Service is our biggest differentiator: Kashyap Vadapalli, Pepperfry
Kashyap Vadapalli, CMO, Pepperfry tells us how Pepperfry is aligning its business and communication objectives for this year to stand out amongst competitors
Pepperfry has been on the block since 2011, but at some point around 2014, it’s popularity exploded as they launched their television campaigns. Some of their famous campaigns such as “For those who like this and those who like that” grabbed a lot of attention and eyeballs. The TVC was about a couple innocently wandering in to buy new furniture for their house. While the boy was drawn to dark sheesham furniture, the girl preferred light and subtle furniture. The TVC showed the two different choices of two individuals and there comes the tagline of the campaign where Pepperfry claims to get each individual’s choices covered.
The furniture market globally and in India has been growing aggressively and is set to do so in the coming years. The range of indigenous furniture available in India includes both residential and contract system furniture. Manufacturers in India usually use a three-tier selling and distribution structure, comprising of the distributor, wholesaler, and retailer. The market is mainly concentrated in A, B and C category cities (the top 589 cities). A and B type cities together constitute 33 per cent of the total market. With a healthy economy and increased household and institutional spending, the market is growing steadily.
Talking about how the emergence of the online retailer is changing the spectrum of Indian customers from moving on to local furniture dwellers to the trusted ones, Kashyap Vadapalli, CMO, Pepperfry shed some light on how Pepperfry is aligning its business and communication objectives for this year to stand out amongst all other competitors.
“The furniture and home products market in India is extremely large. There are various estimates, but the realistic estimate would be that about 200,000 crores of business in the home and furniture segment every year. Out of which about 100,000 crore is what we call loose furniture- when people are buying dining tables, beds, etc. And about another equivalent of 1000 crore is fixed furniture, for example, modular kitchens and wardrobes or fixed work through carpenters and so on. Roughly 90-95% of this is unorganized, for example, local furniture dwellers such as carpenters, etc”, added Kashyap.
When Pepperfry started 6-7 years ago, the market situation was unorganized approximately 90-95% and only 4-5% was organized offline national chains.
Speaking about the growth of Pepperfry and the brand recall amongst the consumers, Kashyap stated, “When the online sales started, we began to grow aggressively in the organized sector. Pepperfry has already transformed the furniture market in the country. We run a brand track where we ask more than 1500 people every month and we have been doing this for the last 6-8months in terms of keeping brand matrices like the top of mind, brand recall and overall recall. Pepperfry is almost at 100% with people who can recall Pepperfry. Their spontaneous recall is at almost 98-99% and we are at the top of mind with a wide margin. We are at number one and the player on number two is less than half of us”.
The Battle Between the Organised and Unorganised Furniture Market
Brands such as Pepperfry, Urban Ladder, and Ikea are expected to bring standardization in terms of quality, raw materials, product dimensions, supply chain, and inventory stocking to an extremely fragmented furniture market and thus provide consumers with more reasons to turn to the organized space.
“Our task as Pepperfry is not really to stand out against a number 2, 3 or 4 player because they are really far behind, our task is really to help the unorganized players the ad market to become organized. More and more customers, instead of going into local stores or working with local carpenters, prefer an organized player and they’ll come to us first based on our pricing, our services, and variety”, explained Kashyap.
He further added, “We have truly invested in developing this market. The most important step of developing this market is actually the supply side which is where we work as a market place works; very closely with a lot of merchants and manufacturers. We work a lot with manufacturers directly and help them to bring their supply on the site, unlike electronics and apparels which is very easy. The furniture market is based on unstructured data. Firstly creating that unstructured data and then structuring it. Working with a lot of manufacturers directly unlike e-commerce websites, who are not very comfortable working with them, so the owner of these e-commerce websites work with traders, aggregators, and distributors. We work a lot with small manufacturers in hubs such as Jodhpur etc.”
Pepperfry's Marketing Mantra
In a short span of 7 years, Pepperfry has been able to successfully entrench its position as a leader in the home and furniture segment with an online traffic market share of 60% plus. Growing at a CAGR of 83%, their mission is to be in 20 million homes by 2020. Discussing how they built and marketed their brand, Kashyap shed light on the media spends in the furniture category.
“Furniture as a category if you look at all the media spends and share of voice, if you look at TV for example, over the past 5 years we possibly have a share of voice which is 70-80%. Nobody else advertises furniture on TV. We identified very early on that the biggest Indian customer differentiator is service. While variety and value are the two pillars, I think service is the biggest differentiator. Kasyap emphasized how they realised that while building a brand it was not just about telling their customer that they have thousands of designs or it’s not about telling them about discounts.
