International Journal of Contemporary Business Studies Vol: 3, No: 1. January, 2012 ISSN 2156-7506 Available online at http://www.akpinsight.webs.

com

Fair war: A case study on fairness cream

Dr. Sangeeta Mohanty, Assistant Professor Academy of Business Administration, Industrial Estate (S1/25), Angargadia, Balasore-756001, Orissa, India

ABSTRACT
Indias fairness cream market is evolving at rapid speed, fuelled by television advertisement by the celebrities and the rapidly changing lifestyles. Indias proactive FMCG market has seen the significant growth in the cosmetic market in last two decades and fairness cream accounts for the major part of the cosmetic market with an average growth rate of 20% per annum. Indians are witnessing a paradigm shift from traditional methods of using home products to modern methods of using branded cosmetics and fairness cream to become fair. The particular paper aims at identifying the popular brands of fairness cream and the reasons of choosing a particular brand. It also provides a more comprehensive statistical analysis of evaluating consumers preference to various brands of fairness cream. The Participants were chosen randomly from cities Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, Orissa, 243 agreed to participate in the survey but the data could be collected from 200 respondents only. Key words: Fairness Cream, Brand, Consumer

INTRODUCTION
The concept of preferring the people with fair-skin has long been recognized socially and it has been the psychological and social impact on women to be fair. But in the recent years, men too have started giving importance on personal grooming, beginning with fair skin. The market for fairness cream was restricted to woman only till 2005; but Emami catered to men with its product Fair and Handsome. Till then fairness cream market dominates the cosmetic market covering male and female segments. It is clear from television and matrimonial advertisements that the market for fairness creams in India is huge. The increasing demand of fair bride and groom creates the field for the national and international players to invest in the cosmetic markets and more particularly in fairness cream products to cater the needs of new generations. The celebrities like Sonam Kapoor, Shah Rukh Khan, John Abraham and Katrina Kaif are brand ambassadors for major fairness creams. The growth in consumerism and the changing life style of Indian youth have led to strong demand for fairness creams. Indias swelling middle class is redefining lifestyle pattern with adoption of western values and growing brand consciousness; creating opportunity for the global players in fairness cream market. The Indian market is experiencing stronger demand for fairness creams due to the increased media and untapped markets targeting the rural segment. Another key driver is the increased penetration level of male spending behavior on cosmetics. The fairness product market has captured the people from 3600 angle. The easy availability of these products has made the business to expand. The potent source of

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International Journal of Contemporary Business Studies Vol: 3, No: 1. January, 2012 ISSN 2156-7506 Available online at http://www.akpinsight.webs.com

this expansion is value added factors like fairness cream with sun screening; fairness cream with age miracle; fairness cream with multivitamin etc. The present study has been directed towards exploring and examining the various factors which influence the people to go for a particular brand of fairness cream. The main objective is to unfold the motives in the decision making and buying process. Consumer behaviour essentially is the behaviour that consumer displays in searching, purchasing, using and evaluating the products, services and ideas which they expect will satisfy their needs. Past studies show that the buying behaviour is intricate in nature because of its ever changing and never ending nature. Irrespective of the age, educational qualification, income level, every individual wants to be fair. However the individual needs to evaluate the different brands of fairness cream depending on the requirement and choice. As such five different brands of fairness creams Fair and lovely, Fair ever, Fair Handsome, Fair glow and Dream fairness are included in this research paper.

