Paint brand Dulux’s new Velvet Touch Fashion Trends for Walls hopes to offer patterns, designs and textures — more than just plain old colours. Rajiv Rajgopal, Director – Sales & Marketing, Decorative Paints, Akzo Nobel India, shares how brand Dulux hopes to engage better with its target audience, with the help of this new offering
Q] You have a new campaign for your superpremium luxury interior paint, Dulux Velvet Touch - Fashion Trends for Walls. What is the positioning that you have undertaken for it? How does it strengthen your earlier proposition ‘Let’s Color’?
Our earlier campaign for Dulux Velvet Touch was about pearl glow finishes, and now we are taking it to the next level. We are trying to move from simple paints to effects on the wall, renditions like patterns, colours, metallics and look to make the wall in the house more vibrant and spontaneous; which makes the line ‘What’s on your mind is on the walls’ very apt.
When people look to personalise their spaces, they take a cue from their surroundings. We decided to take a cue from fashion, and have mixed the earlier Velvet Touch, which was colours, with the excitement of textures, fabric and finishes, which makes it contemporary and brings the whole element alive. With Manish Malhotra as a creative partner, we have 17 specific colours that epitomise a more contemporary India, based on the theme of celebrations.
Q] Farhan Akhtar has been on board for about a year now. What makes the brand connect with the actor/director?
Farhan’s repertoire lends itself terrifically. He is a symbol of renewal — he is able to take on multiple roles and do an exemplary job of it. That personifies Velvet Touch. He is multi-faceted and that is also the creative expression of the brand. He adds a dash of youthfulness, modernity, vibrancy into the brand. Dulux is a three-decade old brand and Velvet Touch is a household name. When you work on a brand and try to contemporise it, you have got to ensure the personality fits with the brand. So in that sense, Farhan is a great fit for Dulux.
Q] It’s been two years since Akzo Nobel unveiled a new brand identity for Dulux in India. How has this helped the brand?
Brand Dulux stands for innovation, modernity, vibrancy, and aesthetics and in the last two years our attempt was to first make sure that the consumer proposition comes alive. The second step was to strengthen the core proposition, by trying to stretch the brand within the extent of what the brand is capable of doing. Each step we have taken strengthens brand Dulux and the proposition of ‘Let’s Color’.
Q] What are the fundamental principles of your marketing strategy? What does your media mix look like?
The fundamental strategy involves keeping it simple, and making sure that the consumer feels that the proposition is something they can relate to. We have processed a lot of feedback over the last six months and worked step-by-step to enhance the core of the brand.
We have a 360-degree campaign and are also focussing at the point of sale/purchase, to connect with contractors and painters who regularly engage with and experience our brand. We attempt to touch across all touch points from where our consumers access our brand through any form of media.
Q] Painting a house is a big decision, one that’s usually taken twice in a decade. How do you keep the buzz and engagement going with your consumers?
There is a change that is happening in India, which we want to be a part of. When you see the effects on the walls, consumers would look to have the same in their homes. We are not talking about painting the whole house with effects or metallic, but just one wall. This does not involve high costs and when you see the final outcome, you may do it not once in five years, but every year.
Our attempt is to get people to consume more. The category consumption in the country is 0.16 kg, which is one of the lowest per capita. What I look at is how to create an expression of the brand where consumers feel like using the product more. We are trying to create a mood in the house where somebody visiting is influenced to try out our products. That’s the way consumers are changing today, and that’s the change we intend to bring in the category.
Q] How does your distribution work?
We have 140 Dulux Decorator Centers and are present in about 9,000 outlets. Obviously there are always areas of improvement but we have a very clear articulated strategy on how to improve our reach, which is one of our priorities and we are making reasonable progress.
Q] Trust, innovation, sustainability and health are some of the ideals of paint brands today. In this context, what makes Dulux and Akzo Nobel stand apart?
Being an international brand, we bring the best of the world to India, including innovations, and the unmatched quality of our products is a testimony to that. We have two very powerful brands – Velvet Touch and WeatherShield which continue to stay contemporary. To my mind, Dulux is the best in class in the Indian market and no company can say it is leveraging its global expertise as much as Dulux is.
Q] What is your current market share?
Our market share is around 10%, but we have a higher share in the premium segment, which makes up 25 to 30% of the overall decorative segment. When we consider a three-year compounded annual growth rate, the premium segment has seen double-digit growth. But there have been challenges in the past year; hence we are looking to make our brand relevant so that consumers choose us.
Q] What are the challenges faced in the Indian market?
The challenge is to make a low involvement category into to a high involvement one. A large set of customers depend on painters and contractors; so the challenge lies in getting these consumers to step into our stores and buy our product, thereby increasing footfalls. We are working on these infrastructural challenges.
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