"Performance marketing can drive the value message very easily, the brand has to be built on service and happiness. After realising this all of our communication has been largely focussed on providing customer services. We’ve done some campaigns on value but largely if you see 70-80% of our narrative, it’s been build on the entire service promise”, added Kashyap.
Today Pepperfry reaches to 500+ cities and aims to expand to the Tier III and IV cities, thereby doubling its footprint via its omnichannel model.
Commenting on this, Kashyap said, “We went omnichannel almost 4 years ago, so we realised that this is a category where irrespective of how much descriptions and what great images you have on the site, a lot of people would want to get inspired by actually seeing the item. Today we have 43 locations across the country where customers can experience our products. Some of our studios are as big as 10,000 sq ft. We are also expanding our omnichannel footprints. From 43 we are planning to go 150 stores in the next 12-18 months.”
Talking about the marketing budget for the year 2019, Kashyap explained, ‘Typically our budget is roughly about 50% online and 50% offline. About 80% of our offline budget, which is 40% of our overall budget, is usually television and the balance is split between cinema, radio and outdoor. The 50% that we do online again 75% of it is dedicated towards performance and the balance of 25% is what we call digital brand which is the area where we have started working over the last 18 months with such online content platforms as Miss Malini and FilterCopy.’
‘From the overall budget perspective, we have been fairly aggressive in terms of investing. So our budget over the next 12 months I would say would be upwards of 200 cr,’ added Kashyap.
The Entrance of IKEA into India
Since a global giant like Ikea, the world’s largest brick and mortar furniture chain has entered the Indian market, Pepperfry is also in the process of digitising its product catalogue, enabling customers to drag-and-drop virtual looks in its Studios.
Discussing this, Kashyap said, “When we talk about e-commerce often people think that its a game for only one or two players. So if there are two players in the market there is no space for the third player. While it may be true for horizontals like large players who do everything from fashion to households where it makes sense for only a couple of players to adjust. But the furniture industry is very specialised. I think furniture as an industry is large enough for multiple players to succeed in. If you have a strong reason for customers to like you whether it’s your product, catalogue or service, you can grow your business aggressively. I don’t see it as a small box where everybody is fighting and everybody occupies a different proposition.”
Comparing Pepperfry to IKEA, Kashyap commented, “I think few of the major differences among us are that our catalogues are very different and our price points as well. Not just that our target group is also very different so I think there is an opportunity for all businesses to grow. So we are not really worried that a global player has come in because we think that our strength lies in what we already do. Additionally, we have more robust and complete offerings and we operate on multiple levels.”
Looking Ahead
GST was the important key factors for deriving growth for the companies. As it was introduced in July last year, most of the furniture and home products were got into the 28% slab. Talking about how Was the year 2018 for Pepperfry in terms of revenue and the expectations from 2019, Kashyap said, ‘Earlier the entire ecosystem, whether it was manufacturers or artisans; everybody was operating at different states anywhere between the 10-12% slab. Suddenly everybody had to move to the 28% slab. There was a learning curve for everybody in terms of what is really their GST liability and how much can they claim it back from. GST is an added tax. So people didn’t know how the claim will work. I think that did cause some disruption because a lot of people in the supply chain didn’t know what they should charge. Later in November, a lot of home and furniture products moved on to the 18% slab and some of the products moved to 12%. So, December of 2017 to March 2018, has been fantastic for us. The business has grown tremendously, we have more than double. We expect 2019 to be better than in 2018.”
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Social Beat wins SEO mandate of Tata CLiQ tag rss
The account was won after a multi-agency pitch
e4m e4m Social Beat has won the SEO mandate for Tata CLiQ, one of the fastest-growing omnichannel marketplace in India. Social Beat has been entrusted with optimizing existing content, as well as launching new, optimized category pages systematically on Tata CLiQ’s platform to scale monthly organic traffic by 2x over the next year. The account was won after a multi-agency pitch and will be serviced by Social Beat’s offices in Mumbai.
Shishir Kataria, Director - Marketing, Tata CLiQ, “Shoppers, e-commerce or otherwise, continue to heavily rely on search and discovery throughout their shopping journey, be it engaging with the latest fashion trends or hunting for the best buys. No wonder a platform's ability to be a part of this journey organically drives significant consideration for it amongst potential shoppers. We, at Tata Cliq, are confident that Social Beat will help us develop and optimise content that is highly discoverable to grow our engagement and revenue. Our goal continues to be to drive more and more shoppers to our platform with optimised and curated products and relevant content.”
