Comprehensive Marketing Mix of Lakme – With Complete Company Overview

About Lakme

Launched in 1950, Lakmé was founded by J.R. D. Tata whose ownership changed hands in 1996 and is currently owned by Hindustan Unilever. Lakmé’s products include a wide range of makeup and skincare products. They have also extended their services & product offering through their network of Lakmé Beauty Salons across the country. The brand also conducts Lakmé Fashion Week, the largest fashion event in the country for celebrating its bond with beauty & fashion.

Marketing Mix of Lakme

A marketing mix consists of a set of marketing tools that a company uses to offer their services to a targeted audience. Identifying and organizing the elements of your marketing mix enables companies to make profitable marketing decisions at all levels. These decisions help the company: 

• Developing strengths and limiting weaknesses 
• Improving profitable collaboration between sectors and partners   
• Increasing competitiveness and adaptability in the market 

Now that we have learned about marketing mix, lets us learn about the marketing mix of Lakme

1. Lakme Product Strategy

Lakme offers products and services stemming from a true understanding of the needs of Indian women. More than 300 Lakmé brand items are used by professional hair artists in salons as well as individuals in the domestic and international markets. The brand has succeeded in attracting its main target audience, girls and women, by constantly improvising and satisfying the demands of its customers.

Lakme product portfolio contains Lakmé makeup, skincare products,  lookbooks-which help people to take inspiration from Lakme’s signature styled looks. The brand also has its Lakmé salon which offers a show-stopping collection, runway rewards, bridal makeup look, special styling and grooming option for their premium customers. Lakmé has also established a teaching academy in Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi that offers various training courses for people willing to pursue their careers in the fashion industry.

2. Lakme Place Strategy

Lakme is India’s first brand, dealing in cosmetics on a large scale and leaving its footprints across the country. It has whopping 400 plus salons located across 125 cities and has upcoming projects in tier 2 cities as well. Lakmé does not limit its boundary to the Indian market, its products are accessible in nearly 70 countries around the globe.

Lakme has a huge distribution channel with more than 1200 assisted sales outlets, which is the largest span of outlets along with “Beauty Advisor”. The brand has ensured that they are close and relevant to their customers. Lakmé has user-friendly websites with a  virtual try-on feature that allows users to visualize and then buy products. One can also shop Lakmé products from supermarkets, hypermarkets, convenience shops and beauty shops. 

3. Lakme Pricing Strategy

In a country like India where people think twice before making a purchase, being a brand that is still a household name right from the early 90s when it comes to cosmetics indicates how affordable Lakmé products are. 

Lakme has adopted a reasonable pricing policy because they wish to cater to customers from both urban and rural areas. They are willing to give a platform to their buyers to have fun and experiment with their makeup and well, their prizes clearly don’t say the other way around! As a result of its customer-friendly pricing strategy and approach, the company has experienced success both in terms of products and efficiency. 

4. Lakme Promotion Strategy

Lakme uses traditional as well as digital marketing to promote its products. Its ad campaigns are advertised via television, newspaper, fashion magazines, and billboards. They also make use of social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to endorse their products. They have adopted an aggressive marketing strategy which has helped the company to gain the trust of their customers.

The brand’s first advertisement was the fusion of modernity and Indianness. The first face of the brand was supermodel Shyamoli Verma, who was a heartthrob in the 1980s.In the advertisement, she was seen playing a sitar and flute and the tagline read – ‘If colour is to beauty what music is to mood, play on’. 

Lakme knew the best way to attract customers was to give them an image that they could be beautiful and elegant just like their favourite celebrities. Hence, they took the advantage of Indian women’s enthusiasm and craze for Bollywood beauties and invited evergreen beauty, Rekha and subsequently, the 1994 miss world, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as the brand ambassadors. 

Currently, the brand ambassador for Lakmé is Bollywood fashion icon Kareena Kapoor Khan. Various Indian actresses such as Shraddha Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Bipasha Basu, Ananya Pandey, Lisa Hayden, Mrunal Thakur have acted in Lakme’s commercials. Lakmé believes in celebrating women of all ages and colour and their advertising strategy never fails to prove that.

The brand had launched a new campaign that highlights its fashion-forward approach and trendsetting products. The campaign is targeted towards accomplished Indian women, who are unapologetic about their love for fashion and beauty, despite the societal pressure that diminishes them from prioritizing it. The brand celebrates those who proudly embrace the beauty and encourages all women to confidently amplify their love for fashion and beauty.

Here’s a glimpse of the campaign –

Lakme is also the title sponsor of the biannual fashion event -Lakme fashion week which is conducted in the presence of the biggest stars, models, designers, hairstylists and makeup artists. Over the years, Lakmé Fashion Week has become an aspirational platform for many young fashion brands. Lakmé allows them to showcase their talent and gives them the right visibility. Lakmé Fashion Week was conducted virtually this year due to Covid 19 pandemic and yet it managed to increase its reach by 40%.

Lakme Campaign for Advertising

Lakme keep coming up with new campaign modes and strategies to launch its products. They make their process entertaining and fun-loving for the audience.

• Colours of love

To launch Lakme’s new lipstick range Enrich Satin, the brand’s Facebook page I Love Lakmé kicked off a contest by asking “what’s the colour of your love” on the eve of Valentine’s Day. Fans need to select an existing picture of their valentine and then select the ‘colour of love ’ from the range of lipsticks and leave a mark on the picture. Winning entries got surprise gift hampers from LakméIndia. The campaign got a great response and love from its audience. The contest was a good medium to give every user access to a glimpse of a new line. 

• #FaceAppChallenged campaign

In 2019, a new trend caught the attention of people across the globe. It was a Faceapp that transforms the face and makes you look younger, older or change the gender.  Lakmé saw this excellent opportunity and started the discussion around anti-ageing. According to the company, with its Lakmé Absolute Youth Infinity Skin Range, the brand was quick and smart enough to hop on #FaceAppChallenged and drive the social media traffic in its favour. The campaign was a hit among the influencers and fans.

To drive the conversation further, Lakmé shipped a box full of Infinity products with a personalized note reminding them getting old virtually might be fun, but not in reality. But there is nothing to worry about, as Lakmé has got your back. The brand also ensured to benefit the larger section of the audience through this campaign, and hence they created a promo code and increased its online sales on their website by offering discounts to its audience. 

Conclusion

Lakme has played an important role in changing the perception of beauty. It has always promoted that beauty is not all about looking good, it is also about looking healthy and bright. Despite the cutthroat competition with domestic and international brands, Lakme still manages to be relevant amongst its customers and never trimmed its product for the market.  There’s no doubt that Lakme is leading its way and is an inspiration for other homegrown brands.

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