SEGMENTATION

Market segmentation is a marketing strategy which involves dividing a broad target market into

subsets of consumers, businesses, or countries that have, or are perceived to have, common

needs, interests, and priorities, and then designing and implementing strategies to target them.

The whole paint industry has been divided into two segments:-

Decorative segment

Industrial Segment

Decorative paints market has been further segmented into:-

Interior wall paints:- Distempers, Enamels, Emulsions.

Exterior wall paints:-

Wood surface paints

Metals surface paints

1. Caters to the housing sector

2. Premium paints (acrylic emulsions) used mostly in the metros.

3. Medium range (enamels) popular in cities and smaller towns.

4. Economy paints (distempers ) demanded in the suburban and rural markets

5. Distribution network is the key.

The Industrial paints are segmented into:-

automotive coating

high performance coating

powder coating and coil coating

1. Include powder coatings, high performance coating, automotive and marine paints.

2. Two-thirds of the industrial paints produced in the country are automotive paints.

3. Technological superiority and tie-up with automobile manufacturers.

ASIAN PAINTS SEGMENTATION:-

BRANDING STRATEGIES

Comparison between Nerolac and Asian paints:-

By definition, brand strategy is a long-term plan for the development of a successful brand in

order to achieve specific goals. A well-defined and executed brand strategy affects all aspects of

a business and is directly connected to consumer needs, emotions, and competitive

environments. Well, the brand strategy of both the companies is quite different. So, before

discussing the comparisons let’s look at their strategies one by one:-

Asian Paints Branding Strategy:

BRANDING OF COMPANY IMAGE- In 1954, Asian Paints asked the famous

cartoonist R.K. Laxman to create a mascot for the company, and from his pen was born –

Gattu, which emerged as one of Indians most memorable mascots.

BRAND FOCUSED MAINLY ON MASS AND RURAL MARKET : The rural

consumer differ from urban consumers in colour preference, beacuse in case of some

products , colour may matter very much . Firms can exploit this fact to their advantage.

That’s what the ASIAN PAINTS did. They understood the substantial difference between

the rural buyer in the colour preference. Asian Paints introduced paints with bright

colours for the rural markets. Asian Paints has been at the forefront of innovation,

reaching the markets with new products before its competitors. At the time of Asian

Paint’s entry, paint companies were supplying paints in containers of 500 ml or larger.

Asian Paints saw that there was a felt need in the market for paints in smaller packs and

harnessed the business opportunity by supplying paints in small packs sizes of 200 ml,

100 ml and 50 ml. This proliferation (the act of increasing and building up) in pack sizes

contributed immensely to its success in rural markets. And also Asian Paints Gattu

though equally well known in urban and rural market , has greater effectiveness as an

identity tool in the rural market .Actually in many rural parts of India , Asian Paints is

referred to as the chokrawala company.

ASIAN PAINTS CREATED A LARGE NETWORK OF DEALERS:

Asian paints concentrating on decorative paints market and they know it is going to be a great success; And

automotive paint market was dominated by NEROLAC paints.Asian paints dominates 40 percent of share in

decorative.

5. COMPETITION 6.  Major innovation in packaging; one-litre,50-ml (the time during the festival ) Upgrading chuna into

utsav. Went to rural india Gain in respect in mass market with low price and great innovations Concentrating in niche marketASIAN PAINTS

7.  10,000 dealers in 3,500 towns. Dealer loyalty and widespread retail network and centenary celebrations with old dealers and employee. Paint is an expensive affair encourage people to use paints by 1.painting experience 2.And painting resembles an enjoyable experience and good life. 3.targetting regional festivals and occasions. Understand the consumer need of advertising theme, “For your walls”UNDERSTAND THE MARKET

8.  Spent Rs.11.5 crores in advertising. Planned to beat the competition on distribution, with 8000 dealers. Better than utsav ,and targeted people who are price-conscious. Mid-market paint (upgrade of whitewash into powder distemper) Goody synthetic distemperNEROLAC PAINTS

9.  Because the strategy NEROLAC used it is not effective as like the Asian paint It went to success and it cant beat the Asian paints. Goody went in various avatars and introduced 3 premium brands are; zolocoat,satin-emulsion,gumtex.

I: How has your marketing strategy changed over the years?Sukhpreet Singh: I think if you look at the overall communication task, it’s been in sync with the whole involvement of the consumers with the application of paint. If I could put it very broadly, from the fact that it was just a whitewash kind of commodity, to the fact that it became more of a lifestyle kind of purchase, to the fact that now we’re trying to broaden the whole aspect into a better living environment. What we’re trying to do now is move paint up from just decor to something that is actually about your living environment and health; it’s a long journey that way, from a pure commodity purchase to a very evolved thing.Anuj Jain: There was a time when people used to only look at whitewash. Then there was a time for colour. Then it came to products which could take care of problems, like cracks and so on. Now it’s in the area of your living environment. The thing we believe now is that when you’re at home or in the office, paint is surrounding you. Therefore, it should create a healthy environment around you.CI: On Shahrukh Khan being the new brand ambassador for Kansai Nerolac.Anuj Jain: The new task was to communicate the innovation of the paint, and when you have something new, a celebrity helps take the message to the people. With this new positioning of creating an environment that is safe for kids, Shahrukh’s personality (because he represents healthy and happy homes), matched with the message.

