Asian Paints is an Indian paint manufacturing firm established since 1942. It has, over it’s 70+ years of existence become the leading paint company in India. Apart from the superior quality of paints, they are known for winning the nation’s heart with their colourful and quirky advertisements. Their Marketing strategy has been the key differentiator that has made the company as successful as it is today.

This blog is an overview of Asian Paints’ marketing strategies, in an effort to try and decode their success and learn about their journey. We shall be covering the company’s product portfolio with its distinctive advantages and marketing campaigns over the years.

Let us begin this learning journey with a brief introduction to Asian Paints.

About the company

Headquartered in Mumbai, Asian Paints is currently the largest paint company in India and the third-largest in Asia. The Asian Paints group operates in 19 countries and has different subsidiaries, such as:

• Berger
• APCO
• Scib Paints
• PPG Asian Paints
• Taubmans
• Sleek Kitchens
• Kadisco and many others.

It is India’s leading paint group with an annual total revenue of Rs 20,515.56 Crores in the Financial Year 2020. The company manufactures paints in the category of decorative, automotive, and industrial segments. The company also manufactures various accessories as well like wall primers, wood primers, putty, strainers, etc.

Now that we understand the company’s business and core products, let us begin to understand the reason behind their successful marketing strategy!

 

Asian Paints Marketing Mix

A marketing mix is the collection of strategies or initiatives that a company uses to promote the demand for its brand or product. A standard marketing mix- Product, Price, Promotion and Place – comprises the 4Ps. Let us take a look at Asian Paints’ Marketing Mix:

 

• Product Strategy

Asian Paints’ core product is decorative and industrial paint. Along with that, the company offers solutions and services for home paintings. Instead of having one homogenous target audience, the company uses a differentiating targeting strategy to cater specific products to different segments of customers, as explained below:

– Asian Paints Royale targeted at the premium segment

– Apcolite, tractor emulsion, tractor distemper targeted at the economy segment

Asian Paints also provides protective coatings, undercoats, primers and putties. The products in the marketing mix of Asian Paints, hence, provide complete painting solutions including accessories and tools.

 

• Price Strategy

Asian Paints follows different pricing strategies according to the targeted segment. As mentioned above, the Royale product range is marketed towards high-income groups and hence, is priced higher.

Asian Paints follows a value-based pricing approach for the medium and economic segments. As per the exclusive features in the product category, the price also varies. The pricing decisions are often influenced by the raw material used to manufacture paints, as well as competitors’ prices. The company’s success can also be attributed to its high incentives for distributors. Summed up, Asian Paints has adopted a flexible pricing policy.

 

• Promotion Strategy

Over the years, Asian Paints has carried out various highly successful promotional activities. One of its most notable being the brand mascot Gattu, a cartoon created by R.K Laxman in 1954 that went on to become a popular and recognized figure for more than four decades.

The company’s main focus is being all about families, and emotionally connecting with the customers. Many famous public figures have been Asian Paints brand ambassadors such as Akshay Khanna, Ranbir Kapoor, brother-sister duo Saif Ali Khan and Soha Ali Khan, with the most recent being Deepika Padukone.

A major promotional tool used by them is providing incentives to their distribution network. Presently, a lot of their promotion is also executed through their social media, touched upon in detail later, when speaking of their digital media presence.

 

• Place Strategy

Asian Paints has operations around the world. They are carried out through a network of five regions worldwide, via the Caribbean region, the Middle East region, the South Pacific region, South-East Asia and South Asia, with large resources spent on R&D centres.

Asian Paints’ major competitive advantage is its well-established, extensive distribution network. The organization targets all- semi-urban, rural and urban areas. It launched an open-door policy for dealers after entering the retail market and began a national marketing and distribution operation. It has different manufacturing locations and is India’s largest. This dynamic network, along with sales managers, executives and the sales team, manages all development and delivery phases.

Asian Paints is a massive organisation and faces competition from all sides. Now that we have covered their marketing mix in-depth, let us understand their competitors.

 

Competitive Analysis

Asian Paints is the market leader, with currently over almost 30% market share. Its biggest competitors are- Berger Paints, Kansai Nerolac, Indigo Paints, Akzo Nobel, Sirca Paints and Shalimar Paints. Asian Paints’ competitive advantage is its distribution strength.

Its product portfolio, comprising the exhaustive list of painting needs, is also a competitive advantage along with its visibility and geographical reach.

• The company’s stand-out feature is its range of exclusive signature stores providing consumers with expert assistance from trained professionals offering customized furnishing and decoration solutions. Many such measures are taken by the company to reduce the influence of painters over the customers’ choice of brands, in a novel way over the years.
• Prospective customers can even directly call the company’s helpline to check out the product offerings and get a direct quote.

