AcneStar the house of Mankind Pharma has onboarded Raashii Khanna as the new face of the brand for driving better engagement with the audience.

Owing to the popularity of Raashii Khanna across the spectrum through her films and shows panning over different languages, mediums and genres, the brand aims to intensify its reach PAN India with a TVC.

Commenting on the collaboration, Raashii Khanna said, “Acne and skin concerns are universally susceptible problems and as youngsters we are always looking at easier and safer ways to obtain a clear acne free skin. AcneStar employs scientific brilliance to present a product that offers dependable solutions to skin care, I am glad to be associated with a brand that is also vested in the public’s interest and better quality of living.”

Speaking on the occasion, Joy Chatterjee, Associate Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Mankind Pharma said, “We are very excited to onboard Raashii Khanna as the face of AcneStar. In order to expand our visibility and strengthen our foothold in the market, we were in search of a figure who was well-recognized by the audience. And considering that the actress is quite popular and at the same time resonates with the proposition of the brand, we collaborated with her to drive visibility amongst the target audience. It will further help us in augmenting the recall value of the brand amongst the masses. Furthermore, the audience having faith in the actress will aid in driving the authenticity of the brand at the same time.”

The Board of Directors of Emami Limited met on Thursday, 25^th May 2023 to consider the unaudited financial results of the company for the fourth quarter and year ended 31^st March 2023. 

The FMCG industry witnessed a mixed demand environment in Q4FY23, as discretionary categories like personal care continued to remain muted on account of reduction of non-essential expenditure by rural consumers. Inflation in rural areas reached 6.8% in FY23, the highest level in the previous nine years, and rural inflation surpassed urban inflation for the first time since FY18. Additionally, excessive rainfall in many areas of the country in March impacted the demand for summer products. In the given macroeconomic context, Revenues at ₹ 836 crore grew by 9% over previous year during the quarter. 

Domestic business grew by 5% during the quarter. Excluding the sales of Healthcare and Pain management range which had a higher consumption during COVID period, Domestic sales grew by 11%. New age channels like Modern Trade and eCommerce continued to perform well, growing by 18% and 64% respectively over previous year. The contribution of both these channels to Domestic sales increased to more than 20% of Domestic net sales, a 500 bps growth over previous year. 

Complementing the launch of Zandu Fast Relief Gel earlier in August’22, the Company launched Zandu Fast Relief Spray in Q4FY23. Zandu Fast Relief is India’s only pain relief brand, recommended by the Indian Association of Physiotherapists and is endorsed by Dr. Ali Irani, the ex-physio of the Indian Cricket Team. Overall, the Company launched around 20 products in during the financial year, with a majority being digital first launches on its D2C website www.zanducare.com. 

International business grew by 19% during the quarter despite high inflation, currency depreciation and geopolitical challenges in several key markets.The growth was mainly driven by strong performances in markets of MENA, CIS and Bangladesh. 

With some moderation in input costs, Gross margins at 63.1% expanded by 60 bps in Q4FY23. EBIDTA at ~ ₹ 200 crore grew by 22% with EBIDTA margins at 23.9% expanding by 260 bps. Profit before Tax at ₹ 148 crore also grew by 51% over previous year. 

For the full year, revenues at ₹ 3,406 crore grew by 7%. Domestic business grew by 4% in FY23 on a higher base of COVID contextual categories like Pain Management & Healthcare range. Excluding sales from both the categories, Domestic Business grew by ~7% in FY23.  International Business also grew strongly by 20% during the year. 

In FY23, Gross Margins at 64.7% contracted by 160 bps due to inflationary pressure and unfavorable portfolio mix in first three quarters. EBIDTA at ₹ 863 crore declined by 9% but compared to pre-COVID period it grew by 4% on a 4 year CAGR basis. Profits before tax at ₹ 670 crore declined by 3% over previous year but it grew by 13% on a 4 year CAGR basis. Profits after Tax, before MAT cr. entitlement of earlier years, grew by 3.5% in FY’23. 

