The present challenge for a traditional FMCG marketer is to figure how to use the online ecosystem to her benefit rather than see it as a competitive environment, according to Anuradha Aggarwal of Marico.

In conversation with BrandWagon’s Shinmin Bali, Aggarwal speaks at length about refreshing two of the company’s brands within the last two years and fine tuning the approach to digital. Excerpts:

Livon was relaunched last year, supported by an ad campaign. Do you foresee growth in this category?

In the leave-in serum and conditioners category in India, we have over 50% market share, backed by our two brands: Silk-n-Shine and Livon. Our competitors are higher priced and don’t have the kind of distribution it takes to grow the category.

The challenge in such a category is to grow it. The trial, adoption and repeat cycle is harder to accomplish when you are talking about an addition to the repertoire instead of a replacement of the repertoire. The reboot of Livon was aimed at putting a new design, better formulation and better product into the market and we are hoping that it will continue to drive growth.

Set Wet was also given a refresh recently. How has that worked for the brand?

One-and-a-half years back, we launched Set Wet with a new archetype to talk to a slightly younger consumer who is the core gel consumer. This consumer, we realised, was feeling a little under confident in this world where women are equal, where it is very difficult for him to approach a woman without an inherent sense of confidence. We started the journey last year with the Sada Sexy Raho campaign with Aditya Roy Kapur. It did really well for us. The gel brand, Set Wet, has grown from 12% to 54% (moving annual total basis).

We found an amazing fit with Ranveer Singh. Set Wet, overall, is not a very urban brand. The success of its `10 gel pack is testament to that. It is a top 100 city brand but is not restricted to being a metro brand.

How are the Parachute and Saffola ranges performing in non-urban markets?

Saffola is primarily an urban brand today, both for oil and oats. We have significant sales coming from rural but it remains an urban brand nevertheless as it talks about concerns more relevant to urban areas. Saffola has and will probably be focussed on the urban parts of the country for some time to come. We still are a drop in the ocean in the edible oil market.

Parachute is a very different story. It is as mass and widespread as it can get. In four or five states in the country, it is more than 60% to 70% penetrated. In fact, coconut oil distribution in some states is benchmarked as Parachute distribution. In rural, we are not only looking for the Parachute brand to go deeper but also trying to get people to upgrade to better benefit-led segmented products such as our anti-hairfall solutions, Ayurvedic variants etc.

Smaller SKUs and accessible price points are our fundamental strategic shifts. As the rural economy is looking a bit softer this year, we want to be ready for a shift in consumer demand both ways. Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat are open to small packs. For some categories, Andhra Pradesh is very receptive of sachets where our Set Wet gels are doing well. Nihar SKUs are doing well in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Parachute small packs are finding traction in Maharashtra.

What are your digital marketing efforts, given that a majority of traditional brands are sluggish in this area?

In Marico’s DNA, there is risk-taking and entrepreneurship. Digital marketing is quite developed at Marico. The primary thing for our brand teams is to be able to get out and experiment on digital. Livon Hair Gain is an example of a product which gets a large percentage of traction through digital via tie-ups with portals such as Snapdeal, Big Basket etc. There is a lot to learn and experiment with. I’m pushing my team to spend more on digital. We are not in line with the largest players in the market but getting close to about 10% to 15% on digital.

What would you say are the challenges facing an FMCG marketer today?

What the e-commerce boom has done is make people feel confident in taking a step, if they have an idea. This needs to make us marketers nimble-footed with our ears to the ground to figure what can disrupt our business. Challenges today can come from anywhere, even from a small guy who can put a differentiated offering online and take away 2–3% of your share.

The present challenge for a marketer is to figure how to use this ecosystem to her benefit rather than see it as a competitive environment. Today the FMCG business is very small online. The key necessary conditions for success have changed. Now you have `50 crore brands which have been created online in one year using just Facebook

advertising. Suddenly you are looking at business in a very different light. It is no longer really large scale but definitely more customised, more benefit-oriented and allows for sharper targeting. That said, the ecosystem is not the competition at all. It just allows the presence of a different kind of competitor operating at a different scale. As an FMCG major, we know how to deal with really large competitors but we now have to deal with new initiatives and ideas which could disrupt you maybe not today but definitely in the future.
Shinmin.Bali@expressindia.com @shinminbali