Decoding Philips' 'game plan' to create an impact on Indian youth

Having identified the need for a product that will cater to the grooming needs of teenagers, Philips brought its global offering- OneBlade to India.

In line with OneBlade’s brand vision, Philips India partnered with BGMI e-Sports to launch its own e-Sports team by the name of OneBlade. In fact, this development comes months after the brand associated with Nodwin as a styling partner for the Valorant Challengers tournament.

Commenting as to whether the brand is trying to woo the GenZs through its foray into the gaming space with such associations, Deepali Agarwal, Business Head- Personal Health, Philips (Indian Subcontinent) affirmed that from the standpoint of both- demographic and psychographic, GenZs are more fearless and tend to be caught up in the dilemma of being fearless and wanting to make their own choices, and at the same time having someone by their side.

Having said that, Philips’ Agarwal also emphasised that in the pursuit of speaking to the youth of the country, what was crucial was not just the product but also the ways in which the popular household brand can rejuvenate and reinvent itself into becoming relevant and desirable for the teenagers and the youth, and in this case, gaming was one of the top meaningful connection building platforms.

“For us, the issue is not awareness but continuously building on the brand’s connection with the consumers and ensuring that they feel that we get them. Secondly, OneBlade as a brand believes in supporting the unconventional choices of the youth, and therefore enabling them to move fearlessly. So, the whole idea was to participate in that fearless mind space and partner with someone who has a sizable presence and also falls in sync with the brand’s philosophy,” she said.

With this, she also emphasised that while Philips now stands associated with Nodwin and BGMI, it is still on the lookout for partners for OneBlade not from an opportunistic lens but building on the brand’s philosophy of making unconventional choices and conquering the fear within one’s own self in an actually meaningful manner and not only about slapping a brand name or branding, but integrating in such a fashion that the experience is seamless for the consumer.

According to Agarwal, the brand has grown up to be in almost every household in the country The media mix for Philips OneBlade is also planned in a way that not only does it leverages the gaming ecosystem which entices youngsters but also includes large campus outreach programs through a combination of campus ambassadors and campus activation as well as providing real-life product experiences through in-stores (via both e-stores or physical stores) along with the brand communications on conventional digital platforms, she said.

“Through our journey, we aim to reach out to more consumers continuously and demonstrate to them what we can do in their life stage, both from the belief of the brand, which is to move fearlessly and also leveraging the product technology of the brand. Our approach has been on the lines of extremely purpose-led conversations backed by-products which have very superior and solid technology to deliver the outcomes that we want,” she added.

Furthermore, she also emphasised that the most important thing for Philips in any investment that the brand makes is the impact along with a performance marketing aspect to it, and therefore, gaming is a much bigger impact story for the brand as of now.

“The Nodwin partnership has positioned Philips OneBlade as a very GenZ, uber cool and trendy product in our portfolio of consumer brands and that’s precisely what we were aiming for with our differentiated marketing approach,” she highlighted.

owing to its great products backed with advertising that consumers love and relate to. However, the future of the brand is a bit different from the way the masses have experienced Philips in the past, especially in the personal health domain.

“We're now focused on being a very individual health well-being brand in India that most certainly wants to be relevant and participative with the youth of the country. We’ve realised that even though India is a house to a large youth population, a lot of teenagers, in particular, who may have an early start to grooming, don't really have a lot of brands that cater to that. Also, we just want to carry the brand name and equity forward into the youth of the country as we want every subsequent generation to love us as much as every earlier generation has,” she said.

In her view, OneBlade is that partner who wants to support unconventional choices and empower people to move fearlessly and do their own thing.

She then pointed out that having launched recently, Philips OneBlade, a comparatively more premium offering, is actively targeting the GenZs in the top 25-30 cities of the country, first, and then subsequently moving forward adding to the brand’s other offering- Philips trimmer BT-1000 series which does speak to Gen Z across the length and breadth of the country.

“In our grooming portfolio, we speak to GenZs in the top 30 towns with OneBlade, Gen Zs across the country with BT1000, followed by conversing with more mature adults through our series 3000, 5000 and 7000 for spreading our ad money on relevant platforms for different consumers, versus trying to do everything for everyone. Also, the interesting difference that has happened now with OneBlade is that we've realised that e-gaming is such an interesting and integral part of the teenagers that it makes sense to also venture there,” she said.

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