We don’t believe in being very pedantic to sell our products: Ashish Chhabra

Hygienic Research Institute Pvt Ltd (HRIPL) is a prominent Indian beauty and personal care product company specialising in beauty, hair care, skincare and professional products. Their portfolio includes prominent hair care and hair colour brands, Vasmol and Streax. They have also forayed into the world of skincare with a new brand, Florozone. With more than five decades of cutting-edge research, the use of proven natural ingredients and technology tie-ups with the world’s leading cosmetic and research companies, HRIPL products have been delivering products of the highest quality.

The brand faced many challenges during the pandemic, including curtailing of factory operations, restricted movement of sales force, closure of general and cosmetic retail stores in the lockdown period. But the pandemic gave them an opportunity to amplify their business through the online/ e-commerce route. The company started exploring the online marketplaces and different e-commerce platforms to sell their products. During the lockdown, with salons being shut, people chose DIY formats for their hair care at their homes. Streax, which has a varied DIY range of products, was in high demand during those times.

In a free-wheeling conversation with Adgully, Ashish Chhabra, Joint Managing Director, Hygienic Research Institute Pvt Ltd (HRIPL), speaks about the various initiatives taken by the brand during the pandemic period and how they were active and agile by continuously engaging with their audiences and deploying various online activities through a highly motivated team.

There are several brands in the FMCG category that got disrupted due to the pandemic. What are some of the challenges that HRIPL faced and what has been your bounce back strategy to hit the road in full steam?

The challenges faced by HRIPL were multi-fold during the pandemic, including curtailing of factory operations, restricted movement of sales force, closure of general & cosmetic retail stores in the lockdown time.

But as they say, when one door closes, another one opens. The pandemic gave us an opportunity to amplify our business through the online/ e-commerce route. We started exploring the online marketplaces and different e-commerce platforms to sell our products.

If we talk about products, during the lockdown time as the salons were shut for a long time, people had to choose the DIY formats for hair care and our brand ‘Streax’ has a varied range of DIY products which was very much in demand in those times. Streax has the largest range of shades in the retail DIY segment. It is the hair colour in a shampoo format, which is the easiest, quickest, and easy-on-the-pocket offering and it became the smartest choice for people and the product’s demand grew at a high double-digit percentage.

For the production part, once the government allowed, we started our factory on less capacity. We made sure to maintain proper hygiene and social distancing. Also, some strict protocols were put in place in the factory so the infected personnel can be identified, if any, and can be isolated so that the factory operations don’t get hampered.

We made sure to keep maintaining the motivation of employees through various online activities and team catch ups, so they come back to work with renewed vigour. Also, to get the confidence in the team in the tough times, I and other few leaders of our company also went to the market with our sales team so that they know that they are not left alone in this whole pandemic situation. We came out much stronger as a team in the pandemic days. We made sure that all safety precautions were followed in the factory premises. At HRIPL, we also had arranged for the on-call Doctors and Psychologists available 24/7 for the team’s health and mental peace. All the requirements of employees like financial, emotional and health needs were completely taken care of by the HRIPL team.

So, the consistent motivation, strong unity, teamwork and our versatile set of products are a few things which helped us bounce back from the pandemic.

You have two reputed brands – Streax and Vasmol. How have you differentiated your products in a market which has many Indian as well as international brands? What has been your overall positioning for the brand?

One common factor which differentiates HRIPL brands viz. Streax and Vasmol from the rest of market is the inclusion of Indian ethos.

Vasmol has mainly been an oil-based traditional hair colour brand. It is more for a heritage bound Indian consumer. Gradually, these consumers have also started preferring more herbal and natural colours and so demand for our product Vasmol Kesh Kala has largely gone up.

On the other hand, ‘Streax’ is the bold new signature for the fashion forward Indian consumer with the highest range of DIY products in the retail market, which is the first choice for our young consumers who wants everything on a fast pace. Even with the presence of tough competition, Streax products are also known to be as some of the best affordable premium products.

