Says HLL chairman MS Banga, who took over as chairman earlier this month:``There are close to 2 to 3 million households at the upper end of themarket with high consuming power, ready for premium products.'' According toBanga, the reasons for the high failure rate in premium brands was that``most companies...have concentrated at the top end of the market alone,which makes it difficult to build critical mass to service the high coststructures these companies have in the Indian market.''

With a product portfolio covering a gamut of categories across all price andmarket segments in the market, HLL suffers none of those handicaps. Thecompany will follow different marketing strategies for different marketsegments, viz, premium, medium and lower end, says Banga.

HLL launched the entire range of Calvin Klein -- popularly known as CK -- productsin the Indian market from parent Unilever's stable in December last year.The company is now planning to launch its second prestige brand, ElizabethArden, this year. ``We are looking at leveraging the best of Unilever withmore launches for the top end of the market,'' he says.

``With the multiplicity of media channels available at our disposal today,reaching the top end of the market in not such a barrier as it was untilsome time ago,'' he added during an informal meet with newspersons in Mumbai.Commenting on the Indian consumer, Banga said: ``Consumers in India todayare highly aware. Most of them have learned life the hard way; even those atthe top end of the market retain high value orientation.'' This has setthe top-end agenda for HLL which will strive to provide consumers withhigh-quality products in times to come.

Detailing one of the ways in which this will be done, Banga said ``Themarket will see products bearing more information on the packaging than whatis statutorily required in the very near future.''

The company has already rolled out initiatives such as `Hello Hindustan' byway of which it can integrate the customer's voice in its research loop.Thanks to marketing initiatives in the past, HLL is already a force toreckon with in the lower and mid segment of urban and rural India.