By Richa Naidu and Dhwani Pandya

LONDON/MUMBAI (Reuters) – For years, the world’s largest condom maker Reckitt Benckiser (LON:) designed merchandise and advertising and marketing to lure Indian males to its Durex model. Now, it’s pushing a progress technique by betting on ladies and rural shoppers.

India final 12 months surpassed China to change into the world’s most populous nation, however nonetheless fares poorly on the usage of contraceptives. India’s authorities estimates solely round 10% of males use condoms and for ladies, sterilization stays the favored type of contraception.

Social stigma surrounding intercourse – which some say stems from Victorian social norms established throughout British colonization – has for many years marginalized feminine pleasure within the Indian society.

However attitudes are altering and Reckitt is shifting advertising and marketing gears to reap the benefits of an upswing in condom use amongst Indian ladies – now a key audience for Durex.

Round 9.5% of married Indian ladies cited utilizing condoms throughout intercourse by 2021, virtually double the use 5 years earlier, in accordance with newest out there authorities statistics. Amongst single ladies, such use greater than doubled to 27%.

Reckitt is reformulating merchandise resembling lubricants geared toward attracting ladies shoppers, and has new advertising and marketing campaigns, Pankaj Duhan, Reckitt’s senior vp of intimate wellness, informed Reuters in an interview.

The Durex lubricants in India will use improved formulations to enchantment to ladies and have been created after performing medical research to deal with considerations females face — 30% of Indian ladies expertise some discomfort when having intercourse with their companion.

“We need to change this … That’s the reason we’re relaunching our lubes portfolio,” stated Duhan. “The ladies are likely to change into slightly bit extra underserved shopper teams.”

The India condoms market is at the moment dominated by Mankind Pharma, which makes Manforce, adopted by Reckitt and TTK Healthcare.

CHALLENGES

The British shopper items agency faces some stiff challenges in its quest to carve out a profitable slice of the feminine condom market and rural shoppers, primarily with distribution and pricing – two areas business watchers consider are key to success – but in addition in coaxing a still-largely conservative rural inhabitants to purchase its merchandise.

Furthermore, opponents are making a pitch to ladies too, with Durex’s essential rival and market chief Manforce tweaking its advertising and marketing — a latest advert stars a Bollywood actress speaking about advantages of condoms and asking ladies to “go purchase your personal.”

“One problem Reckitt could face is consistency of messaging,” stated Devangshu Dutta, head of retail consultancy Third Eyesight, including the corporate wants to determine whether it is focusing on condoms for well being, household planning, or pleasure as there might be totally different messaging for every sort of purchaser.

The expansion alternative is compelling – India’s condom market measurement is merely value $210 million, in comparison with China’s $4.1 billion, however is forecast to develop at 7.4% compound annual price between 2024 and 2030, in accordance with Indian consulting agency 6Wresearch. The worldwide market is value $11.3 billion.

Rising the market will take some doing although, not least due to India’s huge measurement and hundreds of thousands of mom-and-pop shops require a widespread distributor community.

At the moment, solely about 10-15% of Durex’s gross sales in India come from rural areas, which is way extra value delicate than city cities.

“Distribution is the large problem just because despite the fact that most shopper items firms have made their method to all pincodes within the nation, the query is sustaining availability at retail factors,” stated Dutta of Third Eyesight.

CHIPPING AWAY AT TABOOS

Intercourse schooling within the conservative nation can also be lagging, and there’s a huge gulf between consciousness and precise use of contraceptives.

Matt Godfrey, govt vp for Asia Pacific at Monks advert company, a part of S4Capital, stated advertising and marketing tweaks by the likes of Durex are a welcome change however condom use and intercourse schooling want to enhance in India.

“There are vital societal and cultural points that should be quickly shifted to reverse the established order,” he stated.

Within the japanese state of Odisha, for instance, a small medical retailer of Sudam Padhan doesn’t prominently show condoms as “individuals frown upon them.”

In India, it is males who largely purchase condoms, however some like Pooja, a marketer in Mumbai, try to drive change. She made an “awkward” determination to purchase condoms herself for the primary time this 12 months, saying “after I’m asking for a condom over-the-counter I’m mainly placing my well being first.”

Nonetheless, in a telling signal of the considerably taboo nature of the subject, the 31-year-old declined to share her final identify as she is single and feared societal admonition.

“An open dialog encouraging secure and accountable intercourse in India has been steadily progressing however must be frequently supported” by manufacturers together with Durex, S4Capital’s Godfrey stated.

Like a lot of its rivals, Reckitt has over time largely focussed on Indian males, with many adverts that includes ladies carrying skimpy garments.

Rival Manforce Condoms options former pornstar Sunny Leone in movies, some labelled “EXCLUSIVE UNCENSORED”. Duhan stated lots of the condom adverts “objectified ladies.”

However that is altering. Durex earlier this 12 months launched a risqué “Explorers Needed” lubricants marketing campaign in India which featured sensual pictures of nude male physique elements.

PRICING PAINS

Pricing is one other huge problem, particularly in shops in smaller cities and villages that are reluctant to inventory condoms and lubes. Duhan stated merchandise must be “extraordinarily low-cost” to promote in some rural areas, the place many use free government-provided condoms.

Padhan, from the medical retailer in Odisha, would not inventory Durex “as a result of they’re pricey and there is no demand for them in rural areas,” and says most gross sales are of Ustad “Deluxe (NYSE:) Condoms” made by a state-run agency.

Ustaad prices simply 10 rupees (11 U.S. cents) for a pack of six. A pack of 10 Durex condoms begins retailing at round 250 rupees, with some priced above $6, and an identical pack of Manforce begins at $1.

However the smaller three-condom Durex pack begins retailing round 99 rupees, and Reckitt believes they may promote higher in rural India.

“We’re beginning on the high (and) planning to get right down to the agricultural areas,” Duhan stated. “It is a huge enterprise”.