Indians are so fond of gold that they don’t mind shelling extra money for FMCG products with ‘gold’ in their names

There is a new, shiny marketing trend in Indian FMCG industry. Be it a liquid soap or candies, facelift cream or premium biscuits, marketers are just adding 'gold' before or after the brand name, because of which consumers are attracted to it.

Let alone the FMCG market, even the mobile phones that have 'gold' added to their names or the names of the colour variants, are a hit in the market.

Take, for example, Colgate came out with a new toothbrush, priced it aggressively at Rs 77 per piece, and named it ‘360 Charcoal Gold Toothbrush’. The product was a hit in the market. The tagline, "Wake up to a gold morning... with the gold standard of whole mouth cleaning", hits at Indians’ undying love for gold, which contributed to its popularity.

"The country is besotted with gold. That cuts across the literate and non-literate; it cuts across social, economic, political and religious divides," Harish Bijoor, brand consultant, told ET.

Bijoor added that companies now shy away from using platinum and silver, having tried it in the past and failing. "Indians don't understand platinum. And silver remains a distant second to gold," he said.

Some other products that have added ‘gold’ to their names are: Marico's Parachute Gold hair oil, Reckitt Benckiser's Dettol Gold liquid soap and bar soap, confectionery category leader Perfetti Van Melle's Alpenliebe gold candies, and Mondelez's premium biscuit Oreo's Golden Oreo variant.

However, adding ‘gold’ to the name doesn’t always mean that pricing has to necessarily be aggressive since the metal is not always used in the products. Sometimes, companies just want to attract users by this name.

However, every trend is ‘in’ for a limited period of time. Therefore, there are chances that companies might be overplaying with the gold thing.

"Marketers attach the gold name to brands to convey quality and premiumness but it needs to be done intelligently, linking it to a good, better, best in their portfolio. Otherwise it loses relevance as different marketers use the gold name for entry-level as well premium-quality products," says Devendra Chawla, group president, food FMCG and brands, Future Group.

It remains to be seen when the FMCG marketers realise this threat.

Image source