Rubbing shoulders with painters

Birla White turns to the community of painters to increase market penetration and reach

In a low-involvement category like cement, it is challenging for players to establish distinct product and consumer connect. Taking a cue from mobile phone makers such as Xiaomi and OnePlus which have won over consumers by building a strong network of brand advocates and loyalists, cement maker Birla White too is tapping into the painter community to grow its consumer connect. The company is innovating on the point of sale to engage painters and is also running training programmes to arm them with new technology tools to help improve their livelihood. All along, the cement maker is hoping to benefit with an enhanced reach and better consumer connect.

“Birla White has moved up the value chain and currently we are offering a wide range of value added products in addition to white cement and wall care putty. By and large, the painter community continues to be the first touch point for consumers looking to upgrade and paint their homes. Therefore, it helps to cultivate them as your ambassadors to boost reach and sales,” says Anurag Angrish, joint executive president, marketing, Birla White.

With an objective to engage the community, the company in a tie-up with Paytm has been running a cashback offer under the programme Lakshya. As part of the programme, painters buying Birla White products have to simply text an SMS on a given number on the packaging. On receiving the SMS, painters availing of the cashback offer get a call from the company executives who rope them in for educational and training programmes that helps them enhance their skills.

Within two quarters of the launch of the programme, Birla White has added 55,000 painters to its network. Currently, 200,000 painters are registered with the cement maker nationally, and the company is expecting a 50 per cent growth in its painter network in the next two quarters.

Before the nation-wide launch of Lakshya, Birla White carried out pilots in north, central and east India markets.

According to Angrish, north, central and east are competitive markets dominated by major players and big cement plants. The region witnesses aggressive competition and is dominated by highly price-conscious customers. Birla White, which sells at a premium of 12 to 14 per cent to the nearest competitor, wanted to penetrate these markets and chose to pilot Lakshya here before scaling it up in south and west of India.

Taking painter’s education and skill upgrade seriously, Birla White has tied up with a large number of government supported Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) across the country. The objective is to help painters know and learn about not only the company products but equip them with new skills and familiarise with the usage of right technology tools to further improve their craft. So far, as part of Vikas training programme in partnership with ITIs, the company has trained 5,000-plus painters within a few months. It is planning to train another 10,000 people in the next one year.

Even as Birla White competes with major players such as Asian Paints, Berger Paints, Nerolac, ICI and JK Paints, it has to cope with the fast-changing competitive landscape for white cement and putty products. In case of white cement, the market is being affected by the emergence of various alternative products. White cement is used for laying marble flooring. However, increasingly people are using petrified flooring or wooden tiles. Similarly, the putty industry is becoming unstable with the entry of local or regional players which are compromising on the product quality as they are offering the same at lower prices. Local players are fast taking up space in the putty market.

Birla White is aware of these challenges. To tackle the increasing competition, it has upped the ante on product innovation. The company is working on innovating flooring applications and focusing on promoting designer flooring which promises to be much more versatile, durable and can be offered in attractive colours and design. Research and development is on to develop this product line which will compete with petrified tiles. Similarly, the company is looking at ways to develop white cement as a substitute for cement wash wherein it can be used in cement wash applications replacing cheap distemper paints. Birla White expects to launch the product in the market in next three to four quarters.