...Doing Well by Doing Good Case Study: ‘Fair & Lovely’ Whitening Cream Aneel Karnani Stephen M. Ross School of Business The University of Michigan 701 Tappan Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1234 Phone: (734) 764-0276 Fax: (734) 936-8715 E-mail: akarnani@umich.edu March 2007 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Doing Well by Doing Good SMJ 07-6615 rev Doing Well by Doing Good Case Study: ‘Fair & Lovely’ Whitening Cream Abstract According to the ‘doing well by doing good’ proposition, firms have a corporate social responsibility to achieve some larger social goals, and can do so without a financial sacrifice. This paper empirically examines this proposition by studying in depth the case of ‘Fair & Lovely,’ a skin whitening cream, marketed by Unilever in many countries in Asia and Africa, and, in particular, India. Fair & Lovely is indeed doing well; it is a profitable and fast growing brand. It is, however, not doing good, and I demonstrate its negative implications for public welfare. I conclude with thoughts on how to reconcile this divergence between private profits and public welfare. Key Words: Corporate social responsibility; bottom of the pyramid 2 Doing Well by Doing Good SMJ 07-6615 rev The idea that companies can do well by doing good has caught the attention of executives, business academics, and public officials. The annual report of virtually every large company claims its mission is to serve some larger social purpose besides making profits. The theme...
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...1.0 Introduction This case study analysis focuses on misplacement of cultural imperatives bymounting unethical advertisement campaign by two Indian package mass consumptioncompanies - Hindustan Lever Ltd and CavinKare Ltd. The development of revolutionary skinlightening technology brand; Fair & lovely by Hindustan Lever Ltd opened up a new chapter onapplication of unethical promotional strategy to generate large volume of sale and maintainmarket leadership position in India skin care industry. Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) holds 90%market share of the skin care industry but when CavinKare Ltd (CKL) lunched its Faireverproduct within two years CavinKare Ltd was able to gain 15% of the market.Hindustan Lever Ltd exploited the cultural preference of light skin complexion todark skin color in India and lunched an unethical promotional campaign that portrayed light skinsuperiority and gender inequality. The advertisement campaign created a strategic weakness forHLL which CavinKare Ltd capitalized on to lunch a counter attack by developing anadvertisement that is culturally more appealing to a wider segment of the Indian society. Catora,Gilly & Graham (2011) pointed out that “many countries, the international marketer faces the dilemma of responding to sundry situations where local law does not exist, where local practicesappear to condone a certain behavior, or where a company willing to do what is necessary isfavored over a company that refuses to engage in certain practice”...
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...This case tells how two companies in India, HLL’s Fair & Lovely and Cavin Kare’s Fairever , ran advertising campaigns that were not very ethical. In India fair skin is thought of as more beautiful and desirable than darker skin. Fair & Lovely was the leading company with 90% share and the Cavin Kare’s Fairever was released and they gained 15% share. This made Fair & Lovely launch a series of ads depicting a “fairer girl gets the boy theme.” Cavin Kare also came back with ads focusing on the same thing. They also showed in their commercials that their products worked. Their campaigns lasted for a few years and were eventually pulled due to harsh criticism for its portrayal of women. 1. Is it ethical to sell a product that is, at best, only mildly effective? From my point of view it is not ethical to sell a product that is, at best, only mildly effective. The product which is mentioned in the case is a cosmetic that lightens skin color. It is promoted as “the miracle worker” which can deliver your skin a difference from one to three shades. According to the new Fair & Lovely technology ad, the cream is supposed to change your skin even in four weeks. However, Indian dermatologists explain “that fairness products cannot truly work as they reach only the upper layers of the skin and so do not affect melanin production”. Moreover experts state, the main reason why people believe that the cream is work-ing, is a bleaching ingredient which just whitens facial hair and not the skin...
