HOW LAKME IS INFLUENCING ITS CONSUMERS:

THE CONCEPT OF EGO:

•

According to Freudian Psychoanalytic theory Lakme tries to position itself on the basis ofits appeal to the consumers

which have an ego. This means that the consumers of Lakmehave an impulsive drive for which they seek immediate

satisfaction without concern formeans of satisfaction3.

•

Women all over the world are always expected to look good and Indian women are noexception; More so because of

the fact that Indian women in general do not have a fairskin like that of their western counterparts. Thus it becomes

but natural for Indian womento try and look good and use beauty products that help enhance their looks and style.

Withglobalization and liberalization of Indian economy and the changing demographics andincome levels there is

more and more concern to look good as today's Indian woman is nolonger confined to her home but is a big

contributor to the growth of Indian economy.

THE CONCEPT OF PERSONALITY GROUPS:
•

Lakme tries to woo the compliant consumers according to Karen Horney's classification4of personality groups i.e.

people who move towards others. Those who have desire to beloved, wanted and appreciated. As is earlier stated

women are supposed to look good notonly in western countries but also in India.
•

Women always appreciate if someone calls them beautiful and it has become the customof the society to see women

in such a context. So it would be prudent to say thataccording to the societal norms a women has to look good at all

times and which has abearing on the psychology of female consumers towards cosmetic products which helpthem

achieve that desired look. Needless to say that Lakme plays on the concept ofwomen wanting themselves to be

appreciated for their beauty and being loved for that.

CONCEPT OF PERCEPTUAL SELECTION:
On the basis of perceptual selection Lakme has tried to position itself among its consumers in the
following ways:
•

Lakme has tried to gain the attention of its consumers by line extension and having moreand more product depth,

packaging and attractive print advertisements. If we look at theline extensions of Lakme than we would observe that
it is in almost all the segments ofcosmetic care ranging from hair care to skin care to beauty salons! Looking at the

productdepth it is pretty evident that Lakme has actually tried to fill in all areas that it can,particularly the nail paint

and the lip color segment is a big hit among Indian women as itoffers them a wide variety of products in terms of

colors as well as various styles thatthey can choose from.

•

It was the first cosmetic brand in India that captured the imagination of consumers. It hada market share of 52%5  at

one time as the consumers didn't have many choices but as theforeign brands came in, it lost its Numero Uno

position. This was primarily due to thefact that consumers now had easy access to high quality products and with

risingdisposable income and size of the Indian middle class consumers shifted their attention toforeign players.
PERCEPTION AND ATTITUDE OF CONSUMERS TOWARDS LAKME:
According to the answers in the in-depth interview of the respondents:
What respondents feel:
•

Colorful: 20% (6/30) of the respondents in the in-depth interview said that theyassociated Lakme with colors i.e.

something which is vibrant and lively. According tothem Lakme offers them with a wide range of colors in product

category of nail paint and lip color. This makes them perceive it as colorful

What Lakme wants them to feel:

This consumer perception goes well with thepositioning of Lakme’s lip color and nail polish as they try to position it

as colorful andvibrant which is how the consumers perceive it as.

What respondents feel:
•

30% (9/30) respondents felt that Lakme is a trendsetter for fashionable cosmetics inIndia. The major reason they

attributed to this was that it was the first cosmetic brand inIndia which was particularly catering to the need of

Indian women and thus set a trendfor the foreign players to tap the Indian market. Today also they said that it is

atrendsetter in cosmetics as it keeps on coming out with novel colors, shades and productsfrom time to time.
What Lakme wants them to feel:

This again matches with what the company wants Indianconsumers to perceive

about it as is evident from the shown advertisement. Lakme’sstrategy has been to come with new and vibrant colors

and shades of cosmetics each andevery season. Currently it is aggressively advertising its ‘Tropical Island

Collection’6which has been designed by none other than famous fashion designer Wendell Rodricks.
What respondents feel

20% (6/30) respondents feel that Lakme’s lip color is longer lasting as compared to otherbrands such as Maybelline

and Revlon. They felt that it is because of good quality of lipcolor that was provided by the company.
What Lakme wants them to feel:

This is what Lakme is trying to do with the advertisements of itslip color. In fact it

has launched a special range of lip color that is called 9 to 5 range andis meant for women who are working in

offices. This product is primarily harping on thepremise that the lip color stays longer than any other and is meant

for working womenwho stay in offices from 9 to 5 and can’t give that much time for their looks in betweenworking

hours.
What respondents feel:
•

10% (3/30) respondents felt that when they thought of Lakme they thought of an expertin beauty care. According to

them it is a brand which communicates to them the variousways in which they can protect as well as enhance their

beauty.
What Lakme wants them to feel:
This advertisement of Lakme is exactly
trying to communicate this message to its consumers that the brand is an expert in beauty.
What Lakme wants them to feel:

