Thread by @kach0289

It’s about the deodorant industry in India.

++++++++++++++

Around 2011, the deodrant market in India was ruled by big players like HULs AXE, Park Avenue and Nivea.

But in just 2 years, an unknown new brand Fogg entered & disrupted the market becoming the number 1 player.

Alll this with a simple consumer insight

A thread on Fogg 🧵

1986 - Darshan Patel without any formal education in marketing started running his family business, Paras Pharmaceuticals.

He created some great consumer brands like Moov, Ring Guard, Set Wet,

Dermi Cool and Dcold all of which became household names in India
2010 - Reckitt Benkiser Group bought over Paras Pharma for 850 million $ from Mr. Patel.

Armed with this new capital, Mr Patel setup Vini Cosmetics and started searching for the next big idea
Around that time,

deodrants were fairly popular among teenagers & young men. Given a lot of areas in India are hot & humid, deodrants had become an almost essential item used by men

HUL's AXE had the highest market share followed by Park Avenue & 7-8 other sizable players

2010 - Mr Patel himself got involved in direct user research. There seemed to be many brands that consumers knew about

One thing that stood out in the research was that a lot of people complained that their deos got over very fast

2011 - This particular complaint helped Mr Patel create the biggest USP for his product: a deodrant without gas.
Mr Patel created a pump for the deodrant which didn't need aerosol and pumps out only liquid. This was very unique compared and helped them live upto their USP

The product was launched in a smaller bottle than competitors signalling that it didn't contain any gas and had only deodrant spray unlike the competition products
2011 - In ads, communication repositioned the competition brands as having less liquid & more gas

because of which they didn't last long

Whereas Fogg promised 800 sprays per bottle. Tagline was bina gas wala deodrant. Ads communicated the USP very well
2011 - The concept was received very well by consumers who viewed it as a value for money product.

In its first year itself, it clocked sales of more than 100 crores capturing close to 10% of the market.

2013 - It dethroned AXE in just two years and became the market leader
2015 - One of the most memorable ads of the brand was launched symbolising the

domination of Fogg in Indian deo market was launched.
And became viral with usage in common discussions even till date

"Fogg chal raha hai"
2019 - Compared to the deodrant industry which grew at 12%, Fogg managed to grow at 20% CAGR hitting revenues of 1000 crores.

It has close to 20% market share in the category.

And Axe has fallen further to 3rd or 4th spots. Angels will fall 🤐
Backed by Mr. Patel's excellent consumer understanding, Fogg would most likely continue to rule this fast growing market in India for some time to come.

Btw, did you know FOGG stands for Friend of Good Guys/Girls 🙂
(w/a forward)