Whisper's all India share in terms of value, according to ORG, stands at 50 per cent as of April 1998, against 50.99 per cent in November 1997. In fact, the launch of Secure has eaten into the market shares of J&J's other brands Stayfree, Carefree, Silkydry and Spirit. The all-India share of J&J in terms of value has fallen from 43.35 per cent in November 1997, to 42.80 per cent in April 1998, rather than growing.

While Secure has picked up an all-India market share of 6.8 per cent in April 1998, Stayfree has shed almost 2 per cent in market share to 8 per cent in value during the period. Carefree's market share has fallen from 23.43 per cent in November to 20.10 percent, while that of Silky Dry has gone down to 5.1 per cent from 6.2 per cent.

J&J's other brand Spirit, which was launched before Secure, has a negligible presence with a 0.9 per cent share in value. Kotex has picked up an all India market share of 2.10 per cent in value as on April 1998, during the three month period.

Kotex was launched three months after Secure, primarily targeted at non-users (cloth-users), which the company felt was a highly untapped market with a great opportunity for growth. Kotex and Secure are aimed at converting non-users into consuming branded napkins.

As against the price premium which Whisper commands at the retail end (Rs 45 for a pack of 10 napkins of Whisper regular), Kotex is priced at over a 50 per cent discount at Rs 20 for a pack of 8 and Secure with the same price tag for a pack of 10 napkins. J&J's Carefree is priced at Rs 38 for 10 napkins.

Kotex and Secure thus tried to play a volumes game on Whisper directed at garnering more volumes with low prices. For J&Jit was a crucial move as it had already lost sufficient market share to Whisper during 1994-1996.However, even in terms of volumes, while Whisper's share has dropped to 40.2 per cent in April 1998, from 43.8 per cent in November 1997, J&J's over all share has appreciated by just about 1.2 per cent to 50.4 per cent in April 1998.

While Secure managed to pull the crowds with a low price tag and garner 12.7 per cent volumes during the period, J&J has actually lost around 11 per cent market share on its other brands in the portfolio. The market share of Carefree in volumes has dropped to 21.6 per cent as of April 1998, from 27.1 per cent in November.

Market shares of Stayfree and Silky-dry has taken a beating to the extent of 3 per cent on Stayfree (from 11.8 per cent to 8.7 per cent) and 2 per cent on Silky-dry (from 6.4 per cent to 4.6 per cent). Spirit's share has dropped to 0.8 per cent from 1.2 per cent. Nevertheless, the low priced brands have spurred the market which is now said to be clocking ahealthy value and volumes growth of around 30 per cent as against the sedate 8 per cent growth in the previous years.