In this context Lakme has tried to woo itsconsumers by

means of informative advertisement but the perception of its consumersdoesn’t gel with that of what the company

wants to do. The major reason for this could bethe level of sophistication of the respondent. In this case they are

learned women from aB school. However in case of women who are not at all abreast with the actualmechanisms of

body’s maintenance of good health, it can be a good way of trying togenerate awareness amongst it consumers

regarding the role this product can play in theachievement of the consumer’s goal.
PREVAILING CONSUMER ATTITUDE:
The prevailing attitude of the consumers regarding Lakme is that it is:
•
A brand that epitomizes the feminity of Indian women. 30% (9/30) of the respondents ofthe in depth interview felt

that Lakme has over the years built a brand that has got aspecial place in the hearts of Indian women. This was

attributed to the length and depthof its product mix.

•

20% (6/30) of the respondents feel that Lakme is economical as compared to itscompetitor foreign brands. This

particular aspect has never been harped upon by Lakmein its advertisements. When asked whether the consumers

would buy the products ofLakme if their price was increased most of the respondents were not able to make uptheir

mind. They were of the opinion that low price is one of the major strengths of thebrand and it should remain like

that.

10% (3/30) of the respondents felt that Lakme provides them a complete range ofcosmetic products. This is in line

with what Lakme has been trying to position it as. Thevarious advertisements of Lakme try to tell their consumers

that they provide them with acomplete solution for their beauty enhancement.
•

20% (6/30) respondents felt that Lakme is not at all a healthy choice in order to keep ahealthy and beautiful skin.

This is in contrast with its skin care products as they try to telltheir consumers that using their skin care products

would help them achieve radiant andglowing skin. The major reason is the growing popularity of herbal products

and theusage of chemicals in Lakme products.

In this respect what we as a group feel that Lakme should start a new product line ofHerbal or Ayurvedic based

cosmetic products as Lakme is already considered as atrendsetter in cosmetics industry by various consumers. So it

should not miss theopportunity and should either launch a new product line or incorporate Herbal orAyurvedic

ingredients in its product portfolio.

SPECIAL NOTE WITH RESPECT TO THE PREVAILING CONSUMER ATTITUDE:

We as a group came to the conclusion that whatever negative attitude consumers haveregarding Lakme at IBS

Hyderabad campus it maybe because the respondents werehighly informed regarding the products and product

range. They were all B schoolstudents and were aware of the recent developments with respect to the cosmetic

industryto some extent.

If we look at a broader picture women today are changing their attitude towards morehealthier and natural cosmetic

products as a whole and are reluctant to use chemicalbased cosmetics if they have better options. Moreover due to
immense competition it isvery much evident that consumers of Lakme would switch over to healthier brands as

inthis product category the brand loyalty of the consumer stays as long as the product isproviding the consumer the

desired level of satisfaction. Since that level is already on thechanging side its high time Lakme looks at

beautification not only in terms of cosmeticsbut healthy cosmetics

METHODOLOGY OF DATA COLLECTION:

In this project, we have done qualitative research for gaining insights into perception ofLakme in the minds of

consumer, their attitude towards the brand and also to find outwhether Hindustan Unilever’s intentions are matching

with the consumer’s perceptionabout the brand. Qualitative data was collected to know more about consumer

behavior,intentions, feelings and thoughts that cannot be directly observed and measured. Hencequalitative methods

helped us to project the emotions, needs, motives, attitudes andbeliefs of women towards Lakme.

Moreover, these methods are less structured and more intensive than standardizedquestionnaire based interviews.

There is a longer, more flexible relationship with therespondent, so the resulting data have more depth and great

richness of context. We haveused qualitative research for the study where we wanted to gain insights into

women’sperception towards Lakme that otherwise might be impossible to pursue with structuredresearch methods.
IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW METHOD:

The data collection tool which we have chosen for this study is Individual In-depthinterviews. The individual in-

depth interviews were conducted face to face with therespondent i.e. women (belonging to IBS Hyderabad), in

which the subject matter of theinterview i.e. Lakme as a brand was explored in detail. The in-depth interview was

offocused type. The questionnaire that we administered to the respondents is given in Annexure I.
RATIONALE OF THE METHOD CHOSEN:
The focused individual interviews were being done because we wanted to cover a specificlist of topics or subareas
of the Lakme brand. So therefore the interviewer had thediscretion on the timing, exact wording and time allocation
on each question area. Specialcare was taken to avoid threatening questions. In the individual in-depth
interview, wehave used laddering technique so as to get an actual response from the respondent.Forexample, firstly
the respondents were asked a particular question and then, they were

probed on reasons for their response given to the interviewer.

