CANVAS 2013 | Asian Paints Ltd Page 1

CANVAS 2013 | Case Study Competition

CANVAS 2013 | Asian Paints Ltd Page 2

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On a Sunday evening, Mr. Satish Kulkarni was enjoying a lively family dinner in a Chinese restaurant more than

26kms away from his residence. Everyone seemed to like the food that was served. Satish had taken the

efforts to get his family all the way to this place, since he had heard very high praises about the restaurant’s

amazing menu from his office colleagues. The chatter on the table moved from topic to topic and landed on a

discussion regarding a one day trip, near Mumbai, for a short break. Satish’s 14year son vehemently suggested

a theme park, 60 odd kms outside Mumbai. His strong conviction of this place, he has never been to, amused

Satish and he questioned how he was so sure of the “experience” that this place offers. The young boy was

quick to respond with a shrug “Facebook! All my friends who have been there have posted their photos and

they look AMAZING!! They also posted great comments about the place. So I am not getting swayed by their

ads plastered all over the city, it’s the genuine feedback that my friends are giving about the theme park that

impresses me. They are unbiased, so no reason to doubt that. Let us please go and check out. I can get more

info of the place from my friends who have been there!” While the family had to give in to such strong

persuasion, the strategy caught Satish’s attention.

2. Loading

Mr. Satish Kulkarni , GM Marketing Asian Paints found the evening interesting in various ways. It got him

thinking on the power of WOM. The very fact that the family traveled through half of the city to eat in a

restaurant which a friend suggested was a live proof of strength of recommendations. He was sure no amount

of advertising would have inspired him enough for this. While the power of WOM was as strong as ever, even

today, it was always elusive for a marketer to design “strategy” for WOM. He wondered whether with the

huge stride that technology has taken, we actually have a platform of influencing WOM. Was Social Media

voice of brands actually a possible method to the madness? His son was influenced by WOM as well, not

exactly in the traditional definition of the word- but more or less. In fact it was a heightened level of influence

that allowed the relevant peer group to get a glimpse of the experience of the service before consuming it!

Facebook , for that matter Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin , are they not all the digital version of WOM, he

wondered.

What was even more intriguing; all the examples – restaurants /theme park – were more to do with

experience rather than a product. A tougher challenge for a marketer to overcome! Immediately he saw some

scope for services like Asian Paints Ezycolour Home Solutions and Colour Consultancy at Home to be present

on Social Media but it was not all that simple. Asian Paints was not beginning with a clean slate here, the

digital journey for APL started way back in 1999 with the launch of asianpaints.com.

He started making quick pointers of all the digital estate that Asian Paints now had –

Digital Asset Since Additional comments/Remarks

Website 1999 Website was re-launched recently and mapped as

per the master customer journey in offline stores.

Phase 1 was launched in March 2013 and Phase 2 in

August 2013

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The refreshed website had advanced features for

consumers who register and it now boasts of close

to 1L registered users

Mobile Site 2012 Re-launched in Sep 2013

Mobile applications 2012 Colour Scheme Pro app for Android and iOS. The one

stop tool for selecting various colors and shades

My color project app to be launched in Nov 2013 for

Android and iOS

Facebook December 2010 Started with Royale Play page which now has more

than 2.3L fans

May 2011 Second page to come was Apex Ultima which has

more than 57K fans. The engagement on the page

was currently low but the brand promises a

comeback December 2013 onwards

September 2011 Corporate page started as a hygiene step but gained

momentum in 2012 and had 65K fans by the EOY.

Today it has a fan base of more than 2.5L with

continuous engagement around color and décor

Pinterest October 2012 267 followers

YouTube October 2012 7.7 L views with more than 100 videos uploaded

from October 2012. Videos ranged from branding

content integration to painting process to color

selection.

Twitter November 2012 2600 followers

Google+, Instagram September 2013 Recently launched

Other Digital initiatives Ongoing SEO, ORM, SEM and other digital advertising

On the other hand, he remembered the early days of Asian Paints Ezycolour Home Solutions.

Asian Paints Ezycolour Home Solutions- a professional painting service launched in 2000 with a simple aim - to

make the painting experience easy, stress-free and satisfying for the end customer.

Being the market leader and keeping up with the latest technology, recently the entire service took a huge

leap forward, with mechanization rollouts across all markets which aim at delivering superior finish with

Mechanized Painting tools. Scientific site evaluation through Moisture meters, Accurate measurement

through laser based Digital Distance meters, covering and masking of furniture through masking films, Express

and superior sanding through Electric Sanders, dust extraction through Vacuum Cleaners, faster and superior

painting through Telescopic rollers, etc. and hence making the overall service delivery extremely professional

Today the key differentiators of Home Solutions from product selling or other painting services-

Hassle Free Service Experience: One-window solution from choosing the right product and shades to timely

completion of work, supervised by the Relationship Associate and painted by Trained Applicators makes the

service completely hassle free.

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Expert Advice: Best and Suitable painting solutions through need assessment, site evaluation and product,

budget and color consultation.

Superior Finish: Customers enjoy the best finish as the recommended process for painting is followed. All

painters and contractors are trained to give the best paint finish.

Seal of Assurance- Upto 3 Years Warranty: Home Solutions offers warranty upto 3 years on luxury finishes to

give consumers complete peace of mind post painting.

