The Financial Express

l P l A l N l O l R l A l M l A l12 l APRIL 8 l 2012

Male beauty: A fair gameNehaPal

When a colleague men-tioned that he indulgedin all sorts of beautytreatments at salons, in-cluding pedicures and

facials, it acted as a trigger for this story.We decided to see for ourselves thetakeover of what was considered awoman'sdomain.OurfirststopwasAffin-ity in South Extension, Delhi. We foundmenof allagegroupsindulginginfacials,manicures, pedicures, waxing and mas-sages. Poonam, a beautician workingwithAffinity,said"Mencometothesalonaskingforvarioustreatmentsforskinandhair. Those below 40 normally get face-cleaning, hair cuts, waxing, manicureand pedicures, whereas older men usual-ly go for facials, body massage andhairmassage.”

Habibs in South Extension-II in Delhiwas no different. In charge Rekha said,“There is a growing interest in men to-wardshowtheylook.Thenumberof mencoming to salons has increased substan-tially over the past few years. Habibs hasseveral packages for men, like the R2,000package that includes a facial, pedicureand either an oil massage or henna hairpackorfacebleach."Tograbasliceof the

increasingmen'sbeautybusiness,LakmeLever, which is a part of HindustanUnilever, launched its first unisex salon,Lakme Ivana, in July 2011. Men's groom-ing sector in India is estimated to be overR1,500crore.

The number of men using fairnessproductsinthecountryisalsoincreasing.About 35% people using fairness prod-ucts are men, compared to 20% aboutthree years ago, indicates a survey. Themen'sskincaremarketiscurrentlyat4%of the total skin care market and is grow-

ing at over 40% every year. According toGarnier, its men's fairness cream called'GarnierMen',whichreceivedaphenom-enal response from the market, was firstintroduced in India and then across theglobe. Another strong player, Vaseline,whichhascomeoutwithVaselineMen,isgiving tough competition to Fair andLovelyMenzActiveandGarnierMen.

Protiviti MD Akshay Bhalla feels,"There was a vacuum in the Indian mar-ketduetonon-availabilityof productsformen, but rising hygiene and beauty con-

sciousness due to changing demograph-ics and lifestyles, deeper consumer pock-ets, greater product choice, wider avail-ability and media exposure are thereasonsfortheriseindemand."Andstyleicons like John Abraham, ShahrukhKhan andShahidKapoorendorsingtheseproducts has only helped in making theproductsmorepopular.WhenFEspoketoone of the leading wellness players, VL-CC,whichhasitspresencein260locationsinIndia,SandeepAhuja,MD,VLCC,said,"Menusingsuchservicesandproductsisnot just a trend in metros or mini metros,but even in smaller towns like Au-rangabad, Ahmednagar, Hugli andMysore.Mentodayarenotjustcominginlarger numbers for selecting fairnessproducts, but are also looking atgroomingservices.”

Ahuja added, "We see doubling of ourrevenues from men's products in 2012 fol-lowing a phenomenal response. At pre-sent, men products contribute about 7%to our product revenues." Purnendu Ku-mar, VP (retail), Technopak Advisorsadds,"InIndia,Bollywoodhasalotof peo-ple and with stars endorsing variousproducts, it increases demand for groom-ing products. Another strategy followedby companies to promote cosmetics inruralareasisthesachetapproach."

Male beauty care market on a high as men are demanding equal attention for their looks

AS CEO OF a luxury company, Iknow that our success is rootedin understanding our cus-

tomers. Continuing from last week, Iwill be writing a series of columns onthis topic and how it relates to Indianbrands, Indian consumers and theeconomiesof Asiaonabroaderperspec-tive. The so-called luxury leader of ourpart of the world is Japan. How did lux-ury and Japan become so intertwined?Firstof all,itsprowessasafinancialandmanufacturing hub in the decades afterWorld War II provided the countrywealth that allowed luxury consump-

tion. New generations followed course;luxury purchases became a habit andJapan’s luxury spending has remainedelevated even in the face of many prob-lems in its economy.

