JSW Paints : Har Rang, Har Kisi Ka

 Brand: JSW Paints

Company: JSW Group

Brand Analysis Count: # 609

JSW group belonging to the Sajjan Jindal family which is known for JSW Steel and JSW Cements has forayed into the highly competitive but lucrative Rs 50,000 Crore paint industry. In 2019, the company soft-launched its paints branded as JSW paints in the South and later expanded to a larger national footprint. 

Indian paint industry dominated by Asian Paints is lucrative with its sheer size at the same time is extremely competitive and a difficult market to crack. While the organized market is dominated by Asian Paints, Berger, Nerolac, there is a large unorganized market too dominated by the price competition and middlemen ( influencers/decision-makers) like painters and contractors. 

Asian Paints is credited with building a brand in this category and breaking the stronghold of painters and contractors in the consumer decision-making process and making the brand choice a consumer prerogative. 

When a conglomerate like the JSW group enters the market, everyone will look up to the launch and a possible threat to the long-standing market-leader Asian Paints. The market is large enough to accommodate such a large player at the same time, the existing players are known for defending their market shares.

JSW Paints was launched into the market with a positioning based on colour and price. The key differentiator for JSW paints is the 1808 colour options it provides to the consumer. The choice of the differentiator based on the colours is intriguing since that positioning platform is already owned by Asian Paints. When a challenger brand takes the same positioning as the market leader, there is a risk of consumers failing to associate the colour based positioning with the new entrant. There is a classic example of Nerolac ad featuring Amitabh Bachchan which was focused on colour and later when consumers were asked to recall the brand which Bachchan endorsed, they recalled Asian Paints. 

JSW Paints has roped in two celebrities to endorse the brand - Alia Bhatt and Ayushmann Khuranna. The launch ad is well made but the issue of a very close similarity with Asian Paint's positioning lingers. 

The brand has also put a number 1808 colour options to give credibility to the range of colours value propositions and this can easily be countered by its competitor and technically it is not a sustainable differentiation.  JSW Paints has four brands under its paint portfolio Halo, Aurus, Pixa and Halo Aquaglo. Each brand offers different attributes like Halo is focused on its anti-bacterial property. 

Another differentiator for the brand is the One Colour, One Price guarantee by the brand. Usually, brands charge differential pricing for the various colours and in my opinion, JSW paints have identified a good value proposition in this. In a sense, the large number of colour options together with the one price for all colours make a sensible value proposition for this new brand. If promoted this combined value proposition, JSW paints will force the other players to offer one price for all colours in future. 

The tagline for the brand is Har Rang, Har Kisi ka which translates to Colours for All. The brand is targeting the young couple ( 25-50 years) and the choice of the brand ambassadors reflects the intent. 

 I am not sure whether the launch campaign was able to give a proper push to the combined value proposition. Subsequently, more rational campaigns highlighting the combined value propositions will cement a significant position for this brand in the market. If the market accepts this one price formula, it will not be difficult for the competitors to catch up and for JSW Paints, a new hunt for new differentiator will begin. 

Indigo Paints : Be Surprised

Brand: Indigo
Company: Indigo Paints

Brand Analysis Count: 592

Indigo paints recently is making a lot of noise in the media with a high profile brand endorsement by the Ace cricketer M S Dhoni. The company which was born in 2000 is aiming to be a major player in the highly competitive Indian paint industry. According to news reports, the Indian paint industry is worth INR 40,000 dominated by Asian Paints, Nerolac, Berger paints etc. Around INR 10,000 crore is dominated by unorganized segment. 

Indigo paints is now a small player in this industry with a turnover of around 600 crores. Market leader Asian Paints have a turnover of INR 16500 crores. The company which started with lower end cement paint is now repositioned itself as the maker of innovative paint solutions.

The brand's strategy was to initially generate brand awareness for which it has chosen the celebrity endorsement route. MS Dhoni was roped in as the brand ambassador. What the brand did was interesting. Along with the brand ambassador, Indigo Paints also created a character Zebra which represented the brand. The ads feature humorous interactions between Dhoni and the zebra which makes the ads interesting. The concept of giving human-like characteristics to non-human entities is called anthropomorphism. 

Many brands use anthropomorphism to build brand personality. Here Indigo paints use the animated zebra which gives the brand a character of vibrancy. The zebra also balances the ad with enough representation for the brand. 

Indigo paints is running a series of ads familiarizing the customers with the range of products like exterior emulsion, floor paints, ceiling paints etc. The campaigns along with the presence of Dhoni is definitely helping brand in its effort to build brand awareness. 

Unlike Asian Paints, Indigo does not now have sub-brands. The brand has the tagline " Be Surprised" which in my opinion is a disconnect with the brand's products. Regarding the positioning, Indigo is focusing on the product performance saying that it is a better paint. So the message is more functional rather than emotional. Probably over a period of time, Indigo paints will move to better positioning in future. 

The paint market is a tough market with a lot of influencers. The painter, the retailer all have a significant influence on the purchase decision of the consumer. Indigo paints is definitely making its presence felt in this market in terms of advertisement visibility. 

