A popular saying quotes that “Face is the index of the mind”. This means, the inner quality of a person can be judged to an extent from the facial expression. Here it is not referring to the beauty but the impression that is created by the face value. Similar concept is used in business world too. To start any business, first main thing to be done is to plan the business model. Well planned business is already a half succeeded one and Branding any business becomes the first priority in such models.
Brand:
Lakme, a shining brand of cosmetics world holds an interesting history behind its naming. It is so common among the beauty conscious Indian women. But many, on hearing this catchy word assumes it to be a foreign product, where the reality is Lakme is the first Indian cosmetic brand, purposively created to match the skin and interests of the Indian women.
History
In 1947, India got freedom from the west but not totally from the traces of westernization. Like how , English stayed back as the medium of communication, many foreign cosmetics which gained super momentum among upper class and upper middle class women also stayed back. A new born child like India which was already struggling to stabilize its economy found this lavish spending of these women on cosmetics as foreign exchange created a serious concern.
Tata Groups
Here where , Jawaharlal Nehru comes into the scene. As the Prime Minister of free India, he had a twin task of holding back the foreign exchange and also fulfilling the widening needs of cosmetics world. He called upon the dynamic entrepreneur chain, the Tata groups to get a solution. Tata Oils group took up the challenge of producing first Indian cosmetics excelling on par with the foreign products.
And the real challenge popped up when the task of branding the products came fore. They were cautious that the brand name should sound stylish , at the same time should be Indianised. Outcome is the brand name ‘Lakme’. It was sourced out from a French Opera, and interesting part is Lakme denoted ‘Lakshmi’, goddess of wealth. Soon it created magic among the Indian women. It is true that quality of a product matters finally, but a space to prove its quality is created by the brand name.
westernized version
As I came to know this story, I remembered where the spelling ‘Lakkumi’ is used in few Tamizh works instead of ‘Lakshmi’ to avoid the letter ‘sha’ quoting that it belongs to Sanskrit and not Tamizh. Hope you people guessed why I remembered this. Lakme , westernized version of Lakkumi, goes along well right!
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Written By Educationist Miss. PRABHA KATHAMUTHU
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