Marrying consumer insights with innovative products is at the core of Crompton’s marketing strategy. Biswa Chakrabarti, Vice President, Brand and Channel Management, Crompton tells us more about it and also talks of the importance of reinvention to stay relevant
By Samarpita Banerjee
Q] Crompton has recently come out with the campaign ‘Let’s Hang Out Ghar Pe’. What was the thought behind it?
All our products predominantly cater to households and have a very close relationship to the home. So we wanted this thought to be a part of the campaign. Secondly, people now spend a lot of time in their homes, which was not the case earlier. Today, birthdays, parties, get-togethers, even watching cricket at home becomes a big event and therefore we correlated both. On one side, we had the idea that people are spending lot of time at home and on the other side, we have products without which a household cannot function. So that was the basic connect. Also, if you see the lifecycle of any person, a young person passes out of school, goes to college, lives in a hostel, gets a job and finally gets married after which a house enters the scene. The couple sets up home, and that is the time they require all kinds of products. So, we felt that ‘Let’s Hang Out Ghar Pe’ made a lot of sense.
Q] Would you say that young or just married couples are your primary target audience?
Yes, you can say that, for the simple reason that it is usually young couples who have to set up a home and need our products for it. Young couples happen to be our most important TG.
Q] For a brand like Crompton, how important is innovation?
It is very important. We are an 80-year-old brand and have products with a huge background and legacy. But if you really want to expand and give more options to consumers, you need to keep innovating. You have to continuously work towards that, otherwise you will get stuck, because you are old. You have to come out with new products, otherwise your consumer will not see value in your brand.
Q] A lot of new players in the sector are very visible when it comes to marketing. Crompton hasn’t been very active in advertising. What has been the marketing strategy so far?
We have been pretty silent when it comes to advertising, and more so on TV and Print, for quite some time now. However, we do realize that we have to raise awareness, otherwise the consumer may lose sight of the brand. We are aware that a lot of brands are very visible; you see them every day, all over the place. We take it seriously and we have also got into it because it’s a necessity. Consumers today have got a lot of options. Secondly, consumers don’t have time. There are so many things in their minds. Therefore, if you can continuously keep your branding visible to the consumer, it helps.
Q] Crompton has quite a few innovative products like temperature sensing fans and anti-dust fans. Why haven’t they been marketed well yet?
We launched our temperature-sensing fan about three months back and the product is very new. It involves a lot of technology. So, we wanted to go a bit slow. We wanted to localize the product and approach it area-wise and then eventually go pan-India. We launched the product in Chennai first and saw that it’s doing very well. The category is very new, there is a sensor and remote. So we are promoting it in phases. The fans are very much in the market, especially in Mumbai, where we have just started distributing it. The anti-dust fan is again a new product and was launched only last month. It is available in shops across India. It’s a complete mass product, though placed in the premium segment, and is available across India.
Q] Crompton recently associated with the India-England Cricket series. How has the association worked out for you so far?
Today, a lot of cricket viewing happens sitting at home. In India, people get most excited with this one sport. You can’t really think of life without cricket. That gave us the thought of associating with this tournament. One advantage of the association is that the tournament will go on for a longer duration. It started in November and will go on till February. We realized that this was one platform which was pretty consistent and long in length. It so happened that our anti-dust fan was also launched at this time and thus we thought of introducing the anti-dust fan through this tournament.
Q] How important are the rural markets for you? Do you have a different strategy for marketing your products in such markets?
From the country’s point of view, rural is a big market. For us, however, it is not very big right now for two reasons. One is that our products are used where you have electricity, therefore we have a bit of a limitation there, because there isn’t an abundance of electricity in a lot of rural areas. Secondly, in the urban markets, there are so many opportunities and so much more that you can do. Of course, rural is very much in our minds but our presence there isn’t really very big yet. We are just getting entry there. We will be getting there soon because you cannot cover India well without covering rural.
Q] What is your marketing strategy for the next few years?
Our marketing strategy predominantly is around go-to-market. We believe we have to reach the consumer as comfortably as possible. By comfortably, I mean from the consumer’s comfort point of view. So, a consumer should be able to see our products easily, touch, feel and buy. Therefore, go-to-market becomes a very important agenda for us. We want to be available and visible in as many shops as possible to be near the consumer. From a marketing standpoint, go-to-market is hugely important for us. We also want to ensure that all our product categories are perceived by the customer according to the correct benefit positioning, and are currently working on how different products can be given the right positioning. In our latest campaign, we do have benefit positioning for our fans. We have talked about benefit positioning for our LED lamps. So, positioning for different categories is another area we are working on actively.
Q] Is traditional media your primary advertising medium or is digital important too?
We have kickstarted our latest campaign with TV commercials, but digital is very much on our agenda and we are working on it. Let’s see how much time it takes for us to really get in there. Without digital, you can’t survive.
Q] What is Crompton’s media mix?
I will not be able to articulate that at the moment for the very simple reason that we have not yet started working on digital. Right now, we are only doing electronic media, but of course we will be having digital and other things soon. May be next year when we talk, we can really give you a better picture from mix point of view.
Q] Where do you want to see Crompton in the next few years?
We want to see Crompton as leader in all our product categories. Right now, we are market leaders in fans and domestic pumps. But we also operate in a lot of other categories like kitchen appliances, geysers; we are into lighting, professional lighting as well as household lighting. We are into agricultural pumps and so on. I personally would like us to attain leadership position in as many categories as possible. That will be my single-point agenda.
Q] Which product segment has been performing the best?
The largest segment under our portfolio is fans, lightings. These two segments are very closely followed by pumps. We also have appliances, but they are a bit smaller because we entered that segment much later. Fan is our largest segment and we are market leaders there.
Q] What is your market-share?
Our market share falls in the range of 25% in fans.
Q] How are you connecting with your consumers, apart from the TVC?
Reaching out to more shops happens to be our core strategy. That is where you really connect with consumers because that is the touch-point between the consumer and the brand. Moreover, we come out with products keeping in mind the consumer insight, which is at the centre of everything we do.
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