Chinahassurgedaheadtobecomethefocusof globalluxury,witheveryluxurybrand rushing to establish flagshipstoresnotjustinkeylocationsbutalsoinevery third, eighth, and 12th-tier city.The biggest threat to the global brands,however,islocalChineseluxurybrands.Over time, it will become increasinglydifficult forinternationalbrandstopen-etrate the Chinese market. Why? Chi-

nesebrandsunderstandChinesecultureand,importantly,itsregionalvariations.

Allow me to provide an example fromanother BRIC country, Russia. InMoscow people flock to outlets byValentin Yudashkin and Slava Zaitsev.Why? Is it patriotism? No, it is becausethese brands understand their cus-tomers. Russia is a huge country and itspeople have a distinct culture from bothEurope and Asia, whose borders thecountry straddles. But different parts ofRussia also have different cultures. Yu-dashkin recognises these regional vari-ations and offers different products in

different cities, and I do not mean justsimpleadjustmentsfortheclimate.Com-ing back to India, I recently spoke to arepresentative of a top luxury brand inthecountry,whoinformedmethatsouthIndia do not have luxury consumers.That is not the case.

There are luxury consumers in thesouthren region, but the merchandiseand the packaging has to be different. Irecently visited Bangalore and whilesouthIndiaisnothometome,Ihavebeendoing some market research in the area(I also studied in Chennai and Banga-lore). I know the area well enough to

compareittonorthIndia. Thepeoplearedifferent, atmosphere is different andthe general attitude there is distinctfrom Delhi. Of course, the eating anddrinking habits are also different, as istheexperiencedesiredatluxuryvenues.India is one of the world’s most diversecountries by nearly every measure. Atrue understanding of consumers re-quires appreciating their differencesand offering products, services and ex-periences that cater to those differenceswhile still maintaining the essence ofthebrand.Thisishardwork,Irecognise.Even the giants of global business canget it wrong.

Deepak Ohri is CEO of lebuaHotels & Resorts. He can be reached at

deepak@lebua.com

FORYEARS,Macusershavebeentold that not only are they coolerthantheirPCcounterparts,they

are safer too. Apple has always heldthatcomputervirusesandmalwareon-ly dogged its competitors. That is nolonger the case.

This week, security researchers dis-covered a new computer virus had in-fectedhalf amillionMacusers—abouthalf of them in the United States. Themalicious program, known as a Trojanhorse, is infestingusersinthemostsur-reptitious way possible: users need notmanually click on any malicious linksor manually download any malware togetinfected.Theprogramsimplydown-loads itself. Once downloaded, the Tro-jans’creatorsgainabackdoorthatgivesthem unauthorized access to the vic-tim’scomputer.“Thisisthelargestscaleattack on Mac OS X to date,” said RoelSchouwenberg, a senior researcher atKaspersky Lab, an antivirus softwarecompany who has analysed the mal-ware.“Andmuchmoresophisticated.”

Fornow,theTrojan’screatorsappearto be using infested computers for clickfraud, in which they manipulate clicksonaWebadvertisementinexchangeforkickbacks. But as with all Trojans, itscreatorscanchoosetouseinfectedcom-

putershowevertheylike.The malware infects computers in

oneof twoways.Insomecases,usersre-ceive a pop-up prompt purporting to befromAdobeFlashaskingthemtoinstallan update and type in their password —hencetheTrojan’sname,“Fakeflash”or“Flashback.” But in most cases, attack-ers appear to have exploited a loopholein Java software that automaticallydownloads the malware onto victims’machineswithoutanyprompting.

Appleissuedtwosecuritypatchesforthe Trojan this week and encouragedMacuserstoruntheirsoftwareupdatesas soon as possible. For the technicallyastute, F-Secure, a Helsinki-based secu-rity firm, published instructions forhow to identify Fakeflash and removethevirusmanually.

Several security experts have criti-cizedAppleasslowtoreact,consideringOracle issued a fix to the Java securityholeinFebruary.Appledidnotissueafixuntil more than a month later. DoctorWeb,asecurityfirmbasedinRussia,dis-covered the Trojan had exploited theloophole to infect Mac computers thisweek. Kaspersky Labs reverse engi-neered the malware and began to inter-ceptitscommunicationonWednesday.

NYT

What lies beneath a consumer’s mind

Are Macs no longersafe from hackers?

DEEPAK OHRI

DEELUXE

A true understanding ofconsumers requires

appreciating theirdifferences