Modi Revlon is consolidating its volume-driven strategy with smaller sizes priced competitively. Close on the heels of the success of `mini' nail enamel earlier this year, Modi Revlon, a 76:24 joint venture between Modi Mundi Pharma and Revlon, US, is now extending the experiment to its other products in the portfolio. Having test-launched the miniature packs of lipsticks and foundation in the non-metros in August, the company has just finished stocking stores countrywide with the smaller versions at scaled-down prices.The mini lip, which was launched last week in the metros, will retail at the new price of Rs 90 compared to Rs 160 for Superlustrous, the signature brand of Revlon. The volume of the new pack is down to 2.5 gm from 4.2 gm. The 31 shades include Coffee Bean, Iced Coffee, Marooned, Vixen, Stone Edge, Wild Grape and Caramel Candy.
``Being an international colour authority, we would like to reach out to as many Indian women as possible who are as contemporary in terms of fashion as any other across the world,'' says executive director Ms Meghna Modi. This is the primary reason for lowering the price bar.
The experiment is also driven by the company's in-house research that a woman never really finishes a lipstick or a bottle of nail enamel because she gets bored with the shades and would like to try out newer ones, price permitting, says Ms Modi.
Modi Revlon's Touch and Glow foundation pack too is now available in a smaller 20 ml size for Rs 69 compared to the older bigger size of 35 ml hitherto selling for Rs 99. Also, it is a water-based product and comes in five India-specific shades.
Its premium Colourstay brand too is now available at the reduced price of Rs 219 in contrast to the older price of Rs 249 while newer shades in the product have been introduced exclusively for the Indian market. The step is an attempt to curb the grey market that the brand spurs and where shades imported from overseas can be bought at considerably low rates. The new India-specific shades are Charcoal, Mulberry, Chestnut, Blackcherry and Stone.
In keeping with its brand line ``Nobody does colour like Revlon'', the company is coming out with a new shade statement `Celebration' which will predict the colour that should be worn this October and November. The theme is basically an uptake on the `Go Chilly' statement that was launched in the UK and US market this August.
Slashing prices by merely lowering pack sizes is a strategy that has paid off in the case of Revlon earlier. ``From about 20,000-odd units of nail enamel that we were selling a month, sales have now spurted almost ten times to about two lakh units a month with the launch of mini nail enamel,'' says Ms Modi.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.