Mr Harsha V Agarwal, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Emami Limited said: “Despite challenging demand scenario on account of high inflation, muted rural sentiments and unseasonal rains,  we have delivered a resilient profit led growth in Q4FY23. After few quarters of ongoing pressure on input costs, we have been able to expand our Gross & EBIDTA Margins delivering 20% EBIDTA growth. Our strategic investments and Dermicool acquisition have performed well and contributed to this growth. We will continue to make significant investment behind our core brands, innovations, channel expansions and digital optimisations which are expected to contribute immensely to future growth” 

Mr Mohan Goenka, Vice Chairman and Executive Director, Emami Limited said:  “Our sustained marketing interventions delivered higher penetration levels for our brands which continued to maintain their category leadership. While, new age channels such as Modern trade and e-Commerce plus D2C grew strongly by 18% and 64% respectively in domestic market, International business also reported a strong growth of 19% during the quarter despite economic and geo-political challenges in our key markets. With softening of input costs and decreasing inflationary pressures we are hopeful of a better demand scenario and improved margins in FY24”

realme has announced superstar Shah Rukh Khan as its brand ambassador for the realme smartphones.

This collaboration further reinforces the brand's commitment to inspiring the millennial generation and setting new benchmarks in the smartphone industry.

The first product Shah Rukh Khan will endorse for realme is the realme 11 Pro Series 5G, a testament to the brand's dedication to providing cutting-edge technology to its customers. With this collaboration, realme is poised to continue thriving and growing in the future, while staying true to its 'Dare to Leap' philosophy

Shah Rukh Khan shared, reflecting on the collaboration, “realme’s 'Dare to Leap' philosophy truly resonated with me. The brand's unwavering commitment to pushing boundaries aligns perfectly with my own pursuit of excellence. Together, we aim to ignite innovation and fuel the growth of realme globally. I am looking forward to joining the realme family as their brand ambassador and hope to inspire others to embrace challenges, take bold steps, and achieve greatness.”

Commenting on the association, Tao, Chief Marketing Officer at realme India, stated, "We are extremely excited to have Shah Rukh Khan on board as the brand ambassador for the realme smartphone category. His dare-to-leap spirit perfectly resonates with our brand's philosophy. With this collaboration, we aim to reach new heights of innovation and redefine the smartphone experience for our users."

Sociowash has joined hands with Tide to launch an integrated campaign this IPL. This campaign boasts a star-studded lineup that enthralled the audiences starring cricket icon Shikhar Dhawan and rising stars of cricket, Arshdeep Singh, and Shahrukh Khan. The campaign was designed and executed by Sociowash.

The collaboration was introduced in a brief teaser film titled 'Sadde Punjab ka Naya Favourite,' which also marked the debut of Tide Liquids in India. Tide Liquids will be the 'official laundry partner' of the legendary Punjab Kings. Sociowash helped Tide in creating a strategic plan, where they combined offline advertising, out-of-home (OOH) placements, in-stadium advertising, and digital advertisements to maximize the reach of the campaign. The campaign is intended to draw attention to the Tide Liquids launch and engage consumers through multiple touchpoints and assets.

Pranav Agrawal, Co-Founder of Sociowash, expressed his excitement about the partnership and the campaign's potential impact: "We are thrilled to collaborate with Tide on this campaign that showcases their association with Punjab Kings. The video, shot in our in-house production wing SW Studio, perfectly captures the essence of the partnership and highlights Tide's role as the official partner. We believe this campaign will create a lasting impression on consumers, resonating with both cricket enthusiasts and loyal Tide customers."

The retail space has had a topsy-turvy last few years as covid, supply chain constraints and economic uncertainty came for its bottom lines. But as it recovers, big players are looking at investment opportunities to come on top of the chart.   

One such retail giant in the country is Colgate-Palmolive, which gears up to launch its flagship brand Colgate Strong Teeth. In an interview with e4m, Gunjit Jain, the Vice President of Marketing of the company, spoke about its latest ad campaign for its flagship product; its marketing mix; cost headwinds of the past and the three big focus areas of the company in the country. 

Jain spoke about how things have changed in the marketing world in the last decade and how Colgate has adapted to it. “I joined Colgate about 15 years ago. And then subsequently I got the opportunity to work in global markets and now I've returned to India after a gap of about nine to ten years. So, I can now see a shift and see that the craft of media planning has evolved significantly from being TV media planning to digital plus TV and now being cross-media or omnichannel.”  

Jain also enumerated the things that have been giving the brand an edge over its competition.

“At Colgate, there are three specific areas that are helping us more than the others. The first one is omni- channel media planning across the people journey. For us, there are different stages that we have in the people journey; from attention to consideration to purchase and loyalty, which we abbreviate as ACPL,” said Jain.  

“The second is data analytics,” he says, which has helped the retail giant strategise with investments.  

“We use data analytics through regular studies like marketing mix modelling, which gives us the right strategies and insights on where to invest with what and how,” he pointed out.  

“The third thing is first-party data, which helps us do look-alike targeting, giving us a better return on our investment,” Jain stated.  

