Fair and Lovely Foundation- How and Why?

What is fair and lovely foundation?

Fair & Lovely Scholarship Foundation is an HUL (Hindustan Unilever Limited) initiative that aims to empower the women of India through education and career development before their marriage, which has been successful since 2003, the year it was first started. The Fair & Lovely Foundation Scholarship helps academically brilliant girls from the lowest economic strata of the society fulfill their dreams of higher education. These young achievers are supported with course fees, accommodation, local travel, books and stationary costs, depending upon their needs. The scholarship is renewed every year on the basis of the performance of the student. Also, it covers money capital, which is helping aspiring women entrepreneurs start their own business.

The recent advertisement, which was launched to promote the foundation for the year 2014, explains about girls looking for a well-settled groom. Instead, making the girl independent is the main target area of this initiative. The foundation identifies academically exceptional girls from financially challenged backgrounds and offers scholarships up to Rs. one lakh per candidate. Deserving candidates are selected through a screening-and-interview process. Panels at the Fair & Lovely Foundation shortlisting phase includes noted professionals from various fields, who carefully interview these girls across five centers: Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Lucknow. Their level of need and desire to excel is taken into account to select the final list of awardees.

The foundation provides resources in education and business to millions of women who use or support Fair & Lovely. Efforts have included:

•   HUL sponsored career fairs in over 20 cities across India

•   Counseling in over 110 careers

•   Supported 100 rural scholarships for women students

•   Created a professional course for aspiring beauticians

·   Created a three-month Home Healthcare Nursing Assistant course open to women from ages 18-30 years

Honoring women across India that have achieved greatness and set good examples for others to follow.

Why did HUL come up with it?

The foundation was basically a strategy to come out of the bad public image which fair and lovely had created for itself. Here’s how:

Until CavinKare’s fairever entered the market in 1999, Fair & Lovely held a 90% market share for the product. Fairever gained an impressive 15% market share since it began being sold in India, causing HUL to respond with increase advertising efforts.

HUL instituted a huge campaign with a series of ads that were centered around “the fairer girl gets the guy” theme. And various other marketing theme where a girl’s beauty and fortune was shown to be based on how fair she is. CavinKare counteracted these ads by taking a dig at HUL’s strategy. They showed ads that encouraged women to be successful regardless of their complexion, but rather more self-confident after using Fairever. The two opposite approaches in advertising put HLL and Fair & Lovely in a bad position to the public and press. The All India Women’s Democratic Association (AIDWA) filed a complaint in March and April 2002 with HUL. The Ministry of Information ruled that the campaign violated the Cable and Television Network Act of 1995, which strives to ensure no ads promote discrimination on the basis of gender, race, creed, color, caste or nationality.

As a result of the backlash against HUL’s Fair & Lovely campaign, the company discontinued the ads in March 2003. Shortly after it pulled the ads off the air, HUL launched a new charitable cause called the Fair & Lovely Foundation, which vowed to “encourage economic empowerment of women across India.”

Its impact:

Fair & Lovely Foundation since inception in 2003; has played an integral role in changing the lives of more than 1500 girls, giving them wings to achieve their dreams by empowering them through education and career development. Through these scholarships, Fair & Lovely opens doors of hope for girls across the country to pursue their dreams. One of the 2012 scholarship winners, Sajneeben whose father cuts and polishes precious gems has to support a family of five on his meager earnings. While her mother, a housewife tries her best to give her children the best of all worlds but the family income is insufficient to support their three children. Sajnee who is studying hard to pursue her studies in her chosen field of Bachelor of Ayurveda, Medicine and Surgery says, “With the scholarship amount that I’ve received from the Fair & Lovely Foundation, I’m confident that I’ll be able to overcome my financial challenges and build a great career”. other 225 girls like Sajnee were awarded with the scholarship in the year 2013.

This also improved their brand image, showing fair and lovely in a good light in the society. Even now, fair and lovely occupies a major share in the market of fairness creams, nearly 53%.

The winners(2013)

Conclusion:

Fair and lovely did the mistake, which cost them a fortune.  The orthodox nature of Indians, and hence by showing the fair and dark comparison the audiences were easy to attract. This even though increased their sales also led to a huge negativity, which resurfaced the minds of Indians. Though the thinking has changed now, there still are many families, which do prefer a fairer bride or daughter or wife than a woman with a darker skin tone. The companies should never forget the impact it has on the society and should be very careful about its actions.  Also, a company before entering a market should do a complete research about the culture, religions, how things work out to be, etc. it helps a lot in knowing which are the target consumers and also what are the means in which this could be possible. Though fair and lovely was successful in knowing how it could increase its sale, the way was not ethical. So, even that’s a challenge. But you have to accept challenges and find a way out of it, even if a mistake; just like how fair and lovely did. ;)

Marketing Mix and McDonalds

The marketing mix is a business tool used in marketing and by marketers. The marketing mix is often crucial when determining a product or brand's offer, and is often associated with the four P's: price, product, promotion, and place. In service marketing, however, the four Ps are expanded to the seven P's or Seven P's to address the different nature of services.

Product: A product is seen as an item that satisfies what a consumer demands. It is a tangible good or an intangible service.Tangible products are those that have an independent physical existence.