Unlike the product business model of the company where Asian Paints role was limited to educate and inspire

the consumer , the limited services that APL offered gave the business a chance to complete the loop by

offering an experience to the consumer. Asian Paints Ezycolour Home Solutions was one of them. He saw

great merit in terms of Asian Paints Ezycolour Home Solutions taking the “testimony” route on the social

media platform. After-all no amount of advertisement can counter the strength of a positive recommendation.

Since experience was a touchier topic than a product, the number of complaints on-line for Ezycolour Home

Solutions was much more. This was also a reflection of the fact that an evolved consumer was using this

service and hence all the more reason for him/her to be ad agnostic and open to recommendations. Further

though the probable consumer of Home Solutions mitigates the risk of unknown when he comes to a trusted

brand like Asian Paints, he invests a lot in terms of money, time and effort to take this decision. A platform of

shared experiences would thus give the nudge required to him via assurance to take the plunge.

Next day at office, he called for a meeting with the Digital and the Ezycolour Home Solutions team to discuss

the same.

3. Forum

Digital Team’s Perspective –

The idea of social media is to engage with audience and gain from the amplification the medium provides. The

idea is not only engagement but continuous engagement, hence when we commit to a page we must get into

it with confidence that there is enough and more to keep the page buzzing for the entire year- year after year.

This is difficult for a category like paints where users paint once in 3-5 years. One can argue same is true for an

automobile category but there the involvement in the category is huge and cars require regular maintenance

and always have the option of upgrades during next purchase cycle hence there are a lot of scope of

conversation with the consumer.

Knowing the whole experience itself is still full of hassle and our consumer does not want to hear about

painting for the next 3-5 years, once he is out of it, the corporate FB page thrived on the topics of colors and

décor. On one hand they were easy topics to talk about for the fan base on the other hand they served the

purpose of brand’s commitment to inspiration and education. The brand pages were maintained separately

since we believe that we would not assume that one fan likes everything that comes from APL and respect

their individual choice.

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But today how feasible was it to develop separate pages for each of the product/service and maintain them

with equal commitment of engagement? Like products, services from APL will again not seek any active

engagement from a consumer in the interim period of 4-5 years unless you engage them well. As of now we

are thinking of Ezycolour Home Solutions tomorrow we can think of Ezycolour Colour Consultancy @ Home,

how far can we stretch ourselves doing justice to all our online properties?

The key questions they raised were

� Does the user have the demarcation of products and services in his mind as long as it’s coming from

Asian Paints? As a product company we do not directly tend to end consumers and are present to offer

help/guidance to users whereas in services we are selling the services directly- does it demand a

separate strategy?

� Ezycolour Home Solutions presence is restricted in only 13 cities as of now, are we ok with the spillage

of the pan India exposure of social media?

� With the platform being so direct, the whole effort of complaining becomes easier for a consumer. SM

is a dialogue – the consumer is as free to talk to you as you are keen to talk to him. And once on SM ,

the turnaround time of response is expected to be real time , what will we be ready to commit?

Ezycolour Home Solutions Team’s Perspective -

When a customer looks at purchasing a product or availing a service, the mindset and expectations are

very different. Selling paints comes with its own set of expectations, but is limited to product performance

in the long run. Delivering service on the other hand is about managing PAIN in the PAINting process,

ensuring right product and shade combinations and prompt after sales needs (complaints, touch-ups, etc.).

A single strategy cannot work to manage such different expectations.

It’s been 12 years since Asian Paints Ezycolour Home Solutions has come into existence, what started off

with 1 city is today present in 13 cities across the country. The service will not be restricted to these 13

cities in future and will move to more major towns. Even today, all the main cities are covered and most of

the digital consumers- be it AP Website or BHG requests come from these 13 cities.

There are enough platforms available for consumer complaints, including Asian Paints Your Voice, mouth

shut, AP FB page, twitter, etc. In most cases, these platforms produce complaints for Ezycolour Home

Solutions than engagement with satisfied consumers, thereby projecting the service in bad light. However,

as per the Customer Satisfaction Survey, 90% of customers are happy with Ezycolour Home Solutions. With

1,50,000 customers serviced till date, 1.35L happy customers are not being leveraged for spreading

positive WOM. Social Media will act as a great platform to engage these customers and celebrating their

happy experience.

3. Dilemma

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An interesting dinner evening had given a lot of food for thought for the marketing team of Asian Paints.

Satish strongly believed that all queries raised will automatically be answered if certain key queries were

addressed in details

� What is the apt platform for Asian Paints Ezycolour Home Solutions to influence consumers? What

would be the optimized strategy – sharing experiences or celebrating experiences? In either of the

cases how can we facilitate the same?

� A testimony based approach exclusively for Ezycolour Home Solutions or a thought through separate

presence for Services – which was a long term solution? In either of the cases – what would be the

ideal Social Media strategy for the same?

� With the ever increasing demands of a consumer, will a page dedicated to services spread more

negative WOM than spreading the positive recommendations that we hope for? In case of Ezycolour

Home Solutions , the nature of the service provided further adds to the complexity of delivering the

final experience.

� Finally the big questions , supposing we go ahead with the Home Solutions /Services FB page – What is

the realistic expectation from the social media presence and how do I measure the worth of each fan

that I gain on the page?