MARKETING STRATEGY OF ASAIN PAINTS

STRATEGY ALTERNATIVES
The prospect of a paint company has many dependence like weather, occasions like puja, id etc.
when we consider the decorative segments. So there is always a possibility of ups & downs in the
business. Besides this there is another very important factor i.e. the position of the competitor. Through
Asian paints is the largest paint company still under circumstances it will have to go for some strategy
alternatives.
Alternatives available
1. As Asian paints market is mainly the decorative segment so a downfall in that market will lead
the company in trouble them it immediate focus will turn to the Industrial segment.
2. Importance on water based paints may recover a poor situation created due to sustain poor
weather condition in some region.
3. As there is every possibility that conventional coatings are likely to lose some share ecofriendly
coasting is going to be very good alternatives.
4.

With all countries in southeast Asia beginning to adhere to the ASEAN free trade Area (AFTA)
that will reduce trade barriers for paints & coatings. A reduce in domestic market share of Asian
paints then will not be a constant for growth, became export of paints to the foreign countries will
contribute a lot.

5. Increasing the product package & application oriented service will make company different from
others.
6. A strong post sales service division will be an important factor in building customer loyalty.
7.

Tie up with automobile sector with strong appearance will be effective.

Lastly but not the least price of oil is increasing day by day, which results to increase the price of paints.
If this can be controlled by stocking oil or directly linking up with foreign cheap refineries so as get oil at
least available price.

CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION & TARGETING

Customer segmentation is the most important part of the marketing strategy of any company. Asian
paints, the market leader in the Indian paint market segmented their products mainly in three sectors. (i)
Decorative (ii) Industrial (iii) Automotive. Their customers are all also segmented based on the usage of
these products.

CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION
Base

Decorative coating
Premium

Industrial coating

Medium

Popular

High

Automotive coating
Powder coating

performance

Quality

Finished

coating

coating

coating
Buyer
characteristic

Up

market

High

Middle

buyers

income

class

achiever

group

Used

petrochemicals &

manufacturers

rural

atomic

Upper

market

installations

fashion

middle

mostly

mainly

Secker

class

low

where to reduce

Socially

income

corrosion

conscious

group

losses

quality

&

&

&

Used by fertilizer

by Large

energy of while goods

&
used
led

other

& Old

cars

small scale

are mainly

car

recoloured

industrial

industrial

mostly tied

products

up
companies

Key
purchasing
factor

Quality

Quality

Cost

surfaces

surfaces

influences

shades

Quality

&

Quality & cot

utilization power

Quality,

Brightness

surfaced &

& cost

conting
strength

Research &

Brand loyal

Brand loyal
+ Cost

Evaluation

Cost

Utility

Variety seeking

Brand loyal

Cost+
variety

variety

seeking

seeking

Purchase

Companys

through

Packet or

Company

Authorised

dealer paint

paint can

approaches

dealer paints

or

points

the

purchasing

sold

customer

paint

house

of 1,2, 5,

&

Other

Tie up with

Old

manufactures

the

vehicles

directly paints can

anto

company

send

to

work shops

com

or purchase

10, litre
Post
Purchase

A warranty Limited or

No

High scale

Medium or no

Service

Service

period

warranty

service of

warranty

provided

provided

for limited

for 0-2

years

years.

for

no warranty

some years

Market

warranty

Asian paint is the market paint leader,

Nerolac is the market leader. Asian

Nerolac market leader,

with more than 50% market share.

paint have only 12% market share.

50% share

Nerolac, berger, ICI & Shalimar are

Other players ICI

there

Asian paint penetrating

slowly

TARGETING
Asian paints have a unique customer targeting strategy. They used to follow V tier customer Target
strategy.

Tires

Tires 1

Tire 2 Tire 4

Tire 3

Tire 1 - In the recipient end there are strategic solution seekers. Company thinks of cost reductions,
performance & productivity improvement for clients improving customers & share holder profitability.
Tier 2 Here the Customers whom can be considered as the value or brand sensitive. Asian paints target
this customers with value added VDS integration customer level service.
Tier 3 These part of the consumer are price sensitive. They least bothered about the service. These are
mainly middle or low income group people Asian paints have several brand like UTSAV to serve them.

Tier-4 Here the company targets the small manufacturing & local companies, which can generate revenue,
company utilizes its & business & telesales technology to address & satisfy their needs.
Tier-5 This tier is composed of specific targeted companies that although small in size, deserve special
attention because they are highly innovative in nature. Asian paints have a good prospect over here.

