CavinKare gets aggressive with deos after Spinz faces Fogg heat

Spinz, an old deo player, has been revamped to take on new competition; might be extended too

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Spinz, the deodorant brand of the Chennai-based FMCG major CavinKare, is out with its latest fragrance, Spinz Sensitive. It also marks the culmination of the revamp exercise that the brand undertook 18 months back, spearheaded by Nellaiappan Thiruambalam, who was appointed as director and CEO of the personal care and foods division in April 2013. His last assignment was as CMD of Heinz India and he has had three decades of experience in consumer goods, holding management positions at GSK and GE Lighting.

However, Thiruambalam says that the deodorant (deos) segment is seeing such competition that players would have to revamp their products more frequently. The highly-contested Rs 1,800-crore body spray market has been seeing a constant stream of entrants, including ITC, and growing at 8.5 per cent. Even then, India remains one of the the lowest-penetrated markets in the world with around 10-11 per cent.

Deos for women contribute around 30 per cent to the market, while the rest go to men's deos. But, it is the women's market which is growing faster, at 13.9 per cent, over the relatively higher penetrated men's category, growing at 7.4 per cent according to market estimates.

"We did not lose our market position of being the fourth largest brand, despite a lot of new entrants (both domestic and foreign brands)," Thiruambalam claims.

However, Spinz has grown at 9 per cent, slower than the women's category. The brand has also faced stiff competition from Fogg by Vini Cosmetics, launched only a few years back. The brand by Darshan Patel, the ex-co-promoter of Paras Pharma, has already scaled to the third position in women's deos.

Harish Bijoor, CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults, says, "Spinz was right to move from talcum powders to deos. But it has not done exceedingly well as its approach is not pan-India but more south-focused." Bijoor says that CavinKare should focus on distribution which is key to cracking the market.

The company is keen to push Spinz's sampling in tier II and III cities with the help of small tester cans and even bundling satchets with competing products in the 200,000 stores the brand reaches. Spinz could also look to tap parent CavinKare's distribution footprint of more than three million outlets.

CavinKare Chairman C K Ranganathan's Chik shampoo had been the first brand to make the most of reaching the masses with the help of satchets.

Thiruambalam says, "The sampling in small sachets of Spinz has helped."

The brand will continue with heavy marketing spends. Thiruambalam says that rival brands have focused on brand-building and packaging too, even during the downturn. "Three years before, the industry reported 35-40 per cent growth. But growth has slowed down in the current economic scenario," says Thiruambalam. Even then, around 12-15 per cent of Spinz's Rs 51.6-crore revenue last year was spent on brand-building.

The company has roped in Bollywood actor Parineeti Chopra as the ambassador, to reflect energy, youthfulness and vibrancy intended for the brand. The products, including existing variants, will now come in a new pack design.

The idea for Spinz came about in 1996, when World Cup cricket fervour had reached fever pitch at the office of CavinKare. The brand inspired by spin bowling, and hence, called Spinz, was launched in 1997 as a range of deos and talcs for women. Spinz has since been marketed as providing confidence and a fresh fragrance. However, that is a proposition that many of the other players in the market have also made.

Spinz is not banking on its above-the-line marketing alone. It is also looking to expand into the men's deodorant market, which has Axe by Hindustan Unilever as the leading brand. Here, too, the brand would have to compete with Fogg which has moved to the second position. However, CavinKare does distribute other men's brands in the top six.