Mix And Match

Demand and we will supply. That appears to be the motto of the Rs 4,000 crore paint industry. Eight years after the Rs 883 crore Asian Paints introduced the merawala pink, almost all the players today are talking the same language. Customisation is the name of the game. From gudgudi green to peachy pearly creamy white, the panoply of shades could give cosmetic companies a complex.

And providing them are a range of paint boutiques. Whether it is Colour World from Asian Paints or Instacolour from Jenson & Nicholson or Colour Solutions from ICI, the computerised paint shops are offering customers a mix and match choice. The customisation, they all claim is to bridge the gap between the company and the consumer. Says Ashwin Dani, vice-chairman Asian Paints, We are at a new age of consumerism where the consumer has become more involved in the process of painting his house. There was a need to help the consumer understand how to derive most value for money from the available range.

In a sense, the paints business is a lot like cosmetics. Customers are never happy with what they get, they always aspire for the dream colour. And customisation helps to do just that. Adds P K Roy, the Mumbai branch head of Jenson & Nicholson, Today's consumer is terribly short on time and is also increasingly choosy of what he wants. Customisation helps him get what he wants, without all the fuss prevalent earlier. The consumer has a definite package which he can choose from."

There is a lot they can pick and choose from. For instance, the Asian Paints palette has 1,150 shades on offer. Thats because, household or decorative paints account for 70 per cent of the total 175,000 litre paint industry. The other segments include industrial, the protective coating, powder and automotive. While Asian Paints leads the overall market with a 36 per cent market share, Goodlass Nerolac leads the industrial segment with a share of 43 per cent share.

In fact, at 18 per cent, industrial paints aided by the automobile sector have grown the fastest. In comparison, the decorative segment grew by just nine per cent. This has forced companies to look at innovative strategies to market their range. And customisation became the ploy to strike a chord with the target audience.

Technology has played a major role in customisation. Like J& Ns which introduced Instacolour two years ago tied up with a Finnish firm, Tikkurila O Y, a leading European colourant manufacturer. From what began as 600 shades in two products, Jensons shade card now displays 2000 shades in seven different products. In the same way, ICI (India) sourced technology from its UK parent ICI Plc for Colour Solutions.

The trend, however, was initiated by Asian Paints with the merawala pink concept. Asian Paints Dani says that Colour World is an evolution of that concept. He cites a host of reasons for the formulation of the strategy. We did it to give a boost to a market that was underdeveloped with a limited product range, to give more choice to consumers and to enhance consumer involvement, he says.

These were some of the key findings in a two year research programme conducted by Asian Paints. Besides a wide choice of colours, customers also wanted advise on a host of paint related issues.

So today, customers have to just saunter into retail outlets and choose from the plethora of colours on the shade cards. The rest of the work is automated. The quantity he needs is generated by a computer and a colour dispenser. The customer wants to have it his way when it comes to shades. Now, he can get exactly what he wants, he says.

Like auto manufacturers, paint majors are talking about the buying experience. It goes beyond just settling for the right shade. We have launched a complete retailing package which includes a shop-in-shop at Colour World, says Dani. The value addition comes in the form of experts helping customers choose the product mix that matches their budget. They are then advised on the painting process and choice of a good contractor.

Such an exercise helps retain customers, says G Dhananjayan, general manager (marketing) at Goodlass. So come April, Goodlass Nerolac will launch its own paint boutique.

Also, with dealers expected to make investments of less than Rs 10 lakh for the tinting machines which throw up the mix and match shades, the benefits go much beyond attracting the consumer. It helps both the retailer and the company to monitor inventories effectively.

While earlier dealers had to contend with shades that very few consumers cared for, the present colour dispensers and their tribe help in keeping inventory levels low. With preferred shades available almost at the drop of hat, it is no longer mandatory for a retailer to store stocks of various hues. Earlier, even if a company had a particular shade, it was parked at the Goodman or had to be sourced from another outlet.

And unlike many other durable businesses, customisation is likely to enhance the dealers return on investment (ROI). Except for the initial investment in tinting machines, our overhead costs will be slashed by half, reveals a leading paint dealer in central Mumbai.

Gurmeet Sidana, regional manager of Shalimar Paints isnt too optimistic. He claims that it is too early to say how the customisation strategy is going to help companies. Though most pain companies are stepping up efforts to attract people with customisation, most of the effort is targeted at the premium user, he adds.

But paint companies claim this is not going to be a deterrent. Brand loyalty is an attribute that follows brand experimentation. And customisation has enticed the customer to be more involved in the selection of paints, a chore which was earlier left to the painter.

Again, massive advertising spends have brought about awareness in the industry. This in turn has contributed to a rise in customer traffic which steadily translates into growing customer interests. Says Dhanajayan, " The paint shops are packed with everything a customer needs which has helped interaction. While earlier, less than five per cent actually selected the shades, today there is more than a 10 per cent increase in consumer traffic.

Whether this is translated into sales is too early to say. The per capita consumption in India is a meagre 300 gms compared to around 32 kgs in the United States. Paint companies believe that with the shades readily available, customers may be attracted to patronise paint shops more often. Like Dani expects Colour World to boost the bottomline. We hope to add one percent to our market share per annum, he says. Can the new card game bring back the colour?