Q] Tell us a bit about Skore’s recently launched ‘Nothing’ condoms. What was the insight behind the launch?
If you see condom as a category and condom as a product, it has been said that condom is a necessary evil, we need this. And for us, condom marketers and manufacturers, it is about how to increase the pleasure quotient. As far as condom products are concerned, we have various products like dotted and ribbed that add pleasure to the overall lovemaking. And one of the important insights we have is that there are good things about condoms, keeping that as it is, how do we increase the pleasure quotient. So, we thought of how to make it as thin as possible and that’s why we said lets UnCondom the market and launch ‘nothing’ which is basically the thinnest flavoured condom currently available in the market.
Q] How do you plan to market the new offering?
We started with a teaser campaign to talk to people about uncondoming their condom and thus creating a lot of buzz. Less condom per condom is the strategy, where we can communicate, to keep all the benefits of a condom as it is, plus added a pleasure quotient into that and the communication which we launched talks about a minimum presence of the condom between the couple, so our whole thing for strategy was that we kept all the benefits of our condom into our campaign and talked about its minimum prevalence.
Q] What was the thought behind the campaign film ‘WearAnUncondom’? How did you conceptualize it and how much did you spend on the overall campaign?
We realized that basically it’s not a male product, but there is a preconceived notion around it, it’s a couple’s product. A few years ago we had launched the campaign in the direction wherein a female is asked how she is carrying a condom to which she states it has to be used together, conveying that it’s a couple’s product and how it can bring couples closer without letting the condom be a barrier between them. So, to disrupt the notion, we had a female protagonist talking about the presence of no condom when making love. That was the whole idea to communicate in a creative and disruptive way. We have allocated 5.5 crore for the launch campaign. And the marketing is Digital + TV.
Q] How are you selling the product, please share your distribution strategy
This product is more understood and accepted by the urban population and it has to go to urban pockets as it appeals to them more. For phase 1, we launched in major towns and went with a digital campaign. We also placed the product on the shelf for the consumer to see and buy. Later, we moved on to Tier II and Tier III markets as well.
Q] What impact has the pandemic had on the condom and contraceptives sector? Have you seen any substantial increase in sales, especially during the lockdown period when people were confined to their homes?
The condom sales did increase during the initial lockdown but that was very temporary, post that the category has declined as the lockdown has had a negative impact. The whole year 2020 was a bad year for condoms and we started seeing growth from the 2nd quarter onwards i.e., September 2021 in the category. Now there is a big momentum.
ABOUT THE BRAND
Launched in November 2012, SKORE Condoms is a sexual wellness brand from the seven-decade-old consumer goods firm, TTK Healthcare Ltd., based in Chennai. The brand has expanded its portfolio to include vibrating rings, exciting variants of Lubes as well as Pleasure Enhancing Gel for Women.
FACTS
Creative Agency: McCann Chennai
Media Agency: Mindshare
Digital & Social Media Agency: Isobar
PR Agency: Perfect Relations
MARKETING TIP
It’s very critical for a brand to follow marketing kyc as a mantra
Q] As COVID-19 has accelerated Digital as a medium of communication, how are you capitalising on it to boost your sales and engagement?
For every marketeer, it was only essential to adopt the digital initiative. We also started promotions on our website and YouTube. Apart from condoms, we have a pleasure product range like vibrators and lubricants and that range saw a huge jump when the products were sold through our website. Even for ‘Nothing’ campaign, around 40% - 45% spends are going to be digital which earlier used to be 5-10%.
Q] How was 2021 for the brand? What kind of growth have you seen during the year and which product category saw the highest growth?
So when 2021 started, the first quarter was a difficult period for our brand due to the second wave, but July onwards, we saw some good traction, overall category growing around 3-4% and we have seen double the growth after July. In fact last quarter was the highest for us in terms of sales. And the momentum is continuing, you can see that the market is opening up, people have started going out, celebrations are also happening and tourism has also opened up, which has also led to very big growth in the category for the last six months and SKORE is doing more in the category in the last six months.
Q] What marketing and communication strategies have you planned for this year?
We are at number three in our category and we are trying harder and harder to improve our market share. We created our own niche and were only separated by two factors - one was on product innovation front e.g. Nothing, the thinnest flavoured condom is what we are offering and second in terms of communications. So this approach of innovation and disruptive communication will continue for next year too and for more years to come. We are working on many other products which can storm the market and create a buzz. On the condom front, we are broadening our horizon, understanding and offering. And apart from this condom brand, we are working on some sexual pleasure products. This will be our core focus next year, as we need to try and establish our brand for not just being a condom brand, but much more
than that.