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...CASE 22 Cultural Norms, Fair & Lovely, and Advertising Fair & Lovely, a branded product of Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL), is touted as a cosmetic that lightens skin color. On its Web site (www.hll.com), the company calls its product “the miracle worker,” “proven to deliver one to three shades of change.” While tanning is the rage in Western countries, skin lightening treatments are popular in Asia. According to industry sources, the top-selling skin lightening cream in India is Fair & Lovely from Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL), followed by CavinKare’s Fairever brand. HLL Fair & ’s Lovely brand dominated the market with a 90 percent share until CavinKare Ltd. (CKL) launched Fairever. In just two years, the Fairever brand gained an impressive 15 percent market share. HLL’s share of market for the Fair & Lovely line generates about $60 million annually. The product sells for about 23 rupees ($0.29) for a 25-gram tube of cream. The rapid growth of CavinKare’s Fairever (www.cavinkare .com) brand prompted HLL to increase its advertising effort and to launch a series of ads depicting a “fairer girl gets the boy theme.” One advertisement featured a financially strapped father lamenting his fate, saying, “If only I had a son,” while his dark-skinned daughter looks on, helpless and demoralized because she can’t bear the financial responsibility of her family. Fast-forward and plain Jane has been transformed into a gorgeous light-skinned woman through the use of a “fairness cream,” Fair & Lovely...
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...Ethnic Consumers Consulting Case Report Qi Wu Situation Analysis The main problem in this case is the different cultural values among different classes of people like middle and upper class and the challenge is to differentiate brands on the basis of the culture among both social classes. This case is about the Indian products related to the cultural values and the advertisements of such products which influence the culture of the people of specific area. In the case, the target market is Indian market and the products are Fair & lovely, Fair ever cream and parachute hair oil. These are the products which are very familiar in Indian market. In this case there is a research on different type of social classes which are targeted by the advertisement of these products. These advertisements influence the purchasing behavior of consumers by affecting their...
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...MARKETING MANAGEMENT Table of Contents Objective 2 Product Category Definition 2 Fairness Cream Market 3 Competitive Landscape 4 Environmental Analysis 5 Porter’s Five Force Analysis 10 Introduction to the Company and our product “Fair and Lovely” 12 STP Analysis 15 Consumer Behaviour 18 SWOT Analysis 26 Recommendations 27 Bibliography 28 Product Category Definition Fairness Cream products are a part of the personal care product segment. More specifically, they are a sub-set of the skin care product segment. Given below is the product category map: Personal Care Products The product category refers to the products that customers use to enhance or support their personal appearance, hygiene, and well being in general Fairness Products Skin Care Products The segment includes various products such as moisturizers, anti-ageing creams, and sun-screens that customers use to take care of their skin Fairness segment is that part of the skin care segment which includes products that are responsible for improving the skin fairness (permanently or temporarily) For the purpose of this study, we are concentrating only on the Fairness Cream Products, i.e. the fairness products available in cream form, and not in the form of soaps, gels, etc. Also, we are only considering the products whose primary utility is skin fairness. However, these products might also be delivering some additional (but secondary) utility. Fairness Cream Market Market Overview ...
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...Before the start of the paper, I have to declare that there are many ways to promote goods, but most important, these businesses must abide by the law. This case study analysis focuses on misplacement of cultural difference by mounting unethical advertisement campaign by two Indian cosmetic companies - Hindustan Lever Ltd and CavinKare Ltd. The development of revolutionary skin lightening technology brand; Fair & lovely by Hindustan Lever Ltd opened up a new chapter on application of unethical promotional strategy- advertisement to generate large volume of sale and maintain market leadership position in India skin care industry. All Indian Women Democratic Association (AIWDA) complained to HLL and appealed to the National Human Right Commission protesting that HLL advertisement is racist, promotes son preference and insulting to the working women. Whether advertisement should be ethical? Is it important for company to consider the cultural norms? At first, There are a lot of advertisement promote their products overly, I can understand this behavior because it is the most important purpose to sell their products, what’s more, for some products, their effects is vary from person to person. However, the skin lightening cream is ,at best, only mildly effective. This is not the situation I said in last paragraph. Its efficacy is almost not up to anyone's expectations, so I think it is not only ethical but also a kind of deception. For this kind of product, cosmetics, the government...
