For Panasonic Life Solutions, formerly Anchor Electricals, influencers like electricians are very important stakeholders, says Sunil Narula, senior vice president, marketing and sales.
“We want electricians to feel that they are part of the Anchor family. We incentivise them in multiple ways and what differentiates the company from its competition,” he says.
Narula talked to Storyboard18 about the genesis of campaigns for the World Cup and the festive season as well.
Edited excerpts:
Panasonic Life Solutions did back-to-back campaigns – the ‘Load Lega Leader’ campaign for World Cup Cricket and the ‘Right Light’ campaign for the festive season. Can you share what led to the making of these campaigns?
Earlier, for our power campaigns, we had taken this position of ‘Naye India Ka Barta Load’. Our country is progressing and there is a huge amount of electricity consumption. Anchor, being a very old brand in the electrical space, wanted to be part of the country’s progress. For about 3-4 years, we have been thinking that the overall look and feel needs refreshment. We also wanted to make this tagline a little tighter. That’s where this entire thing was conceptualised. Since we are the leaders in this space, we thought ‘Load Lega Leader’ was a very apt phrase.
Cricket is another religion. With the World Cup coinciding with the festive season, the timing was perfect. We all know the kind of eyeballs that any cricket match of this level would get. What also typically happens is, just before or during Diwali, people get into a lot of home renovation. A lot of interior decorations happen before people do housewarming around Diwali.
So, this is the time when the involvement of this category is also high, especially at the tertiary level. We thought this is the apt time. So, why not leverage this and use this proposition to reach a large number of campaigns?
For the ‘Right Light’ campaign, we used the insight of lighting being an important category during the Diwali season. Lights are also a part of renovation and new home building, which happens during this time. This category has become highly price-sensitive, and has got commoditised, especially with new brands and players coming in, since there is no entry barrier. So, it was very important for Panasonic to use this opportunity to look at how Panasonic is using its Japanese qualities and bringing the right product to the consumer.
Who is your ideal target audience? What are the top markets for the brand?
Our ideal target audience, typically, are home renovators, home owners and people getting into interiors. Anybody from 30, going up to 60, would be the right customer for us. The influencers in this category are also important for us. We have multiple programmes where we bring in influencers like electrical contractors, architects, builders and the most important one – the electrician — and they help us to reach our customers.
Anchor is a brand which is entrenched even in the remotest towns, because of our 65-year-old legacy. We are currently available across all small towns in the country. We also have a pretty decent rural presence and the traction comes mostly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. It is primarily because of the large population these two states have. We are also big in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Rajasthan.
We have a large spread of channel partners across the length and breadth of the country. We cater to almost 3,500-plus direct channel partners. We are present in 2,00,000-plus electrical outlets in the country.
What are the current market needs in the electrical equipment category and how is the brand bridging it?
The electrical equipment category has been buoyant over the last couple of years, and it has also connected to where the country is progressing, especially in terms of the overall increase in demand for real estate. The initiatives taken by the government in terms of housing for the lowest strata of the country has helped.
One sees a huge amount of traction at the entry level, where the basics are being sold because of the inherent increase in demand and we are also seeing a good amount of uptick in the premium space. Some of our product lines in the switches space are growing about 45-50 percent year on year.
What are some interesting consumer trends you have been noticing?
People in metros and tier 1 cities are moving towards more premium products. We clearly see good demand for some of our products like Roma Urban. We have also been noticing our premium products being purchased in larger towns like Lucknow, Varanasi and Patna.
We are seeing consumers moving from non-modular switches to modular ones. And that was very evident when we launched our Echo series of switches by the name of the brand Ziva in 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic. We could see a huge response coming in from smaller markets.
How much have you been investing in marketing? What is the brand’s current focus?
Approximately three to three-and-a-half percent of our annual revenues go to marketing communications. This include both above the line (ATL) and below the line (BTL) marketing. One of the important aspects about selling this kind of category is the retail presence or retail visibility.
One of our important strategies is to ensure that there is visibility for the brand at the store level. We are spending a lot of money on ensuring the presence of samples – products like wiring devices and switch gears. Consumers would like to touch them before they decide to buy. Therefore, that involves a lot of sampling of these products.
Also, overall retail presence, in terms of glow sign boards and soft branding, is very critical for us.
What is the role of influencer marketing for the brand?
Influencers like electricians are very important stakeholders for us. We want electricians to feel that they are part of the Anchor family. We incentivise them in multiple ways. We have digitised the entire process of talking to these people. We have an app which is downloaded by these electricians; they can be onboarded via the app using a simple KYC method. Once they have onboarded, they can scan QR codes on some of our products and gain incentives directly in their e-wallets.
We also have multiple programmes where we enhance the skills of these electricians though programmes like Anchor Certified Electrician Programme (ACE), and we pick up electricians across various markets and upskill them by a giving them a full day training in one of the available technical colleges in the city and certify them and provide them chances to gain more customers in the area where they are working.
What’s the way ahead? How is Panasonic Life Solutions standing out?
The entire power segment contributes 80-85 percent to the company’s top line. We have planned product introductions and channel expansion. We are also planning to improve our influencer connect, and increase the visibility in retail stores.
A lot of new entrants are there and giving us competition. Anchor’s history, Japanese roots, and focus on quality are its key strengths. Also, most of the products that we sell are manufactured in our seven factories — as compared to the new-age competition which source their products from third parties. We are the largest manufacturer of switches and sockets in the world in terms of our overall production.