Brand Update : There is a little bit of Nerolac in your Life

Nerolac, which has a legacy of more than 100 years has always been playing second fiddle to Asian Paints in the Indian paint industry. Both in the field and advertising space, Nerolac was not able to beat the market leader Asian Paints. Probably after a long time, Nerolac had hit a bullseye in finding a credible message for its consumers.

The latest campaign of Nerolac- There is a little bit of Nerolac in your life, is a creative breakthrough for this brand. Everyone who has seen the ad was surprised at the message - the fridge, the car, the appliances are painted with Nerolac. That indeed is a powerful message which will change the way the brand is perceived. 

The basic idea is to leverage the brand's credibility in the industrial segment to the consumer segment. Indian paint industry which is worth around Rs 47000 crore is classified into Decorative Segment and Industrial Segment. Decorative Segment constitutes 75 % of the total market. Asian Paints is the market leader in the whole paint industry with a whopping 41% share while Nerolac has a share of 14 %. But in the Industrial segment, Nerolac leads with 35 percent share. 

To counter the market leader Asian Paints iconic campaigns capitalizing the emotions associated with color and home, Nerolac so far tried all strategies including roping in Big B for their campaigns but with limited success. 

This time, the brand roped in the energetic Ranveer Singh as the brand ambassador. But the star of the campaign is the Big Idea. The campaign is very effective in driving the home that the home appliances which usually have the durable painting are being painted by Nerolac. That message instantly conveys credibility to the brand. Nerolac was able to give a piece of very powerful evidence to its core strengths - performance credibility. Ranveer Singh brings a touch of humor to the whole proposition. 

This idea although very powerful does not have longevity in the sense that this cannot be continued for long. The brand needs to milk this idea within a short span of time and then move on with some sustainable proposition in the next phase of the campaign. For now, hats off to those brains who came up with this idea. 

Nerolac : Painting A Greener Tomorrow !

Brand : Nerolac
Company : Kansai Nerolac

Brand Analysis Count : # 478

Nerolac is an interesting brand story. This brand which has a rich heritage of over 97 years is on an aggressive mode in the Rs 2.1 Billion Indian paint market. The company which created this brand was born in 1920 as Gahagan Paint and Varnish Co in Mumbai.In 1957 the company was transformed to Goodlass Wall Pvt Ltd  later to Goodlass Nerolac Paints Ltd . The company was a part of the Tata Group till 1999 when its technological partner - Japan based Kansai Paint Co Ltd took a controlling stake in the company from the Tata Group. Now Nerolac is a subsidiary of Kansai Paints and the company has been rechristened as Kansai Nerolac Paints Ltd.

Nerolac is a leader in the Industrial paint segment of the Indian paint market. The Indian paint market is huge with an estimated market size of over Rs 17000 crores of which decorative paint segment constitutes over seventy percentage. The market is typically Indian which means that it is fragmented. According to a report by the brokerage firm Equity Master, the unorganized sector commands around 35% of the market. In the organized  decorative paint segment, Asian Paints is the market leader with a share of 30% followed by Nerolac with 20% , Berger Paints with 19% and ICI with 12%. 

Nerolac from the beginning of 2000 has been trying to attain leadership position in the decorative segment and the fight makes it a really interesting brand story. Nerolac had to fight the tremendous brand equity of Asian Paints in that segment.

Nerolac is a brand which never hesitated to invest in promotions and brand building. The brand has a really commendable awareness which was created through heavy brand promotions. The jingle " Jab Khar Ki Raunak Badhana ho, Deewaroan ko jab sajana ho , Nerolac , Nerolac "  still lingers in the memory of the public. Such catchy jingles and campaigns lifted the brand to double digits market share levels but could not bridge the gap with the market leader. 

It was in 2003 , that the brand made a huge plunge in celebrity driven promotion by roping in Amitabh Bachchan. The endorsement from Big B was a big news at that point in time. One of the major positioning move for Nerolac also happened at that time.Nerolac was originally positioned on a beauty-enhancing  proposition. The brand talked about decoration and in a plain speaking style successfully associated itself with that proposition otherwise that jingle couldnot have survived this long.

In 2003, the brand tried to emulate the Asian Paint's positioning based on colors. The ads featuring Big B had the tagline " Ye Rang Jo Hain, Zindagi ko Chootha hai " ( This color touches your life). In my personal opinion, the adoption of a positioning similar to Asian Paints confused the consumer.Although the endorsement of Big B put the brand on a high awareness state, the similarity of positioning had a negative effect on the association of brand and celebrity. I remember reading a report which mentioned that during the Big B endorsement, when consumers where asked about the brand which Big B endorsed, rather than Nerolac, they mentioned Asian Paints.

Before that positioning change in 2003, Nerolac had many things going for it. The brand had very powerful brand elements like the jingle and even a popular mascot - a painting tiger named Goody. The mascot was very popular and shared a powerful association with the brand. But the mascot was discontinued in 2003. Goody was created in 1970 to act as a differentiator and also create an identity for the brand. Since there were many players, the owners wanted as mascot to make the brand stand out. The decision of dropping such a powerful popular brand element was a mistake that Nerolac made. The brand should have made the mascot contemporary and that could have added some additional power to the brand .

