 once again and ladies and gentlemen it is now time for our next session and I for the customer our next speaker he has been with Kansai Neralak since 1998 and brings with him over two decades of sectoral experience now while in Kansai Neralak he has held a variety of roles in the sales and marketing domain and currently he holds the role of vice president sales and marketing at Kansai Neralak decorative paints since October 2015 ladies and gentlemen please put your hands together to welcome Mr. Ram Mehrodra vice president decorative sales and marketing Kansai Neralak. Good evening ladies and gentlemen and thanks a lot to exchange for media for giving this opportunity to share some thoughts with so many marketing professionals around. From complete e-commerce I bring it my presentation to a industry where probably e-commerce is still a distance at a very large big difference and we had been trying but probably Ravi can help us out in future but then this industry there is very low differentiation the involvement of the customers is very very low and when the paint actually gets applied on the wall nobody can make out which brand it is so that kind of challenges are there with the industry and with that we found probably still for our consumers the entire efforts from our marketing team has been how to create convenience for the consumer so that he can at least get because earlier probably the information itself was a big challenge but with digital coming in lot of information for the consumers to take a decision has been created so maybe I thought let me share some of the things and come to an eye for the customer now typical classical marketing mix we know that product price plays promotion but then there is an important eye in between for us in this industry when we talk about paints now in in terms of a typical marketing decision making process we say there is a seller then there is a buyer and the seller sells to the buyer directly but then in some of the industries there are users and then a come in between an influencer this influencer plays sometimes two types of role if he plays the role of a say advocate probably goes well because he is helps in terms of say convincing the consumer to go for a particular brand it helps in conversion whereas if he acts as a gatekeeper then it becomes a problem then very difficult to break the jinx and I am sure my colleague Vivek was talking about Pidilite and he understand he was talking about the contractors very difficult to actually convert in the customers when they when the influencer says this is the best brand because they are seen as the doctors they are seen they know far better than what we know because of the lack of information now if I if I talk about so this is the eye which which we want to keep an eye upon very very important for our industry and they they like they are the key to any brand success when it when we talk about the paints now influencers can be of three type one is the global one where you have a celebrities with mass appeal so they you are able to connect with the consumers give them that brand perspective or or or through through their reach you ride on that and reach to a large chunk of customers the other platform which is coming up big time is the social platform so social platform is becoming a big influencer in and it will further increase upon in the years to come because it creates a very positive word of mouth and therefore lot of people in in various groups they exchange about various brands and all so those information they becomes it it is a very very important thing but what I would be covering is the part which is the local influencer which does the maximum amount of conversion so so this is the person who does that entire the last point mile when the consumer is about to take a decision about which brand to use this plays a role and tries and convert that that customers it can be an associate it can be a employee so with a limited set of influence and within this eye we have like use digital part to actually get on to them how what all we have done I will just share a few slides on that so we expect that from an influencer generally the expectation is that reach relevance and the resonance so there is a following there's a relevance with the brand and which resonates with it now to give you a glimpse of the paint industry it's almost about 40,000 crores in the current year which is the kind of organized and unorganized in decorative segment which I'm talking about and the trend shows that it is moving towards more of a premium products and when it comes to premium there's lot of like the role of influencers become more and more critical like if it is a small decision where the or for a product which is at a very very low cost the decision is directly taken or left on to the influencer or taken by the consumer bring this the mother brand acts as a very very important there but when it's come to the involvement of money becomes more the products are more premium so probably there the shift is happening more towards premium and therefore the role of influencer is also getting more and more critical now if I talk about the industry in last four five years the consumer engagement from 8 percent has gone to 39 percent so lot of engagement in terms of consumer getting into this category so they still go with the influencer but then engagement is happening because lot of information now is available with the consumers and any house so whosoever in going for a house makeover paint is a very very important part but that then it comes at the end when all other things are purchased and then left on to the painters which is the entire look of the house which is going to give to any of the like for them or the visitors is left on to a painter for that sake now typically as I told you probably the movement is happening towards premiumization and therefore the in terms of the buyers they are also seeking more and more information before taking that that call so if I talk about key in terms of sources of info from information from where does the consumer today source information other than the digital digital so we have websites we have various engagement things from where the consumer can get information about the product but then the comparisons actual demonstrations all those things are missing and as I told you e-commerce is a at a distance because because of this important eye the today in terms of paint can be made available it can be sold through the say e-commerce but then the the thousands of colors so we would be having said 24,000 colors so to create that color and to show that on a mobile or a tv screen the colors vary so they choose and there is a differentiation there so lot of complexity in terms of choosing the colors and also the logistics which which comes in to deliver those those colors so therefore the source of information again remains on on the the friends and the painters as of now and and the reliability of source and when we go about the reliability part the consumers still go on to the painters or the dealers which recommend them the brand