POSITIONING STRATEGY OF ASIAN PAINTS LIMITED

Although operating in commodity market. Asian paints have invested heavily in branding,
GATTU, the Asian paints official Mascot is a familiar icon across India. The company recently
augmented their web pressure. Their website, Asian paints.com is an exhaustive hub of Painting
solutions. The site use Maximum interactivity to enhance user experience. There are painting lips, online
shades cards, cost calculation (based on floor area and number of rooms0 dealer locator and a short of
other innovative services.
From the perceptual map we can understand that Asian paints, have wider range of products for all type of
customers consisting of different income levels. It has a product range from Royal Emulsion, Priced 250400 which is targeted for up market buyers. Hpcolilen is a product which is targeted for high income and
upper middle class people. For lowers income group it has UTSAV, TRACTOR EMLSION which priced
vary from 40-100 Rupees. These products are mainly targeted to rural customers.
In Industrial segment companies position is relatively weak here Nerolac paints captured more
than 50% market share. In this segment Asian paints have products like Apcomin synthetic enamel which
is used for industrial coating, and Apco synthetic power which is used in automobile sector. In this
segment also Asian paints faced stiff competition from Berger and ICI Paints. Bajaj automobiles is the
main customer of Asian paints in automotive sector.

POSITIONING STRATEGY OF ASIAN PAINTS

PREMIUM PRICE

ROYALE

INDUSTRIAL
PAINTS

Role of CRM in Asian Paints

Key Challenges
A Fresh Approach to the Customer Experience
In 2001 Asian Paints executives realized that the firms long term growth depended on their ability to
forge ever-closer ties to the end consumer. At the same time, the Asian
Paints help line had received calls from these consumers expressing a need for a more complete solution
to their home painting needs and Asian Paints learned that they had demanding expectations when it
came to service and overall project execution. But because the company sold its products through a
network of dealers, it lacked visibility into the entire painting process and the needs of the homeowner.
This situation prompted Asian Paints Executives to explore ways to establish a more direct link to the end
customer.

Launching a Service Brand

With this in mind, Asian Paints made the decision to move from a strictly product-based manufacturing
business to a services model. With the launch of Asian Paints Home
Solutions, the firm would build a service brand by offering value-added services ranging from inperson color recommendations to feng shui consultations.. The goal was to deliver an Asian Paints
signature look through the use of specific color combinations and themes.To achieve this goal, Asian
Paints needed a scalable customer relationship management (CRM) system that could map the major
business processes of Asian Paints Home Solutions and provide visibility into all customer interactions.
First, it required state-of-the-art call center capabilities that would include activity management for
customer calls and activity scheduling, as well as a lead management system that could prioritize and
route leads for proper handling.

Developing a customized Solution

Standardizing the sales delivery processes and establishing financial controls would necessitate
developing a custom solution. This solution required a secure Web interface enabling leads from the help
line to be forwarded to a home solutions service provider for handling. This service provider might be an
independent home painting firm or interior designer, for example, in the Asian Paints network.

The home solutions provider is responsible for using the system to perform all major tasks associated
with a job: schedule appointments, record completion of site surveys, submit job estimates, order paints
through Asian Paints dealers, record progress of jobs, invoice customers, and conduct customer
satisfaction surveys. The new solution would allow both the provider and Asian Paints Home Solutions to
view all customer interactions and financial information in real time. This same system would also
provide updates on the status of marketing rewards programs.
In addition, robust reporting functionality was required to generate a variety of sales, lead, and activity
analysis reports. This functionality would also be used to tabulate results of the customer surveys
submitted at the completion of a job.

THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE GETS A

NEW LOOK WITH SAP CRM
When the time came to select a new system, Asian Paints studied the functionality of the most recent
release of the SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM) application very carefully. The
company was already using SAP solutions and had implemented SAP CRM in its existing call centers.
Asian paints determined that SAP CRM best met its criteria and opted to build on existing infrastructure.
The custom solution was a separate project that would require integration with the basic CRM system.
After considering other options, Asian Paints decided on the SAP NetWeaver platform. The Web
Dynpro development environment allowed for rapid application development as well as custom
development of the user interface. And it would integrate seamlessly with SAP CRM. The architecture
called for the new solution, branded project Tantra, to retain the lead and opportunity management
functionality of SAP CRM. Then, all process associated with sales delivery would be implemented
through the custom solution. Integration with the SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence (SAP NetWeaver
BI) component was also a critical factor. Data from both SAP CRM and the custom solution would be
uploaded to SAP NetWeaver BI to generate various reports.

Implementation Process
In launching its new service business, Asian Paintss key objective was to deepen its ties
to the end consumer.As a result, the CRM system needed to offer visibility into all
customer interactions and financial transactions. At the same time, this system would
standardize business processes at each stage of a painting job. Thanks to the

implementation of SAP CRM and the custom solution, processes were optimized in the
following areas

1) Financial controls
There is now greater transparency into all financial transactions from billing and collections to
contractordealer payments.

