Due to a sluggish start to the fiscal year with steep corrections in the market, the pressure on this year’s festive season is huge. In this brand-exclusive series, we speak to brand custodians to understand their FestiveBrandBrief22 for the upcoming season, which, despite the slow start to the year, is likely to provide a much more high-spirited and profitable fiscal.
In this exclusive FestiveBrandBrief22 interaction, Swati Rathi, Head of Marketing at Godrej Appliances, speaks about the core categories that have come under focus post-pandemic and outlines how brands should leverage the festive season to showcase their brand width. Swati addresses the various strategies to fill the need gaps in the market and highlights the importance of brand eStores. She also outlines Godrej Appliances’ media strategy and underscores its focus on consumer experience.
Swati leads the marketing function at Godrej Appliances. With a B.Sc. Economics from St. Xavier’s Kolkata and an MBA in Marketing from Xavier Institute of Management, Swati began her career in the IT sector at Polaris Software Lab. She moved on to Consumer Research at Indian Market Research Bureau International which laid the foundation for a career in marketing.
She joined Godrej Appliances in 2006 in the marketing function and in the next nine years, took on different responsibilities, till she was promoted to Head of marketing in 2015. In her current role, she oversees all aspects of marketing – communication and media, public relations, digital and ground presence, apart from driving conversions through Exclusive Brand Outlets and a force of 2000+ storefront customer advisors.
What is your 100-word Brief for this festive season?
Our primary task is to drive conversion in the market audience, focusing on premium segments across categories, given the premiumisation trend being witnessed in the industry. Deploy clear product stories coupled with tactical offers to clinch the sale, to targeted audience on ground.
Our secondary task is to use the festive season as an opportunity to showcase the width of the brand and to build longer term consideration.
What are the need gaps in the product/service category you compete in? How are you filling those gaps?
There are a few key areas that consumers have started focusing on more as a result of pandemic:
Health & Hygiene: Consumers are much more mindful when it comes to health benefits. On the flip side, this has also led to a plethora of irrelevant claims and offerings. Godrej Appliances has endeavoured to provide strong meaningful health-based offerings over the last two years and while doing so, we have been careful as always to ensure that every promise is tested and verified thoroughly.
We were the first to introduce CSIR-lab certified germ shield technology across all the segments of washing machines – front load, top load and semi-automatics to address not just stains but germs as well; Steam and UV ion based disinfection technology in dishwashers; Nano and UV based disinfection in air conditioners for added air purification benefits; UV based sanitizing machines to disinfect articles of daily use including food packets; Microwave Ovens with Low Oil Pre-Set Cooking Menus.
And finally, two of our most recent launches. Nano Shield Disinfection Technology in Frost Free Refrigerators with 95%+ food surface disinfection. With a patent application to its credit, the first of its kind technology takes food safety to the next level in refrigerators.
InsuliCool – a unique portable insulin cooler which maintains insulin at precise 2 to 8 degree cooling with its state of art thermo-electric technology, to ensure insulin effectiveness at all times, enabling diabetics to live easy.
Increased convenience at homes, given the hybrid nature of work life and home. To meet the needs of convenience seekers we have also introduced Smart ‘Voice and App enabled’ Air Conditioners, 4 in 1 Convertible Refrigerators, Convertible Deep Freezers, Dishwashers including counter top dishwashers for smaller families and more.
Environment Consciousness – while yet to become a purchase factor but there has been a growing climate crisis which consumers are slowly getting concerned about. Godrej has always been committed to this cause and is the only brand to manufacture ACs with the greenest refrigerant in the world with lowest global warming potential.
We have always offered super-efficient power saving ACs and given our strong understanding and expertise in this area have also been a finalist at the Global Cooling Prize through our futuristic prototype that promises upto 80% power saving over current ACs.
We also offer 5-Star rated and power saving washing machines and deep freezers. Further, given the increasing scarcity of water, our washing machines and dishwashers are equipped with eco mode that conserves water.