McDonald’s places considerable emphasis on developing a menu which customers want. Market research establishes exactly what this is. However, customers’ requirements change over time. In order to meet these changes, McDonald’s has introduced new products and phased out old ones, and will continue to do so. Care is taken not to adversely affect the sales of one choice by introducing a new choice, which will cannibalise sales from the existing one (trade off). McDonald’s knows that items on its menu will vary in popularity. Their ability to generate profits will vary at different points in their cycle. In India McDonalds has a diversified product range focussing more on the vegetarian products as most consumers in India are primarily vegetarian. The happy meal for the children is a great seller among others.

Place: Refers to providing the product at a place which is convenient for consumers to access. Various strategies such as intensive distribution, selective distribution, exclusive distribution and franchising can be used by the marketer to complement the other aspects of the marketing

mix.

McDonald’s outlets are very evenly spread throughout the cities making them very accessible. Drive in and drive through options make McDonald’s products further convenient to the consumers.

Price: The amount a customer pays for the product. The price is very important as it determines the company's profit and hence, survival. Adjusting the price has a profound impact on the marketing strategy, and depending on the price elasticity of the product, often it will affect the demand and sales as well. The marketer should set a price that complements the other elements of the marketing mix.

In India McDonalds classifies its products into 2 categories namely the branded affordability (BA) and branded core value products (BCV). The BCV products mainly include the McVeggie and McChicken burgers that cost Rs 50-60  and the BA products include McAloo tikki and Chicken McGrill burgers which cost Rs20-3 This has been done to satisfy consumers which different price perceptions.

Promotion: All of the methods of communication that a marketer may use to provide information to different parties about the product. Promotion comprises elements such as:advertising, public relations, sales organisation and sales promotion.

At McDonalds the prime focus is on targeting children. In happy meals too which are targeted at children small toys are given along with the meal. Apart from this, various schemes for winning prices by way of lucky draws and also scratch cards are given when an order is placed on the various mean combos.

Physical Evidence: The evidence which shows that a service was performed, such as the delivery packaging for the item delivered by a delivery service, or a scar left by a surgeon. This reminds or reassures the consumer that the service took place, positively or negatively.

McDonalds focuses on clean and hygienic interiors of its outlets and at the same time the interiors are attractive and the fast food joint maintains a proper decorum at its joints.

People: The employees that execute the service, chiefly concerning the manner and skill in which they do so.

The employees in Mcdonalds have a standard uniform and Mcdonald's specially focuses on friendly and prompt service to its customers from their employees.

Process: The processes and systems within the organization that affect the execution of its service, such as job queuing or query handling.

The food manufacturing process at Mcdonalds is completely transparent i.e. the whole process is visible to the customers. In fact, the fast food joint allows its customers to view and judge the hygienic standards at McDonalds by allowing them to enter the area where the process takes place. The customers are invited to check the ingredients used in food.

A Multi-level campaign launched by Coca Cola Israel

Global chains are known for making their mass-produced wares available worldwide in uniformity (with some regional exceptions). Israeli Diet Coke drinkers, however, now have the opportunity to pick up a bottle of the sweet beverage which will look different — if only slightly — from all others.

As Coca-Coca Israel reported in a press release, their “Stay Extraordinary” campaign has produced over 2 million bottles, each with a unique wrapper. The company explained that the purpose of the campaign is to “convey to Diet Coke lovers that they are extraordinary by creating unique one-of-a-kind extraordinary bottles.” Alon Zamir, Vice President of Marketing for Coca-Cola Israel, adds:

"We are proud to launch such a complex, innovative and extraordinary campaign which will convey to all Diet-Coke consumers how extraordinary they are themselves."

The bottles are being made available in 51 oz., 17 oz. and 12 oz. sizes, for which “a special algorithm was created which gave birth to the design technique … [able to] create millions of different designs that were completely auto-generated, with no need for human intervention.” The campaign has also included a series of billboard ads, each of which, the company enthuses, is itself unique. Online support further allows Diet Coke drinkers to create cups in the styles of their chosen bottles, as well as “thousands of Diet Coke-branded products such as bags, t-shirts and iPhone covers.”

Soon after the campaign’s launch, the company reported, the printed bottles were being advertised on eBay for as much as $200 for a collection and $15 a single bottle. With local help from creative team Gefen, production and digital tech support from Q Digital and HP Indigo, and ad support from Dahaf, Diet Coke of Israel is hoping to use the campaign to “be innovative and fashionable, the exact qualities that make [the soda] so lovable for its consumers, [which] this campaign signifies this more than ever.”

As the Times of Israel reported, Coca-Cola’s recent “Share A Coke” campaign was also made possible by Israeli printing technology. The seasonal program was first launched in 2011 in Australia by local executives and ad firm Ogilvy, and caused Coke consumption among younger Australians to jump 7% during the inaugural campaign, the Wall Street Journal notes. The campaign has since spread to 80 countries, with about 5000 of the world’s most common names appearing on more than 6 million soda bottles (150 different names were represented in the U.S., and approximately 250 in Israel).

Coca-Cola Israel has also been experimenting with various tech-led marketing projects on its own. In 2013, the branch launched their integrated Mini Me campaign, which encouraged Coke fans to compete for the prize of a miniaturized version of themselves. Applicants used an online app to recreate their physical appearances, and winners were treated to full body scans — taken in the full-service 3D print lab which Coca-Cola Israel constructed for the campaign — before receiving the results: a 3D-printed personal figurine.