Ready for contemporary

BY IMPACT Staff

From being a ‘pressure cooker company’ to a complete kitchenware label — TTK Prestige, one of India’s favourite home brands, strives to stay relevant with the times without forgoing their brand legacy and values. Chandru Kalro, Chief Operating Officer, TTK Prestige Limited, reveals the idea behind the new ad campaign and how they brought back their yester-year tagline and made it more suitable for modern consumers

Q] ‘Jo Biwi Se Kare Pyaar, Woh Prestige Se Kaise Kare Inkaar’— the brand has reintroduced its old tagline along with a new ad campaign. How is this line relevant in contemporary India? Is your previous line ‘ Are You Ready For A Smarter Kitchen?’ not as relevant today?

Our tagline for over a decade ‘Are You Ready For A Smarter Kitchen?’ emphasized smarter products for Indian homemakers who were looking for time-saving, convenient and aesthetically appealing appliances for their kitchen. However this positioning was feature-led which tends to get copied, and the differentiation comes to an end after you get the first mover advantage. Therefore, we needed to go beyond just features and reach out to the consumer’s emotional side, while at the same time, distance ourselves from the competition.

Through our consumer research, we found that couples increasingly shared responsibilities in the kitchen and also bonded here. We also found out that our old tagline had an instant connect with almost a 100% brand recall. So we decided it was time to get that line back rather than search for a new one. With our new campaign, we are looking at portraying the Indian woman as being a thinker and ideator, who considers her better half as her equal.

Q] How do Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan fit in with your brand image?

The moment we agreed to get an image enhancement, we decided to get a celebrity couple who is recognisable across the country. Given that Prestige’s core brand value stands for trust, quality, durability and safety we needed a couple who were non-controversial and committed to each other. There is also a strong family legacy, which is what Prestige is about as well. We did consider other couples but found Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan to be the perfect fit, from an imagery perspective and with respect to other criteria as well.

Q] The TVC shows Abhishek lending a hand in the kitchen. While this may connect with urban audiences, how will this resonate with older generations and consumers in smaller towns?

We did consider this when we were working on the campaign. However, if you see the values and the way the commercials have been shot, they portray an aspirational relationship. Our research also showed that couples in a relationship want to be increasingly told that their partner loves them. And, here was a couple, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan, who portrayed all these values while having a humorous interaction among themselves. Even in smaller towns, the relationship between couples is a very aspirational thing; that is why we believe that this core emotion transcends demographics as well as geographies, because what we are trying to show is simply love, food and togetherness.

Q] What does your fundamental marketing strategy entail?

We want every Indian kitchen, rural and urban to have a Prestige product. So, each of our categories have been segmented by various price points, features, etc. Our idea is to have the widest range of products which have a price value equation that is positive for the customer. We communicate a simple message with imagery that is in line with our brand for the last 60 years; so the customer knows they can trust the brand because of its legacy. We hope to be the largest spender in line with our industry status by far in the coming months and years.

While we are using mass media, we are looking at advertiser-funded programmes and brand integration with Hindi GECs. The one change is Digital as an add-on media, to constantly communicate with today’s modern couples. We look to communicate with our customers wherever they go, without being obtrusive — be it on Digital or even Cinemas. We have two Facebook pages: one is productled for various kinds of lifestyles and the other is food-led, which is all about recipes. In both these pages we have encouraged customers to come on and post content, so that whatever happens is contributory rather than manufacturer speak. We are adding another page titled after our campaign tagline, Jo biwi se kare pyaar, and have also revived our Twitter handle.

Q] The Indian kitchen has evolved over the last decade. How has Prestige kept up with this change in terms of products and innovation?

Our stores act as good listening posts. Periodically, we go back to the customer to understand what is happening in their kitchen — we see what they need and think about providing smart solutions. The problem with innovation is, while customers readily share their concerns, rarely can they be articulate about what they want. The idea is to understand the pain points and see how we can remove them. We then go back to the customer with a completely new concept that will make their life easier. That’s how we have developed products and categories, and launched more than 75 products every year for over a decade.

Q] How big is the kitchen appliances segment in India? What is your current share?

The market size for the categories we operate in is about Rs 10,000 cr, of which our contribution is about Rs 1,500 cr — which is by far the biggest. This is a multicategory segment, a very wide field that we play in; so we’re trying to establish ourselves one category at a time, and distance ourselves from the competition. South is our biggest market (55%), and we are now focussing on the Hindispeaking markets.

Q] Apart from pressure cookers, the brand now offers a diverse range of kitchen products. Which product or category is your main focus?

About 12 years ago, pressure cookers contributed about 80% of our revenues. Today, while the category has grown significantly, pressure cookers bring in 45% of total revenues. We are leaders in the pressure cooker category, and at the same time the rest of our portfolio has also become very significant, in terms of cookware, electrical appliances and gas stoves. The head room for us is the non south markets and we are focusing on promoting inner-lid segment pressure cookers. We are also looking at more products in this segment so that we can gain market share in this area.

Q] Competition is fierce in the kitchen appliance space, with both international and home-grown brands offering similar products. How does your brand make the effort to stand out from the rest?

International players have little experience in the Indian market. Indian cuisine is also very diverse as compared to most international cuisines. Acquiring this knowledge takes time and it doesn’t come from research alone — which gives us a serious advantage over international players. Price sensitivity is a big concern and international companies who import will find it difficult to be price competitive. I also believe that Indian consumers look for a brand they are familiar with. Our Indian competition has neither the range nor the bandwidth that we currently have, in terms of geographical presence, brand stature or even the innovation that we bring to the table. This is why we have been growing consistently faster than any of our peers. Innovation combined with brand imagery and distribution strength hold us in good stead against any of these threats that can come about.

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Tags : CMO Interview