing between 13 per cent and 15 per cent.”
While some of the existing players in this segment have separate creams for men and women, Mr. Kaul was evasive as to ITC's strategy on gender-specific product differentiation saying that the cream under the Vivel brand had been designed to suit the needs of the modern Indian consumer.
He said that the company had been involved with intensive R&D efforts over the last three years to create a unique value proposition and a superior fairness cream for the Indian consumers. He expressed confidence that like all other products this too would receive encouraging response. “We plan to leverage all media for communicating our brand message and uniqueness,” he said in reply to a query on the plans to market the new product.
