V-Guard earmarks Rs 60 crore for marketing in next four months

Indian electrical appliances manufacturer V-Guard will pump around Rs 60 crore on marketing in the next four months. The company, which recently underwent a re-branding exercise, will spend nearly Rs 100 crore on marketing in the financial year ending 2018 (March 2018).

V-Guard has adopted a new logo and a brand new image, and has rolled out a 360-degree media blitz to market its new identity and products.

The investment and marketing efforts will also see the brand in good stead in the coming summer months, the peak season for the brand. The summer months account for about 45% of V-Guard’s annual revenue.

Nandagopal Nair

On the need for a makeover, Nandagopal Nair, Vice-President, Corporate Communication and Head-Brands, V-Guard Industries, said, “This exercise actually started nearly four years back when we were partnering with Kochi Tuskers in IPL. At that time we had taken the right field branding. It is then we realised that our logo was looking very dated when compared to the other brands and more importantly it was looking very constricted because of the way the logo was positioned.”

The brand took into account these points but it was also clear that it did not want to go for just a cosmetic change.

“We were clear that we did not just want to change our logo and call ourselves a whole new brand. We decided that whatever we do will be based on a vision and philosophy for the brand going into the future,” Nair said.

The brand started with a study to understand what the consumers thought about the brand. The consumers said while V-Guard was a very durable, strong and ethical brand, it was also stodgy.

“It was only after studying and understanding what consumers wanted V-Guard to be that we worked extensively on the brand strategy and defined a new vision for it. We started by creating certain new products on the basis of the new vision for the brand and only then did we go mass to announce the new identity,” explained Nair.

Landor worked to create the brand’s new identity and logo and Ralph & Das is the agency behind V-Guard’s quirky new ad films, with which V-Guard intends to connect more with the younger generation.

“India is a young country and about 65% of the population is below the age of 35. So, it was important for us to connect with the younger generation and imbibe some new-age values like inspiring and dynamic, which would be layered over our core values. When we started work on our campaign we realised that it couldn’t be just a plain brand campaign and there will have to be an integration of our new products, which actually embody our new values,” said Nair.

The brand has gone all out to promote its improved avatar. The 360-degree campaign will be TV and digital ledd but the brand is also not holding back on print and OOH.

V-Guard is also upping its digital marketing spend. While the brand has traditionally spent 4-5% of its annual marketing budget on digital, Nair said it will see a significant jump in the coming years.

The brand, whose strong market has traditionally been the south of India, is also looking to significantly increasing its marketing efforts in non-south regions as well.

“V-Guard has always been a strong brand in the South but we continue to grow in stature and scale in the non-south markets. So, the non-south markets will continue to receive more investments going forward. For us non-south is the North, West and East of India. These are new markets and we are only about eight to nine years old in these markets. These markets contribute nearly 35% of our revenue. We believe there is a lot of potential in these markets and we will continue to build these them,” Nair said.

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