Experiential Marketing Is Going To Be Big: Charu Malhotra Bhatia, Hindware

The bathware industry has been evolving, and bath spaces have acquired a new meaning.

Hindware is one of the legacy brands that has been around for more than 6 decades, offering a wide collection of sanitary ware, faucets and wellness products that are equipped with superior technology and a lifelong promise of quality. 

Charu Malhotra Bhatia, Vice-President, Marketing, Hindware shares some exciting information on the bathware industry, marketing trends and more.

Excerpts from the Interview:

Q. How is the bathware category placed in India?

Bathware industry has seen a major evolution over the last couple of decades, during the pandemic and now as we move forward in the new normal. The bath spaces have acquired a new meaning altogether for consumers looking for home improvement. Consumer behaviour and preferences have grown drastically. The importance being laid on upgrading existing homes including bathrooms is high and the demand for safe & hygienic products has gone up. The overall market size for sanitaryware is INR 5,500 crores and for faucets it's INR 11,000 crore. 

The market growth drivers will continue to be rapid urbanisation, government push on infrastructural growth, rising private & public investment in residential construction amongst others. The Bathware category is certain to grow steadily for the next couple of years as well.

Q. With shifts in consumer behaviour and trends, how has that impacted the overall sector? Has the appreciation towards the sector grown in the past few years?

Market revival is on track and bath spaces have acquired a completely new meaning as we move forward in the new normal. Health and hygiene have gained tremendous importance, which has given rise to touch-free and sensor products in the category. Understanding the demand for tech innovation in bathware, we’ve introduced a range of touch-free and sensor-based faucets and water closets which are doing exceedingly well not only in residential spaces but commercial spaces as well. Touch-free and senor products that can be operated with just the wave of your hand have become super convenient and hygienic for consumers in today’s environment. Hindware offers a multitude of smart technology products, there is remote-controlled, touch-free and sensor-enabled and easy-clean wash basin that allows for self-cleaning basin after every usage.

Additionally, wellness as a category has caught up with the bathware segment. Consumer today wants their bath space to look like wellness sanctuaries, and they are opting for or incorporating wellness products such as saunas, jacuzzi, massage tubs and bath enclosures for their residential homes. This trend is definitely going to drive the market further and is here to stay.

Q. Since the trends in marketing are changing, what is your take on modern marketing tactics like influencer marketing or meme marketing?

Traditional marketing has been overshadowed by modern marketing techniques. All brands try to come up with new and innovative marketing strategies to appeal to the audience. We see a lot of digital-first activities that are being done by brands all over the world to try and catch the attention of the millennial audience. So, this trend is on the upswing, and it is going to continue for a long time now. However, traditional marketing does not hold relevance, but the mix has changed. Meme marketing is a trend in the coming season and marketers in their innovative way are using it to increase customer awareness of the product it is also very well taken by the audience today.

Q. So, apart from influencer marketing and meme marketing, what would be the new trends that you see as a marketer, five years down the lane?

I think experiential marketing is something that is going to be big in the bathware space. We are in the process of making a bathroom planner app, coupled with augmented reality. We are making a bathroom planner app where consumers will be allowed to experience the bathrooms they want to make in their bath spaces. Now, this is something that is a new trend catching up and I'm sure the usage is going to increase. So, in case of tomorrow a consumer wants to buy a bathroom, instead of just selecting it from the website, he would want to experience it in that space. And with the help of AR, we can experience the kind of tiles, the kind of products that they would want to kind of choice for the bathroom. So that's something that is a work in progress. We will probably launch it in the next couple of months.

Q. What led to the ‘Go Larger Than Life’ campaign with Tamanna Bhatia and The Great Khali?

With the ‘Go Larger Than Life’ campaign we have tried to play up with the words. Tamanna Bhatia brings along her style and aesthetics quotient and Great Khali was the best fitment that we thought connected with something related to the largeness and that's how we conceptualised this campaign. It is a celebration of sophisticated taste and perfection and is aimed at creating intrigue and showcasing our design exquisiteness for these extra-large slabs of tiles.

Q. What is your brand vision for Hindware for the next couple of years?

The market is evolving at a very fast pace and there's a lot of demand that's coming from Tier 2, Tier 3 towns as well and metros are a saturated market. While we are present in all the major cities, tier 1 and metro markets, there's a lot of demand that's coming from new smart cities that are being developed. 

Our first objective is to strengthen our footprint and distribution network across the country as there are a lot of small towns or Tier2 or Tier 3 markets where we probably might not be present. We have about 350 brand stores right now which are exclusive brand stores for Hindware, and we will be reaching about 500 brand stores by the end of this fiscal year and strengthening our distribution network is one such vision. Apart from that, we are also focusing a lot on our marketing communication. The way industry is flanked by international players as well as established domestic players, it's important to keep abreast with competition and have a very differentiated and continuous communication strategy. There's also a lot of focus on digital first activities and that’s where the consumers are today. 

While we are a brand that is about 6 decades old, it's important to talk to the millennials today, who are the co-decision makers and hence a lot of digital-first activities are being planned. We are also putting a lot of focus on new products, new innovations, new designs, not just functionality-based designs but also which are aesthetically pleasing because the bathroom industry today is an aspirational industry. There's a pride of ownership that's associated with brands today in the bath space. So, all put together the idea is to maintain our leadership position in sand sanitaryware and be a notable player in faucets while establishing our tiles, at the foot front and doing a sizable number by the end of the next three years.

Q. How do you disseminate the budget for marketing?

The marketing mix is divided in such a way that we pay equal importance not just to the consumers in terms of mass marketing campaigns, but also to this influencer base and driving local traction via at trade counters or doing a lot of tactical campaigns at regions to trade these shops to drive footfall locally. Whether it's about local cinema advertising, local hoardings, regional newspaper ads. So that's how the mix and the budgets are allocated. The focus is a lot on digital first activities. We started spending a lot more on digital OTT platforms, Facebook and Instagram, Google adds much more than probably what we used to kind of look at five years back.