We are cautious and judicious in our messaging and not hurt any sentiments, says Kanwalpreet Walia of Titan

Fragrances as a category remain largely unpenetrated and there are not many people who believe in entering the field. Taking the onus of building everyday relevance for perfumes, Skinn is creating conversations with the consumer and bringing the perfume in the forefront of their everyday indulgences by leveraging digital as a major part of its marketing mix.

Kanwalpreet Walia, Head Marketing - Fragrance and Fashion Accessories Division at Titan Company, told BestMediaInfo that going forward digital will remain an important focus area for the company, while it will also explore other avenues including print and TV.

In the ongoing year, most of its ad spends went to digital, and it had used print for tactical activities around Diwali.

Walia said, “Digital will remain a key anchor for us in the next year. Since we're going to have more olfactive space launches, including some premium products, we may want to own different parameters and accordingly we will look at media mix when it comes there. We will use TV when we need a similar kind of audience. Our ad budget has not come down this year, and we are looking at equal growth next year as well. We will also continue to explore print for tactical campaigns. OTT has always been part of digital itself.”

The brand utilises influencer marketing as well, both with and without celebrities.

For its #BestSaidWithSkinn marketing campaign to celebrate Rakshabandhan, it had onboarded Manushi Chhillar and her elder sister Devangana as celebrity influencers to bring back sibling love in the forefront.

 

 

 

 

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Talking about the plans on increasing the budgets for influencer marketing, Walia said, “We will definitely increase our spends on this front next year. Influencer marketing in the last few years has also become more real. Influencers help you drive the message well. The onus is also on the brand to let the right kind of influencers talk about your brand, because only then the authenticity will come out.”

For its recently launched #FeelYourBest campaign , it used influencers, both regionally and otherwise to build the whole mood of how perfumes are an everyday enhancer of moods. It had released the digital film for the same to celebrate the joy and fervour of the festive season as well. It was conceptualized by Ogilvy South.

Fragrances have an innate ability to make one feel good and the brand has stood for driving new conversations in the category.

Walia added, “Fragrances as a category is a low penetration one, there are only that many people who believe in fragrancing in our country. With #FeelYourBest campaign, we tried creating everyday relevance for perfumes. We are a quintessential category of perfumes and at a very economical pricing and therefore the key task for us is really to build that relevance and to make perfumes an everyday relevant product.”

Upon being asked on how challenging it is to maintain the relevance of categories like perfumes amid the pandemic, she said, “Amid the pandemic- there is both a positive and a negative story. As per reports, because of the pandemic people are looking for mood upliftment and fragrances are great mood uplifters. They also have the ability to rejuvenate your senses, uplift your mood, and hence, I think that is an opportunity for us because nobody has portrayed fragrances in that sense in our country.”

Amid the pandemic, it has taken up buyer sampling in a very large way. It already has ecommerce partners, its own stores and Titan’s database, and sent sampling vials to consumers. It is also going to be putting up QR code on these vials for people to know more about the product and get an instant gratification. Through its discovery kits, which consist of small samples of perfumes and comes in a very economical pack, it has reached out to many more people in the last two years.

Also, it retails through its own exclusive brand outlets, and via a lot of other trade outlets.

In terms of the recovery of the offline stores, Walia shared that the retail outlets have come to pre-pandemic levels. In some cases, they may also be growing, she said.

“Revenue via online channels has increased its share in our overall share of business. But customers are absolutely coming into offline stores as well, since there's a lot of meaning that gets created there because there's look and feel of the product, which is extremely important in our category,” she added.

In 2022, it will continue to do as much sampling and dissemination of discovery kits as possible and will be depending on vials in a very big way. It also has a series of launches scheduled next year.

Titan forayed into the fragrances segment in 2013. As per media reports, it had earlier stated that its target is Rs 500 crore turnover and 20% market share by 2023.

Walia said, “Our penetration of the perfume category is about seven to 8% -all formats put together. The category will grow in double digits in the years to come. The onus is on us to grow the relevance of the category and make that pie bigger. It's difficult to attribute any market share because we have a very unique pie for ourselves and that is why we are successful in the market.”

Talking more about the consumer trends next year, she shared that since lifestyle is growing, people are looking for indulgence as a category.

“Fragrance category is poised to grow. Also, people post pandemic are looking at self-care. We're also looking at newer and lighter formats, body mists, etc,” she said.

Discussing brand safety amid the prevailing toxicity, trolling on social media, she said that the brand is cautious and judicious in its messaging to not hurt sentiments of the consumers.

“I would just say that the environment is a bit more sensitive today, hence we are just cautious and judicious in what we put out in our messages and not hurt any sentiments. Creative expressions are beautiful that we must keep exploring because that’s what gets customers excited and looking forward. The endeavour is to build engaging, meaningful, entertaining content for the consumers because they want to hear and look at happier things,” she said.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com