Marketing today is no mean feat with every brand vying for the attention of the much discerning empowered and spoilt for choice consumer. Gone are the days when figuring out your product USP and then talking about it on TV or Print could work wonders for the brand.

Charu Malhotra - Head Marketing Somany Ceramics Limited

Oh the Millennial! What that elusive magical creature that all marketers are striving to catch today? The segment is tricky to market to and assuming that the regular marketing tactics will work wonders is a death wish! Every purchase for them has a purpose that satiates the very deep desire of owning/association with products/brands that connect with their persona and bring a sense of pride.

Engaging with a purpose reaching out to them via all means social media being a clear winner is what a marketer needs to look into. While television continues to take the larger pie of the marketing spends presence on digital is a must.

Voice User Interface (VUI) will be a major disruption in the near future as screens become smaller smaller. This will be a conversational interface with ease so brands will have to rethink the essence of the brand in a voice centric world.

User generated content (UGC) if used in the right manner can paint a much more positive and genuine brand image than any internal campaign ever can. By encouraging customers to share their experiences with the brand a company can take advantage of great content. This content if used in the right way can create positive ripples across the market.

Building Material

From once being a commodity led industry that followed a generic code of communication to how some brands are carving a distinct persona of their own the industry has come a long way despite of the product falling in a lowinvolvement category. The industry is working its way on the footsteps of consumer marketing which engages with the consumer throughout their lifetime as consumers start to value brand power and associate brand imagery with status quo. The challenge definitely was how to rationalise the choice between products being offered by different brands for the consumer in category with similar product offering. Innovation comes into play in such an industry where product differentiation among competing brands is low.

Brand promise was seen to have the potential to act as a differentiator with marketing having to play a key role where consumer makes up his mind on the intangibles that come along with brand association thus reducing the dissonance with the decision and helping him choose the most apt product for himself.

Some of the major disruptors in the industry have been:

• Experiential Marketing: Experiencing and interacting with the product is a key factor in the consumers purchase cycle in this industry. It ensures that the spaces such as the shop floor where the purchase decision is being taken/getting influenced are aspirational in nature and help them in getting a good buying experience

• Digital: It can enable brands to reach out to the consumers in their product purchase journey and target them at the right time with the right product. Ingenious ways like increased usage of visualizer tools which help the consumer to visualise the tiles in an actual setting makes it easier for them to choose the most apt tiles for their spaces

• Influencers Connect: Collaborating with popular and relevant influencers like architects/contractor/masons is increasingly gaining importance as it helps to establish personal connections with and gain the trust of their followers. This also helps brands to gain positive word-of-mouth and further aids in increasing their credibility.

Somany - Pioneering Marketing Initiatives

Tiles as a product category has evolved immensely in the past few years and today consumer takes pride in owning a brand for his tiling needs. In conjunction to this change Somany has run 2 major marketing campaigns for brand rejuvenation and captured audience through new and innovative means of communication channels to reach out to not just the masses but also to the millennials through digital marketing.

Brand building has been an inherent objective of all our campaigns and to capture this brand conscious consumer getting a brand ambassador on board was a natural progression in order to develop a brand identity. Salman Khan as our Brand Ambassador has a reach which cuts across masses thus helping us to reach out to a larger set of consumers with our new campaign Zameen Se Judey;.

We have a dedicated marketing team which has ensured that Somany maintains a positive Brand Development Index (BDI) throughout the past few years via various successful branding initiatives.

Large ad spends premiumisation and design innovations backed by change in perception towards tiles as a lifestyle product has ensured higher than industry growth rates for us. To further amplify our association with Superstar Salman Khan we will be incorporating a complete 360 approach for the campaign. Along with airing the ad on TV we have plans to engage in Cinema Ads Hoardings and Print Ads with leading trade magazines as well as home and decor magazines mainline newspapers to maximize the campaign reach among our trade partners and consumers alike.

Innovation is the core of all our marketing efforts at Somany and following are few initiatives we have taken towards this direction:

1. Carrying out inflight and airport campaign where our brand presence was made visible at strategic locations (Pillar Branding Security Trays Q Managers) across various players in the aviation industry like Spice Jet Indigo and at key airports like Delhi Mumbai Kolkata Dehradun Lucknow etc.

2. Somany further built on its brand salience through the TV Campaign with Superstar Salman Khan across TV and OTT Platforms with impact properties like The Kapil Sharma Show Superstar Singer KBC Bigg Boss etc.

3. Renewed communication was carried out in print media with Salman Kahn for our key product categories like Duragres Max Marvela Vitro in Tiles and French Collection in bathware. These ensured desired and relevant visibility round the year in Home Dcor B2B/Trade various other national and regional magazines.

4. In order to provide further impetus to the brand Somany multiple collaborations were done with various publications.

5. The company established key relationships and engaged with PR firm and was able to get 200+ Print Coverages 70+ Online Coverages within the first 3 months of the TVC Launch.

6. Somany further built on its TV Campaign through a digital contest where entries were invited from users to showcase how Zameen Se Judey they are. The award winning entries were posted on social media handles and the winners were gratified with vouchers.