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4Ps
What in heavens is CC in VLCC?
That, in short, summarises the branding conundrum of VLCC! The brand, that has been a certified Superbrand, is more known for Vandana Luthra than for the various businesses her beauty enterprise spawns. Can Vandana change this paradox? But hey, is it really an issue? Angushman Paul takes up the weighty issue...
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 Everybody you meet would know about Vandana Luthra. Well, almost everybody. She’s the founder of VLCC, right? That’s when the CC paradox hits you! Ages ago, in 1989, when she founded her business as a one-stop-shop slimming clinic at an upmarket location in New Delhi, the brand promised a quick remedy to be in perfect shape. Everybody knew that Vandana Luthra stood for ‘Curls’ and ‘Curves’. But somewhere down the line, Vandana Luthra deliberately fused the brand name into one – to such an extent that today, most of the consumer world, apart from knowing that VLCC is a Vandana Luthra enterprise specialising in slimming solutions, has no idea about what else does VLCC stand for, both conceptually and acronym’ically.
Think about it. Today, if we were to tell you that this Images’ ‘Retailer of the Year’ award winner (for the health and beauty category for four years running) also offers neuromuscular therapy, analgesic therapy, posture-improvement solutions and specialises in dermatological/cosmetological services – apart from offering therapies from the hair to the foot – the response would surely be one of surprise. Isn’t service-offerings-recall the primary quotient for the success of any beauty and health enterprise?
When we meet Vandana, she shares, “We have achieved Rs.4 billion [of sales in the last financial year] and the way we have planned it, we should be reaching our next year’s target of Rs.10 billion; and I want to make VLCC a Rs. 12 billion brand by 2012.” Look at her business’s growth since 1989, and one tends to believe that Vandana’s opted for the slow and sure route. Then how does the lady – who is not given to inopportune slim talk – plan to achieve the targeted Rs. 12 billion?
Vandana has panned out two fronts of action, and pretty incendiary in vision. One, the company is reportedly going to invest almost Rs.100 crores for both domestic and global expansion; two, VLCC has announced an astonishing investment of Rs.75 crores in the coming year for advertising and brand building, with Ogilvy & Mather bagging the account.
Her focus on expansion not only includes planning financial inflows (she has revealed her mission to get VLCC listed in the stock market by 2010-11) but also many more strategic tie-ups (franchise agreements mainly, but also a tie up with a UK based educational institute, Doncaster College, to help her send students of VLCC Institute of Beauty Health and Management – a partner venture – for further studies UK). Interestingly, she’s currently fighting fire with fire to create a global brand image, especially in the countries where VLCC already exists. To that effect, for the Middle East countries, she has hired Dubai-based Bates Pan Gulf and appointed Media Contacts (from the stable of Havas Digital) to deliver strategic marketing insights across digital media.
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 On another front, to perhaps counter Shahnaz Hussein’s worldwide ‘Customer Relationship Management’ system, Vandana has appointed one of the world’s largest specialized below-the-line marketing services agencies, 141 Sercon, a contract to manage the VLCC call centre operations. Aegis Communication (from the well-known Essar Group) is the BPO providing primary services for the venture. Interestingly, Marico with its brand ‘Kaya’ is also planning to start a similar call center model through KPO.
Analysts claims that in the beauty and healthcare business, its essential to give a personal touch in services and therefore, the CRM system and call centers help. But that spawns a critical debate. Why has Vandana taken so much time to undertake these strategies, despite being one of the first movers in this segment? And why now, at a time of economic slowdown when competition in the beauty and wellness business is thickening up like anything? Aren’t her finances being run extremely dry because of such plans?
Vandana is unperturbed on such an argument, “Our USP is totally different from any other brand and our target audience is also different – we cater to many institutional buyers with our various services.” Institutional buyers are one big focus, more due to the recent change in the attitude of corporations that have become more focused on the wellness and health maintenance of its top managers.
But how important does she consider the creation of a sustainable brand, our primary question? “My mother ran a dancing school and she was very popular among her students, but she never though of branding her school, and today, nobody knows about her school. So, from personal experience, I knew that for long run sustainability, one needs to create a brand,” accepts Vandana. And she’s added corporate transparency to that promise, with Ernst & Young being the official auditor for VLCC (which is the only company in the industry undertaking such measures), a learning she obtained from her father’s work experiences at Siemens.
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