Greenply has made conscious shift to be a product+service brand: Kamal Kant Mishra

Greenply Industries Ltd (GIL) recently kicked-off the second phase of its breakthrough ‘Ask Greenply’ campaign, after the immensely popular ‘Ask Greenply’ campaign last year. Conceptualised by Ogilvy & Mather, the latest campaign continues in the humourous vein of the previous TVCs. This time, ‘Ask Greenply’ is not only the guide for choosing the right plywood, it also monitors and leads the customers in the right direction to help them avoid social embarrassment caused by using cheap plywood. 

The new set of Greenply ads have received over 1,806,614 views on Facebook. 

Throwing more light on the second phase of the campaign Kamal Kant Mishra, Associate Vice President & Head of Marketing, Greenply Industries Ltd, said that it is largely inspired by the success of the first phase of the campaign. He added, “It is engaging, arresting and captures attention like nothing else. The new elements that have been inculcated in the second phase of the campaign are deeper engagement, quirky humour and new information spaces, which will enable potential as well as existing consumers to make informed choices. The ad campaign features amusing characters which the audience can relate to and learn lessons from.” 

Speaking on the concept of the campaign, Mishra explained that the elements of the first phase of the campaign worked very well to spread the message across for the brand, but the company felt the need to connect with the consumers on a deeper lever. “Hence, we designed ads that believe that Greenply must act, feel and behave like a category leader. As leaders, we must guide the customer such that he makes better brand and product related decisions and encourage them to come to us for their indecisiveness about purchasing the right plywood,” he added. 

Elaborating on the advertising strategy of Greenply, Mishra said, “Greenply uses emotion to connect with its audience. We don’t follow any strategy as such, but we feel that we can strike a chord with our consumers if we perceive the product and the brand from their point of view and thus we engage with them on a personal level.” 

Elaborating on the evolution of brand Greenply over the years, Mishra said that Greenply worked on such a Brand Value Proposition because:

a) It will set the brand apart in the marketplace
b) To create a clear and favourable expectation from the brand in the customer’s mind; and
c) To give the brand a positioning that it will be consistent with, day in and day out. 

He affirmed that Greenply is a strong brand because it has an internal consistency, as well as a tightly-defined image to place itself inside the customer’s mind. He believed that it would create customer pull and reduce the heavy dependence on trade dynamics. “It will give us, over time, a more stable market-share than one that is entirely dependent on reactive and tactical incentives,” Mishra further said. 

On gaining the customers’ attention and relevantly engaging with them, Mishra said, “The core marketing offers us a lot of scope if we are able to tap those platforms – company website, special microsites, social platforms, mobile web, etc. – properly, with a 360-degree strategy to connect all of these activities. These are interactive media, not just for broadcasting our message but to welcome responses and acknowledge them.”  

He further said, “During the year, we have identified the marketing development areas we have to address as a brand, and taken steps to progress in those directions. We acknowledged that customers must realise there is plywood knowledge which will help them better in furnishing solutions. We must let them know we are at hand to help them obtain the knowledge.”  

“Subsequently, we created the digital outreach to make all of this interactive. The volume of response and the brand connect that has been built with interested customers across geographies are good beginnings indeed, and Greenply brand has much to reap from it by building upon these foundations. New media holds the key to initiating and cementing customer relations in a speedy and cost-efficient way. We are also aligning the messages from our brand – whether to distributor, contractor/decorator, artisan or end-customer – as this adds to clarity of brand image, by means of ‘one sound, one sight, one sell’,” Mishra elucidated. 

Speaking about the success of the first phase of the campaign, Mishra said, “We made a significant start in increasing consumer involvement with the ‘Ask Greenply’ campaign.

• Availability: We made information, knowledge and solutions about plywood easily available.
• Expert Brand: People could depend on us with their doubts and questions about plywood.
• We began our efforts: To win greater control of consumer decisions.”

This resulted in changing how consumers interact with a category needs sustained effort. “We will continue this journey and work towards getting more and more consumers involved and knowledgeable about the category,” Mishra said. 

This was done with an eye on the need to make a conscious shift from being a product brand to being a product + service brand. Empowering the customer with information and knowledge is the first step towards becoming a product + service brand. 

“The faster and better evolved, we move from being a significant leader to market leader in the branded category,” he affirmed. 

When asked how brands are using message integration for building consumer connect through innovative campaigns, Mishra replied, “By providing accessible content, one to one exchange opportunity with consumers, data driven content about the user’s journey, informing the user along the way and integrating products and services so that it moves existing and potential customers by creating a memorable and authentic experience, brands are building consumer connect.

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