But ultimately, these advantages are imitable. What the company needs to do for long-term leadership, is generate more demand by way of intermediaries.

• In the paint business, intermediaries like painters, contractors, designers, decorators, etc have a high influence over consumers’ purchase decisions.

• Asian Paints could use these intermediaries to their benefit, by either utilizing them as a marketing arm to promote their products as spokespersons directly to the end-user.
• Or, the company could sideline intermediaries and open up a service arm, cutting costs for consumers via bundling services and thus, increasing demand via value addition.

Let us now look at the reason the company has been able to achieve its status as the nation’s leading brand, i.e. its successful marketing strategy.

 

Asian Paints Marketing Strategy

Asian Paints’ marketing strategy is offering different products of varying price points, according to the income groups of the consumers they are marketed towards. They segment based on demographic and geographic factors such as location, income levels, etc. and then, target each segment with specific products suited to their needs and position themselves accordingly in terms of price.

They effectively use both, traditional media and digital media in their marketing. They advertise on television and in papers to garner attention from conventional media users. Their humorous ads presently feature Ranbir Kapoor, talking about the distinctive features of their paint. And they also market on social media through challenges, trends, competitions, using influencers, etc.

 

Asian Paints Marketing Campaigns

Asian Paints’ marketing journey has historically revolutionized what was traditionally considered a “static” industry. Let us take a look at some of its most effective marketing campaigns:

• • Post Gattu, Asian Paints, associated with Ogilvy and Mather, launched a new marketing strategy by focusing on festive occasions with their now signature tagline “Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hain” focusing on festivals such as Diwali and Pongal, occasions such as weddings, etc. The organization marketed it as an opportunity to paint homes by engaging on an emotional level. They still market heavily during festivals, by showcasing festive decor and celebrations, asking consumers to do the same and share using their hashtags!
  • The comedic “Wah Sunil Babu Wah” ad became extremely successful with audiences and is still remembered and associated with the brand. The concept was humorously poking at the fact that their paint maintains its freshness and longevity even through the various surrounding and life changes.

 

 

• The company then rebranded to appeal to consumers through high-profile brand ambassadors such as Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor. Depicting a switch in now communicating sophistication and innovation. The company still uses this strategy with newer public figures such as Radhika Apte and Rana Dagubatti.

 

 

• The company conducts many campaigns on their YouTube, via short video series. They focus on geographical regions and share their painting suggestions. They also then host competitions for these cities/states.

A modern-day marketing strategy is incomplete without a comprehensive digital marketing component. Let us see how they brought their iconic marketing style into the digital format.

 

Asian Paints Digital Marketing Strategy

Apart from being famous for their TV ads, Asian Paints is up with the current times and has a strong social media presence, owed to their brilliant digital marketing strategy. Asian Paint’s digital presence is handled by the ad agency Kinnect.

Let us analyze how they adopted the digital marketing medium and the strategies they use.

First, let us take a look at their particulars:

• 163k followers on Instagram, 119k on Twitter, 19 Lakh likes on Facebook and 945k subscribers on YouTube.

• They are most engaging on Instagram, where they regularly post home decor inspiration and designs, mentioning every product used in detail, for ease of the consumers.

• They host decor competitions periodically, especially during festivals such as Navratri, Diwali, X-Mas, etc. This encourages consumers to decorate their spaces and engage with the company in order to win exciting services and prizes.

• They are doing pretty well at influencer marketing as well, collaborating with popular Instagram figures who have used Asian Paints’ services. These influencers then conduct ‘house tours’ on their pages, promoting Asian Paints.

• They post tutorials of using new products on their YouTube, along with short videos of their ads.

• Twitter and Facebook are used to notify consumers of new offerings and advertisements.

The company also paints murals in various Indian cities, focusing on pressing social issues, thus generating awareness as well as goodwill for the company. Recently during the ongoing global pandemic, the company started a campaign- painting murals of essential workers and appreciating their service- titled ‘Thank you heroes.’ So it’s pretty clear that they utilise relevant current affairs happenings and create campaigns accordingly.

 

Conclusion

Asian Paints is certainly doing well for itself in the market with apt product segmentation and positioning, occupying a major chunk of consumer share. Its marketing strategies are effective, satisfying the consumers’ needs and maintaining its brand image as undoubtedly one of the best in the industry. The company’s marketing campaigns strike the right note with viewers and keep them interested in what they have to offer. Their Instagram presence is quite strong and up to speed with digital media advances. All in all, Asian Paints has evolved and maintained its brand quality and image very well. Although they could certainly benefit from increasing demand by differentiating and branching out their services arm.

Thank you for reading! We hope you found this blog useful and learnt about Asian Paints’ Marketing Strategies and Presence. If you did, be sure to share, comment and check out more of our blogs!