Adgully Exclusive | To communicate "young' you need to think "young': Godrej's Ramesh Chembath
Today 65% of the country is below 35 years, a recent Neilsen survey showed. So, in short brighter living starts younger and that is where Godrej wanted to take the Godrej appliances brand. To communicate to the "young", you have to think "Young". Thus evolved the new proposition of "Designed by Curiosity". With this positioning, the task was to evolve the Godrej appliances brand from being at home with India's middle class to also being in step with buyers of the top end appliances. Designed by curiosity is not just a line, it signifies a change in how Godrej frame their brand conversations. And the marketing team of Godrej took exactly this challenge!
Speaking exclusively to Adgully, Ramesh Chembath, Asst V.P - Head - Marketing & LFR sales , Godrej Appliances, shared some insights about the campaign "Designed by Curiosity' and also explained how they conceptualized and .went ahead to execute it.
Speaking about the innovative tools that marketing team at Godrej used to communicate to the young audience, he said, "From, last 4-5 years there has been huge amount of changes in terms of technology and we also have to move with it otherwise we could not survive in this industry. Godrej, in past have also done innovations with refrigerators and other brands. As multinationals started stepping in with the beginning of this century, the last 4-5 years our whole effort was to bring back the DNA of our brand. We started with "EON' as a product in 2006, infact the bigger approach was to bring that, this is the same brand but bit stylish and new. In 2008 we came with "Designed by curiosity' whole proposition here was like a promise to customers. As we have to think about customers before we talk about brands. Entire thing is about being curious and when you talk about curiosity, innovations comes a way as you are trying to work on something new. So, that has helped us to move ahead in last few years with categories. We look innovations in every sphere of activity we do in marketing, communication, HR, brand management, account management, distribution. Is not only about communication but more about how we are communicating. As traditional way of advertising has also changed, in 2007 we started with tie ups with movies as they are doing well compare to 80's and they are made keeping youth in mind as they are master's today.
We did contests during movie "Luck by chance' that was one of the innovations that we started and it worked very well. So, we took that genre and then we took movies like "Alladin' where your 3 wishes can be fulfilled like one was to meet Amitabh Bacchan. In a way, it worked for us and it communicated to youth too. We focused online as we have to be their where youth was and where we can connect to them and do loads of activity around them. We also did association with IPL as cricketers are part of media."
When we asked about the challenges they faced in targeting this young TG and the way they communicated the right message , he said, " Whole effort is to connect with youth and that is what we started doing with movies, advertisements. But, advertisements is not the way where youth get engaged, and we started looking for modes of engagement so we started connecting with them through online activities and by doing contests that engaged them. We don't want to increase fans on social media space but also build the engagement level which has increased 30%-40%. We started running promos, online contests on facebook and captions to engage them such as "what you want to cook today?' or "how was your day at office?' for people who are travelling and browse facebook while travelling."
He further elucidated as to how they arrived at the right communication, and said, "We tried to understand lifestyle and other things as its also about brands influence on consumers. A decade back all communications were about the lineage of the brand and hence the trust factor it brought in the consumers mind wherein they invested in that product. But, when we look now way of communication has changed even in the movies the thought process has changed as earlier they used to show settled family. But, as we did loads of research now, youth are not settled they need something which goes with their idea what they want. To communicate "young' we have to think "young'. So, it helped us too understand what we have to work on."
When he was asked about the TG's reaction to the communication they have been exposed to, he explained that, "I strongly think that it's not only about the communication which can deliver this it's a brand which has got product portfolio much wider that the appliances. Godrej to different people means different thinking. People who buy almirah or who buy a lock for then Godrej is different from the people who buy Godrej appliances. Godrej is a brand for mass, brand they trust, there to comfort them with technologies to the large extent. It's not only about communication but strong product story. We have built platform for convergence of different product, every product development features something which appeals to youth. For example, music is big thing amongst youth, so we launched refrigerator this year which has music inbuilt. Suddenly, when brand also come with product which has relevant features creates more appeal amongst youth and the other customers."
We further asked, if they have seen any shift in Godrej's product off-take post the new campaign "Designed by Curiosity, he said, "We haven't run any campaign specifically for "Designed by Curiosity' but we have used various category campaign, campaign to bring it alive and if you see the most important thing is the whole objective is to make the brand younger appeal to younger through communication that really works. There were few articles which talked about it and that we are now youth brand from that perspective it really worked and secondly in terms of sales we are doing average sale of 30% - 40% from last 3-4 years but now our growth is doubled with it at this point of time."
With this he added his insights on the research undertaken, he said, "We actually started right from the conceptualization to thinking pattern and the way we communicate and reached out to the customers. We target customers and took the input from them so that we can share it with our groups as a database that can support us. My whole social media is handled by a girl who joined us few months back as management trainee and she is handling the whole process and I never interfere in that because I know that she knows better than me how to handle that crowd. I can give her strategy but response will be not such the way she is doing today. Over 9 months she built network of upto 1.2 -1.3 lakhs of facebook fans because she is in that phase. The point of working with youth is that their objective is different than ours. So, give the brand to young people brand will become younger."
As we know that communication is the tool which is very important element that is used to reach out to the consumers. So, what kind of communication is used to reach out to the stakeholders of Godrej(dealers, trade, advisors etc.)? he replied, " I think, in that the most important thing is not to talk with yourself but to bring it alive. so, when we started, we started with launch of products, we identify that at least in every segment one product should be there to bring it alive, so we have series of model. Last year we launched 102 new products, every year we launch our new products. When that trade start seeing you doing this then they see you as different brand. If I just talk about a stand and make a community saying yes that we are designed by curiosity and this is what it is, then we are not supported to any of the product or change in a way we talk to them. Or change in a way we carry out our business then they will not believe it. Infact, we change the way of distribution, we change the way we approach, and we got loads of system replaced for the first time in history. This industry is like as much as you push they will sell, usually we used to do it end of every month that's the history was. We moved from there to pull push that is whatever will sell we will supply to you. Now, they asked why you are doing this. This is not the way our industry does. But we said, no there is a way you'll become profitable I'll become profitable. If I may give you Rs.100 ' Rs.200 more then what's the point if you carry that stuff for two months and no selling. Then they realized overall thinking and over all working of the organization has changed and then they appreciated the fact "designed by curiosity' they understand it and that they are profitable to you. So, you bring alive your proposition and through your ads to keep that promise and to bring about proposition to deliver it and then they believe that this is what the company itself believes in."
After achieving a certain milestone he explained about how he is looking at sustaining it, he said "I believe the way we thought, to bring "designed by curiosity' upfront not by making it much catchier but something be curious but we want to move to a next level whenever we are ready with what we are doing right now. In that sense, keeping design by curiosity upfront in a way that everyone think about it first. It's not just about line which comes with ad but for us its line comes before brand itself. It's "Designed by curiosity ' Godrej appliance' it is the line which lives the brand. We want to bring a mind shift in the organization so that they can do better on the stuff."
About 2012 plans, he said, "We are looking forward to it. What all you achieve today and when you step one more year ahead, there is a promise that you have to keep living. It is a continuous process that cannot be stopped anywhere. That should remain the core of what we do and now to an extend we start planning products for next 3 years four years. Today we are not planning products what we launch next year but we are planning for products that are going to be launched 3 years hence 4 years hence. Lot of thinking starts flowing into it, it come into action. It also sourcing us to identify spaces where we are not present and how do we exploit those spaces so that we lived the promise better than others can live or others can even deliver on."
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