Kansai Nerolac Paints best known for its ‘Jab Ghar ki Ronak Badhani Ho’ jingle ad from the early 2000s turned 102 this year. Ram Mehrotra, Sales and Marketing, Decorative Paints, Kansai Nerolac Paints Limited, spoke about how the industry and the company have evolved over the years.

At e4m India Brand Conclave 2023, Mehrotra said that colour is the most powerful unifier, especially in a country like India, which is so diverse. Speaking about the evolution of consumers, he noted; "Consumers today stand in terms of brand choice, they dominate the decision by 30% and the dealer’s role is coming down with the advent of information available on the internet. Post covid the growth is still pegged at 6%. YOY, we are improving. The growth in the middle class has been quite good."

One of the key things he said is the changing pattern in consumers. He said, "The average age of the consumer is going down. Around 60% of the consumers are between 25-64 years. Today’s generation is far young and ready to invest in home needs, therefore today’s consumer is younger and they are able to take faster decisions. They use digital use to make decisions, and hence the brand had to evolve. Wherever the consumer is moving we have to reach to the consumers."

"Homes are defined as a medium of self-expression. Today 70-80 % of electronics and 80% of vehicles are painted by Nerolac," said Mehrotra.

He also spoke on how their revenue has reversed. He said, "In earlier days, Decorative  is what contributed 30% of our business and 70% was contributed by industrial but now it has been reversed to 55% decorative and 45% industrial."

"The Nerolac 'Jab Ghar Ki Ronak Badhani Ho', is one of the iconic jingles. In 2010, we changed it. The entire Star Network was blocked for 3 months for this ad," he recollected.

Speaking on the digital investments to reach consumers, Mehrotra said, "We had been doing a lot of SEO in terms of ensuring that we get good traction on Facebook and other social media activities. We also have a website with 7 different languages where we are saying that you can see the content in your language. We use chatbot to provide personalized services."

Concluding the session, he said, "So I think when we look at our hundred years of success or ingredients for 100 years of success, there are 3 basic things are: innovation at the core of everything, staying relevant to consumer needs, sustainable approach. "

"We are working towards the next 100 more years of the company. Digital sale is very low right now because there is an involvement of the painter, which is not a product which you can buy and apply yourself. We have made a website known as masterpainter.com there you can get painters near you and that is how we are building are digital ecosystem", he added