This amalgamation of Indian ethos with traditional values and new age values sets these brands apart from the competition. Also, our company HRIPL is backed by a very good distribution channel with a strong presence in the rural and Tier 2 cities.

There is always some apprehension when one buys a hair dye brand. How have you educated your end retailers about your products and what kind of communication strategy have you adopted to reassure the customers that your product is very safe?

HRIPL hair colours are safe to use, and our all products come with ISO certification. Our production facilities, too, are ISO certified. Even after having one of the highest certifications, many consumers fear using hair colours citing probable side effects. For this, we make sure to consistently educate our consumers about the product details and product authenticity.

Over the years, our company has conducted numerous on-ground and online seminars with the top salons and our key retail partners to dispel myths around hair colouring. Today, we have a very strong advocacy from these retail partners for our colours and dyes. Still, there is a small set of consumers who may are allergic to hair colours, for them each pack of our hair colour advises the consumer to conduct a patch test before applying colour over the whole head. This, coupled with herbal ingredients infused in our products, reassure consumers about the benefits of using Vasmol or Streax products without having any second thoughts.

The pandemic has brought in some shift in consumer behaviour. What are the trends that you have noticed and how are you addressing the new behaviours formed by your current and potential customers?

With the pandemic, there is no doubt that there is a huge shift which has happened from offline to online. Majority of the consumers are doing shopping mostly online or only online. No industry today can survive without being present on the online platforms and online marketplaces.

It is no different for us as well. For most of the FMCG shopping, consumers are choosing online mediums and so the media consumption is also happening majorly on the online social media platforms and not from television alone. ‘Self-Grooming’ activities, which took a backseat during the pandemic times, are on the surge again as people are heading out regularly to go to office, to meet friends, family and take the much-awaited trips. We have changed our media mix, giving the most share to the digital medium as one cannot be dependent on the television or print ads only any longer. Social media and OTT advertising is now a substantial part of our media mix as well.

We have tied up with all the best online marketplaces to stock and sell our products. With the mentioned surge in people venturing out, our focus is moving towards lifestyle grooming products like hair serums and hair colouring highlights, which has marked an exceptional shift for us from a brand which was known as just a ‘grey hair covering dye brand’ a few years back.

The hair dye category believes a lot in leveraging Bollywood celebrities. You have been associated with some well-known celebrities to endorse your various brands. What, according to you, is the role of the celebrity and how has it helped your brands in the last few years?

Streax has always been a celebrity associated brand, which also brings forward the glamour quotient of the brand, starting right from Malaika Arora, Sonakshi Sinha, Akshay Kumar, Vaani Kapoor and now our latest commercial starring the Bollywood King, Shah Rukh Khan. Many celebrities have been actively associated with Streax to happily lend their style and glamour to the brand as they themselves connect with the spark which the brand resonates.

While for Vasmol which had a celebrity endorser like Kajol, who brought the credibility of a trusted and caregiver brand endorser targeting the family-oriented consumers. Celebrity endorsements in India have always been a statement of their reel and real-life personality, which easily reflects on the brands that they endorse, thus making it easy for consumers to associate themselves with a particular brand’s personality as well.

Finally, what has been your engagement strategy with your audiences? Overall, what kind of media strategy do you follow to push your brands and generate awareness?

Our engagement strategy is always to connect with consumers in an enjoyable and fun manner. We do not believe in being very pedantic to sell our products. Therefore, as an outcome we have created a whole gamut of creatives and ads which are very catchy and are memorable, be it the most memorable campaign of ours with the ‘Surakshit kale mere baal…’ tagline of Vasmol or the latest digital video #GetStreaxy with SRK. Over the years, HRIPL as a company has always tried to connect to their customers and be a part of their happy moments.

Our media strategy revolves around mass advertising on TV and now we are also present very actively on OTT channels like YouTube and Hotstar as well. We are also very active on our social media platforms. From time to time, we make sure to be present on the outdoor mediums and print mediums for the impactful launch campaigns.