He spoke about the relaunch of the brand’s flagship product Colgate Strong Teeth and the kind of media they are using to increase the popularity of the product.  

“Since Colgate Strong Teeth is the number one selling toothpaste brand in the country, it's available in 2/3rd of the country's households and is used by about a billion consumers in India. The awareness generation plan has to be mass and impact. So, for this particular one, we are using TV, outdoor, print, in-store, programmatic social media, dental professionals, etc. because this is what this particular launch deserves.”  

Jain explained how even with cost headwinds, Colgate is keen on keeping adequate money for marketing its products.  

“Costs have been a headwind for the last couple of years for the entire industry. But we've been able to manage our margins fairly well. And that's because superior products with superior benefits give us the ability to charge the right price to consumers,” he stated.  

The company’s quarterly earnings was announced recently and its domestic top-line growth was 5% to 6%, higher than the previous quarter.  

“Fundamentally, growth gets delivered when we have superior products, with superior communication, and with a superior media plan. Putting the right advertising dollars behind it is extremely critical to strengthen our brands, and to generate demand. So, we've ensured that we've got adequate media investment dollars behind our brand so far, and we will ensure that not just in the second half of the year but even moving beyond we will have adequate dollars to strengthen our brands and generate revenue,” he noted.  

In India, the company will be focusing on three key areas, said Jain. “First is delivering superior benefits on our core brands like Colgate Strong Teeth. The second is creating a desire for our premium brands with higher-order benefits. The third area is going to be driving per capita consumption in rural and urban,” he concludes.

Speaking about the campaign for the relaunch, Jain spoke about how they found a barrier, how they developed a product to overcome that barrier and how they proceeded to communicate it to the audience. “We spend a lot of time working and understanding people's motivations. In today's world with proactive health and wellness, what we realized was that while people do a lot to nourish their skin, nourish their hair and nourish their bodies, but they've never thought about nourishing their teeth. So, we took that as a barrier in mind. Second, we formulated Colgate Strong Teeth with a superior advanced patented technology, so that it doesn't just clean but nourishes your teeth.

Now, the challenge was how do we take this to people in terms of communication. So, we've come up with this exciting campaign, which is termed, ‘Paste hi Nahi, Poshan hai Ye’ and we worked with our agency partners, which are called WPP@CP with A-class executives, creative directors like Harshad and Kainaz. We've also worked with the reputed film director, Amit Sharma on this to come up with executions which we are getting very positive reviews on. We've got a toothless Granny, and we thought that who better can appreciate the value of strong teeth than a toothless granny. It's this Toothless granny who is teaming up with her granddaughter, her cutting machine, to bring the entire story and the product story to life.”

“So you have to come up with the right consumer hook that people will pay attention to, which is where we had to work with the best creative teams to be able to come up with our campaign, which is basically ‘Paste hi Nahi, Poshan hai ye’ with the toothless Granny and the cutting machine,” he added.

As brands continue to pivot their gaze towards what is now the world’s most populous country, several foreign companies which had been pushed out of the country due to security and regulatory concerns are looking to make a comeback, as they partner with Indian entities to be able to operate within the country.

The most noteworthy of these are Chinese fast fashion brand Shein, which has tied up with Reliance Retail, and South Korea-based Krafton’s BGMI, with  its retooled version of the popular game PUBG made specifically for the Indian markets. Both of these brands announced their re-entry into India this week, even as other brands are said to be staging their own comebacks as they continue their talks with Indian business houses.   

What remains to be seen is how they can win back consumers, even as they placate authorities to avoid further penalties, a business that might prove tricky, given the nationalist element that has slipped into the foreign brands conversation.

Alin Choubey, Business Head- North, FoxyMoron (Zoo Media) says that Shein and BGMI (Battlegrounds Mobile India) were market disruptors when they came to India.  “Their return in partnership with Indian entities and rebranding has to be a well-laid-off plan, especially the marketing and advertising part of it, for them to regain consumer trust and maintain a positive relationship with vigilant authorities as well as the consumer.”

In a similar vein, Sidharth Singh, Co-founder, CupShup, observes, “There are two contrasting data sets to consider. One, there is considerable enmity and anger amongst the Indian audience for Chinese brands. Survey after survey has pointed to the same. So, there is certainly an anti-Chinese sentiment which can be traced to the border flare-up and recent Chinese misadventures. But the second data point remains that despite the PLI scheme introduced by the government, Chinese smartphone brands rule the roost in the India markets.”

