Mansi Madan Tripathy, Chief Marketing Officer, Shell Lubricants India, explains how the company uses experience-driven marketing strategies for different brands to win the hearts and minds of its target audience
By Saloni Dutta
Q] You recently concluded the Shell Advance Yyaayyy campaign. Please tell us about the key insights behind the campaign and its results in terms of reach.
At Shell Lubricants, we strive towards ‘creating experiences and memories’ for consumers through our products and campaigns. The Yyaayyy Campaign idea stemmed from a research that we undertook last year to understand how Shell Advance could maximize engagement with bikers – it revealed that 90% bikers believe Shell Advance makes the engine run smooth. This was Shell India’s first ever social media campaign on Facebook in India and was run in the form of a contest where bikers across the country were encouraged to share their unique biking stories as ‘Yyaayy moments’. Participants were rewarded on a daily and weekly basis. The campaign had over 42million brand impressions and 89,500 new visitors to the website and over 27,000 downloads of coupons.
Q] Shell Rimula also recently launched the ‘Mera Mehnati Humsafar’ campaign. What are the insights behind it?
The Shell Rimula ‘Mera Mehnati Humsafar’ campaign was the first TV campaign that Shell launched in India. It was very interesting to have cast, creative and full production done in Pakistan. The campaign helped establish brand superiority by reiterating the proposition of ‘the hardworking engine oil that works as hard as you’. It served the dual purpose of delivering our claim - ‘35% better wear protection’ and establishing strong emotional connect for Shell Rimula as the trucker’s hardworking partner. The TV campaign went live with 14 top national channels and 21 regional channels and approximately 16,000 spots across four weeks. We were present across top movie and news channels - national and regional. We also activated Print, OOH, Mobile IVR and activationled Radio campaigns and initiated engagement at transport hubs. The campaign was supplemented with a two-month long contest, ‘Mera Humsafar, Meri Kahaani’ where truck drivers participated and shared their interesting, hardworking stories revolving around their truck (their ‘Humsafar’). We were able to grow brand equity leading to some prestigious awards and recognition for the campaign.
Q] What are the essential principles of your marketing strategy at Shell Lubricants?
The fundamental thought that underlines the marketing strategy across a diverse range of Shell products is – ‘winning hearts and minds of consumers and stakeholders through experience of using the Shell brand’. Core principles of our marketing strategy are:
1. Understanding the consumer and what will work for the value chain and designing all programmes to delight them
2. Focusing on growing brand equity through investment in technology and innovation
3. Driving trials, as it leads to high loyalty and repeat purchase.
We have a different target audience for different brands, hence our marketing mix is a function of which medium has the right touch-points for each. Digital, PR, in-store and mechanics are core pillars of communicating our brand advantage.
Q] What are the BTL activities and sales promotions that you have to increase consumer engagement?
On BTL, we focus on demonstrating brand superiority. We have single mindedly focused on trials and are conducting a lot of oil change campaigns. We supplement money and direct gratification schemes with techniques to build real engagement and loyalty within our key influencers (mechanics and retailers).
Demo kits: First-of-its-kind ‘demo kits’ which demonstrate the role of lubricants are given to over 10,000 retailers at an affordable price.
Mechanic Loyalty Programme: The programme not only offers gifts but connects to emotional needs of ‘training’, ‘insurance’ and ‘experiences that money cannot buy’. We have 50,000+ mechanics enrolled across India.
Shell Superstar: It is a loyalty programme for retailers and is a continuous two-way communication where they can log on to our websites and talk to us.
Q] How are you leveraging your technical partnerships with Ferrari, Ducati and F1 to market the brand?
Shell’s technical partnership with Ferrari is one of the most successful partnerships in Formula One history. Shell has contested more than half of all the Formula One races ever run, and Shell and Ferrari have together amassed 12 Drivers’ Championships and 10 Constructors’ Championships. Our technical partnership with Ducati has grown into one of the most successful collaborations in motorsport. Working with the Ducati team, what we learn from our extreme testing environment on the racetrack is used to provide bikers all over the world with high performing products such as Shell Advance oil.
