LONDON/MUMBAI, Sept 12 (Askume) – Reckitt Benckiser (RKT.L), the world’s biggest condom maker, has spent years designing and marketing products to attract Indian men to its Durex brand. Now it is pursuing a growth strategy by betting on women and rural consumers.
Last year, India overtook China to become the world’s most populous country, but its contraceptive use remains poor. The Indian government estimates that only 10% of men use condoms, and sterilisation is the most popular contraceptive method for women.
For decades, social stigma around sex — which some say stems from Victorian social norms established during British colonialism — has marginalized female pleasure in Indian society.
But attitudes are changing, and Reckitt Benckiser is altering its marketing strategy to take advantage of rising condom use among women in India—now Durex’s main target audience.
About 9.5% of married women in India reported using condoms during sex as of 2021, nearly double the rate from five years ago, according to the latest government data. Such use among unmarried women has more than doubled to 27%.
Reckitt Benckiser is reformulating products such as lubricants and launching new marketing campaigns aimed at attracting female consumers, Pankaj Duhan, Reckitt Benckiser’s senior vice president for intimate health, told Askume in an interview.
Durex lubricant in India will have a better formula to attract women and was created after clinical research to address the concerns of women – 30% of Indian women experience some discomfort during sex with their partners.
“We want to change that … that’s why we’re relaunching our lubricant portfolio,” Doohan said. “Women tend to be a slightly underserved consumer group.”
The Indian condom market is currently dominated by Mankind Pharma (MNKI.NS) , which makes Manforce, followed by Reckitt and TTK Healthcare (TTKH.NS) .
challenge
The British consumer products company faces some serious challenges as it attempts to gain a lucrative share of the female condom market and among rural consumers, primarily in terms of distribution and pricing – two areas industry observers see as crucial to success – but also in the time it may be a challenge to persuade the still conservative rural population to buy its product.
Competitors are also trying to appeal to women, with Durex’s main rival and market leader Manforce changing its marketing approach – a recent ad featured a Bollywood actress talking about the benefits of condoms and telling women to “go buy your own condoms.”
“One of the challenges for Reckitt Benckiser is consistency of messaging,” said Devangshu Dutta, principal at retail consultancy Third Eyesight. He added that the company needs to figure out whether it is targeting condoms for health, family planning or pleasure, because each type of buyer may receive a different message.
The growth opportunities are lucrative – according to Indian consultancy 6WResearch, India’s condom market is worth just $210 million, compared with $4.1 billion in China, but is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.4% between 2024 and 2030. The global market is worth US$11.3 billion.
However, since India is a vast country with millions of small stores requiring a wide network of distributors, some efforts must be made to expand the market.
Currently, only 10-15% of Durex sales in India come from rural areas, which are more price sensitive than urban areas.
“Distribution is a big challenge as most consumer goods companies have covered all codes in the country, but the question is how to maintain availability in retail stores,” said Dutta of Third Eyesight.
Break the taboos
Sexual education also lags behind in conservative countries, and there is a huge gap between awareness and actual use of contraceptives.
Matt Godfrey, executive vice president for Asia Pacific at S4 Capital’s (SFOR.L) Monks advertising agency , said marketing changes by companies such as Durex were welcome but India needed to improve condom use and sex education.
“There are important social and cultural aspects that need to change quickly to change the status quo,” he said.
For example, in the eastern state of Odisha, a small medical shop called Sudam Padhan does not display condoms prominently because “people don’t like it.”
In India, most condom buyers are men, but some women like Mumbai-based marketer Pooja are working to bring about a change. She made the “weird” decision to buy condoms for the first time this year, saying: “When I asked for a condom at the counter, I was basically putting my health first.”
But in a clear indication of the taboo nature of the topic, the 31-year-old declined to give her last name because she was unmarried and feared social condemnation.
“Open conversations encouraging safe and responsible sex are steadily growing in India, but this requires continued support from brands including Durex,” said S4Capital’s Godfrey.
Like many of its rivals, Reckitt Benckiser has over the years focused primarily on Indian men, with many of its ads featuring women wearing revealing clothing.
The videos feature rival Manforce condoms with former porn star Sunny Leone, some of which have been labelled “exclusively uncensored”. Doohan said many condom ads “objectify women.”
But that’s changing. Durex launched its “Looking for Explorers” lubricant campaign in India earlier this year, which featured pornographic images of naked male body parts.
Pricing issues
Pricing is another big challenge, especially in shops in small towns and villages that are reluctant to stock condoms and lubricant. Doohan said the products would have to be “extremely cheap” to sell in some rural areas, where many people use free condoms provided by the government.
Medical store owners in Odisha do not stock Durex “as they are expensive and there is no demand in rural areas” and said most sales are of Ustad “luxury condoms” produced by state-run companies.
A pack of six Ustad condoms costs just Rs 10 (11 cents). A pack of 10 Durex condoms costs around Rs 250, some condoms cost more than $6, and a pack of Manforce starts at $1.
But smaller Durex condoms (a pack of three) sell for around Rs 99, and Reckitt Benckiser believes these products will sell better in rural India.
“We are planning from the top down to cover the rural areas,” Doohan said.