He adds, “Despite all the hullabaloo about Apple being gravitated towards India, fact remains that we only produce only 7% of total iPhones and China is way ahead of it. Thus, it isn’t the product or technology or service in this case that consumers have a problem about. It is about the psychology.”

Choubey believes that in order to change this mindset, returning brands will need to take the following steps: Transparent Communication; Localization and Cultural Sensitivity; Social Responsibility Initiatives; Enhanced Data Privacy Measures; and Collaboration with Local Authorities. “It's important for these rebranded brands to show a genuine commitment to the Indian market, local values, and compliance with regulations. By adopting these strategies, they can rebuild trust, attract consumers, and maintain positive relationships with vigilant authorities,” he says.

Chirag Gander, Co - Founder of The Minimalist, says that to ensure a successful re-entry, Shein must adopt innovative strategies that resonate with Indian consumers while addressing ethical concerns from the previous ban.

“Transparency and open communication are paramount for the brand. Ethical sourcing and manufacturing must be prioritized. Shein should emphasize responsible and sustainable practices, ensuring fair wages, safe working conditions, and environmentally friendly production processes. By doing so, they can align themselves with the growing demand for ethical fashion and appeal to socially conscious consumers,” he notes.

“And, I personally believe that most of the time, brands themselves wade into controversy or in hindsight the mistakes seem obvious. The marketing strategy need not change at all for such brands. But they have to be preemptively cautious about any association with nationalistic sentiment, politics and religion which is a no go zone in a country like India,” says Singh, observing, “Just a couple of years back, Late Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat’s attendance in MG Hector program created flutter. The brands should be wary of such instances and they should do fine.”

Joyeeta Ghosal, Director - Marketing, Gokwik, says, “PUBG or rebranded as BGMI, Shein, etc before being banned in India were highly popular brands among Indian users. At one point PUBG boasted of over 50 million monthly active users. Similarly Shein gained popularity among Gen Z users for its fast fashion model on the back of highly competitive pricing.”

Despite the ban, Shein products were still being sold on some marketplace platforms. “These brands should create awareness about their data and privacy norms through both marketing and PR. Shein should definitely think about associating its name with Reliance Retail to establish trust. Consumer popularity should take care of the rest,” concludes Ghosal.

Orangutan Esports has announced Sports Brand PUMA India as its official kit partner. Under the terms of the association, Orangutan’s athletes will wear the official jersey and other merchandise created exclusively by PUMA. 

This association comes as a strategic collaboration between the two brands with a similar ideology to propel Esports to greater heights. This collaboration also comes to elevate the experience of Orangutan’s athletes and fans with official merchandise, while representing PUMA in the growing Esports community of India. 

Commenting on the occasion, Jai Shah Co-Founder of Orangutan Esports, said, “Esports in India is gaining popularity but lacked a major breakthrough. This led to the strategic plan to collaborate with a premium sports brand as our kit partner. Our association with PUMA India is a step in the right direction. Through this partnership, we aim to bring about a revolution in Esports culture in the country where official merchandise and Esports teams go hand-in-hand. Together, Orangutan and PUMA will work closely this year to achieve scale and success in the Esports industry.”  

Commenting on the occasion, Yash Bhanushali Founder & CEO of Orangutan Esports, said, “I am thrilled to announce our partnership with PUMA India as our official kit partner, marking a major breakthrough for Indian esports. This collaboration will transform the industry, inspiring the next generation and fostering a community of excellence. With PUMA's support, our players will have top-quality gear, empowering them to compete globally with unmatched confidence. I am immensely grateful to PUMA India for believing in our vision and commitment to the growth of esports. Together, we will redefine the esports landscape and make history” 

Commenting on the association, Shreya Sachdev, Head of Marketing at PUMA India, said, “We are happy to partner with Orangutan Esports and continue our investments in the rapidly expanding space of Esports in India. Competitive Esports has seen a massive growth in popularity, especially during the pandemic, and has emerged as the key avenue of engagement for youngsters in the country. As a brand, PUMA has always invested in the diverse pillars of youth culture such as sports, fitness, art, cinema and music. Through this association with Orangutan, we look forward to developing the Esports market in India and engaging with gamers across the country.” 

To launch this one-of-a-kind partnership, Orangutan also released a digital film on social media with the hashtag #AlsoAnAthlete. Through this campaign, the two brands aim to spread the word that Esports athletes deserve the same recognition as traditional athletes. They have the same dedication and follow their dreams with the same passion as any sporting professional, reflecting the relevance of the concept of #AlsoAnAthlete in the country’s sporting ecosystem.