Brand history through vintage adsfrom @anushcache

Transcript

Rekha, Aishwarya Rai, and Kareena Kapoor are the three big Lakme ambassadors all the way from its history starting in 1952. And their image in being Lakme girls tells us a lot about the company's corporate strategy and Indian history. So let's take a look. So Lakme was started in 1952 because Nehru called Up Tier and asked for an Indian homegrown cosmetics brand. If you wanna know more about the history, you should watch my previous video. Now Lakme initially started for upper class women because we didn't want them spending their money outside the country on foreign competitors. And so if you look at a couple of these old ads, you will really see how they're trying to play this we are just as good as international brands. The name Lakme is also French for Lakshmi because they did want some Indianness, but also some foreign prestige. But the first big Bollywood ambassador for Lakme was in 1979 with Rekha. And look how hard she is slaying on this ad. Once again, the copy of the ad talks about how she she can't even tell the difference between this and foreign beauty brands. Then Hop skipped to the tier and liberalization happened, which means that India became a capitalist economy and opened up to the world. In an era when Revlon and Maybelline were entering the country and trying to eat Lakme's lunch, the message that India wanted to send out is that we can hold our ground and be at the same level as other countries. And no, Aishwarya Rai became the face of Lakme. That made a lot of sense because she had just come off her win as Miss World nineteen tier. Really giving the message that India cannot be pushed over on a global stage. And look how much country is serving in this ad, in this ad, in this ad. Who was doing it like Aishwarya Rai? Fast forward to 2011 and Lakme was falling off. It wasn't popular with the young generation, but more seen as the makeup brand that their mothers and grandmothers used. And so came in Kareena Kapoor at the peak of her fame. Kareena Kapoor was perfect because she has this bougie high end aura to her, but mass appeal enough across economic classes. And by this time, Lakme wasn't just a foreign alternative for upper class women. Lakme had really spent decades breaking the taboo of using makeup in Indian society. And by this tier, they were really hitting the mass market. She even walked for Lakme Fashion Week rank absolutely slayed as a showstopper. She's still technically the main ambassador, but Lakme has done campaigns with different Bollywood stars and models. And by the way, the Lakme brand ambassador started in the tier when this mystery woman was the one who took over Lakme's corporate strategy and made them profitable for the first time ever. We'll talk about her in the next video, so don't forget Follow me.