By IANS,
Chennai : Contraceptive products maker TTK LIG Ltd is returning to the youth condom segment with a new product, Durex Jeans, a few years after it withdrew its first youth-focussed brand Fiesta from the market.
The Durex Jeans brand will be launched “shortly”, TTK head (sales and marketing) Ashish Bhatt told IANS.
“The product is targeted at the newly weds. Also, we want the youth to be careful if they are having premarital sex,” Bhatt told IANS.
Some years back, TTK launched Fiesta condoms targeting the newly weds, while its other brands, including Kohinoor, targeted older couples.
The Durex brand condoms were considered super premium products.
Fiesta failed to gain a significant market share and was withdrawn.
Learning from this experience, the company has now come up with a different strategy – launch a variant to the super premium sheath Durex and give brand support through advertisements.
“Any advertisement for the new variant will have a positive rub-off effect on main brand Durex. We plan to have a separate commercial for Durex Jeans,” Bhatt said.
The two-piece pack of the blue coloured Durex Jeans condom is priced at Rs.20, while other Durex variants are sold at Rs.35 for three condoms.
The lower price would help Durex Jeans penetrate into the market at a greater pace, Bhatt hoped.
“At this price point, the premium Durex Jeans can have deeper market penetration as the product can be stocked even by neighbourhood outlets which is not the case with other Durex variants,” he said, adding: “Incidentally, all big Durex packs are uniformly priced at Rs.100 per 10 pieces.”
With two mother brands, Kohinoor and Durex, and several variants under them – coloured, dotted, ribbed, flavoured and extra thin – the city-based TTK is the leading player in India’s Rs.200-crore branded condom market.
While the mid-priced (Rs.12-18 for a pack of three) Kohinoor is the largest selling brand commanding around 40 percent market share in the 600-million-piece market, Durex is the only super premium sheath in the country.
TTK has recently launched several new variants to the Durex and Kohinoor brands.
“We have launched Durex Apple and Kohinoor Jasmine. Both have got good market reception,” TTK managing director T.R. Venkatesh told IANS.