Modi Revlon to get facelift with new brand introductions  ( July '6,2001, FE)

Almost six years after Modi Revlon, the joint venture between Mr UK Modi’s Modi Mundipharma and US-based Revlon Inc, launched one of the world’s most popular cosmetic brand Revlon in India, the company may well be all set to bring another major cosmetic brand in its stable into the Indian market.

‘‘We plan to launch a couple of new brands from our global brand portfolio very soon,’’ Modi Revlon executive director Ms Meghna Modi told The Financial Express. On her part, she, however, refused to disclose the names of the brands.

Market pundits predict that it should be the popular StreetWear range of colour cosmetic products.

StreetWear is one of the many brands the US-based cosmetic maker has in its portfolio which apart from the flagship brand Revlon include Almay make-up, Flex shampoo, Ultima II make-up, New Complexion, ColorStay and Charlie perfume. While Revlon, Flex, ColorStay and Charlie brands have already been launched in India, StreetWear is expected to be on shelves soon. Once launched in India, StreetWear is likely to be targeted at the socio-economic class (SEC) A, A2 and may be be launched in the top 23 cities.

A young, funky and hip brand, StreetWear, globally is positioned at the young and trendy shopper and the range consists of about 30-SKUs covering categories like nail enamel, lipsticks, lip gloss, face makeup kits and eye shadows.

For the Indian marketplace, however, Modi Revlon is carefully crafting the positioning and marketing strategy for the brand in order to avoid cannibalisation with its flagship brand Revlon. For according to Ms Modi, ‘‘the new brands will be positioned at the premium end and we should be able to segment the market so as to corner new marketshare rather than cannibalise.’’

Revlon, globally, has been struggling to reverse a string of losses and has recently undergone restructuring with the induction of new management.

In India, the company embarked on the volume-driven growth path by following the strategy of slashing prices by lowering pack sizes. Starting with the launch of its mini nail enamel early last year, Modi Revlon extended the same strategy to other products in its portfolio, namely lipsticks and perfumes.

The cosmetics maker claims the strategy had a phenomenal success. The strategy has helped us increase our sales by almost 50 per cent, Ms Modi claimed. The company claims to have an overall marketshare of 20 per cent in the colour cosmetics market.

Modi Revlon has been operating in India since 1994, and first rolled out its international range of colour cosmetics in September 1995.