Introduction

Fair & Lovely is a skin-lightening cosmetic product of Hindustan Unilever introduced to

the market in India in 1975. Fair & Lovely is available in India, Bangladesh, Malaysia,
Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and other parts of Asia and
is also exported to other parts of the world such as the West, where it is sold in Asian
supermarkets.
Unilever patented the brand Fair & Lovely in 1971 after the patenting of niacinamide, a
melanin suppressor, which is the cream's main active ingredient. As of 2012 the brand
occupied 80% of the fairness cream market in India, and is one of Hindustan Unilever's
most successful cosmetics lines.
Fair and Lovely contains stearic acid mainly sourced from animal body fats (like lard)
which contain the highest amount of stearic acid by weight compared to plant-based fats.
The target consumer profile for Fair & Lovely is the 18 and above age group, and the bulk
of the users are in the age 21–35 category, though there is evidence that girls as young as
12–14 also use the cream.

Analyzing the Marketing Environment of Pakistan through PEST Analysis

It is of utmost importance to analyze the environment while entering the new market. The
demography, political situations, economy, cultural values of any country is vital before
making any marketing decision.
PEST analysis of macro environment of Pakistan is important for Fair & Lovely. Out of
PEST, we will give more weightage to E (Economy) & S (Socio-cultural & demography).
Study of demography, culture & economy is inevitable before stepping in to the Pakistani
market.

Economy
The region is certainly volatile – something’s always happening – but Fair & Lovely has
to stay. The company strategy should to stay focused and meet the beauty care
requirements of the region’s women. In short, it’s up to the Group to adapt to consumers’
needs and cope with economic ups and downs across the region. The country has lived
through many such bouts of instability and there are more to come. But, they are always
followed by bright spells. The company prefers to see the constraints as opportunities. It’s
what the company call the ‘Fairness Cream’: when an economy is ailing, it’s easier for
people to buy a Fairness Cream than a new house. Which means the company have to
adapt the Fairness Cream offering in order to address consumers’ overriding concerns.
i.e. products featuring all the Group’s technologies but are still affordable. Similarly, the
group can show its awareness of the importance of reviewing their formats by offering
small sachets of creams in Pakistan for single-use at low cost. The Pakistani population
tends to make purchases on a day-to-day basis given their economic constraints.

Demography
The most important demographic trends in Pakistan are as under:
Increasing Population: With total population of over 200 million, Pakistan is 5th most
populous country in the world, thus providing great opportunity for marketers.
Age: Pakistan has youthful population. About 60% of the total population is below 30
years of age, out of which 32% are below 14 years. So we can say that these are the
millennials. Millennials in Pakistan are just like millennials everywhere. This generation
is totally globalized. The gap is no longer between regions but between generations. What
millennials want are beauty care products that give instant gratification and immediate
benefits. But above all, because they are less responsive to TV advertising, they want
products that are marketed differently. The ultimate weapon for winning over this target
group is digital technology. Digital initiatives have to be tailored to each country. The
company relied on the formula which it relied in every country i.e. teaming up with local
influencers.

Pakistan has youthful population, but consumer profile differs from one area to another.
The first differentiating factor is purchasing power, which, on average, is more in Punjab
& Sindh than KP & Baluchistan. Physical features are another differentiator. People on
north part of the country generally have fair complexions. Women in Central region have
thick, straight dark hair and want a glowy complexion.

Cultural
Cultural differences also have to be factored into the strategy because they shape women’s
beauty care routines. Generally, Pakistani women tend to apply soft make-up, influenced
by historical, cultural or religious considerations. Pakistani women’s give preference to
eye make-up. People are mad about getting fair complexion. People are more prone
towards homemade items.
Fair & Lovely aim is to meet the diverse needs of consumers around the world as well as
possible. By establishing research and development centers in continents, the Unilever
group managed to adapt to specific cultural differences in the beauty market. Keeping this
is mind, they can conduct in-store interviews and, in some cases, invite themselves into
with women’s homes so that people can describe their beauty routines and chat about
their ideal products to develop products best suited the requirements. Fair & Lovely must
modernize a traditional routine.

Developing Customer-Driven Marketing Strategy (STP) for Pakistani

Market:
After researching the marketplace, Fair & Lovely must select customers to serve
(Segmentation & Targeting) and decide for a value proposition (Differentiating &
Positioning).

Segmentation & Targeting

Fair & Lovely can segment its customers into various groups. Firstly, using
demographical segmentation people of different gender (women and men), age (young
and older), and race (diversity) can be attracted by offering a product portfolio. This way,
a large number of people could find a suitable fairness product to fit their demands.
Concerning the psychographic segmentation, the Group can attract different social
classes by offering products for both the middle class and the upper social class.
Additionally, Fair & Lovely attracts people of different personalities and lifestyles, which
includes travel retail consumers purchasing in duty- free shops or natural fairness lovers.
This way, customers' buying behavior might be stimulated as clients can self-reflect in the
beauty products. Regarding the behavioral segmentation, Unilever groups customers
based on the benefits they demand from the products. For example, within the skincare
business segment, these might be people seeking products for anti-aging, cleansers,
moisturizers, anti-imperfections, and others.
After segmenting, the company can use Differentiated Marketing approach to target
several market segments and design separate offers for each. Overall, one can conclude
that the use of multiple customer segmentation bases is due to the actuality that the
customer target group of Fair & Lovely are a mix of demographic, psychographic, and
behavior segmentations.

