CTV, IPL & OOH Are Resulting In Positive Brand Recall For Crompton: Pragya Bijalwan

In a quick chat with Pragya Bijalwan, CMO, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals, she explains how the brand rests its success on innovation, consumer centricity, extension into allied categories and the right consumer conversation. 

Excerpts from the interview:

Q. Help us understand the present-day contours of the consumer electrical industry. What are the challenges that it is facing and how are you, at Crompton, really addressing them? 

The consumer electrical industry is based on one very strong pillar, technology, which is both a challenge and an opportunity. Innovation in consumer electricals happens at a very fast pace. As a positive, it really opens up a lot of opportunities for brands like us and so many other brands that are leading in this space to explore the new. Especially with the change in consumer lifestyles, there's also a rise in the affluent class. There is a lot of premiumisation happening and therefore people are looking at advanced appliances.

When you talk about advanced appliances, there is innovation that is happening at a very fast pace. Now, while everyone is running towards innovation, it's very important that innovation be extremely relevant to the consumer. You should not just do innovation because you want to create something new, you should do innovation because it matters to the consumer and it is in line with your own internal competencies and capabilities. So, innovation is something that is moving at a very fast pace in our industry and all of us in our industry are looking at leapfrogging that area and creating something really unique for the consumer which stands, of course, differentiated, meaningful, and relevant so that we are not only ready for today but also for tomorrow.

At Crompton, we have invested quite a bit in terms of innovation. We have set up a very large R&D centre in the heart of Mumbai, wherein we've got all engineers and all state-of-the-art technology present there across all our categories.

Q. The consumer, as we understand it, is central to Crompton’s efforts today. Help us understand the insights that you've gathered on the Indian consumer so far. What is their preference palette and some of the typical traits that they exhibit? 

Across our categories, while the core remains intact, consumer needs are evolving. From the time the fans used to just provide cooling comfort, today people are looking at smart fans, they're looking at great fans because you are decorating your entire house, and that's one space that you need to decorate. It's almost like a chandelier.

There's a growing urge for smart appliances; there's a growing urge for great-looking appliances, and more and more research says that if an appliance is smart, it has to be great-looking as well. Smart means technology-savvy, advanced in technology, and also means great looking.

Today, consumers are also heading because they see a reflection of themselves in the space they live in. Their stature is reflected not only in the cars and their houses but also in the appliances they use.

I think that's where consumer needs are fast changing, and brands are just running behind in doing fantastic innovation behind smart and great-looking appliances.

Q. Crompton has been in the business for eight decades. How do you see the brand interweaving its legacy with technology, innovation, customer satisfaction, and brand value—all of these in one cohesive fabric? 

The brand has evolved over the years in terms of technology, innovation and innovation, which I see as the basic table stakes. We follow a very deep process behind inciting, and we spend a lot around consumer insights.

The fact that we have also achieved a near-leadership position in some of the other categories, like air coolers and water heaters, also talks about a technology promise. Over the years, we have invested not only in fans but also in appliances like water heaters and air coolers, and now, consumers have validated the fact that if there is enough and more trust in the brand and the brand forays into allied categories with the right innovation, they have the right to command the right market share. The consumers have validated the fact that if there is enough and more trust in the brand and the brand forays into allied categories with the right innovation, they have the right to command the right market share. We've done that, and that's how the brand has evolved over the last 80–85 years. More and more of consumer-centricity, right innovation, extension into allied categories again with meaningful innovation and the right consumer conversation, which is well understood by the consumer.

We have done that over the years; not only have we done that, but we've also understood where the consumer currently is. For example, in fans, while we all believe that a lot of fans are bought offline, there is a huge upsurge in terms of ecommerce sales as well. Even when people are going offline to buy, 80 per cent of the evaluation is already done online. So, on average, a consumer looks at four to six evaluation sources online before he goes into a shop. Keeping that concept in mind, we have not only worked on our innovation but also on the right conversation that has to go with consumers across different platforms.

Q. Can you deep dive into the conversation part of your communication efforts? What are the key elements of Crompton's marketing strategy? What is the narrative that the brand is really wanting to put out? 

Let me start with fans. If you see over the years, we have talked about great cooling back in 2019 to the point where we were one of the first people to talk about anti-dust technology, to the point that we started talking about a silent range of fans to energy efficiency to talking about great aesthetics. The way this conversation has moved has a method behind it. We do a lot of equity studies in which we understand what the brand's core performance parameters are, both in terms of basic hygiene and in terms of differentiators, and we've done that for all our categories. The core conversation that we need to drive, which is again very meaningful to the consumer, and therefore all our innovation and communication will rest on that.