Additionally, we have observed that all the premium appliances such as frost-free refrigerators, fully automatic washing machines, air conditioners and microwave ovens are doing better than mass segments. Our investments have also been in line with this pattern.
Keeping this in mind, for this festive season which kickstarts with Onam in Kerala, we have already added 100+ new product SKUs enabling greater choice for our consumers. With this strong new line-up of premium products across categories we expect to drive more than 30% growth this Onam vs both last year and pre-pandemic Onam period. And expect to see continued momentum though the rest of the festive season as well.
How have your brand- and your brand marketing strategies evolved in these past two years of the pandemic?
Pandemic affected the summer sales of our cooling categories for two consecutive years, denting the growth of the large appliances industry in a significant way. Consequently, the focus of the brand shifted sharply to conversion. A clear gainer in marketing mix was digital and particularly, ecom given the ability to talk specifically to the intending purchaser.
With the market completely open for the whole of summer this year, a first since the pandemic – the focus shifted to reaching a larger audience and gaining back brand recall with mass media and particularly TV playing a big role. We head into festive with a strong campaign across TV and ground focusing on our wide range and a specially crafted consumer offer to capitalise on the festive sentiment.
When it comes to tactical, cash backs and finance are the flavour of the year and are expected to play a key role in conversions in the upcoming Diwali season as well. Given the growth in the premium segments, finance and upgrade schemes will be important.
GTM will continue to focus on digital presence, ecom and shop floor. Videos remain a relevant vehicle and will be deployed in the marketing plan to bring alive the product portfolio.
What is the perfect media mix for your brand?
Multiple factors would influence this ideal or optimum metrics. Few of the factors basis which the media mix is planned are: Priority markets, medium with high efficiency in these markets, objective of the campaign – awareness vs reach vs impact or a combination, budgets allocated and TG targeted amongst others. Covid has also resulted in changes in the penetration in few mediums.
Digital has had a huge incremental growth during Covid. Godrej Appliances has been focusing on a mix of TV and Digital supported by shop floor focus and this combination seems optimal for the brand. BTL activations are an added tool during the festive season deployed in a very specific manner, market to market, store to store, to address specific objectives.
Which are the most important categories that will see big uptake in the upcoming Festive season?
Across categories, premium segments continue to drive greater growth. In line with this, we have recently launched- Eon Velvet series – comprising new Side-by-Side Refrigerators and Top Load Washing Machines with GermShield technology, Eon Crystal – a new range of Glass Door Frost Free Refrigerators with 95%+ Food Surface Disinfection along with other washing machines and deep freezers, for the festive season. More new product launches are lined up in coming quarters.
Would you recommend more and more brands should also have, in time for the upcoming Festive Season, their own Ecommerce platform on web or app, online, for direct selling to consumers? Why?
Most brands in the appliance space already have their own ecommerce stores. With more consumers warming up to online purchases of appliances, the contribution of brand e-stores is gradually increasing. Brand eStores provide much needed assurance and trust for consumers and are hygiene offerings. On the other hand estore consumers continue to be a smaller chunk given the tendency of most consumers to compare and buy whether online or offline.
Your marketing campaigns for the festive season – will they be mostly customer-acquisition-focused, or will there be brand building elements too? And how important a role is the emerging AI-powered outdoor medium likely to play?
Given the clutter in the festive season, higher focus is on customer acquisition. Brand building on the other hand is an around the year activity with every touch point playing a role. Onam is a good example of how we approach the festive season – we have a unique mass media campaign in the local language, showcasing the product portfolio and the customised Onam consumer offer coupled with digital and shop floor plans around Onam.
While OOH is not a big component of our plans, we are open to it and as long as AI adds to customer experience in a relevant engaging manner, we would be keen to experiment with it. Our focus is on consumer experience and any tool, new or old that helps us build it, will be evaluated.
