When it comes to cosmetics, India as variety of markets to cater to. As such it gives companies great scope to target their audience, formulate strategy and understand their scope better.

Though it would difficult to accept it, when someone says the lips don’t lie, one has to accept certain truths that exist. Lipstick is the talk of town for women, be it rural or urban folk.

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Professor Harish Bijoor, CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults and visiting faculty at Indian School of Business, gives us some insight into the lipstick market that seems to share a different shade of truth than what one would assume.

Contrary to one’s believe, lipstick is a huge consumption item in rural India, as confirmed by Bijoor.

Bijoor said that, rural Indian women usually use lipstick “to tell people that they look good and that they use lipstick” whereas urban Indian women use lipstick “to tell people that they are not using lipstick.” This marks the subtle but primary difference between the two.

“According to a study”, Bijur added, “rural Indian women use the softer edge of the lipstick to apply it horizontally, but also use it vertically as chapped lips usually need more. They then use the sharp edge of the lipstick as a lip liner and do not use another item. Therefore, they use it in a heavy manner.”

Taking the average of 2,160 urban women into consideration, the study showed that urban women applied lipstick horizontally and then took a tissue paper to remove extra lipstick, and then used a lip liner.

A comparison showed that the consumption of lipstick by rural Indian women is 2.1 times more than that of urban Indian women indicating that consumption of the product in rural India is deep and robust, exclaimed Bijoor.