Exclusive | Polycab's new TVC to help brand building: Ramakrishnan

Polycab Wires, a market leader in the cables and wireless industry with a 22 per cent market share has for the first time launched a television campaign with its  ‘Safe raho. Save karo’ TVC. Even as Polycab became a leader in the organized Indian cable industry over the years, through systematic and sustained strategic planning and execution, it never thought about the TVC hitherto.

Speaking to Adgully about the reason behind the move, R. Ramakrishnan, Vice Chairman, Joint MD & Group CEO - Polycab Wires says, “Our core thought was to spread awareness of our brand Polycab. The latest communication informs consumers of a very critical aspect especially in today’s time of power outages and high costs of electricity, that of power saving. It is creatively presented in the TVC and educates the end consumer of the possible dangers that lie unattended to in the house in the form of faulty wiring.”

The company also wants to create a brand communications strategy & identity that is true to its premium position the industry category. Consequently, the idea to project Polycab as a premium wire brand has been a two pronged approach:  First, Safety; this helps in brand connect with the consumer at an emotional level as a brand that cares. It also underlines the aspect of the product being superior (Triguard Technology). The second approach is Savings; Given the current scenario of the high cost of electricity  consumers are looking at savings as a key factor for any product. The fact that Polycab wires have a strong RTB (25% power savings) capacity appeals to the end consumer quite effectively. Adds Ramakrishnan, “The single minded proposition is that, Polycab wires with superior technology not only keep your house safe but also help you save electricity.”

The TVC has been conceptualized by Taproot India. On being asked Ramakrishnan said, “The creative brief to the agency was simply that Polycab should become a household name. Currently, the end consumers are not aware of the product, its packaging and the philosophy that the brand propagates. The agency’s task is to essentially try and change that perception and hone in the fact that Polycab commands a fair share as a premium brand.”

With this campaign, Polycab embodies the mantra of Respecting Life. In an increasingly less caring world, Polycab values life and upholds beliefs such as: reliability, honesty and that prevention is better than cure. With its recent success, the brand has now catapulted in the leadership category and has carved a new identity for itself. This is reflected in the new logo which captures the core essence of providing power and managing its delivery to one’s doorstep in the most efficient and safest manner.

On asking him about what made Polycab choose the campaign medium to reach out to its consumers and how they are planning to take it forward, he firmly said, “For our end consumers, we feel that television is the best medium to communicate our message. However, digital medium offers a good opportunity to engage with people as people and not as consumers. It also presents us with an opportunity to introduce ourselves as a brand and help the youth to experience who we are without getting into technical details. Our strategy to engage with people on Facebook, Twitter and Linked In is working and in a span of just 3 months we have earned 15000 fans. What is important is we have a 21% talking about percentage; and this is good for us. This number should also be on the rise as we explore new content verticals to engage our users.”

On launch of their new logo with the campaign, Ramakrishnan explained that, “Polycab deals with giving power to consumers through a range of various electrical products and keeping this simple aspect in mind, we wanted to add a visual mnemonic to the existing Polycab typeface. We zeroed down on a monogram/symbol that's really simple, powerful and consumer friendly. It's a universal symbol for power. A company like ours can own this as we are a strong leader in the domestic industry today."

The  new TVC revolves around a normal household which includes a family of dangerous characters. Each member has a distinguished characteristic utilized from popular movies that can be easily identified by the Indian audience. “The launch of our very first ad campaign marks a new milestone for us in many ways. With this TVC, we also unveil our new corporate identity which will help our consumers understand and identify us better. While we are amongst the leading players in the industry, as a brand we evangelize the proposition of ‘safety’ and all our communication reinforces our message. We are very excited to present our new proposition and are confident this will only propel our brand to new heights,” said Ramakrishnan.

Polycab will cross turnover of Rs 4,000 crores during FY 12-13 and is expecting to be an Rs 10,000 crores company  in the span of next five years. Their major focus will be on the theme of “Mission Transform” with greater clarity on strategy and direction across Polycab and focus on “Path to Profitable Growth”. Adding to 2013 strategies for Polycab, Ramakrishnan said, “All one requires is a smart management team that knows how to make the right investments in production capacity, product range, people and distribution channels. On top of that, Polycab has built a robust pan-India distribution network, has a tremendous amount of influencer relationship and also has a great deal of goodwill among builders, architects and consultants. All this augurs extremely well for the company, which has developed powerful brand equity. We are at an interesting stage of evolution. We want to build stronger systems, smoother processes and better controls.”

The company is planning to come up with more products in the electrical business and give the customer h a wider product portfolio. “We intend to move into adjacent businesses. Our wires are coming into people’s homes, so we would like to extend our reach there. Probably over the next one-and-half years you will see a lot of these diversifications happening. You will see a lot action in this regard and it will all be properly phased. We have already entered the switches business and soon plan to enter LED lights and fans market. There will be significant investments in brand building ensuring consumer pull,” he concluded.