This post continues with examples from Mr Lokhande's lecture on Rural Marketing. The previous post was on Reliance Money's marketing strategies in rural India.

The biggest brands in the paints market in Rural India are Asian Paints, Nerolac and Shalimar. Among these three brands, Asian Paints is the most popular, according to Mr Lokhande. The other brands which we hear about in the urban areas like Berger and Dulux are fairly unknown in the villages.

So what makes Asian Paints stand out?

The unmistakable Gattu

When they started their marketing campaign in the rural areas, they  needed to catch the attention of the painters. Once they sold the brand to the painters, the painters would recommend it to their clients.

To this end, they created the character, Gattu. Gattu was Asian Paint's brand ambassador. Gattu was an immediate hit. The painters identified with him; he was dressed like a typical painter, had the hairstyle of a painter and he carried a paint brush. Simple. Effective.

He was so effective that many painters still go to the hardware shops and ask for "Gattu" and not Asian Paints.

(More pics of Gattu)

The new Distemper

Asian Paints wanted to launch a new distemper in the rural market. Now how do they market it? Before we go into those details, it is necessary to take a look at how paints market in the rural areas.

The earliest use of paints in the villages was to paint the horns of bulls during festivals. These paints were much more durable than the paints made of dyes and vegetables - they kept the horns colored longer :). Slowly paints were used in public buildings like schools and government buildings and then they were used for houses.

Marketing people also recognized that painting their ads on walls of houses and public buildings was a very cost effective way of advertising. Not only did it cost less, people did no mind a nice looking wall and no one bothered to take it off.

Finally, the sales of paint in the rural areas followed the pattern of sales of most of the other non-essential commodities - 65% of trading business happens during Diwali and other festivals (not to leave out the marriage season).

Now when Asian Paints wanted to come out with its Distemper, there were already local competitors in the market (About 65% of the distemper market is still unorganized in the rural areas). These local products were priced at about Rs.14 to Rs. 20 per kg and quality was far from uniform.

How does Asian paint penetrate this market? How does it differentiate itself from competition?

Quite obviously, quality and uniformity would be the two selling points of the product. But Asian Paints wanted to stress on the quality. So they decided to price the distemper at Rs. 24 per kg.

But Asian Paints needed people to try out their new, higher priced paint. So they painted a few of the village wells, schools and panchayat areas with a social message. Next, they took 1 kg samples of the distemper to opinion leaders' houses. Of course, the opinion leaders had to buy at least one more kg of distemper in order to complete painting the house.

Asian Paints also concentrated on promoting the new distemper through gram-sevaks, postmen, women's groups and patwaris.

The new distemper was a success. Although Mr Lokhande had no numbers to back up the claim, I think Asian Paint's performance in the recent years says it all.

 

Next Post: Parle and Biscuits