Similarly, in air coolers, research says that people are looking for quick cooling and hence our conversation is based on that. For mixers, we talk about perfect grinding. For water heaters, we're talking about the perfect water heater because we know that each consumer has a different need for heating.

Hence, all these conversations are led by the fact that we studied the equity in each of the categories. This will give you a brief idea of how the conversation moves in terms of the creative thought process and the key message we put out.

In terms of deployment, we follow a full-funnel approach, going back to the basics of our marketing books, which talk about how the consumer moves from an awareness stage to a consultation stage to a preference stage and then to conversions. For us, awareness is right; however, it becomes more important for us to form considerations and preferences for the consumer as well. For this, we participate through the right digital channels because digital provides you with the facility of curating your audience set, selecting the right cohorts and having the right conversation. We do a lot of interest-based targeting through platforms and other programmatic platforms, and then we drive the right conversations with them. As we come down the funnel, we operate heavily on marketplaces where we have a leadership position in some of the categories and have seen growth. We apply the right performance marketing metrics to deploy our media spend. So, it is not only selling through those platforms but also driving the right saliency through those platforms, which also gives us a benefit in the offline channel. We try to optimise that as well. Hence, our media deployment strategy follows a cross-funnel approach wherein we integrate all mass media, digital, ecommerce, and all the efforts together to get the right message across.

Q. Can you share your marketing budget split between traditional and digital and what are some of the initiatives or investments that you've made very recently?

Our digital spend, like any other brand, has multiplied by more than 3x in the last two to three years, or more than that, and it's nearly almost half and half between digital and traditional. I won't be surprised if by next year you hear more and less traditional from me, but that's how it has been, and rightly so. As I said, the problem at hand is not awareness; the problem at hand is consideration and also preference. So that's how we've deployed our budget across digital and traditional channels

As for our key initiatives and investments, we are cognisant of the fact that this is a peak time for us. During this time, we optimise our media efforts to go on television, of course. We are also going heavy on connected TVs because connected TVs, as you know, have grown almost three times in the last two years.

We are also investing heavily in IPL, the most loved property in this country, and in fact, that's also shown some positive indications in the brand recalls. We also do a lot of print in very high print affinity geographies. We've also started focusing a lot on the outdoors because post-COVID outdoors have picked up, and now if you see there are different forms of outdoors, you'll see some exciting outdoors from Crompton in the next one or two months when you go outside. So, we are trying to drive a lot of saliency and consideration from the outdoor network. So that's what our key facets of the deployment of media have been.

Q. What measures do you really take to ensure a consistent brand messaging and consumer experience across your various touch points and marketing channels? 

Once we are very clear on the strategic direction, for example, when it comes to fans and great aesthetics, the television campaign is going to talk about that. Then, we will adapt it into a digital version depending on which format it is, whether it is static or whether it is very conversation-led, engagement-led, or social media-led. We figure out different ways of engaging the consumer, especially on social media. Social media scores, and engagement scores are decently high in the industry because of the active or original content that we post around our key message. So, this remains consistent both online and offline. If you're talking about aesthetics, you'll find great-looking products on display.

We ensure that whether we go on television, print or digital, we curate our consumer set accordingly, where we can drive this conversation, and this conversation is adapted through different formats whichever works, whether it is product ways or thematic, we adopt it through different formats across different platforms.

Q. How do you build and maintain healthy relationships with your retail partners and distributors to ensure effective product placement and promotion? 

For a brand that has been in existence for more than eight decades, inevitably, channel engagement remains at its core. We operate through three key channels: the traditional retail channel, the modern retail channel, and ecommerce channel, other than the B2B part.

Now, over the years, we have not only trained the sales team to have the right kind of conversation, but as a brand, Crompton, has also been built largely by this channel. The trust the channel has shown over the years, and hence the team is trained to build that relationship, not only in terms of driving meaningful product conversations or placements but also in providing complete transparency in the way the brand operates. Hence, having a very transparent conversation with the channel partners and giving them the right service is essential. Whether somebody has to cater to, let's say, an ecommerce channel, the conversations or training that are given to the team are very different from what is given to the retail trade team. In fact, in the last couple of years, we have really evolved or hired people with the right capability to carry that forward. Other than that, we have frequent retailer meets and channel partner meets where not only the frontline or this regular sales team meets the channels but also some senior management team members meet them, engage with them, understand what is concerning them and try and address that as much as we can.