Brands are not built in a Day: 5 Branding Lessons From ‘Fair & Lovely’ and ‘Valentine Day’

Though Valentine Day happens to be quite lovey-dovey and mushy for couples but it was interesting and educating for the single like me since morning. Why interesting, because I got to see some interesting incidents, which was educating also for me because these interesting incidents were very niche earlier and went on to become phenomenon in the country.

First incident was with my kid cousin brother. He is twelve year old. I was about to leave for a meeting when I saw this rubbing ‘Fair & Lovely’ on his face. I jokingly taunted him and he felt embarrassed. Fairness and ‘Fair & Lovely’ is still widely feminine thing in India, which is obsessed with fair skinned girls. It’s the different thing that brand owner Hindustan Uniliver Limited has launched fairness cream for men also, under the same brand name. As I have written, fairness is still considered feminine thing in India, but men are also using lot of cosmetics and grooming products. According to Nielsen reports (2010), India’s fairness cream market was of Rs.2000 crore and men’s fairness cream constituted 10% of that, but it is increasing 30% year or year. Till half a decade ago, men’s fairness cream was non- existent and now we are seeing many brands vying for the market share.

Second incident was celebration of valentine day itself and market around this festival. I remember, around 10 year back, my elder brother had asked me whether I know about valentine day or not. Seriously speaking, I was not at all aware about it, but had read this two word somewhere. So, I tried to play my luck and told him that somebody had committed suicide on this date. He laughed at me and told me about this date in detail. Initially, it was a very urban phenomenon, limited to very niche segment of even metro city like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore etc. Today, my meeting was in Connaught Place, which happens to be one of the hotspots of Delhi as well and what a scene it was there; all colourful, beautiful girls holding equally beautiful bouquet of flowers in their one hand and holding their partner’s hand with other.  Enroute my home, I dropped in one of the mall of NOIDA to buy a book and scene was similar there. Starting from outside the metro station to inside the mall, all the places were filled with red roses and red colour heart shaped structures. All the gifting stores were filled with couples one thing or other. What a transition it has been in last one decade. Now, it has gained almost equal importance of other festivals of India.

Both the incident made me smile at the transition it has seen during one decade. Like ‘Fair & Lovely’, Valentine Day has become part of everybody’s life. Marketers in both the cases have created a huge market, which till one decade back, was non-existent. I was wondering what made both the thing become such a huge phenomenon and came to following conclusions:

1)      Brands are not made in a day; it takes time to create a brand. You need to have patience to win over the customer’s confidence.

2)      While planning to create a brand which you want to last very long (hardly any brand lasts forever), think of something which is related to innate emotions of people.  India is the country where people of different colour, creed, caste and religion lives and everybody loves fair colour, which is almost synonyms of beauty here. Similarly, Valentine Day is all about expressing love for your partner, boyfriend, girlfriend, wife and husband. This emotion is something most important for every human.     

3)      Communication plays a key role in building any brand and who can forget Fair & Lovely’s TVCs showing a girl’s aspiration getting subverted because of wheatish skin and once she starts using this fairness cream, she gets whatever she wants. Marketing communication of this product touched every aspect of girl’s emotion. Similarly, marketing communication around Valentine Day has reached feverish pitch. Not that anybody or any company is trying to create a brand out of Valentine Day, but every year, companies selling cosmetics, tours & travel, gadgets, gifting items etc. spend fortune on communication keeping this day in focus.

4)      Communication needs to be continuous; you can’t take your place for granted. You are successful and your success is bound to inspire others. When they get inspired by you, it is but obvious that they will follow you, Many may fail but some may start breathing down your neck.

5)      When you touch the human emotion, you are bound to touch few people’s emotion in wrong way, but you need to continue with your endeavour. Fair & Lovely campaign has been criticized many a times for showing wheatish colour girls in poor light and promoting colourism and racism. Similarly, Valentine Day is being criticised for not being part of Indian culture. Often we get the news of hooligans claiming alliance of one religious group or other harasses couples sitting in parks or sometime pubs and restaurants. But, nothing has deterred couples from expressing their love for each other.