Headline: 40 Years Ago... And now: Becoming hair experts

Headline: 40 Years Ago... And now: Becoming hair experts
Description: Godrej Group launched its first hair colour product
in the 1974 and opened up a completely new category
Date: November 10, 2014
Publication: Business Standard
Author: Vivek Gambhir
The story of the evolution of the Godrej Group is intertwined with
the history of India. Innovation has always been core to our
approach, and it goes hand in hand with our strong legacy of
trust, integrity and respect for people, which spans over a century.
By 1974, the Group was fairly well established. We were looking
for a new segment to enter and decided to venture in the hair
colour category. We already had businesses in metal locks and
almirahs category, oleo chemicals, soaps and agri feed, among
others. Hair colour, however, was a brand new category.
Back then, the hair dye market in India was undersized but we
believed it held tremendous potential - it was growing well in other
global markets. Our research and development team worked
diligently on making a very good formula for hair dye and this
encouraged us further to make a foray into the market.
The first product we launched in 1974 was called Godrej Liquid
Hair Dye. Packaged in bottles, this product was a runaway
success, so much so that the term dye itself became synonymous
with Godrej. It laid the foundation for us to become the number
one player in the hair colour market, a position that we hold with
pride even today.
The Rs 2,500-crore hair colour market in India today is exciting,
experimental and transformative. Hair colouring is no longer
considered an exercise in hiding greying hair. You can choose from
an array of powders, gels, cremes, colours, in just about every
shade, while being assured of nourishing, conditioning, enriching
benefits at the same time. When we started out, however, it was
very different.
Colour was an antidote to ageing. To add to it, there wasn't much
choice for consumers in terms of colours - companies in the
category mostly offered black. The process of combining
components made the exercise in hair colouring very tedious and
the packaging in glass bottles, which looked medicinal and carried
detailed information on mixing and measurement components,
was not customer-friendly.
One step up
Around 1976, post the success of Godrej Liquid Hair Dye, we
strengthened our foothold. We enhanced internal capabilities and
our manufacturing setup to brace for further expansion. This new
category came with its own challenges, the biggest of which was
that hair colour oxidised rapidly when it came in contact with air.
We realised that experimenting with product formulation was not
enough. We needed to rehaul our manufacturing process,
including the machinery and material that we were using for
packaging, to support our new product ideas.
Our hair colour business would grow exponentially in the decades
to come and we never stopped delighting in how our products
would emerge as winners. Marketing lore would talk about farmers
who used our dye to colour their buffalos a glistening jet black so
that they could command a better price; and of men, who priming
to look their best, would hastily touch up their hair before a job
interview.
Be the change
The success of our liquid hair dye made us bolder and more
experimental. Our extensive research translated into a unique hair
dye in powder form. This was in 1981 and it became the first in a
series of innovative, hair colour offerings. Our new, easy to use
powder hair colour, made popular with the kaato, gholo, lagaalo
(cut, dissolve, apply) slogan, catapulted us further ahead in the
line. It made hair colouring an almost intuitive, three-step process,
minus most of the fuss that had caused consumers to shy away
from it in the first place.
In the years that followed, we revolutionised the market by
introducing our hair dye in a convenient sachet format. This was a
landmark in many ways. Priced at just Rs 7, this new format
opened up the rural India market for us. The next addition to our
portfolio was a shampoo-based permanent hair dye-cumconditioner.
The hair colour market was now slowly changing. Consumers were
eager to experiment with different colours and we started
expanding our range. At each stage, we were exploring how to
better our product offering and delight our consumers.
We soon found ourselves treading a fine line. On the one hand, we
had a proven legacy of expertise in hair colour. On the other, our
consumers, now increasingly conscious of the hair colour products
they were using, were leaning towards colours with more holistic
hair care propositions.
We had been innovating for a while now. Many of our products
over the years had been 'firsts' in their own rights but the
contradiction lay in the way our brand was named. We realised
that we needed to break away from the association of being just a
'hair dye'.
Backed by this insight, in 2008, we rebranded Godrej liquid and
powder hair colours as 'Godrej Expert'. Through the 'Expert' tag,
we leveraged our track record of innovation and promised a
better, more enhanced product. As a first step towards this, later
that year, we introduced a colour-lock technology with longer
lasting effects.
We took the rebranding a step further in 2011, with the
proposition of 'Happy hair, happy you.' As part of this revamp, we
expanded our portfolio to include a new range of hair colours with
add-on benefits. Our 'Advanced' range, for example, used a nondrip gel format; a first for us.
Today, Godrej Expert has a loyal consumer base of over 4 crore
users. It is available in 2.3 million outlets across India and the
number is growing.
A new chapter Hair Care also plays a key role in our global strategy - 3 by 3 - a
focus on building a presence in three categories (home care, hair
care and personal care) across three emerging geographies (Asia,
Africa and Latin America). We own leading hair care companies
across these geographies and are leveraging learning and
technology to enhance our product offerings. A classic example is
the game-changing Godrej Expert Rich Hair Creme, launched in
2012: For the first time ever the Indian consumer was offered the
crème-in-a-sachet, which was available at an affordable price of Rs
30. We brought in technology from our Argentina business but
reformulated the product to suit Indian hair. This superior quality
crème, which equals, if not betters, much more expensive
alternatives, has taken the market by storm. It has allowed us to
democratise the crème category in India, by offering powder hair
colour users an easy option to up-trade.
We have come a long way from where we started 40 years ago,
constantly evolving with our consumers. We are excited about
what lies ahead because as we like to say at Godrej, we believe
we are only as good as what we do next.

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