INDIAN FAIRNESS CREAM MARKET

Indias cosmetic market has undergone its biggest ever evolution in the past decade as the changing life style has given people greater choice in the way that they are obsessed for lighter skin. Indians have a strong impression of using herbal products, but with the adoption of modernization people started using creams and steroid to be fair. Subsequently different companies launched the fairness creams with the special feature of being fair. Indian fairness creams market is estimated at Rs.800 crores. (Star Weekend Magazine, May 12, 2006) and Indian male fairness cream market is estimated at Rs.200 crores. (Media Research User Council, 2006).The leading players are Hindustan Lever Ltd., (HLL's)-'Fair & Lovely', Cavin Kare's-'Fairever', Godrej's-'Fairglow', Emami's-'Fair and Handsome', Ponds-Dream fairness. Hindustan Lever Limited launched its first fairness cream 'Fair & Lovely' in 1975 and dominated the market till 1998. Cavin Kare launched a fairness cream with a brand name 'Fairever' in 1998 and captured the market with 15% market share. Gradually other companies like Godrej, Ponds, Himalaya, and Emami entered the market and the fairness cream market fragmented into segments. But the company Hindustan Unilever LTD is the leader amongst all with a growth rate of 20% per annum. The market shares of leading players are tabulated below.
Table-1: Market shares of different brands of fairness cream Brand Company Market share Fair and lovely HUL 76% Fairever Cavin kare 15% Fairglow Godrej 4% Fair and Handsome Emami 2% Dream fairness Ponds 2% Source: Compiled from magazines and news papers OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The objective of the study is to understand the behavior of Indians towards the preference of branded fairness cream in rural area in India in general and Cuttack, Bhubaneswar (Orissa) in particular and further, the paper aims at finding out: a) b) c) d) e) The popular brand of fairness cream. The reason of choosing a particular brand of fairness cream. Factors influencing to choose a particular brand of fairness cream. The value for a brand of fairness cream The attractive features of fairness cream

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International Journal of Contemporary Business Studies Vol: 3, No: 1. January, 2012 ISSN 2156-7506 Available online at http://www.akpinsight.webs.com

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A pre-tested questionnaire was administered to the randomly selected people from the cities Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. Personal interviews with the help of the pre-tested interview schedule were taken. Besides, personal observation was done wherever necessarily applicable. A pilot survey was conducted and the questionnaire was improved in that light. A structured questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. The sample includes male and female from different occupation, age and income group. In order to confine our study, a field survey was conducted across the selected segment of the cities and the respondents were selected randomly; they were approached to be included in the survey. For the sake of convenience the study concentrated on interview, questionnaire-survey method. a) Sample Design: random sampling was used keeping the target segment in mind. b) Sample size: 243 people were approached but the data could be collected from 200 respondents only. c) Data collection Period: The period of the data collection is limited to only a 3 -week period in September and October, 2011. d) Data collection method: A structured questionnaire was prepared and requisite information were collected through personal interviews. e) Tools and techniques used: Multiple regression analysis, Ranking method, Kendalls coefficient, Spearmans rank correlation and percentage method. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 1. Ranking of different brands of fairness cream Different brands of fairness creams are ranked on the basis of factors like Brand image, Promotional Offers, Advertisement and Varieties. Table - 2 has been prepared on the basis of the responses gathered from the majority group of respondents. Table-2: Ranking of different brand
BRAND COMPANY Factors Brand image (x1) Promotional Offers (x2) Advertisement (x3) Varieties (x4) Fair & Lovely HUL Fair ever Cavin kare Fair Glow Godrej Rank 2 5 4 4 Fair and Handsome Emami Dream Fairness Ponds

1 2 2 1

5 1 1 5

4 4 5 3

3 3 3 2

In order to know the relation in between x1, x2, x3, x4, we have worked out Spearmans Correlation coefficient (Rank correlation coefficient) pair wise. Rx1x2 = 1-(6D2/ N3-N) = 0.3, Rx1x3 = 1- (6D2/ N3-N) = 0.05, Rx1x4 = 1- (6D2/ N3-N) = 0.7 Rx2x3 = 1- (6D2/ N3-N) = 0.9, Rx2x4 = 1- (6D2/ N3-N) = 0, Rx3x4 = 1- (6D2/ N3-N) = 0.1 R x2x3 = the correlation coefficient between Promotional Offers and Advertisement is maximum (0.9); it shows a very high degree of positive correlation in between the said variables.

