In 2023, media automation & AI will significantly drive efficiency & ads: Pooja Baid

The mission of Philips Domestic Appliances is to make houses into homes. Home, according to the company, is more than just a house. Philips Domestic Appliances’ patent portfolio, which totals over 900, includes innovations in the fields of kitchen appliances, coffee, clothing, climate, and floor care. The Philips Airfryer, Espresso Machine with LatteGo, PerfectCare Steam Generator, Air Purifier, and AquaTrio Cordless Vacuum are among the items sold under the Philips name. Not just in India, Philips has offices in over 100 nations. Its popular product lines follow EcoDesign specifications and showcase the organization's dedication to environmental best practices.

In conversation with Adgully, Pooja Baid, CMO, Philips Domestic Appliances, talks about the company’s marketing strategies for this summer, campaign strategy, leveraging traditional media in the digital era, focusing on driving aggressive penetrations, and more.

What are the kinds of consumer trends that we are observing during the summer season this year?

Without first getting into the industry, this summer seems like everybody is going to take a holiday. So, we expect a lot of travel to happen, if you’ve seen the weather forecast, it is expected to be a very dry summer, at least so far. The forecast says that we are going to have a week of monsoon, which means scorching heat. This scorching heat is going to bring 3 things – one, people are going to take vacations and breaks, while some of them will be traveling, thanks to the heat, some of them are going to spend in the comforts of their homes in cool, comfortable environments where a lot of appliances play a very, very important role in making your life more comfortable.

The second thing we notice is that a very dry, hot summer is predicted. Hopefully, there will be a rise in the demand for cooling products. When that occurs, cooling items almost set the tone for the entire appliance market as they fly off the shelves. Because there is a cycle of stock and money into the channel, when a season performs well at some level, it also performs well for every other sectors of the industry.

The last thing that we are expecting the summers to bring for us is a longer holiday season or a break season, by which I mean that no longer are summer holidays restricted to 30 days or 45 days.

What are the major focus areas of Philips?

The major focus area has remained a constant strategy over time. We are always keeping an eye on two prompt models. Our flagship product line includes a section in which we are the product creators and innovators. Products and categories like air fryers, common steam, or purifiers are examples of innovations made by Phillips. Despite being present for a few years in the market, these categories still have very low penetration in the market, and as part of our strategy, we are focusing on driving aggressive penetrations and some innovative and flagship categories into the market. Across all the other established old categories, we are a very premium and upgrade-driven brand.

What are your marketing strategies for the summers? Could you tell us about your upcoming campaigns?

For the summer, we do have several pretty intriguing campaigns planned. As an industry, we have been doing this more and more lately, and of course, as a business, we are becoming more digitally focused. We have seen that consumers spend a lot of time online and that this is a platform that allows for two-way communication with customers. You can not just drive awareness, but you can drive engagement. And increasingly our focus on that will become sharper and sharper as we go forward. One very important pillar of our marketing in the summers is going to be around creating digital content and promoting digital content for a lot of our key categories.

In addition to continuing to index always-on campaigns for digital, we will also examine offline media, particularly in larger cities. The larger markets that we serve will need us to increase our offline presence. You will see us presenting from an offline standpoint, whether it is through print ads, outdoor communication, or TV advertising. We are a company with a wide range of product lines and categories. We want to make sure that everyone has enough time in the sunshine, therefore during the summer you will see us activating a lot of categories across a lot of media.

How are you leveraging traditional mediums like print, radio and television as part of your media mix strategy?

If you have been paying attention, we finished our second-largest campaign of the year in March. Both of these initiatives, the first of which we launched in February and the second of which we did so in March, were centered on utilising print media as the medium that consumers trust and engage deeply. Not only are the consumers in metro cities interested in these ads or this medium, but Tier 2 and 3 target markets are also working very hard on these initiatives.

In February, we launched a campaign called ‘Taste of Love’, in line with Valentine’s Day with print media. This was focused on the big Metro cities.

In the month of March, we took one step further. We launched a first-in-the-industry offer of the mixed grinder with a 10-year warranty. Nobody in the industry does it. No other brand has this proposition, and we promoted this proposition again leveraging print media. We did not restrict ourselves to just English newspapers or the metro cities. We went one step further and went into vernacular media and a large number of Tier 2 cities. We covered more than 50 cities with a print footprint with this campaign.

What are the major trends that you see dominating this industry in 2023?

The major trends in the industry can be split into 3 dimensions. One could be a trend that one notices around the products that consumers use. One would be a trend on how consumer communication is evolving, and the third would be a trend around how the consumer demand for a product, which gets generated after interacting with communication, caters to the channel kind of trend.

In terms of product, we see very specifically 2023 amplifying the trend that has been in the industry for the last few years, which is that of smart and connected appliances. You will see increasingly across all industries, brands are innovating and building more and more smart and connected devices into the market. That is a trend that we see amplifying and intensifying even further in 2023 from a product perspective.

Additionally, we observe that buyers would seek out more aesthetically beautiful furniture and appliances for their houses. We have all begun this process of taking pride in our houses and inviting guests with grace, especially in open India. With the assistance of interior designers, we effectively decorate our homes; colour selection is now considered a reflection of who we are rather than just a seasonal exercise in whitewashing. And all of that has an impact on the aesthetics a product chooses. So, consumers are increasingly going to look for products that blend in well with the interiors of their house, whether it is via colour scheming, whether it is via design, language, surface language, or texture.

One, of course, is going to be in the way AI determines communication, whether it is about identifying and being able to deliver hyper-personalisation, or whether it is about extremely laser shop targeting to the consumers. In 2023, media automation and AI will play a very significant role in driving efficiency and advertising. I believe that from the perspective of communication messages, as you can see across all industries, the messaging conversation will center on a more equitable home. People will perceive the home as a setting where everyone has an equal stick. It is, and it will be, a place where everyone contributes and creates value. And I believe that will be the course that industry homes will adopt.

What are the major expectations from your sector in the coming year?

It is reasonable to say that, hopefully, the Covid scare is over, so this year we are hoping for industry growth to sort of stabilise. Pre-Covid shows that the market has been expanding at a relatively stable rate of 6-8%, and we anticipate that this year’s growth will be similar to last year’s. We have been up-trending this market growth and securing our market for as many years as Phillips has been operating in India – roughly 80 or so years. We anticipate the market expanding steadily and by our goals and current products this year, just as we did last. We expect some degree of market outgrowth as well. The second thing that I anticipate is that the industry will make a lot of intriguing new launches and advancements. Several new brands have emerged over the past two to three months, as well as across all channels and categories, and in the upcoming few months, even more innovation will be unveiled.

Last but not least, this year will also be a crucial one in making climate change a reality for us. Longer summers and drier summers are fairly obvious signs of climate change, at least in India. Additionally, as the early and late members of Gen Z begin to make purchases in this area, there will be a rise in consumer eco-consciousness.

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