Wild Stone steps into Fogg's domain with no-gas variant

A previous variant of Wild Stone. With its new launch, Mcnroe will battle HUL Axe Signature and Vini Fogg

After edging past Hindustan Unilever's Axe deodorant in the June quarter by a small margin, Kolkata-based Mcnroe Consumer Products, the maker of Wild Stone deos and the number two player by value market share, is now looking to increase that lead with a new launch that will also pit it against market leader Fogg.

Mcnroe will launch its first no-gas variant of Wild Stone next month, taking on HUL's Axe Signature range, which is also a no-gas product launched by the country's largest consumer goods company about a month-and-a-half ago, besides Vini Cosmetics' Fogg, the pioneer of no-gas deodorants. Speculation is rife that ITC may also launch a no-gas deo under Engage, though the company has made no official announcement yet.

A no-gas deodorant consists of perfume rather than vaporiser, making it longer-lasting. Prior to Fogg's launch three years ago, no deodorant boasted of this product benefit. It was the Ahmedabad-based Vini that aggressively pushed this functional benefit, going on to dominate the deo category in the  process. It leads by a large margin.

In the June-2014 quarter, for instance, Fogg's value market share was 18.4 per cent to Wild Stone's 6.9 per cent and Axe's 6.8 per cent. This is as per Nielsen data sourced from the industry. By volume, Fogg has a market share of 13 per cent in the  June-2014  quarter, followed by ITC's Engage at 7.7 per cent, Wild Stone at 7.1 per cent and Axe at 7 per cent respectively.

Mcnroe founder N K Daga says that no-gas was an important sub-segment within the larger Rs 2,300-crore deodorant category. "It today is about Rs 250-300 crore in terms of size, which is about 10-12 per cent of the overall deodorant market. Marking our presence in the no-gas sub-segment then is critical," Daga says.

While deodorants as a category is growing at 18 per cent per annum, the no-gas sub-segment is growing at 30 per cent annually, Daga says. He attributes double-digit category growth to not only the growing trend of  grooming  among  Indians, but also to the low penetration of the category notably in urban India. "Penetration of deodorants is about 8-9 per cent in urban markets at the moment. With greater adoption of no-gas deos, not only category size, but also penetration will improve," Daga says.

The new Wild Stone variant will be the company's 11th and comes close on the heels of Grey, a deo launched last month by the firm targeting office-goers. Mcnroe is positioning its no-gas variant at a premium to its regular range, pricing it at Rs 250 for a 120-ml bottle. Axe's Signature is priced at Rs 225 for a similar sized pack, while Fogg is available for Rs 250 (for a 120-ml pack).