Painting the town green
By Neeta Nair The No. 1 paint brand in India has decided to go green, for the first time, allowing customers to use non-toxic water-based paint for their homes. Amit Syngle, President – Sales, Marketing & Technology, Asian Paints Limited, tells us why the brand picked street art followed by a digital campaign to reach out to consumers What was the insight behind the campaign for Green Painting Service (GPS) for Asian Paints? Nowadays, organizations attempt to closely work with preservation of nature. At Asian Paints, we thought of taking this a step further by putting forth the concept of living in harmony with nature with our Green Painting Service. Here, we pitched an offering which is absolutely green. So for any kind of work such as masonry, etc., we would have a green alternative. And it would translate into people living in harmony with nature, thereby promoting healthy living. So what kind of reaction did the first phase of the campaign, the murals that were painted in Mumbai, get? Each mural talked of a particular story and a theme that connected with nature in its various facets. It created a very good buzz because these were not the usual stories, where the consumer is told why he needs to go green and how he will be doing something noble if he does. The campaign spoke about how you can live in harmony with nature and we used the murals to denote that well. Moreover, the activity was carried out in the centre of town, which was a great place to catch eyeballs. What is the marketing mix for this campaign and why have you chosen not to go with a TVC this time? This is a fairly unique concept, so we didn’t want to use the conventional media to reach out to people. Also, we are talking to different audiences. Today’s digital medium offers us very good bandwidth with regard to making various kinds of consumer segments hear us out. This medium also helps target a huge spectrum of the younger population, and honestly, traditional media really doesn’t excite them. Therefore, we felt that digital is the best way to go. How big is the market for environmental-friendly paint? Do people today prefer to pay a little more to go green? Personally, today I think green has become the least common multiple with regard to paint. As we go forward, we can’t afford to buy anything that in any way takes a toll on the environment. So, from that point of view, the innovation would come in if companies like us are able to offer products that are competitive in pricing and yet offer value in terms of staying green. Today, what excites the customer as well as companies is the story of sustainability, staying green and living in harmony with nature. With the success of this campaign, are you also planning to take it to other cities? What we are highlighting is a universal concept which we would like to take to every consumer in the country. We had a head start in Mumbai and will find exciting ways of taking it across to every city in India. We have a service called Asian Paints Ezycolour home solutions, which is available across 13 cities in India. Through it, we feel we can take this message to a large number of people. What are the other BTL activities and sales promotions that you have engineered to increase consumer engagement, overall as a brand? We conduct all kinds of exhibitions, but a little differently. We select a theme and story and weave our activations around it, not necessarily restricted to our stores. It could be a mall activation that can go a long way to impact a consumer’s thoughts. In addition, we are utilizing all forms of local media like local channels, radio and hoardings to penetrate cities across the nation. What kind of challenges do you face in the market? Today we feel that paint has become almost like a décor item where we need to handhold the customer throughout the painting process. So the challenge is to provide an inspirational décor and ensure that its execution is fairly easy for the customer. Our endeavour is to take the pain out of the painting process. Asian Paints is a leader in the decorative paints segment, what are your efforts to achieve a similar success story in industrial paints category? In the industrial paints category, we have OEM (original equipment) paints, which we supply to manufacturers, so our endeavour is to be able to get to all the bigger players who are looking at dominating the Indian auto space. We are also looking to bring exciting colours and finishes to the table. As far as the general industrial space is concerned, even there, we are looking at bringing in a lot of innovation to grow faster than the others. Which product would you say would be a dark horse for Asian Paints in the coming years? We look at innovation as a strong and integral step in our growth process and we are multi-dimensional in what we do. Thus I can say that we have a lot of dark horses in our stable and I would not like to name a single product. What are the emerging consumer trends and future opportunities, looking ahead? One of the biggest opportunities we see is that people are looking at décor that stands out, décor that reverberates with them very strongly. So the ‘Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai’ concept is still very relevant and strong. The question is how do we have a mass product and yet cater to the individual perceptions and aspirations. How closely do you monitor customer satisfaction? Has any particular feedback from a consumer led to innovation or change in the marketing strategy of Asian Paints? When we do our research, one universal find is that the woman of the house is becoming fairly important, be it the top end customer – the sophisticated rich - or the customer who is at the bottom of the pyramid. One thing we took home from all the feedback is that we need to appeal to the lady of the house. Her involvement in the décor and creativity becomes very important in the process. So, how to appeal to the woman of the house is something we are considering very strongly, because she has become paramount in our marketing framework. What has Deepika Padukone added to Asian Paints Royale Play as its brand ambassador? Like I said, the woman of the house is becoming very important in the décor segment. She is the curator of the house and wants to be really involved in creating something of her own. She doesn’t want to take a prescriptive solution that comes from any company, her ability to curate things and her creativity thus count very much. And Deepika Padukone - a self-made woman who has achieved everything independently really embodies the values that we want to epitomize in the brand Royale Play. ABOUT THE BRAND Since its inception in 1942, Asian Paints has come a long way to become India’s largest and Asia’s third largest paint company, with a turnover of Rs 141.83 billion. The company operates in 19 countries and has 26 paint manufacturing facilities in the world, servicing consumers in over 65 countries. Asian Paints has been a leader in the paint industry, pushing new concepts in India like Colour Idea Stores, Ezycolour services like Home Solutions & Colour Consultancy and Colour Next trend forecasting. Marketing Tip Unless you have got an ear to the customer needs, you would never progress. Be with the consumer, hear him out and find out what he wants because that will certainly take you ahead. CMO FILE Amit Syngle has been working with Asian Paints in various capacities across Sales, Marketing and Manufacturing for the last 25 years. He is currently President Sales, Marketing and Technology for Asian Paints, overlooking a business of more than Rs 13,000 crore in India. He is also a member of the Colour Marketing Group (CMG), USA and a keen member of the AP Colour Next Trends group. Feedback: neeta.nair@exchange4media.com
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