FMCG maker Emami Ltd on Thursday announced a rebranding of its major male grooming brand “Fair and Handsome” to “Smart And Handsome” to address the consumers preference for “redefining fairness” and tapping into almost all segments of the highly-growing market.

The rebranding of the₹250-crore brand, which enjoys a market leadership of around 65 per cent in India’s male grooming category, is also aiming at addressing the issue of the recent tepid performance. The company has a plan to grow this brand, launched in 2005, to around ₹1,000 crore in the next three to four years with new product rollouts.

According to business and brand strategy specialists, this rebranding was on expected lines as the society at large is re-inventing older notions and creating newer ones. “Fair” is no longer considered to be positive.

Fairness vocabulary

“The fairness vocabulary is going to change in India. People have started redefining fairness as whitening and glowing. They have started calling it different things than fairness, particularly the young consumers. But the need for fairness exists in India. That still exists predominantly across, more so in the masses and in the rural areas,” Mohan Goenka, Vice Chairman and Wholetime Director, Emami Ltd, told businessline, when asked about replacing the word “fair” with “smart “in the new brand name. 

“The fairness market is not growing. It is stagnant for the last few quarters, and the other male grooming categories are fast growing, whether it is deodorant, haircare and beard or whether it is any other category in the mail grooming market. I cannot sit idle and just wait for the market to grow. I am the leader and I will have to grow the market,” Goenka said, explaining the reason behind the major rebranding exercise of one of its iconic home-grown brands.

Interestingly, Emami did this rebranding exercise around two years ago for the international market, except in Bangladesh. 

“Luckily, in the international markets the brand name was changed two years ago. There challenges were different. All the multinational companies changed the brand name from ‘‘fairness’‘. In some countries also there were government compulsions. And, also in some of the international markets, especially in the Middle East, modern trade stopped buying products tagged with “fairness”. So, we had to change the brand name,” Goenka said.

Of the total revenue under the brand, around 35 per cent comes from the international markets. The Middle East, SAARC and Africa are the prominent overseas markets for this brand.

Business and brand strategy specialist Harish Bijoor said, “This rebranding is on expected lines. This is because the society at large is re-inventing older notions and creating newer ones. And in this notion creation game, fair is no longer considered to be positive. So to that extent “fair” had to be dropped and Emami has done the right thing.”

Angel investor and business strategist Lloyd Mathias said, “The terms “fair” and “dark” are not politically expedient name. Emami is directionally moving into a more positive space with this rebranding by focussing on broadening the appeal of the brand especially in terms of attracting younger consumers.”

Significantly, in 2014, self-regulatory body Advertising Standards Council of India had released guidelines stating that any advertising should not reinforce any negative social stereotypes basis on skin colour. In 2020, companies like HUL and L’Oreal India made changes to ensure their branding and marketing strategies are not harping on “fair” skin