Market Research

As India is a country known for its diversity different brands are used in different parts of the country. The brands which are very successful in northern part of the country may not find a place in South India. Similarly some brands are successful in rural areas and tier II cities whereas not in cities and metros.

In the year 2007-08, the market size for fairness cream in India was estimated to be Rs. 1000 crore as per BS Regional Bureau in Hyderabad. The market growth rate ranges between 15 – 20% on a year-to-year basis. The leading players in the market include Hindustan Lever Ltd., (HLL's) 'Fair & Lovely' with 76 percent of the market share and Cavin Kare's 'Fairever' with 15 percent of the market share. Other important players like Godrej's 'Fairglow', Emami's 'Fair and Handsome', Vicco and Himalaya share the rest of the market share. The market size of men’s fairness cream is 55 crores in india. It has been estimated that males constitute 20 percent of the total sales for fairness creams in India. The existing players are focusing upon improving the quality and ingredients and new players are also invading the Indian market.

Hence, this paper aims to identify the brand preference of men consumers segment towards fairness creams.

Male grooming market is coming up in a big fashion. HUL, Emami, Nivea and all the big names in cosmetics has woken up to the revolution which was perhaps initiated by a football cum gender bender. Scores of newspapers, magazines dwelled at length on the football stars metro sexuality and then there were followers, everyone wanting to score. The market sprung in action, big names with their big ideas started to roll and out came an array of cosmetics targeted and marketed for men. The trend is changing they said no longer is the Indian male shy of admitting that he wants to look good. Soon arrived a sea of products and a slew of advertisements all trying to cash in on the new found phenomenon.