Another paint brand goes the purpose way

Of late, more and more brands are moving away from product-focused campaigns and are latching onto causes with a motive to stoke positive conversations on relevant social issues. Shalimar Paints' recent campaign - 'Har Rang Khoobsurat' - featuring a model with vitiligo, a Muslim girl playing Holi and the colourful LGBT flag was one such initiative. With its latest campaign - #NayiSochNayaRang - Kamdhenu Paints has hopped onto the cause-led bandwagon.

The digital campaign by the decorative paints division of Kamdhenu Limited aims to bring pertinent social issues like child education, domestic violence, racism and single parenting to the forefront.

Saurabh Agarwal, director, Kamdhenu Paints, tells afaqs! that the campaign aims to encourage people to open up on social issues and embrace a progressive thought process in order to bring about positive and lasting social change. He says, “The campaign features thought-provoking videos and photographs to showcase advancement and positive developments in society and to reassure viewers that it is okay to embrace unconventional and progressive thoughts.”

Conceptualised by the brand promotion team of Kamdhenu Paints, the campaign is live on the brand's digital platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Since its launch in 2008, Kamdhenu Paints had, until this campaign, focused more on the functional benefits of the product in its communications rather than being involved in purpose-driven advertising.

Commenting on this shift in the brand's communication, Agarwal says, “Consumers today are making carefully considered choices to buy from companies that stand for a purpose they identify, that reflects their values and beliefs. This could be related to important values such as women's empowerment, child education, health and well-being, or on broader societal issues such as environmental sustainability. #NayiSochNayaRang aims to keep up with this expectation.”

As per the Paint Sector Analysis Report published by equitymaster, decorative paints account for around 80 per cent of the overall paint market in India. Some of the popular names from the segment are Asian Paints, Berger, Nippon Piants, Mysore Paints, Kansai Nerolac, Dulux, Snowcem, Jenson & Nicholson, and Indigo Paints.

According to Samir Datar, head of strategy, Hakuhodo India, brands that are not in the top three names in the category find it difficult to communicate on functionality. Since they do not have anything unique to say about the product, they move on to purpose advertising.

He does not find the idea #NayiSochNayaRang unique. In the past, these issues have been highlighted by brands across categories including Tanishq - the jewellery division of Titan Company, Sleek - from the house of Asian Paints, P&G's detergent brand - Ariel, Walmart-owned online fashion retailer - Myntra and Unilever-owned personal care brand – Dove.

Datar says, “The idea had the potential to connect with 'new thinking' but the brand stuck to predictable visuals. 'Nayi soch' today is supposedly only about women's empowerment and educating the girl child. If it weren't for the Kamdhenu Paints branding, this could well be a campaign by the government.”

He adds, “Paint as a category works on functionality and brand awareness. Smaller brands, even with purpose advertising, will never have the budgets to take on the big three. Kamdhenu should have instead focussed on the real market for their paints and should have communicated with them. 'Rang' is too generic for the category.”

Chetan Mane, VP - business and strategy at Whyness Worldwide shares Datar's opinion. He finds the idea of the campaign good but opines that the execution could have been much better. “The photography and layouts don’t live up to the idea,” he comments.

“In certain categories where product differentiation is minimal, purpose-oriented advertising helps a brand attract attention. Having said that, in categories such as paint, the customers' decision is driven by rationale and they seek a strong product benefit,” he adds.