2) Sales delivery
Asian Paints standardized the sales delivery processes to be followed by each provider. Since the
sales delivery process can be lengthy, the system allows Asian Paints to monitor the quality of
service its customers receive from the start of a project to its completion.

3) Customer data management

Asian Paints now has one centralized system for managing all customer data, which provides
greater visibility into customer needs and is now available for use in campaign management and
in the development of predictability models, among other activities. And because this data is
available in real time, reports can be generated instantaneously.

Customer
Interaction
Center

Lead Details
SOA, and so on

Reports

SAP CRM

SAP
NetWeaver BI

SAP NetWeaver Platform

Web-Based System
Via Internet

Relationship
Associate

Applicator

Sales
Associate

Asian Paints
Home
Solutions
Business

Close collaboration between Asian Paints and SAP resulted in adherence to tight schedules. The SAP
Customer Competence Center location in Singapore developed prototype scenarios specific to Asian
Paints, and SAP Labs made valuable contributions to the design and configuration of the custom solution.

Business Process Transformation and Value Realized

Moving Asian Paints closer to Customers

Asian Paints has made clear gains in achieving its long-term goals, as follows.

Faster customer acquisition

The new online system for forwarding and following up on leads improved overall response times and
reduced the time required to acquire new customers .

Revenue
In the four years since the implementation went live, 17,500 persons registered for Asian Paints Home
Solutions consultations, and of these, 5,000 signed up for painting jobs. Targeted revenue for the period
2006 2007 is US$8 million to $10 million, and the company crossed the 30,000 mark in cumulative
number of customers.

Optimized visibility into customer needs

The new solution gives Asian Paints greater visibility into all customer interactions. As a result, the
company has gained a deeper understanding of the needs of its end customers and has tailored its service
business to meet these needs.

Scalability
This new solution can accommodate Asian Paints continued growth well into the future. In fact, Asian
Paints doubled the number of cities covered without modifications to the CRM system.

Optimizing Crtical Processes

The implementation of SAP CRM enabled Asian Paints to establish a direct link to its end customers and
to meet customers need for a home painting service. The following table illustrates the processes that
changed as a result of this implementation and the impact of these changes.

Processes
Area
Financial
Controls

Problems

After SAP
Software

Inability to monitor
financial transactions
between providers and
customers
or between providers and
contractors

Ordering and
accounting system
used by all
providers

Accounting transparency
Optimized financial process
controls Improved data
transparency.

Visibility into all

financial
transactions
between
providers and
customers,
and between
providers and
contractors
The same sales
delivery
processes used by
all
providers
Improved visibility
into all
customer
interactions
Centralized data
management
capabilities
Improved visibility
into
customer needs
Ability to profile
customers

Improved customer
satisfaction
Reduced time required to
service customers
Created a direct channel to
customer
Increased employee
Productivity

Sales delivery

Lack of consistent sales

delivery processes from
lead and opportunity
management to job
estimating and scheduling
Lack of visibility into
customer interactions

Customer data
management

Inability to collect and

manage customer data
Inability to identify
changing
customer needs

Impact

Improved customer service

Improved customer
acquisition and retention

Future Road Map

. Asian paints is growing rapidly throughout the world. In international market company is planning to
introduce new & attractive products through its subsidiaries, like Berger, Apco coating etc. In domestic
market company will concentrate on development of new products/ product systems. With improved
supply chain

management. Through its implementation of SAP CRM, Asian Paints has established a

direct link to its end customers, and put in place processes to ensure that their high expectations will be
met. In an effort to realize an even greater return on its IT investment, Asian Paints used its SAP CRM
infrastructure to develop an e-recruitment platform. This platform allows employment agencies to review
openings and upload job candidate information, reducing the time required to fill open positions.

In the future, Asian Paints plans to leverage its SAP CRM investment in the following areas:

Campaign management
With improved customer intelligence, Asian Paints now plans targeted campaigns to its customers.

New market segments

Asian Paints plans to extend its CRM initiative to indirect customer influencers such as architects and
interior designers.

Complaint-handling system
Asian Paints plans to develop a formal complaint-handling system to tackle customer problems with both
service and paint. By having selected a scalable system such as SAP CRM, Asian Paints has laid the
foundation for its long-term growth.

Learning
Asian paints have increased the capacity by setting up a plant in Rohtak Haryana. No other company has
planned to increase its capacity; this has given Asian paints a competitive advantage in terms of pricing. It
has widest product range in terms of products, shades , pack sizes and their pricing strategy is oriented to
middle and lower end consumers. Asian Paints is a market leader with more than 50% market share.
SAP CRM enabled Asian Paints to build a service brand through Asian Paints Home Solutions. With its
scalable CRM infrastructure, Asian Paints is poised to continue its expansion into the services market.

WEBILOGRAPHY

1)http://www.asianpaints.com

2)http://www.sdn.sap.com