Positioning & Differentiation

Fair & Lovely must actually differentiate its products with that of its competitors. The USP
for Fair & Lovely is that best caters to the beauty demands of women of different cultures
through constant research and innovation. It is also its competitive advantage as more
than 6,000 scientists, engineers, chefs and technicians work in Unilever's R&D centers
around the globe - inventing new products and improving existing products to delight
consumers everywhere. Consequently, in customers' minds the Fair & Lovely Group is
positioned as a Fairness leader with products of high quality, care, and effectiveness
among the large brand portfolio. The overall positioning strategy for Fair & Lovely must
be More for More or More for the Same. They cannot afford Less for Much Less, The Same
for the Less strategies being the innovator company. Even, if the lower middle class be
focused, the positioning strategy must be More for Less, though it can only be viable for
short run, but can attract lower middle class. Overall, the organization should prevent any
confusion of brands by positioning and differentiating clearly the brands in the wide
portfolio. Marketers could manage this, for instance, by the integrated marketing
communication analyzed below.

Fair & Lovely hired Bollywood Star, Yumi Gautam in an advertisement to show that beautiful women
use Fair & Lovely, thus positioning itself as not just a basic cream, but one that made women beautiful.
This promise of beauty and benefits positioned Fair & Lovely higher in the market compared to the
home brands which positioned themselves as cheap, value-for- money products which only served the
most basic of functions of Skin cleaning. It thus attempted to capture the loyalty of a new segment of
the market by promising better quality products to the rising middle class.
Plan to Build Customer Relationships through an Integrated Marketing
Mix/Program (4 P’s)
OR
Preparing an Integrated Marketing Program to give intended Value
After developing marketing strategies, Fair & Lovely must prepare an integrated
marketing program that will actually deliver the intended value to target customers so
that profitable customer relations can be build. The marketing program consists of the
company’s marketing mix (set of tools to implement its marketing strategy). They are
necessary for establishing a strong positioning in target market. They are four as
detailed under:
Product: Fair & Lovely can offer existing products from its catalogue or develop new
products meeting the local requirements. But without compromising on quality.
Price: Pakistan is a price conscious society in general, so Fair & Lovely has to make it
affordable anyhow. Luxury products can cater the needs of specific segment, but for
masses/lower middle class, which is major market, Fair & Lovely has to price its
products accordingly.
Placement: The products can be distributed through financially sound distributors.
Promotion: Fairness Creams are impulse buys, which are not items on a regular shopping
list, and thus customers need to be stimulated. Impulse buys are easily switched for other
products; therefore, companies should ensure for a frequent reminder promotion. Fair &
Lovely can hire female super stars in advertisement to show that beautiful women use
Fair & Lovely, thus positioning itself as not just a basic beauty product, but one that made
women beautiful. This promise of beauty and benefits will position Fair & Lovely higher
in the market compared to the local brands. It thus attempted to capture the loyalty of a
new segment of the market by promising better quality products to the rising middle class.

Product Price

Intended positioning
for target customers
Promotion Place

Developing strategies for Growth in Pakistani Market through Ansoff’s

Product/Market Expansion Grid

Marketing has the main responsibility for achieving profitable growth for the company.
After identifying, evaluating & selecting marketing opportunities, strategies must be lay
down to capture them. Through Ansoff’s model, we see that Fair & Lovely’s is developing
new products for its existing markets of Europe, Japan, etc. by producing 2000 products
every year. But to enter or expand in to a new market like Pakistan, Fair & Lovely has to
focus on market development by developing an integrated marketing program that will
actually deliver the intended value to target customer.
 Existing Product New Product
Existing Market Penetration Strategy Product Development Strategy
Market Fair & Lovely is developing new
products as well as product
variants, and complementary
products to its existing product
lines in existing markets through
continuous innovation. This might
be due to the fact that the selection
of fairness products is increasing to
satisfy the both (Women, Men)
needs, thus for example,
 Fair & Lovely Winter Cream
 Fair & Lovely Advanced Multi
Vitamin Cream
 Fair & Lovely Ayurvedic Care
 Fair & Lovely Bb Cream
 Fair & Lovely Cream
 Instant Fairness Men

New Market Development Strategy Diversification

Market In order to growth in business and
expansion in sales, Fair & Lovely has
to go for market development
strategy. There can be many ways to
do this. i.e. developing new
distribution channels to reach target
customers, developing a new brand to
reach target market, etc.