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...CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION- The fascination of Indians for fair skin is well known. As several social commentators have pointed out, if there is any doubt about this, then people could just take a look at the matrimonial column of any newspaper. The preference for fair (or gori in the vernacular) brides screams at you from such columns. Social commentators go on to say that this preference is perhaps a hangover from the British colonial days, when the ruling colonizers, who were fair-skinned, had a higher status than the darker-skinned locals. Several social gatherings, clubs etc. were earmarked as being 'for whites only'. Perhaps the long years of colonial occupation have ingrained this fascination for white skin in the psyche of Indians. Or perhaps it is the fact that the traditionally higher castes in the country were of a somewhat fairer complexion than the lower castes. India Today, a popular magazine which did a story on fairness creams, mentioned that even the gods supposedly lamented their dark complexion as in a myth in which the popular dark-skinned god Krishna sang plaintively, 'Radha kyoon gori, main kyoon kala?' (Why is Radha so fair while I am dark?). The feature also mentioned that the ancient Ayurvedic sage Charaka wrote thousands of years ago about herbs that could help make the skin fair. This is what Sudarshan Singh, a brand manager with Nivea, has to say: 'Whitening emerges as the prime need. Since Indian men spend a lot of time outdoors, they desire to reverse...
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...GROUP 2 Marketing Project FINAL REPORT ON Fair & Lovely | Unilever FOR FAIRNESS WITH EVERY WASH FOR PIMPLE FREE SKIN FOR SPOT FREE SKIN 1|P e FORa gAGELESS, FAIR SKIN 2013 – 2015 XLRI Jamshedpur Contents I. II. III. Cosmetics Industry................................................................................................................................ 4 Fair and Lovely : Experiencing Beauty .................................................................................................. 6 Market .................................................................................................................................................. 7 Market Size ............................................................................................................................................... 7 Market Share ............................................................................................................................................ 8 Seasonality ................................................................................................................................................ 8 IV. MICRO ANALYSIS................................................................................................................................... 9 Threat of new entrants ............................................................................................................................. 9 Buyers and their bargaining power............
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...CLBS-004 Cavinkare’s Innovative Marketing Strategies CavinKare’s Fairever fairness cream, with the USP of ‘a fairness cream with saffron’ op y acquired a 15% share, and F&L’s share fell from 93% (in 1998) to 76%. Within a year of its launch, Godrej’s FairGlow cream became the third largest fairness cream brand, with a 4% share in the Rs. 6 billion fairness cream market in India. The other players, including J.L. Morrison’s Nivea Visage fairness cream and Emami Group’s Emami Naturally Fair cream, had the remaining 5% share. During 2000-01, with tC major players entering the market, the existing products were promoted with renewed vigor through price reductions, extra volumes, etc. Many products were marketed aggressively. While Fair & Lovely (F&L) advertisements projected fairness No comparable to the moon’s silvery glow, FairGlow offered the added benefit of a blemish-free complexion. Fairever, which sold at a higher price, did not initiate any promotional activities. B. Nandakumar, President (Marketing) CavinKare, explained, “We will not tailor our product to the competition. We’ll do so for the consumer. Freebies are not the only Do way to garner sales.” However, analysts believed that CavinKare did not undertake any promotional activities due to lack of financial muscle. CavinKare’s Fairever was available only in tubes of 25gm and 50gm, and was also priced higher than its competitor’s products. A 25gm Fairever tube was priced at Rs...
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...by (Signature) Prof. Dr. Deepak Gupta Professor (Marketing) Amrita School of Business 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENT We have a great pleasure in thanking prof.Deepak Gupta for giving us an opportunity to do a project on Market Reasearch.We would also thank our mentor, Mr.Karthikeyan for his sustained and adequate guidance. We would like to thank staffmembers for their support We thank them for their readiness to cooperate and helping us avail the material resources without any obstacles. We would also take this opportunity to express our immense gratitude towards all the customers, shop owners and other public who helped us in carrying out our survey. we would thank all our colleagues for their warm and sincere support, in helping us complete the case analysis. Above all, we would like to thank...
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...What is "positioning"? Positioning is the fight for the consumers mind. The different marketers want to secure a place in the mind of the target consumer. To do this the marketers use "positioning". What this means is that the marketers want their product to come to mind when the consumer thinks about purchasing that product type. For example: The marketers of "Liril" soap want the people to think "Liril" when they think soap. The marketers of "Colgate" want the consumers to think "Colgate" when they think toothpaste etc. In India, "Xerox" is what comes to mind when people think of "photo-copying". "Colgate" comes to the mind of people when they think toothpaste. However, now with intensive competition things are changing. Positioning a product in the minds of the consumer is becoming harder. However, positioning is going to play a very important role in marketing in an overly competitive environment. If you have a particular product or service, then you want people to think of you when they think of buying the kind of product or service you sell. In India there are few stores that hold a strong positioning in the mind of the consumers. In other countries, there are special stores where you can go only to go to do your laundry. There are special stores where you can go only to "Xerox". There are special stores that are dedicated only for the buying of candles, perfumes etc. These stores have a strong positioning in the minds of the consumers. When the consumer thinks candles...
