How Voltas Beko is building experiences for customers with 40% spends on last mile marketing

From the time of its launch in 2017, Voltas Beko, a 50:50 venture between Arçelik and Voltas, has been investing heavily in its branding and communications, becoming one of the top three spenders in the category. 

Prasenjit Basu

Prasenjit Basu, Head of Marketing, Voltbek Home Appliances India, in an interaction with BestMediaInfo.com, shared how reaching the last mile to consumers is essential part of its marketing and advertisements. Discussing how it plans to increase its digital spends, he shared how the consumer durable category has been the least affected by the economic slowdown.

With the changing market scenario and consumer behaviour towards advertisements, it has become necessary for a brand to reach the last mile, Basu said.

“Last mile is where the consumer finally goes and takes a decision of investing money and buying the product. Having seen the ads, done a research on a particular product, and then coming to a store, for a consumer, the store, the staff, the look and feel of the products and the salesperson at the store also matter. That can impact a consumers’ mind to switch to another brand. Visual merchandising of a store and the training of sales teams is one of the biggest tasks in today's world,” said Basu.

The brand invests almost 35% to 40% of its spends to support the last mile. With 33% for TV, 15%-18% for print, and 10% for digital, Basu said that digital’s share is slowly increasing.

With its digital spends, the brand focuses on building communities with influencers and content partnerships. Having done content with Momspresso in the past, Basu said influencer marketing helps building the brand brick by brick.

“We are still a very TV dependent economy, which is the most effective medium. But digital is a process where you build over a period of time; it's a brick by brick building of affinity towards the brand. It's something that you create like a legacy. Being among the top three spenders in this category in marketing and advertisement, we would be increasing our focus towards digital.”

The brand had recently launched its Raksha Bandhan campaign as a part of occasion marketing. With most brands riding on occasional and topical marketing, Basu said that with such marketing tactics, brands now have the voice and the opportunity to express themselves on every occasion.  For its ATL activities, the brand closely works with Wunderman Thompson and Interactive Avenues for core digital campaigns.

Voltas Beko has positioned itself as ‘partners of everyday happiness’ with the consumer benefit of ‘nutrition, preservation for refrigerators and cleaning efficiency for washing machines’. With an aim to become the market leader in the white goods space, it has set a target to generate Rs 10,000 crore of revenue by 2025, exceeding 10% market share in the category.  

“We aim to be among the top five players in the next one year. We launched a new brand with a complete set of products that go beyond refrigerators and washing machines but also into dishwashers and microwaves. Many more products are being planned over the next one year. The market’s demands were still unmet in terms of technology and innovation and that is what we bring,” said Basu.

According to industry reports last year, the consumer durables market in India was slated to grow at 10-12% per annum. With almost every category being hit by the economic slowdown, how has been the impact on the consumer durables market?

Basu said, “Yes there is a slowdown. If you actually see, the industries that are being hit largely are industrial-based businesses such as automobiles. Durables as a business have been growing so quickly, except for panels including LEDs and LCD TVs. With a growing population, the demand of home appliances is growing. The AC business has gone by almost 50% in the last six months.”

As the festive season nears, he said, “We have been a hobby spender, and surely will be spending much more with the festive season that goes till the month of March, where we will see a lot of consumer traction.”

Info@BestMediaInfo.com