With Kriti Sanon as its new brand ambassador, Yardley India aims to grow its market share in women’s fragrance category and be its leader

• Manish Vyas, Business Head of Yardley India speaks to us about the launch of the brand's new campaign and idea behind onboarding Kriti Sanon as its brand ambassador.
• He also gives us an overview of the brand’s journey and future plans.

Yardley is one of the world’s oldest living brands in the personal care category. It was founded in 1770 in the UK and India is one of the most important countries for the brand. On a larger level, India is not just a growing market for deodorant brands from a consumption point-of-view but also a leading exporter of raw materials for fine fragrances. According to the Ministry of MSME, the global fragrance and flavour industry is worth $24.10 billion and India contributes approximately $500 million to the total pie.

The use of deodorants and fragrances in India have been seeing a steady rise in the last few years. The growth rate in India has been ~11% in the last few years but is projected to grow exponentially in the upcoming years due to rising personal care, brand awareness, increasing disposable income, growing demand among Tier II and III demographics and affordable prices of fragrances.

To cast a wider net in the country, Yardley recently announced the launch of their new campaign ‘Nature Like Freshness,’ with Kriti Sanon as the new face of the brand. We speak to Manish Vyas, Business Head of Yardley India about the launch of the brand's new campaign, thought behind onboarding Kriti Sanon as its brand ambassador and larger goals ahead.

Q. Can you tell us how Yardley's journey has been in India?

Yardley is a very revered English brand with a legacy of 250 years and known for its craftsmanship in fine fragrances across the globe. Yardley in India, through its wide array of offerings across personal care and fragrances comprising deodorants, daily wear perfumes, compact perfumes, eau de toilette and eau de parfum, has been admired and is amongst the top 3 players in the female fragrance category. In the last three years, in spite of difficult market conditions, the brand has witnessed strong and steady growth.

Q. You recently roped in Kriti Sanon as your brand ambassador. What inspired you to onboard her?

The brand stands for modern, confident and independent women who always want to ‘step up’ in life. Kriti is a talented actress who has made a place for herself in Bollywood and has done a mix of glamorous and meaningful movies. We felt that she therefore fits the bill and her appeal will help take the brand message to millions of her followers.

Q. What is your objective behind the relaunch and getting Kriti as your brand's face? How do you want to position yourself in the market now with a new brand ambassador and new outlook?

Yardley fragrances have always been inspired by nature and its fragrance is derived from exotic flowers from the gardens of England. In the relaunch, we want to highlight the unique benefit of nature’s freshness. Nature like Freshness is about offering consumers unique exotic floral fragrances that will uplift their mood and transport them into the lap of nature. We have reworked all our deodorant sprays, and they are now made of 90% naturally derived ingredients that ensure it delivers on its proposition. The association with Kriti will help us take this new brand appeal to many new young consumers.

Q. How would you say Yardley's marketing strategy has evolved over the years?

Yardley already has a strong latent brand equity in India. The brand has been used through its traditional offerings across generations. The attempt in the last few years is to extend the appeal to young consumers and appeal to them through contemporary product offerings. Amongst various steps in the direction we have launched many new formats like compact perfumes, daily wear perfumes, shower gels etc. Our “step up with Yardley” campaign in the last few years has helped us in this agenda. In the new campaign, we are focusing on the natural offering of the brand basis the fact that in most of its categories, the products are over 90% naturally derived. We have used celebrities like Katrina Kaif in the past – and we are glad to have Kriti Sanon as the latest face of the brand.

Q. What would be your larger marketing strategy as you move forward?

Moving forward, marketing efforts would be towards recruiting young users for Yardley across categories by having product offering and communication that is relevant and unique

Q. What would be some of your focus areas for H2 2021?

With a large part of urban India vaccinated and with out-of-home mobility overall coming back to pre-covid levels in most parts of the country, we expect the demand to bounce back for the discretionary categories. We plan to focus on riding with these tailwinds and grow our shares with our new fragrance portfolio. We believe that the campaign with Kriti will help us do that and will also help overall brand run rates.

Q. What are your expectations from the festive season this time? How are you planning on leveraging the uptick in consumer sentiment this year?

With the tough part of pandemic behind us, we expect consumers to indulge in revenge shopping. We are already seeing the uptick in the pent-up demand being converted into business. We expect the same to continue for the next two quarters. The category will overall see an increase in spends by all players and this will further help the category grow much faster. We believe that with the appeal of our new portfolio will help us get new users for the brand

Q. Considering the relaunch, how have you increased your marketing spends?

Even during the pandemic we have been investing in marketing with specific needs in regional markets. Now we plan to increase our spends and bring back investments across the country.

Q. What is your larger vision for the brand?

We intend to be the leader in women’s fragrance category with offerings across price points and formats. We are planning to enter some sub-segments which are significant and growing.