Vikas Chawla, Co-Founder, Social Beat said, “We are thrilled to partner with Tata CLiQ in their growth journey. We aim to scale traffic to the Tata CLiQ platform manyfold over the next year. Our team of specialised SEO and Content strategists will be working closely to achieve this”
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ShareWill OOH dazzle this festive season?
As the celebrations begin, experts tell us the trends and challenges for the OOH sector this season
Be it the flower-clad taxis in Mumbai for Made in Heaven Season 2 promotion or Zomato’s ‘kheer mangoge kheer denge’ billboards, India's OOH advertising sector has undergone substantial transformation and expansion in the recent years. Even though the medium was severely hit during the pandemic years, it has now managed to rebuild its status. Now, with the onset of the festive season, elections and the cricket world cup, OOH is expected to see more and more advertisers come on board.
Amarjeet Hudda, Chief Operating Officer, Laqshya Media Group, believes most of the clients spend a lot of money during the festive season, especially for Durga Puja, Dussehra and Diwali, targeting their customers in a festive mood. The categories that spend heavily during these months are Auto, Consumer Durables, Real Estate, Organised retail, and E-commerce.
According to Dipankar Sanyal of Platinum Outdoor, there was a huge surge in the festive season last year, and he expects the same this year too. “Last four to five years have turbulent for outdoor. It was picking up in 2019, but then Covid came and everything went flat for two years,” he mentioned.
According to EY-FICCI’s M&E Report 2023, OOH media grew 86 percent in 2022 to Rs 37 billion. The value includes traditional, transit and digital media, but excludes untracked unorganised OOH media such as wall paintings, billboards, ambient media, storefronts, proxy advertising.
Sharing the brand’s perspective, Shivam Ranjan, Head of Marketing, Motorola-APAC, said, “We are going into this festive season with a strong mix of media, including OOH. Within OOH, we are focusing on digital OOH, due to its capability of programmatic serving, measurability, and near real-time insights that allow us to be agile with the communication and optimisation of our campaigns.”
With urbanisation, improved infrastructure, rising consumerism and an increased spending power, clients' expectations from OOH advertising too have evolved. “The clients expect better ROI on every investment, best in class innovations, tech-led planning and execution. Today, technology plays an important role starting from planning the campaign, to measuring metrics to ROI,” Singh explained.
Another trend that Sanyal has observed is that traditionally advertisers looked at spending on OOH nearly two weeks prior to the festivities, but now, most advertisers have now started advertising a week earlier so that they can get maximum eyeballs. Additionally, the digital OOH advertising (DOOH) has also emerged big. The digital OOH screens increased to around 100,000 and contributed eight percent of total segment revenues.
“Now with digital, there is more space for advertisers to come in one frame. Because of this, you can see it is getting more attractive. The innovations too are coming in at a much lower cost and creating a greater impact,” shared Sanyal.
The only challenge with the medium, according to Ranjan, is OOH being a fragmented industry with lack of measurability and agility. This becomes a serious issue for ROI-centric brands. However, the growth of DOOH, which is dynamic, agile and measurable, is giving marketers the confidence to invest in the medium backed by relevant data and outcomes.
Adding to this, Hudda highlighted that availability of good media spots is the biggest challenge in this season as media assets are limited and demand is very high. Due to the gap in the festive season, many clients are not able to fully optimise their campaigns. Rather sometimes, clients are even compelled to divert their budget which adversely impacts the industry, he shared.
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Banking on positive consumer sentiment: BFSI optimistic on doubling festive AdEx : Cache
Some categories within the sector, however, may spend more in the quarter that follows the festive season
The BFSI sector is expecting a surge in demand for loan during the festive season and is looking at increasing its ad spends to cash in on the celebration spirit. Industry leaders say they are hopeful of witnessing a good growth in the number of applications for auto loan, home loan, credit card and health insurance during October, November and December due to positive consumer sentiment this year. However, though most of the BFSI players are planning to double their advertising budget this time compared to the previous year, there are some who are not investing too heavily on marketing during the festivals as they plan to save the money for the fourth quarter.
According to Shailendra Singh, MD & CEO, BOB Financial, they witness incremental growth every year during the October-December quarter, and they anticipate an increase in consumer spending as well as new enrolments for cards this year too. “There remains a surge in customer demand for credit during the festive season,” said Singh.
