Parachute (FMCG personal care) skincare body lotion. New product launched in 2011. 

CONTEXT

Coconut hair oil is a commodity product that is very much an Indian habit for nurturing the hair. In the 1990s we had repositioned the Parachute brand to decommoditize the category. In different blind tests we have since found that customers distinguish Parachute coconut oil as a value added product. Yet in today’s modern times, hair oil has remained with low salience in the hair care category. Parachute appointed us again when they wanted to diversify from hair care to skin care with the same brand.

PURPOSE

How to shift Parachute brand from the basic hair oil category it is entrenched in to the high aspiration platform of body care? Taking hair oil for granted, customers do not talk about it, but skin care brands can be very hedonistic. How can Parachute enter the high value skin care market that was highly dominated by global company brands in India?

OBJECTIVE

To shift the Parachute brand from the commodity category in the retail shelf to the glamorous category of the retail shelf. Make Parachute play a key role in women’s self nurturing behaviour with a body lotion, a diametric shift from commodity hair care to high added value skin care with the same brand.

STRATEGIC EXECUTION

Building a brand with communication takes time, but retail offtake from the shelf has to start from Day One. So we created a self-selling provocation with design. Our key visual design in the branding exercise was bringing a womanly character in structural packaging design to create an instant buying attitude to the customer. We took the body shape design metaphor symbolizing Greek goddess Venus de Milo. Customers can visually see that the brand is proposing body care. This shape was radically dissimilar from all existing skin care brands in the market. Parachute skin care lotion with the sophisticated promise of “soft and silky skin with milk of coconut fruit” has recharged the idea of natural beauty from the goodness of coconut. The Parachute brand has now very legitimately and convincingly shifted to the glamour shelf at the retail outlet.