Pee Safe targets 200% growth in FY 19-20, spends largely on digital marketing

Pee Safe, a female hygiene and sanitation brand, is expecting an overall growth of 200% in FY 19-20. To achieve this growth, the brand, for which influencer marketing is the key consumer-driving medium, plans to spend heavily on digital marketing.

From its newly launched product segment – biodegradable sanitary pads – the brand aims 20-25% of revenue growth in the second and third quarter. Last year, the brand profited more than Rs 7crore and aims for more this year.

Vikas Bagaria

Pee Safe spent 50% of its total expenses on marketing in 2018 but this year it made a 5% cut in its marketing budget, down to 45% in FY 19. “We plan to spend 45% on marketing this year, of which 50-50% allocations will be online and offline,” said Vikas Bagaria, Founder, Pee Safe. “Online marketing is one such vertical where we keep on investing on a regular basis,” he added.

According to Bagaria, as brand awareness increases, the extra spend on marketing decreases. “As the brand grow year after year, its spend on marketing decreases. It’s a reverse trend. When a brand is new, it spends more on marketing. When it acquires a place in the market, then the marketing budget goes down,” he added.

The brand will focus largely on digital marketing to increase recognition on its entire range of products. “In terms of brand awareness, digital is the most beneficial channel for us,” Bagaria said.

Approximately 30% of the digital marketing spends of the brand goes into influencer marketing. “Influencer marketing was and will be our topmost priority,” said Bagaria.

According to Bagaria, the brand has 80% organic influencers. “We have 6,000 influencers who have talked about our products in our Instagram page for the last three years, out of which 80% are organic influencers, ones who are not paid. They are product users.”

The brand’s TG is in the age group of 15-35. To reach its TG, the brand spends on digital, which is another reason that makes digital the most preferred marketing medium of the brand.

According to Bagaria, the brand has no plans to spend on TV in the next three years. “As a small brand, Pee Safe is not going to spend on TV, at least in coming three years. It is a very expensive medium and it doesn’t serve our targeted group of A,AA+ millennials,” he said.

The brand launched the #OwnTheRed and #DoItTheNaturalWay campaigns in first quarter and plans six more for the remaining three quarters of this fiscal.

“OwnTheRed campaign idea was generated by our in-house design and marketing team,” Bagaria said.

The brand recently signed TV actress Anita Hassanandani as ambassador for Pee Safe’s organic range of feminine hygiene products and renewed its contract with Manu Bhaker, the brand’s first-ever brand ambassador.

Speaking on aligning brand ambassadors on board, Bagaria said, “By partnering with Anita, we are targeting to tap tier II and III audiences. Anita, who is a known celebrity, has a huge following in metros as well as smaller towns. Her belief in our products will fetch us more consumers and spread awareness about the product among her circle of relations as well as her followings.”

“With the help of influencers and brand ambassadors we have seen a multiplied growth towards brand awareness and customer preference to Pee Safe,” he added.

According to Bagaria, the brand has strategised to cause marketing to breed the importance of proper care of women’s personal hygiene. The marketing type also helped the brand in raising brand awareness. “We won’t call it a complete cause marketing but breeding the awareness of importance of menstrual hygiene and the ways we talk about it in our communication do fall under cause marketing,” he said.

Speaking on the focus areas for FY 19-20, Bagaria said, “Our focus will be on all the products we carry under our brand but primarily will focus on personal hygiene products this year. There are a few new products in the pipeline which we are planning to launch by the end of this year.”

Bagaria said P&G and J&J are the brand’s competition in the sanitary pads and personal hygiene category. However, the brand holds 95% market share in the toilet seat sanitizer spray category. “Being a product category developer of toilet seat sanitizer spray, Pee Safe holds 95% market share in the category. P&G and J&J grab 90% of the total market share on feminine hygiene products. Small players like us are in remaining 10%,” he said.

Speaking on the evolving consumer behaviour, Bagaria said, “In 2014-15, the total size of the sanitary napkin users in India were 14%, which has now grown to 18%. In three years, the market has already grown by 4%. Feminine hygiene is growing at a very good pace. My brand markets to millennials. It is very easy to make them understand the product line, its benefits and how important it is for them to use this product.”

According to Bagaria, the main challenge by being a late entrant in the market is adoptability of the brand by the consumers. “The problem of adoptability can be resolved by increasing awareness about the brand and its products,” he added.

The brand has an offline presence in 3,500 stores across India. In online, the brand is present in Amazon.in and Flipkart.com.

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