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International Journal of Contemporary Business Studies Vol: 3, No: 1. January, 2012 ISSN 2156-7506 Available online at http://www.akpinsight.webs.com

Interpretation: It is observed that Fair & Lovely is ranked as the best brand, Fair ever is ranked first for its promotional offers and advertisement and Fair & Lovely stands first for its varieties. The correlation coefficients between the brand image and the varieties, promotional offer and advertisement are more than 0.5, so the variables are highly positively correlated. 2. Reason of looking for a different brand The reason of looking for a new brand of fairness cream is correlated with the quality of new brand, price, current fashion and new in the market. Here the basic interest is to find out the weightage of the independent variables (quality of new brand, price, current fashion and new in the market) on the predictor, the percentage of looking for a different brand of fairness cream by using the Multiple Regression technique. Let Y be the dependent variable = the percentage of looking for a different brand B = the coefficient of determinant (a constant value) X1 = Quality of new brand X2 = Price X3 = Current fashion X4 = New in the market Y = B0 + B1 X1+ B2 X2+ B3 X3 + B4 X4 Step-by-Step Multiple Regression
Model 1 Table-3: Variables Entered/Removed Variables Entered Variables Removed X4,X3, X1, X2 Method Enter

a All requested variables entered. b Dependent Variable: Y Table-3 shows us the order in which the variables were entered and removed from our model. We can see that in this case three variables were added and none were removed.
Model 1 R .733 Table- 4 : Model Summary R Square Adjusted R Square .537 .450 Std. Error of the Estimate 1.92380

a Predictors : (Constant), X4, X3, X1, X2 Adjusted R Square in table-4 value tells us that our model accounts for 97.8% of variance in the frequency of visits and it signifies that it is a very good model.
Y 1.000 .629 .558 .026 -.003 Table-5: Correlations X1 X2 .629 .558 1.000 .416 .416 1.000 .000 .392 .26 .412 X3 .026 .000 .392 1.000 .63 X4 -.003 .26 .412 0.63 1.000

Y X1 X2 X3 X4

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Table-5 gives details of the correlation between each pair of variables. There is a very good correlation between the criterion and the predictor variables. The values here are acceptable.

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International Journal of Contemporary Business Studies Vol: 3, No: 1. January, 2012 ISSN 2156-7506 Available online at http://www.akpinsight.webs.com

Model (Constant) X1 X2 X3 X4 a Dependent Variable: Y

Table-6 : Coefficient Unstandardized Standardized B Std. Beta -1.783 4.730 .815 .354 .540 .497 .363 .356 .789 .318 .405 0.126 .339 .322

t -.337 2.506 2.197 1.487 .249

Sig. .741 .035 .043 .293 .213

The Standardized Beta Coefficients in table-6 give a measure of the contribution of each variable to the model. A large value indicates that a unit change in this predictor variable has a large effect on the criterion variable. The t and Sig (p) values give a rough indication of the impact of each predictor variable a big absolute t value and small p value suggests that a predictor variables having a large impact on the criterion variable. Quality of new brand has the highest beta value (0.815), current fashion has the second highest beta value of (0.789), price and new in the market have the values 0.497 and 0.126. Error variance is explained by a constant by (4.730), followed by Price (0.363), Quality of new brand (0.354), New in the market (0.339) and Current fashion (0.318). Sample t-test correlates positively for quality of new brand (2.506), price (2.197), and current fashion (2.487) with the percentage of looking for a new brand of fairness cream. The multiple regression equation is as follows. Y = -1.783 + 0.815X1+ 0.497X2 + 0.789X3 + 0.126X4 3. Factors influencing to purchase a brand of product The peer group and the advertisements have different influences across the stages of decision-making. Studies have shown that opinion, advice and the values of the reference group are the effective behavioural determinant of the people. The behaviour of an individual towards a particular brand is significantly influenced by the advertisement.Table-7 is formed on the basis of the information collected to rank the factors influencing to purchase a particular brand of fairness cream.
Influential factors Family Friends Word of mouth Neighbours Advertisement Total Rank 2 3 4 5 1 Table-7: Ranking of factors Rank sum(SR) 195 295 340 370 140 1340 Rank sum(SR)2 38025 87025 115600 136900 19600 397150

