Blue Star bets on water purifiers, to hike digital media ad spend by 300%

Firm to invest Rs 350 mn on sales & promotion in FY19, og which social media platforms, including Youtube, would take up Rs 80 mn or 25%

Blue Star Limited on Tuesday said its digital advertising and marketing spend towards the new water purifier vertical is likely to rise by 300 per cent in the current fiscal.

The company plans to invest about Rs 350 million on sales and promotion during 2018-19, of which promotion on social media platforms, including Youtube, would take up about Rs 80 million or 25 per cent of the total budget.

“Last year, we had spent nearly Rs 300 million on sales and promotion activities, of which the social media pie was merely around Rs 25 million or about 8 per cent,” Blue Star chief marketing officer (water purifier division) Girish Hingorani told Business Standard in Lucknow.

In fact, the company has recently launched its new water purifier commercial on social media instead of television. The TV commercial would only be aired next week. “Social media platforms help identify and target specific customer segments for different product ranges and provide better traction,” Hingorani said.

Meanwhile, the company unveiled its latest range of water purifiers in the Uttar Pradesh market, which is estimated at 100,000 units a year.

The domestic water purifier space is pegged at 2.6 million units worth Rs 42 billion, and growing by 15-20 per cent a year. Of this, sales and services make up Rs 34 billion and Rs 8 billion respectively, company president (sales and marketing, products business & corporate management representative) C P Mukundan Menon said.

He added that 20 per cent of the total market was occupied by the unbranded segment, while electric water purifier had the dominating share of almost 85 per cent.

“We are aggressively expanding our retail network in India and plan to touch 3,500 retail points by the end of this fiscal, up from 2,000 touch points in 125 towns at present, including 500 stores in UP,” he added.

Blue Star commands a market share of about 4 per cent in UP's water purifier segment and intends to expand its pie on the back of greater reach and new product lines. In the current financial year, it plans to launch 35 new models.