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Driving Growth Through Innovation: The Marketing Strategy of Asian Paints
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Asian Paints is India’s leading paint manufacturer with a dominant presence in the decorative paint segment. Founded in 1942, Asian Paints has grown to become a household name in India due to its innovative products, widespread distribution network, and effective marketing and branding strategies.
In this comprehensive blog post, we will analyze Asian Paints’ marketing mix, understand its target audience, study its competitive landscape, and explore the key elements of its marketing strategy that have fueled its success over the past eight decades.
About Asian Paints
Asian Paints is India’s largest paint company and the third largest paint manufacturer in Asia. The company has an enviable portfolio of brands including Asian Paints, Apcolite, Ace, Tractor, Berger International, SCIB Paints, Taubmans, Kadisco Asian Paints, Causeway Paints, and Asian Paints Industrial Coatings.
Headquartered in Mumbai, Asian Paints has over 65 manufacturing facilities in India and operations across 15 countries through subsidiaries like Berger International and SCIB Paints. With a turnover of ₹219 billion and market capitalization of ₹2.8 trillion, Asian Paints is India’s most valuable paint company.
Asian Paints manufactures a wide range of decorative paints, wood finishes, industrial coatings, and related products. Its offerings cater to every price segment with economy brands like Apcolite and premium brands like Royale Luxury Emulsion. This diverse product mix allows Asian Paints to meet the needs of all customer segments.
What’s New with Asian Paints?
Despite being a legacy brand, Asian Paints keeps reinventing itself by launching innovative products and expanding into new categories. Here are some of the recent developments at Asian Paints:
- Launch of products like SmartCare range of waterproofing solutions, Royale Health Shield paint with anti-viral properties, and Excel Maintenance coatings for metal protection.
- Foray into the lighting segment with the acquisition of lighting company ATLUM.
- Launch of Beautiful Homes Service for end-to-end interior design and execution for homeowners.
- Partnership with startups like Livspace and Design Café to strengthen its presence in interior design.
- Increased focus on sustainability through solutions like water-thinnable coatings, zero VOC paints, and paint recycling initiatives.
- Expansion in overseas markets by setting up new manufacturing plants and making acquisitions.
Buyer’s Persona
Asian Paints caters to a wide spectrum of buyers in the decorative paints segment including:
Homeowners
This includes individual home owners, nuclear families, and joint families looking to paint or repaint their homes. They desire quality paints that offer durability, texture, finish and visual appeal. Ease of application, color availability, and after-sales service are other considerations.
Builders and Contractors
This segment looks for paint solutions for new residential or commercial construction projects. Their need is for paints that provide coverage, are quick drying, and available in bulk quantities. They also need support in estimation, color consultation, and technical advice.
Architects and Interior Designers
This user segment influences choice of paints and coatings for real estate developers, hospitality sector, retail spaces etc. They demand premium paints that offer custom textures, finishes and shades.
Real Estate Developers
Major real estate developers buy paints in bulk for their residential and commercial projects. Low per liter cost, bulk availability, and project management support are key needs.
Industrial Buyers
Manufacturing units purchase industrial coatings for corrosion protection, maintaining hygiene standards, safety etc. They require coatings tailored for substrates like metal, concrete, wood etc.
Marketing Mix of Asian Paints
Asian Paints has crafted an effective marketing mix encompassing product, pricing, place, and promotion strategies to appeal to its diverse target audience.
Product Strategy
Asian Paints has one of the largest decorative paints portfolios in India with over 2,000 shades across brands like Royale, Apcolite, Ace, and Tractor. Salient aspects of its product strategy include:
- Tiered brand architecture: Caters to budget, mid-range and premium segments through SmartCare, Apcolite, Royale etc.
- Innovation focus: Regularly launches new products like anti-bacterial paints, metallic finishes, exterior wall coatings etc.
- Customization: Offers bespoke textures, finishes and shades through Royale Aspira and Colour World.
- Category expansions: Entered lighting, waterproofing, walls, bath fittings etc. to provide end-to-end solutions.
Pricing Strategy
Asian Paints has products across price points ranging from ₹100 per liter to ₹1,400 per liter. Its pricing strategy includes:
- Penetration pricing: Low unit pricing for economy range paints to drive volumes.
- Premium Pricing: Charges a price premium for its high-end range under Royale Luxury Emulsion.
- Project pricing: Bulk discounts for real estate developers and contract customers.
- Geographical pricing: Prices are lower in small towns compared to big cities.
- Campaign discounts: Tactical promotions like 20% extra free paint etc.
Place Strategy
With 70,000 dealers across India, Asian Paints products are available within 5 km of consumer homes. Key aspects include:
- Widespread dealer network: Leverages distribution muscle built over decades.
- Own retail stores: A network of 2000+ Asian Paints Beautiful Homes stores in metro cities.
- E-commerce: Tie-ups with online marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, and Myntra.
- Project sales: Direct sales force manages supplies for large real estate and industrial projects.
Promotion Strategy
Asian Paints spends around 11% of revenues on advertising to build awareness and drive sales. It uses:
- TV commercials: Engaging TV ads targetted at retail consumers.
- Digital marketing: Leverages SEO, social media, and influencer campaigns.
- Events: Conducts painting contests, consumer engagement events and outreach programs.
- Print/OOH advertising: Leverages newspapers, magazines, billboards, and transit media.
- Sales promotions: Discounts, gift coupons, and loyalty programs for dealers and influencers.
Competitor Analysis
Asian Paints competes with both Indian and multinational paint brands across different price segments:
Berger Paints
The second largest paint brand in India, Berger Paints offers premium interior and exterior paints like BreatheEasy, Silk, WeatherCoat Long Life, and Rangoli Total Care. It positions itself as an eco-friendly paint brand.
Nerolac
Owned by Kansai Paints of Japan, Nerolac offers paints like Excel, Beauty, and Impressions. Its core strengths are high quality and innovative paint products like Excel Anti Bacterial Excel, Excel Multi-Surface Decor paints etc.
Jotun Paints
A Norwegian MNC, Jotun Paints is popular for its superior exterior paints, wood coatings, floor coatings and protective coatings. Some of its offerings are Jotashield Extreme, Dureshield, and Lady Design Easy Clean. Known for its aesthetic appeal and durability.
The X-Factor in Asian Paints’ Strategy
A key ingredient in Asian Paints marketing success story has been its obsession with understanding consumer needs and pain points. The company invests heavily in consumer research to gain insights across demographic and geographic segments.
It has created distinct buyer personas based on consumer behaviors and attitudes. Asian Paints engages deeply with individual home painters, interior designers, architects, contractors, developers etc. to understand their requirements.
This segment-focused approach has enabled Asian Paints to craft targeted products and communication for different user groups. For instance, it has separate offerings and messaging for first time painters, experienced painters, aspiring homeowners, luxury buyers etc.
Continuous consumer immersion has allowed Asian Paints to constantly innovate and differentiate itself in a commoditized category like paints. This laser-sharp focus on the customer has been a huge driver of its marketing success over the decades.
Conclusion
Asian Paints’ ascent as India’s most trusted paint brand is a result of its customer-focused marketing strategy. By continually evolving its portfolio, strengthening its brand image, distributing its products widely, and connecting emotionally with consumers, Asian Paints has made painting easy and delightful for millions of Indian homes. The company’s obsession with understanding user needs and pain points has allowed it to stay ahead of the curve. Asian Paints’ marketing playbook demonstrates how consumer insights coupled with innovation and execution excellence can create enduring brand value.