Now by Kendalls coefficient we can estimate the relationship and test whether the different respondents are in agreement or not, as given below. H0: The respondents have disagreement in ranking. H1: The respondents have agreement in ranking. Test statistic Kendalls coefficient of concordance is given by the following rule
W=
1 k2 12

(n

, n = no. of attributes ranked=5, k =number of respondents =200

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International Journal of Contemporary Business Studies Vol: 3, No: 1. January, 2012 ISSN 2156-7506 Available online at http://www.akpinsight.webs.com

Where, S =
W =
1 k2 12

(SR )
3

n SR

( )

= 38030

(n

= 0.095075

Kendall's Coefficient of Concordance approximately follows 2 = k (n-1) W= 200*4*0.095075 = 76.06 with (n-1) d.f 2 (cal) = 76.06 > 2 (tab with 4 d.f and at 5% level of significance) = 9.48773 So, H0 is rejected and H1 is accepted. Interpretation: The most influential factor of choosing a brand of fairness cream is the advertisement, where family and friends occupy the second and the third places respectively. And word of mouth and the neighbours are placed 4th and 5th positions. Kendalls coefficient test strengthened the hypothesis that the respondents have the nearest approach to the same ranking with respect to the most influential factor to choose a particular brand of fairness cream.

4. Value of the brand Branding is an act of occupying the mind space of the consumer. The consumers create an image about the brand when they purchase the product. A positive impression will be created automatically in the mind of the consumers if, they can derive the value for the brand. The value may be in terms of money or social acceptability or self satisfaction. Table-8 depicts the value of the brand in general collected from the respondents.
Table-8: Brand value Value of Brand Response Yes No Total Value for money 45 18 63 Social acceptability 69 17 86 Satisfaction 38 13 51 Total 152 48 200

The basic purpose of forming the table is to test the association between the value of the brand and the purchase decision making process using chi-square test. Null hypothesis H0: Value of the brand is not associated with the purchase decision making process. Test statistic: x2 (Chi-square) = [(O- E) 2/E]= 1.627601, Tab. Val of x2(0.05) at 3 d.f is 4.541 As, x2cal < x2tab , H0 is accepted and H1 is rejected Interpretation: The purchase decision making of fairness cream is associated with the value of the brand. It is also observed that the value of the branded fairness cream for the people is mostly social acceptability and the value for money. Respondents have given the least preference to satisfaction for the value of the brand

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International Journal of Contemporary Business Studies Vol: 3, No: 1. January, 2012 ISSN 2156-7506 Available online at http://www.akpinsight.webs.com

5. Preferred brand Table-9 has been formed to find out the most popular brand of fairness cream.
Table-9: Preferred Brand of Fairness Cream Percentage 43 8 15 10 24

Different Brand Fair & Lovely Dream Fairness Fair Glow Fair one Fair ever

Interpretation: Majority rated Fair & lovely as the most popular brand and Fair ever as the second best, while Dream fairness is rated as the least popular brand of fairness cream. 6. Basis of selecting the brand Consumers associate the brand with certain tangible and intangible attributes. Most of these associations for fairness cream are derived from current trend, popularity and recommendation. The major thrust area of any business is the perceived quality of the product. And so the quality of fairness cream in terms of fragrance, sunscreen, fairness and packaging is considered and the following table has been formed to identify the most important features of selecting a brand of fairness cream.
Table-10: Features of selection Features 1 2 3 4 Rank Rank Sum 37 584 4 16 485 2 46 642 7 17 457 1 45 638 6 20 532 3 35 593 5 56 663 8 as rank-1, current trend rank-2 and the 5

Popularity 37 46 50 30 Current trend 56 55 53 20 Availability 29 33 51 41 Fairness 70 54 42 17 Recommendation 30 33 51 41 Sunscreen 49 42 57 32 Fragrance 35 43 51 36 Packaging 30 30 43 41 Interpretation: The respondents have ranked the attributes fairness lowest rank-7 and 8 to availability and packaging.