and based on that most of the buyers are able to take a decision now challenges that we fade face on the influencer level is one the education level is low which is more or less same with the contractors for the adhesive that we are talking about it's a migrating population like most of the people will be from one or two say states which migrate all across and they don't stay there for long they have a instant noodle kind of a mindset large chunk although there are loyalty programs to retain them but then what is the instant thing what you are offering as compared to the other brand based on that some shift happens they are more or less transactional though all industry makes an effort to create that emotional loyalty but then still the mass chunk remains transactional and then cost per contact is very very high as we compare to other mediums which are available through which we can reach to our consumers but then reaching to them the cost per contact is very high and this has led that the spends on the influencers has almost gone three times if I take our examples on also like from a six percent kind of a spend today we are spending almost 18 20 percent of our marketing spends on this important thing which is called an eye that is influencer now for the key levers which on which the most of the competitors play upon when they talk about the influencer management the one is they need that one stop solution they need everything if whatever they want in terms of information various kinds of products so in terms of so that is one thing which they are looking up to when they are looking at any pain company and then we have to keep us communication simple because as I told you probably the education levels are still not that high and therefore the very very simple communication has to go and the simple question is what is in it for me that is the basic question that they keep in mind and they require keep meeting so to give a reminder and keep meeting is again as I told you cost per contact is becomes higher because you have to be in regular in touch with them because there are other competitors also and you have to be in touch so that you create that remembrance now if we talk about this particular eye what we have done in various areas to ensure that there is a complete connect with the painters so at the various touch points so if there is a dealer so there are puses there are various draws lucky draws which happens around these influences then training programs and product trials are done on a regular basis so we have a list wherein these painters are touched upon as far as the training programs are concerned then we have developed an app for these painters wherein they can get the product information they can get the cost estimates even the loyalty program which we are talking about they can enter their points and they can upload their points so those kinds of thing which are like in terms of a loyalty building and then giving them the remuneration for that then in terms of this there are say digital even radios getting connected which is only for the influences so through digitally they can download the app and that their songs and whatever they can play through so those kinds of things keep in and and I for these influences then regular interactions with the sales team so that that connect is there and then mobile van training or tokens inside so that so that they are ensured every time occupied load and also connected with the company in various forms and and various activities that we have done to connect with these influences other than as I said digital one is the connecting with their families is going a level below wherein arranging mail ask for their where can the their families can come and the brand goes beyond the painters which is using and some connect can be created with the family then there is a premium painter loyalty program which happens for them then there is a Pradhan Mantri Vikas Yojana wherein they are through NSDC certification we do that certification kind of a training program for them and they get a as he said the identity is very very important whether FCC or say that certificate from the Pradhan Mantri that kind of a thing NSDC certifying it so that also helps in terms of building up the connect with the influences then tokens and then for the convenience of the consumers we have created something called master painter where a consumer can go and select the area where they can find the painters so they get the painters with reference photographs these are the sides that they have done they can select a painter because that is one big challenge when we talk about e-commerce because the paint can be delivered to them but how about the painter and when the painter comes in and he he is not satisfied with the brand and or he has not used the brand earlier because this still remains a very habit buying industry and painters have been using a particular brand for years so when they find a separate brand already there in the house generally they tend to reject and they say I would not take any guarantee if for the work if it goes wrong and then the consumer is confused and the decision goes in a different direction so that is the one of the like the criticality of the industries which which probably I thought in a very short span I can share with you the things the trends which are there available with us whether per capita consumption increasing or the paint industry is one of the industry which is for last I would say three decades never the industry has grown below double digit so in spite of whatever last year or this year generally the the trend is they have they have grown by that double digit so in the industry continue to perform well consumers are continuously seeking inspirations lot of information but then when when it comes to taking a decision they have to rely on a on a person who is not that educated and generally they base their decision based on the influencer recommendation so role of the influencer like is going to increase with this because when the premium purchase is and all those things are the economy is moving upwards the eye this that that's consumer is going to be very very important it in and in in a way influencer is in eye for the consumer because it's the both ways for us he is helping us in terms of getting the brand go used by the or applied or at the customer side and from the consumer side he is a kind of a advocate or he tells or gives lot of information passes lot of information to the consumer on the basis of which he is able to take a informed decision so I think that that's all from me keep an eye for the influencer more related to our industry and we look forward that this e-commerce thing and how those things can be managed digital spans and digital lot of activities we have done but still that that directly getting on to the consumer still remains at a distance for us thank you thank you very much Mr. Mehrodra before I let you go I'd like to invite Mr. Harjod Nakhpal associate VP West kinetic to kindly join me on stage to present a token of our appreciation to Mr. Mehrodra