Sukhpreet Singh: It’s not about the ‘face of the times’. We’ve always gone with spokespersons who’ve identified with leadership and change, with conviction. We’re trying to move paint out of the four walls (paint advertising was always about good looking walls). What we’re trying to say now is that paint can actually lead to a better living environment, whether it is in your house, outside, your locality or your city. It isn’t about saving the world, but about you, your kids and taking care of your family. Our corporate line is also about transformation: ‘Kuch change karein, chalo paint karein’. So that’s why Shah Rukh was chosen; it wasn’t about the Khan wars, or because another brand has a Khan endorsing it.

1. Asian Paints created a large network of dealers

2. It established a network of company depots to service the dealers

3. It created a marketing organization that matched its distribution

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.

As can be seen from the Creative Brief, the ad is strategic in nature, being a part of the Asian Paints campaign promoting Asian Paints as the brand with the largest range of colours and one that will satisfy the consumer and is able to give him precisely what he wants. The advertising through the campaign is single-minded and focussed in its proposition, communication and target audience. The campaign included TVCs and other print advertisements as part of the same communication.

At the time, Asian Paints had 13 brands with over 1,100 shades, targeting different niches. They were beginning to realise that though some brands like Apex emulsions, Royale interior emulsion, Apcolite and Touch Wood had high recall; none except Tractor distemper were almost generic. Therefore, they decided to promote the corporate image and the various brands under their umbrella brand ‘Asian Paints’ through their communication, pushing the generic Asian Paints brand instead of pumping in investment on individual brands. This leveraged on the advantage that Asian Paints was the one company in this low-involvement segment where people actually asked for the paint by brand, breaking away from the earlier tradition where consumers were not known to be very brand-conscious in this low-involvement segment and, more often than not, relied on what the painter bought for them within the budget allocated, being more specific about the colour than its source.

Other Considerations

· Use the colours, logo and symbol of Asian Paints and Colour World, which are a pneumonic essential to all brand communication.

· Keep in mind that the advertisement should be in line with the overall communication strategy of the brand and primarily should support the proposition advertised in the current television commercials ‘mera wala cream’, mera wala pink’ and ‘kathakalli dancer’ (TVCs will be sent for your perusal).

· During primary research we noticed that persons during the phase of getting their house painted look for just the right shade and are prone to collecting samples to visually show their painter exactly what they had in mind and cannot always express verbally. If this insight is useful, you may incorporate it in your advertising.

ut this campaign failed to inspire any interest in the consumers and the company felt that the market is moving towards a commodity market where price is the most important differential. Asian Paints undertook a consumer research aimed at understanding the perception of consumers about the product category. The research revealed lot of interesting insights. Consumers felt that paints could change the mood of the space and it was a sign of festival and plenitude.It could make a gloomy place bright and pleasant. From this insight came the campaign of Asian Paints associating itself with festivals. Research also confirmed that customers tend to repaint their houses on the occasion of festivities. Thus born the campaign "Celebrate with Asian Paints". The campaigns were carefully crafted and there were different campaign for different regions. These campaigns effectively enhanced the brand equity of Asian Paints and established itelf as a premium brand. More than that , these campaign ensured an emotional connect with a brand in a low involvement category.The brand also phased out many subbrands and rest of the subbrands was brought under Asian Paint's umbrella brand.

hus came the birth of a wonderful positioning strategy created by O&M. The insight was that the brand is about people and homes and homes reflect the people living in it. Hence " Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai" translated to " Every Home has a story to tell". This campaign is a perfect example of a brand laddering up and connecting to a higher level in the mind of the customer. The campaigns reinforced the brand as a premium emotional brand.Along with the campaign Asian Paints also ran parallel ads for its subbrands. Saif Ali Khan endorsed the premium brand Royale .For Apex Ultima, the campaign was highly localized and was different in different market.

The brand also went in a brand overhaul. The logo was changed to a contemporary upmarket one designed by Entreprise IG based in Singapore.The logo/design was to convey self expression, sophistication and Technology.

Taking a cue from the success of Ghar campaign , the brand took ownership of the COLOR. The insight is that each color has a story to tell. The latest campaign reflects on the color and uses the campaign " Har Rang Kuch Kehta hai" translated to "Every color has a story to tell".The brand is so serious about the color that it has tied up with IIT to explore new colors and conduct research on colors.Asian Paints is a classic branding story and the brand is still exploring and growing.

Asian paints and Nerolac paints can be very well differentiated in terms of their target audience, Asian paints is more in decorative

market while Nerolac is in Industrial market. This difference is highlighted by their websites as well. Nerolac gives us a more

corporate look. Whereas Asian on the other hand is much more lively and fun filled where you can view the website in the colour

you like and other initiatives like ask aparna etc. Asian paints score more on CRM as compared to Nerolac.