By IANS,
New Delhi : Even though America’s famous magazine for men Playboy is banned in India, the brand has forayed into the Indian market Wednesday by launching their perfume range for men.
“Indian people love international brands and there is a sense of excitement associated with our brand name. So our brand name is our strength and our aim will be to blend into the Indian market keeping our international standards in mind,” Venkatesh Babu, regional managing director of the US based fragrance company Coty Beauty that looks after distribution of various perfumes all around the globe told IANS over phone from Mumbai.
Coty Beauty is the business unit of Coty Inc that has signed an agreement with Indian company J.L. Morison that will market and distribute Playboy perfumes in India.
“Our strategy is simple, initially we are focusing on the distribution of our perfumes in departmental stores across India and reach to as many cities as possible,” Babu said.
The four new fragrances that will be available in the Indian market are Hollywood playboy, Malibu playboy, Miami playboy and Vegas playboy with each fragrance capturing the essence of the lifestyle of some of the world’s most glamorous cities.
Babu felt that though the market is tough but with their strong brand name, affordable prices and good distribution networking, things will fall in place for them.
“The mass market in India has a large potential for international brands at the right price point offering. Our strategy for India through our partners, who have strong distribution infrastructure, will help us garner respectable market shares in the first year. We look at being leaders in the men’s deodorant and fragrance category with our brands in a few years,” Babu explained.
Talking about future plans, Coty Beauty’s head of Asia, Fons Houtkamp said that after launching this fragrance in US and some parts of Europe six months back, they are now channelizing their energy in the Asian market.
“We provide value for money and after launching here, our focus is to make our presence felt in the other Asian countries as well,” Houtkamp said.
The deodorants are priced at Rs.199 and can go up to Rs.595.