Artificial intelligence has now become a mainstay for marketers, with AI-powered tools driving various marketing and advertising functions. Furthermore, AI is empowering businesses to boost their e-commerce capabilities and online retail presence.
For instance, Luminous Power Technologies is building an in-house conversational AI to build its inverter battery category online, reveals its chief strategy and transformation officer, Neelima Burra.
It is also piloting an AI tool for pricing management- which has always remained a manual process.
“With the help of AI, it makes it easier to drive better profitability. As marketing moves towards marketing-technology (martech), it is going to be far more beneficial for running a sustainable, profitable business model,” she adds.
In this interview, Burra further talks about the company’s growth plans, marketing strategy, summer growth, and how the ‘Make in India’ proposition is helping it build a stronger brand.
Edited excerpts:
What remains the major focus area for Luminous in 2024?
In 2024 there have been clear milestones on the growth and expansion plans we have. For the last 35 years, we have been known to be an inverter battery company but as part of our 5-year strategy and growth plan, we are strengthening towards repositioning ourselves as a leading global consumer technology company.
So, the focus area this year involves strengthening newer capabilities including solar, technology, alternate chemistry, power electronics, and digital engineering. For this change in brand positioning, we are investing in brand building, retail, and introducing local partnerships, while also getting into battery manufacturing locally.
Overall, more than 25% of business is coming from solar today, which will continue to be our growth driver going forward. Also, nearly 15% of business is international and continues to be our priority and focus.
Talk to us more about the brand-building activities.
We have invested heavily in brand-building and channel engagement programs for this year. As part of those investments, the India Premier League (IPL) has been one of the biggest brand investments and channel engagements for us. Channel engagement has always been our strength in the growth and expansion story.
This year’s partnership with Rajasthan Royals provided us with the opportunity to reach out to millions of cricket fans and create a substantial impact on our current and prospective customers. Our values are deeply aligned and the social impact that we intend to create through effectively activating solar energy and enriching livelihoods in communities across Rajasthan. Brand preference and awareness were at their best during this time more than 96% as per the Brand Track report conducted by a third-party agency.
And, what is your media plan?
Being a legacy brand, we have brand awareness of close to 95%, so it becomes important for us to choose a medium that reaches this 95%, therefore, we have Sachin Tendulkar as the brand ambassador; and utilise media vehicles like the IPL.
We generally do a mix of digital and offline marketing that includes TV, print, and OOH to reach our target audience. Digital media offers many options to advertise, especially with connected TV homes, and is very visible, engaging, and informative. TV has been one of the highest-reached media and has been an integral part of Luminous’ growth journey.
However, there has been a recent consumer shift to digital-led marketing activations. So, I would say that we are focusing on a mix of both TV and digital.
To what extent ‘Make in India’ proposition helps strengthen the brand?
We are a 100% ‘Make in India’ company and it is one of our selling and value propositions, globally. It also helps strengthen the brand— all our inverters, batteries, and now even panels, are being manufactured in India, in the seven manufacturing units we have. The newer expansion is planned in Odisha to strengthen our position in the East market.
As a marketer, how do you look at the ad tech trends this year?
I would say marketing is at a pivotal stage in the industry at this point, where technology is at the forefront. I would say it’s no longer marketing; it is ‘martech’.
As more and more marketing move towards marketing technology, it is going to be far more beneficial for running a sustainable, profitable business model. Also, with AI coming into the content development, content management, personalisation, and mapping the consumer data towards personalisation has become far easier, sequential, and scientific- which is a boon to the industry. It is overall, a great tool for marketers, provided they can segment their market well, understand their consumer segmentation well, and then observe the big data to relate to the trend.
I am currently piloting an AI tool on pricing. Pricing management has always such a manual process, but today with the help of AI it makes it easier to drive better profitability by doing competitive pricing well.
Take us through the retail strategy and expansion plans.
At present, we have close to one lakh plus retail points, and we continue to grow there. E-commerce arm has two kinds of businesses: our brand shop and then we also retail through Amazon and Flipkart and Jio and ONDC. The latter continues to grow, the searches online are continuing to grow, and I see this business will gain momentum. However, purchases remain both online and offline for us.
Inverter battery category has a lot to address as this category is yet getting built online. There’s lot of education and simplification which is happening to communicate to the consumer. It’s a complex technical category, but as a company, we are trying to build it as fast-moving energy good.
Further, we are building in-house conversational AI to build the inverter battery category online. AI/ML is the way of life when it comes to marketing.
Overall, the omni-channel strategy will continue to help us with premiumisation and bring more advanced technologies.
How was the summer season for the company?
2024 is a big year for Luminous Power Technologies as we aim to establish ourselves as a complete energy management solutions provider, beyond just being an inverter battery company. It has been a great year so far and we have seen a growth of 30% Y-o-Y (January – June) in our sales.
Last year was washed out with unexpected rains, and a lack of predictability in business.