Indian prime minister Narendra modi gave the mantra of 'vocal for local'. And started the ‘Make in India’ campaign.  It is actually a very interesting concept as it gives an opportunity to grow the local businesses. Vocal for local concepts is not only important to the local business but it also helps to reduce imports, and if the imports are lesser, we can have more foreign exchange reserves. This is how 'vocal for local' and ‘make in india’ concepts are win-win for business as well as the economy.

But do you know this ‘Make in India’ concept is actually very old and introduced by then Prime Minister Jwaharlal Nehru ! This might be shocking for all of you but that's how it is!

INDIAN BEAUTY BRAND - A THOUGHT BY FORMER PM JAWAHARLAL NEHRU : 

After the independence indian economy was constantly falling, india was facing huge decrease in foreign exchange reserves. Looking for its reason, Jawaharlal Nehru found one of the many reasons is that many Indian women are buying cosmetic products from other countries by paying higher prices. Jawaharlal realized the reason behind the same is that India does not have its own cosmetic products. Many women use 'gharelu nuskha' like ‘multani mitti’ and turmeric but the premium customers were buying products from the other countries. That is when he came up with the idea of India's own beauty and cosmetics brand. In the year 1952 Jawaharlal Nehru shared this incredible idea of India's own beauty brand with the successful businessman and his dear friend Mr. J.R.D. Tata. he was already running his own business with utmost success. With the experience of his own jawaharlal believed that this would work. J.R.D. agreed with Nehru and started to build a brand. Which later became India's number one cosmetic brand.



HOW LAKME IS ASSOCIATED WITH GODDESS LAKSHMI :

While building a cosmetic company, the challenge was to compete with the international brands. The first challenge was to give the brand a name. Initially Lakme was named after ‘goddess lakshmi' as the brand was created to increase foreign exchange reserves, also goddess lakshmi is the symbol of ultimate beauty. So by naming ‘lakshmi’ it serves both the purpose. But to make it international and create a market value and attract more customers , lakshmi named after a french opera Lakme,

thus, Lakme came into the market in the year 1953. Initially Lakme was the 100 percent subsidiary company of Tata Oil Mill.

Lakme in french language means goddess lakshmi,  which is inspired by sanskrit language.

LAKME - THE INDIAN BEAUTY BRAND :

As there was no competition in the market, Lakme grew instantly. Lakme’s USP(Unique Selling Proposition)  was, the products were designed to fit Indian skin tone and they were pocket friendly so that not only the cream crowd but every woman can afford the products. Initially Lakme started its store in mumbai, as mentioned earlier there was no competition, in addition Lakme was offering international standard products so it started growing . Within the next five years, Lakme's production shifted next to J.R.D. Tata’s Tomco company.

In the year 1966 J.R.D. TATA decided to sell the company. Lakme was already a successful brand; there were many companies who wanted to buy it. But J.R.D. wanted someone that can carry lakme’s brand value and give it the next level of success. They also wanted the core value of the brand to not be sacrificed. There were many companies in that queue , but J.R.D. sold Lakme to HUL- Hindustan Unilever Company.

In the year 1961 simon tata was the lakme’s new chairperson. She was on the mission to make Lakme India's best beauty brand and that too at very affordable prices. She was originally from France, so whenever she went there, she collected free samples of the beauty products and gave them to the lakme’s production team. She always said to production team that the beauty standards should never be lower than the products from outside india. This became Lakme's success mantra. 


MARKETING STRATEGIES :

Lakme started to gain the attention of every Indian woman as it was pocket friendly as well as it had international standards. Later the film industry also started using its products for celebrity makeup looks. When Lakme started to gain more customers, it started its distribution stores and publicity campaign. They opened stores in every area where there was residence of more than twenty thousand people. The marketing strategy was very clever behind this, to be easily available to their customers so they don't switch their products due to lack of availability.

Meanwhile they also launched their men’s product line. But it was not as successful as their beauty and cosmetics line for women.

Lakme also started to cast Bollywood actresses and fashion models for their ad campaign. Their first brand-face model was Shyamoli Verma, who was the first India’s supermodel. To create a brand image, they also cast leading actresses of that time like Rekha, Hema Malini and Jaya Bhaduri.


After many years they are still casting leading actresses as their brand ambassador as well as in their advertisement. they are still following the same, while adding some of the new faces in their ads. Currently , Kareena Kapoor Khan , Kajol, Mrunal Thakur and Ananya Pandey can be seen in their ad campaign.


Besides its beauty products, Lakme also offers fashion courses. There are more than 100 salons in India as well as in other countries. The company also sponsors a fashion week in mumbai , known as “lakme fashion week”.

After so many years in business today , Lakme's net worth is approx 1900 cr. According to a brand trust report , (2014) Lakme ranked 36th among India's most trusted brands.

Personally , why I love Lakme as a brand is because its main focus is every Indian skin tone, and its campaign speaks for it. Recently, they launched a campaign called ‘red for all’ for its lipstick line. It features every skin tone and every age of woman wearing red lipstick.


Tell us your experience with Lakme in the comment below.