 Earlier we narrowed down the sources of data collection to focus groups and individualin-depth interviews. But

finally we ended up by selecting individual in-depth interviews.The advantages of in-depth interviews over focus

groups are:
1.More quality: Unlike focus groups, one- on-one interviews can avoid responses that are

influenced by other people. Like in our case where personal beauty care is a critical issue.Girls or women tend to get

influenced by other participants of the focus group in order toavoid any embarrassing situation. This kind of

behavior is not seen in case of in-depthinterview. Interviewers may ask respondents directly and find out their

personal thoughtson the product; this ultimately enhances the quality of information.
2.More quantity: We can receive twice the amount of information per respondent in an in-
depth interview, where the interviewer speaks at most 20 percent of the time, as in a
typical 10-member focus group.
3.More depth: In-depth interviews capture all the relevance of the qualitative information

of focus groups. Every word the respondent speaks can be tapped and transcribed andused in multiple ways. Well

designed surveys can go beyond surface answers and producea rich database of interviews to produce analytical

reports, identify broad themes, andunderstand the ranges and depth of reactions.
4.More representation: In-depth interviews allow a much more representative approach.

Respondents are carefully selected to represent the marketplace as accurately as possible.As in our case, the

respondents were girls. Therefore it was better to conduct individualin-depth interviews as girls can feel comfortable

in answering questions pertaining tobeauty care of a person.

5.More value: One-on-one interviews can double or triple the number of minutes that the
respondent is talking, and that is the true goal of our research: understanding your
consumers better
6.More convenient: As we are residing in a residential B-school where we are under

inevitable pressure of assignments and placements , so it was difficult for us to schedule afocus group discussion

comprising of 7-8 girls and that too we have to conduct 3-4 focusgroup discussions. In comparison to focus groups,

individual interviews were easier toschedule.

7.As our subject of research i.e. personal beauty care of women is quite sensitive, thereforeindividual in-depth interviews

were more appropriate in order to get more of the talkingfrom girls or women.

8.Moreover, with one respondent, there is absolutely no potential for influence from otherrespondents which might have

been prevalent if it was a focus group discussion instead ofan individual in-depth interview.
As we have clearly mentioned myriad advantages of in-depth interviews over focus group
discussions, there are also some limitations of individual in-depth interviews. They are:
 There is no group interaction among girls. Therefore, stimulation for new ideas from
respondents comes from the interviewer.
 In the absence of group pressure of girls, the thinking of respondents is not challenged.
 It takes a lot of time to obtain information and analyze it.
LIMITATIONS OF QUALITATIVE METHODS:
•
The results are not necessarily representative of what would be found in the population,
and hence cannot be projected.
•
There is typically a great deal of ambiguity in the results of qualitative methods.
•
Susceptibility of the results to misuse.
•

Flexibility that is the hallmark of these qualitative methods gives the moderator orinterviewer great latitude in

directing the questions; similarly, an analyst with a particularpoint of view may interpret the thoughts and comments

selectively to support that view.

APPENDIX I:
Questionnaire for In-Depth interview:
1.Which brand of cosmetics do you use and why? (Cosmetics include a complete range of
hair care, skin care, nail paints and lip color.)

Directions for Q no 1: In case there are different brands that you prefer for differentbeauty spots kindly

mention the name of the brand you like personally or the onewhose majority of products you use.
2.If you are asked to choose any Lakme product for your use which one would you choose
from its range of cosmetic products and why?
3.What is the first word/thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word Lakme?
4.If Lakme was the name of the person what would be the attributes that you would
associate with the personality of that person? (Atleast mention three!)
5.Do you think that Lakme is a source of radiant beauty? Please support your answer with a
statement.
6.Do you think that Lakme provides you with an option of healthy long lasting and
harmless make-up? Please support your answer with a statement.
7.Do you think if you would use Lakme products they would help you feel on top of the
world? Please support your answer with a statement.
8.Do you think that Lakme’s Hair next rage would help you to achieve good looking hair
instantly? Please support your answer with a statement.
9.Do you think that Lakme is a leader in the cosmetics industry in India? If no than who
according to you is the leader and why?
10. Would you continue to buy Lakme products even if their price is increased by say up to
10-15%?