Some important consumer engagement initiatives for us come through these partnerships as consumers are passionate about motorsports. Ferrari, Ducati and Formula One are seen as gold standards of the toughest conditions in which the oil can be used and if we partner these brands, it gives much more credibility to our story.
Q] What differentiates Shell from other competitors?
Our foremost competitive advantage is our technical supremacy. Our engineers research and develop lubricants that help save fuel and lower cost of operations. Our synthetic lubricants have been developed with the objective of protecting the customer’s equipment from wear and corrosion even under the most severe conditions. The Shell Helix range has been restructured to make it easier for the consumer to choose the oil according to his/her needs.
Product specifications across the range have been upgraded, and exceed some technical requirements fulfilled by the current portfolio. Our packaging has been redesigned for clarity. We operate on the model of ‘delighting the complete value chain’ and ensuring that each member of the value chain becomes a brand ambassador.
Q] Shell has entered marketing alliances with Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Mahindra, Skoda, Ford, Tata Iron & Steel, TELCO, SAIL, ONGC, Jindal Group, etc. How do you leverage these platforms for brand building?
OEM partnerships are one of the most important pillars for Shell Lubricants. We collaborate with leading companies and manufacturers that have some of the most exciting technology challenges, gaining expertise in lubricant technology and then applying it in a way that benefits customers. Apart from technology leading lubricants, we also provide our suite of lubricant-related services that offers customers/OEMs expert advice and support along with practical tools and training. We work hand-in-hand right from the drawing board all the way to the end product which is called coengineering.
Q] What are the trends that you predict in the market in the coming year?
Fuel economy norms and fill-for-life lubricants for gear and rear axle and triple ODI concept for engine oil are the prominent trends we will see driving lubricant production. Apart from them, a global push to reduce carbon-dioxide emission targets, penetration of electric vehicles (EVs) will impact lubricant volumes. Increasing vehicle production will lead to increase in demand of lubricants. We also see new OEM relationships helping the lubes business grow.
Q] What opportunities do you see for the brand going forward?
We empower consumers in the choice of lubricants for their vehicles. Usage of the right lubricant makes a significant difference to the life of the engine and fuel efficiency. Hence, the more we educate and empower consumers, more the brand will play a partnership role with them. We see the brand playing a pivotal role in simplifying the industry and adding more value to the system in the process and creating brand ambassadors along our value chain.
ABOUT THE BRAND
Shell is an international oil company with nearly US$1 billion invested in India’s energy sector. It is a major private sector supplier of crude products and chemicals to India. With over 3,000 staff in the country, Shell has a significant technology centre, a financial business services centre and an LNG receiving and re-gasification terminal. It also has a downstream business marketing fuels, lubricants and specialty products. Shell Lubricants’ India operation is part of Shell’s long-term commitment to India and its support for the country’s increasing energy needs. Shell Lubricants’ customers in India include Wartsila, Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Ford and Thermax.
CMO FILE
Mansi Madan Tripathy has experience of working for over 17 years on diverse product categories and enabling equity development of brands like Pantene, Olay, Vicks, Gillette, Pampers, Whisper, Ariel, Tide, Gillette, etc. As Chief Marketing Officer at Shell Lubricants, she is involved in business building, growing brand equity and optimizing investments. Tripathy has to her credit the first advertisement for sub-brand Shell Rimula in the Indian market. She has also managed to roll out the first sustainable mechanic CRM programme enrolling 20,000+ mechanics. She holds a BTech degree from NIT, Kurukshetra and an MBA in Marketing from SP Jain Institute of Management & Research.
FACTS
CREATIVE AGENCY: IRIS
MEDIA AGENCY: MEDIACOM
SOCIAL AND DIGITAL MEDIA MARKETING AGENCY: MEDIACOM
BTL/ACTIVATION AGENCY: SEVERAL
PR AGENCY: EDELMAN
Feedback: saloni.dutta@exchange4media.com