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...processes facilitated by the Lovely Professional University. • The aims of this policy are: • To regulate procedures regarding taking part in the processes and offers arising out of the same. • To lay down procedure and process for accepting ‘JOB OFFERS’ • To lay down the number of ‘JOB OFFERS’ available to students, conditions for accepting, over-riding provisions etc • To codify the expected conduct of students during the processes and to specify the deterrents regarding unwarranted communication with companies or any other player/medium which might affect the image of Lovely Professional University directly or indirectly • To lay down guidelines for joining of students. • Application of the policy • The policy applies to all students who have registered for placement assistance at appropriate time. • Definitions • COMPANY LEVEL RECRUITMENT is the recruitment process held by any recruiting company without seeking facilitation of the university. • CRUCIAL DATE is the cut-off date indicated in every placement process notice. This date will be used for determining eligibility of a particular student for that particular process. • DEBARRMENT is the process which leads to a student being taken out of placement process. This may be caused by ‘Performance Gap’ and/or ‘Misconduct’ as defined elsewhere in this document. • PEP or Professional Enhancement Program are the various credited/noncredited inputs given to students by Lovely Professional University to...
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...to endorse Lux, he did much more than just endorse a soap brand. He set a precedent. Back then, the male grooming market was almost non-existent and the Indian market had few dedicated products to offer men. It's different today. Now, as the segment evolves, even Shahid Kapoor and John Abraham are endorsing male grooming products. Soon after Khan's commercial, Emami Group entered the men's fairness cream market. Market talk was that a noticeable proportion of sales of Fair & Lovely, a women's cream, were coming from men. Emami decided to push the opportunity, the rest followed. The market was soon offering males fairness creams, haircare products beyond dyes, scrubs and face washes. Today, the male grooming segment in personal care is ready for its next round of product expansions and additions. Emami entered the men's fairness cream segment in 2005 with the launch of Fair & Handsome, which still dominates the space with close to 70 per cent share. In 2007, Hindustan Unilever launched Fair & Lovely Menz Active but it could not gather much share. Over the past year, multinationals such as Beiersdorf (Nivea for Men) and L'Oreal (Garnier PowerLight) launched a slew of products for men's skin care. While the overall cosmetics industry is growing at 15 per cent year-on-year, fairness creams constitute a huge market with sales worth nearly Rs 2,000 crore (Nielsen 2010 figures). Of this, men's fairness creams account for 10 per cent, though growing at 30 per cent year-on-year...
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...KRISHNA MAHIDA | M.PHARM (PHARMACEUTICAL MANAGEMENT & REGULATORY AFFAIRS) K.B.I.P.E.R | ROLL NO. 118 | CASE STUDY: ALL IS FAIR IN “FAIR AND HANDSOME” ABSTRACT: The fairness cream market is flourishing in India, a country that represents a unique amalgamation of social, religious, and cultural stigmas and stereotypes. Uptill now fairness creams were targeted only for women, but now 20th century “MEN” too are very conscious about their looks. To satisfy their needs, Kolkata based Emami launched world’s first men’s fairness cream “FAIR AND HANDSOME” in 2005.The goal of this paper is to take a closer look at the issues related to men fairness cream by analysing how the evolution of “Fair and Handsome”took place,its positioning in the market and its sustainance against global competitors. EVOLUTION OF THE BRAND: WHAT WAS THE NEED TO LAUNCH FAIR AND HANDSOME? Are men concerned about their complexion ? Do men worry about skin fairness ? If asked few decades back the answer would be a big 'no' as fairness creams and cosmetics were the personal properties of female race. But today alarming statistics reveal that cosmetics and fairness creams are equally sought after by men too. As fashion trends and lifestyles change, the attitudes and conceptions about human beauty. The Indian cosmetics industry was quick to latch on to the phenomenon. Surveys carried out by cosmetics companies suggested that a large number of Indian...
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