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION

India is one of the largest economies in the world. The fast and furious pace of growth of the Indian economy is the driving force for Indian consumerism. India presents a significant market with its young population just beginning to embrace significant lifestyle changes. The gradual increase in the purchasing power of Indians provides an excellent opportunity for organized retailing and creates an environment for cosmetic market. Projections by analysts suggest that India has the potential to be labeled as the fastestgrowing market for fairness cream. The Indian cosmetic market and particularly the fairness cream market enjoy a good market growth as the Indians are obsessed to become fair and beautiful. With the growing competition, the fairness market leaders need to re-evaluate the marketing plan. The companies will stand as leaders in their respective market by focusing their efforts on the benefits of a changing customer base. Even reputed companies and brands have felt the need for behavioural study to reach a larger customer base. The particular research paper is an attempt in that direction only. The researcher has tried to focus on this issue and the findings are listed below:

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International Journal of Contemporary Business Studies Vol: 3, No: 1. January, 2012 ISSN 2156-7506 Available online at http://www.akpinsight.webs.com

1. Fair & Lovely is ranked as the best brand, Fair ever is ranked first for its promotional offers and advertisement and Fair & Lovely stands first for its varieties. 2. The correlation coefficients between the brand image and the varieties, promotional offer and advertisement are more than 0.5, so the variables are highly positively correlated. 3. The choice of a new brand gives maximum weightage to quality of new brand and current fashion and less importance to current price and new in the market. 4. The most influential factor of choosing a brand of fairness cream is the advertisement, where family and friends occupy the second and the third places respectively. And word of mouth and the neighbours are placed 4th and 5th positions. 5. Kendalls coefficient test strengthened the hypothesis that the respondents have the nearest approach to the same ranking with respect to the most influential factor to choose a particular brand of fairness cream. 6. The purchase decision making of fairness cream is associated with the value of the brand. It is also found that the value of the branded fairness cream for the people is mostly social acceptability and the value for money. Respondents have given the least preference to satisfaction for the value of the brand. 7. Majority rated Fair & lovely as the most popular brand and Fair ever as the second best, while Dream fairness is rated as the least popular brand of fairness cream. 8. The respondents have ranked the attributes fairness as rank-1, current trend rank-2 and the lowest rank-7 and 8 to availability and packaging as the attractive features of the fairness cream.

REFERENCES
Aneel Karnani, Doing Well by Doing Good Case Study: Fair & Lovely Whitening Cream. Ball, I. & Singh, H. (2004, June 22). In Bollywood? You are too dark. Indian Express. Retrieved from http://www.indianexpress.com Bhushan, R. (2004, July 25). Men playing the fairness cream game. The Times of India. Retrieved from http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com Celious, A. and Oyserman, D. (2001). Race from the inside: An emerging heterogeneous race model. Journal of Social Issues, 57, 149-165. Consalvo, M. (2003). The monsters next door: Media constructions of boys and masculinity. Feminist Media Studies, 3, 27-45. doi: 10.1080/1468077032000080112 Challapalli, Sravanthi, "All's fair in this market", The Hindu Business Line, http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/catalyst/2002/09/05/stories/2002090500040300.htm, September 2002, last accessed on: 6th October, 2009 Das, M. (2000). Men and women in Indian magazine advertisements: A preliminary report. 43, 699-717. doi: 03600025/00/1100-0699 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd, June 11 2001 Kunal Gaurav, Indias leading community portal, Fairness Cream for Men: Creation of a New Category Media Research User Council, 2006

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Natasha Shevde Advertising & Society Review, Volume 9, Issue 2, 2008 All's Fair in Love and Cream: A Cultural Case Study of Fair & Lovely in India

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