Asian Paints, the country’s largest paint maker, has roped in Deepika Padukone and Karan Johar as brand ambassadors for its new campaign for Royale Glitz. In an exclusive interview with Storyboard18, Amit Syngle, managing director & CEO, said the company is excited about the festive and cricket season this year. Edited excerpts:
Your new campaign for Asian Paints Royale Glitz features stars Deepika Padukone and Karan Johar. Yet, the paint steals the spotlight. Tell us more.
Syngle: It is a mega launch for us with two superstars, which is the highlight of the film. What we wanted to showcase – and we were very clear on the consumer insight – is that while luxury is apparent, what people wanted and what we have shown throughout this film is that there is performance in the paint. This is the ‘crack-free’ performance, which is the nuance that we wanted to bring through strongly. There is a shift from the larger glamour kind of TVC which we had last year, which was talking only about good looks in terms of how the paint is stealing the good looks with its ultra-sheen finish, but in this one there is an undertone of performance.
Royale Glitz ads set the tone for every festive season. What is your outlook this time? What can we expect in terms of campaigns and advertising?
Syngle: For us, the luxury paradigm has become very important. In this environment, luxury brands are doing well… the festive season is when most people paint homes. In this season we are putting a lot of muscle behind this entire campaign. The kind of luxury adoption that is happening, not just with respect to the metros but also the T1 and T2 cities, we feel that there is a larger framework which is coming, which is buying into luxury in a very strong manner. Also, after Covid, homes have become important places to socialise.
Asian Paints has partnerships with designers, focusing on wedding collections. Beautiful Homes Store was launched recently. What are your plans?
Syngle: We are bringing in more elements that can get exciting for that segment. For instance, we have looked at Sabyasachi designer shades coming in the collection with Glitz. This ups the quotient. We are also upping the ante in terms of the Glitz décor, which comes with a lot of international textures and other areas, which we are kind of bringing in the whole décor space, which is uber luxury. And in the store, we have not only combined Glitz and other textures but we are also bringing in a whole element of home décor around it with sophisticated furniture, rugs, etc, which gets us entry into the share of space within homes but with luxury as a very keen direction in terms of what we want to see. This is the time when we see adoption is happening like crazy.
And more stores in the pipeline, too?
Syngle: Definitely. We will have more stores. We already have an offering which is called the Beautiful Home Stores – we have 44 stores across the country, but this is a super-luxury store that has come in and by the end of the year we will definitely have 3-4 more stores.
This year the Men’s Cricket World Cup coincides with the festival season. How are you utilising the opportunity?
Syngle: What drives this nation? One is the whole area of movies and the other is cricket. This year, with the Royale Glitz campaign, there are two superstars coming in, and marrying this with the top property in cricket is something we are looking at. We are going to be a very strong part of the Asia Cup and the World Cup. And we think, given our association, it will be very exciting to marry the two areas of getting the superstars and be in the thick of the action.
Will there be more ad spends this year as compared to last year for the festival period?
Syngle: We are upping the ad spends this year. It will be another 15 percent kind of a jump. And it is not only TV, we are looking at 360-degree advertising. Whether it is below the line, outdoor, print and TV combined together with some of the properties that we spoke of. We are a part of some impact properties like KBC (Kaun Banega Crorepati?), with The Spotlight Wall, etc. We are looking at some strong impactful properties and upping the spend.
There has been an uptick in demand in rural and tier 3 and tier 4 markets. What are the plans around the festival season in these markets?
Syngle: Rural spends have gone up and we have seen a good amount of growth coming from the rural sector. And given the fact that this season is when painting comes in a big way, we are looking at forays into premium and luxury products there as well. What we find in some of the T3-T4 cities is that the propensity to get the best within their homes is very high, given the enlightenment through travel and other exposure. It is the right moment getting into the premium and the luxury for the real rural belt, apart from upgrading to smart emulsion.
Considering new entrants in the market, how are you tweaking your strategy? What are you doing differently?
Syngle: I don’t think the new competition worries us because of the strength of the brand, the strength of the supply chain that we bring to the table, apart from the innovations. Newcomers will not be able to match or even get into the luxury space. Cost and price they would be fighting on, to an extent. So our strategy is clear: keep on the work in terms of adding equity to the brand, keep on playing on your strengths, look at innovation and look at concentrating in terms of your entire distribution strategy, which is very strong.
Some new players have good distribution networks and a history of creating robust brands. What’s your perspective?
Syngle: Paints is not like the FMCG industry where you look at possibly exercising your distribution might or you look at above-the-line campaigns. I think there are a whole lot of influencers that come in – from getting in the right retailers to getting the right influencers like painters, contractors, architects, designers, etc. It is not an impulse product. It has an intricacy in terms of direct reach model in terms of distribution. Therefore, brand equity comes in after a large number of advertising spends you put up over decades in a brand.
Even if the newer people pump in money, they will take some time in establishing a brand. It is important today that you are able to create that kind of a recall and trust in the customer’s mind because the customer comes once in four or five years and it is not an everyday kind of purchase. The category is very different and from that point of view, what will happen is that they will look at taking the unorganised market a little bit and some of the players that are small in the hierarchy. I don’t think today brands like Asian Paints will get affected too much.