During the late 2008, the brand still felt that it is not able to close the gap between itself and the market leader. The association with Big B was discontinued and the brand went for non-celebrity campaigns.

This year, the brand decided to make another high profile attempt using none other than Shah Rukh Khan to endorse the brand. The brand is now running lot of TVCs featuring the new celebrity ambassador.
In a significant move the brand has repositioned itself. In tune with the global positioning of its parent Kansai Paints, Nerolac also adopted the positioning based on environment -friendly attribute. The new campaign positions Nerolac as a healthy paint with no lead content and Eco-clean property. Shah Rukh sells this idea through the TVCs

Watch the Ad here : Nerolac 
So far Nerolac's major marketing issue was its inability to create a meaningful differentiation from Asian Paints. While Asian Paints established itself on the Color platform , Nerolac was confused about its own strength. This was reflected in most of their campaigns. Although the campaigns were well made, these ads did not reflect any image for Nerolac. Now the brand seems to focus on the Environment Friendly Healthy Paint as its core positioning platform.

The question is whether this positioning is important and meaningful for the consumers. It is true that Indian consumers are aware of the harmful effects of paint fumes. But this issue happens only during paining and after the painting is done , the harmful effects are hardly noticed. So will a focus on the Healthy Paint attribute be considered a powerful differentiator ?
Healthy Paint is a meaningful differentiator but not a powerful or sustainable one. Asian Paints or any other competitor can easily achieve parity with this feature. Infact Nippon Paint is already running a campaign for its Odour free paint  product.

In comparison with Asian Paint's focus on colors, Nerolac needed a much more powerful emotional differentiator rather than a eco-friendly platform because eco-friendly has now become a most used one rather a passe . Every brand talks about its eco-consciousness in one way or other. So putting that as the main positioning may not stand against a powerful competitor like Asian Paints.

Having said that , the presence of  Shah Rukh Khan will give a terrific boost to the brand. But this boost will be because of the celebrity power rather than the brand power and will fade when the association stops. The brand have adopted the tagline " Kuch Change Karo, Chalo Paint karo " roughly meaning, " Change Something, Start Painting  " ( !!!!!!) . Frankly I did not exactly got the idea behind the tagline. The tagline is not at all related to the core positioning of a Healthy Paint. So there is some confusion regarding the core brand manthra . Theoretically  the taglines are derived from Core Brand Manthra and the lack of that core manthra is the reason for most of positioning errors.

On a branding perspective Nerolac still needs to identify meaningful positioning to beat Asian Paints. Environment Friendly or Healthy Paint is an idea whose time has not come to India as of now.

Brand Update : Asian Paints

It has been a year since I updated on this brand. Over this one year, the brand has been concentrating on its premium range Asian Paints Royale and also Apex Ultima. I have not seen any campaign for the Core Brand :- Asian Paints.

But the focus has remained the same : Colors.

Asian Paints has been using the brand ambassador Saif to the maximum for the Royale Range. But I definetely missed the sequel to the classic campaign " Kyunki Har rang kuch kahta hain " ( Every Color has a story). But I am not complaining since the brand is still owning the 'color'.

Now the brand is back into my radar for a unique customer centric innovation. The innovation is not something revolutionary but simple commonsense. The brand has came out with samplers.

The concept is very simple, now you can purchase a small 200 ml pack of Asian Paints and try it on the wall to see how the color will look like in your wall. So rather than depending in the color cards, the consumer can actually see the painted portion of the wall and make the final decision about the color.

The samplers make good sense for consumers. It is very difficult for the consumer to imagine how a room would look like by looking at the color card. Now he has a chance to paint a small portion to see how the color will look like in realty . Ofcourse the consumer will have to 'buy' these samplers while imagination comes free of cost.

This concept has been perfectly captured by the latest TVC where the husband tries to explain a color to the wife. He then symbolically asks the architect " How can anyone imagine a color , yaar? "

This innovation can be easily replicated by any competitors but the fact is that the idea belongs to Asian Paints. Then the question arises whether the consumer will pay for the samplers and paint on a wall to see the real color. Something which only time will tell.

But I feel that this move stems from a consumer insight that often customers feel that what they expected of the color and what comes out after the painting has a difference. Often the color in the colorcard and that painted on the wall may not deliver the same effect . This has even prompted customers to play safe and not experiment with new colors.

The samplers are often a good way to empower the consumers and make their color selection perfect. Another consumer insight is that educated customers now take more time and effort in selecting the right colors for their homes. People either rely on architects or read mags and books to find out the right color which matches their lifestyle and tastes.
This little innovation will go a long way in choosing the right color for their homes.

In a way these moves will enable the brand to surpass an important influencer in this product's purchase : the painter and the retailer.
With empowering the consumer more, Asian Paints will find more meaning in the brand building exercises because the entire decision making power is given to the end consumer.

Related Brand

Asian Paints