From the analysis above, it is clear that there are various opportunities for the Group to
accomplish significant growth, and thus to obtain sufficient market share by adopting
developing market first, and then penetrate it through product development. Yet, to
choose, the least risky way, L'Oréal might consider market penetration.
Applying SWOT Analysis on Fair & Lovely:
Fair & Lovely has also to analyze its market and marketing environment to find attractive
opportunities and intimidate threats.
Strengths
 Fair & Lovely brand is World's first and
largest Fairness cream brand
 Presence in 40 countries and a value of
around Rs.6 billion
 Line Extension to premium soap ‘Fair
and Lovely Soap’
 Enjoys high levels of Consumer
Awareness for the brand
 Excellent branding, top-of-the-mind
name, and good distribution
Opportunities
 Fair & Lovely Foundation which aims
at empowerment of women
 Fair & Lovely Scholarship for
underprivileged girls.
 Introduction of ‘Menz Active’ fairness
cream for Men.
 Due to pollution in the environment
people are facing more skin problems.
This is an opportunity which can be
cashed upon.
Weaknesses
 Categorization of women on the
basis of skin color, has led to many
issues with activists and human
rights leading to Negative Publicity
 The high prices might also be
another weakness. People might
think it to be expensive in relation
to other creams.
 The brand personality is getting too
labelled. A young girl on the verge
of getting married. This may lead to
people getting sick of this concept.
Threats
 Political & economic instability
 Tough competition. Existence of their
competitors (Dove, Ponds, Care,
English Fairness Cream) in Pakistani
market
 Presence of home brands
 Cheaper products
 Strong sense of loyalty

BCG Matrix in the Marketing strategy of Fair and Lovely

The goal of Fair & Lovely must be to match its strengths to attractive opportunities in the
environment by eliminating or overcoming the weaknesses and minimizing the threats.
The brand operates in business segments such as Cosmetic cream, Men’s solutions, Face
Wash and Daily treatment.
Since the brand has been from the beginning is catering to the skin lightening and colour
enhancement needs of the customers and therefore its business segments Cosmetic cream
and Daily treatment are “Stars” in the BCG matrix while the brand’s facewash and Men’s
Solution being the new addition to the business, therefore, are question mark in the BCG
matrix.
Using Maslow’s Hierarchy for appealing the needs of Pakistani Consumers:
Marketers design clever promotions to appeal to all levels of needs in Maslow’s hierarchy
of need.
When Fair & Lovely says that “Fairness Expert”, it actually focuses on peoples’ esteems
need because the products are more expensive, but it makes realize the people that they
are fairer skin than the expenses associated with the product.
However, in Pakistan, where majority of people do not purchase high priced beauty
products, Fair & Lovely has to introduce affordable products which women can purchase
easily as all women tend to worry about their appearance when socializing in the
community and their desire to look better and prettier encouraged them to buy beauty
products that they believe can improve their appearance. (Social need)
To enhance their appearance – so meet their social needs of belongingness and love.

Pressured by an increasingly hectic schedule, many busy, stressed-out members of the

middle class are allowing themselves the indulgence of small “affordable luxuries. Fair &
Lovely’s famous ad slogan “Fairness Expert” is an example of an attempt that invokes the
notion of “affordable luxury.”
Roger’s Theory of Diffusion
The driving force of Fair & Lovely is innovation and so that the innovators of any market
must be the focus of such innovating company. The innovators are venturesome and like
to try some new ideas or products at some risk. Usually, innovators are relatively younger,
which in the case of Pakistan, more than 64% people are between 14-25. They are better
educated, higher in income and are more receptive to unfamiliar things. As they are less
brand loyal therefore marketers try to bring their new products to the attention of
potential early adopters, especially those who are opinion leaders.
Conclusion
Being a global organization Fair & Lovely certainly needs to understand the cultural
differences and beliefs and position its products accordingly otherwise the results may be
far more different than they are at this moment. It has to design products which meets
cultural expectations and make traditional routine modernize. The thrust has to be on
hitting the right customer with the right product. This can be possible only if one has a
deep knowledge of local culture. From a business point of view, companies have to adapt
themselves to the culture of each country in which they want to have business. The most
important part of the Fair & Lovely's strategic plan is opportunity hunting or the
marketing of their products worldwide. Innovation is in the heart of the company and this
was made possible through constant research and development over the years so that the
products reflect “the best of fairness and skin care innovation in terms of quality, efficacy
and safety. In the vast majority of cases, it can meet local needs from its international
catalogue. When it can’t, it develops a tailor-made offering. However, the organization
should prevent any confusion of brands by positioning and differentiating clearly the
brands in the wide portfolio through integrated marketing communication. The success
story can continue further if Fair & Lovely rightly prepare an integrated marketing mix
program that will actually deliver the intended value to target customers in order to build
profitable customer relations.