Singh shared that the company is fully geared up for the launch of #FestiveShoppingRewards on all Bank of Baroda credit card variants under the theme ‘Reimagine Festivities’. They would kickstart festive offerings with the start of Navratri.
The festive season does not just see the demand for credit go up, but there is an increase in applications for health and motor insurance too during this time of the year.
Aabhinna Suresh Khare, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer, BajajCapital Ltd, shared that among insurance products, health insurance and motor insurance reign supreme during festivals. According to Khare, the demand for mutual funds and SIPs too sees a hike.
“Overall, the festive season presents an opportune moment to secure insurance coverage. A plethora of attractive products and services are on offer, with financial institutions extending special discounts and promotions to entice new customers,” said Khare.
The company launched #BlessMeGanesha campaign during Ganesh Chaturthi. “Our goal for this festive season is not only to provide financial solutions but also to create memorable experiences and deepen the connection with our customers,” said Khare.
Though all major sectors spend heavily on advertising during the festive season, within the BFSI sector, some categories spend more in the quarter that follows the festive season.
Explaining the trend, Samir Sethi, Head of Brand Marketing, Policybazaar.com, said that the festive season has varying impacts on the BFSI sector. In the banking sector, for instance, the demand for loans surges as many individuals purchase items and undertake home renovations. Conversely, in the insurance category, the festive season doesn't result in significant changes. Instead, the insurance industry experiences its peak season after the festive period, particularly during the fourth quarter of the financial year.
“As the festive season approaches, there is a noticeable increase in car sales though, leading to a surge in the demand for motor insurance. Consequently, we see a significant uptick in the requests for motor insurance policies. During the festive period, there is an upswing in demand for various categories, such as electronics. However, in the insurance sector, this period doesn't significantly affect us, so we don't run specific campaigns targeting festivals. Nevertheless, we do roll out multiple campaigns throughout the year, and some of them may coincide with the festive season,” said Sethi.
According to the TAM AdEx report on BFSI sector across media for H1, the advertising volume of the sector grew on TV, radio and digital, but declined in the print medium. The report indicated that ad impressions on digital saw 91% rise during Jan-Jun '23 over Jan-Jun’22. The increase was 32% for radio and 4% for TV. The ad space of the BFSI sector decreased by 7% in print.
Speaking on media mix, Singh shared that BOB Financial has a good mix of customer segments belonging to Tier I, II and III. So, understanding their needs and preferred form of media channels, the company will reach out to them through relevant media promotions. “For the easy discovery of our offers, we shall have a dedicated offers page with regular promotion of top offers on our social media and other digital channels,” said Singh. Without disclosing the figure, Singh shared that the company’s promotion budget has surely increased from last year and it will be visible through their multi-channel promotional activities.
According to the TAM report, in the BFSI sector, life insurance is the leading category on TV and radio whereas mutual funds is the top category on digital.
Khare highlighted that in recent times, Bajaj Capital has observed a significant growth in audiences on online platforms and the changing preferences of their clientele. “This observation led us to recalibrate our marketing approach, placing a heightened emphasis on digital avenues,” said Khare.
He further added, “Our promotional efforts are primarily digital-focused, accentuating areas like social media engagement, search engine outreach, content-driven marketing, and targeted online advertising. As we approach the festive season, we've fine-tuned our online approach. By harnessing the insights from data analytics, we aim to grasp our clients' needs and inclinations better, ensuring our content is both tailored and pertinent.”
Khare also mentioned that Baja Capital has doubled its advertising budget compared to the previous year.
“This increase in our ad spend signifies our confidence in the opportunities this festive season presents. This impressive surge in our budget allocation underscores our dedication to maximizing the potential of this festive season and driving significant expansion within our business. We firmly believe that this increased investment in advertising will not only elevate our brand presence but also lead to an exceptional uptick in customer engagement and sales.”
For Policybazaar.com, the media strategy primarily involves a blend of television and digital platforms, an approach that has remained consistent in recent years and is expected to continue in the foreseeable future.
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OMD appoints Dileep Raj Singh as Head of Digital for APAC
Singh will report to Charlotte Lee, CEO of OMD APAC
OMD has added a Head of Digital (HOD) to its Asia Pacific (APAC) regional leadership team with the hiring of Dileep Raj Singh.
Singh is a digital native and brings with him a wealth of experience across product, media agency and client side in APAC, North America and the United Kingdom. His last 10 years have been spent building diverse digital marketing teams covering areas like performance marketing, digital media planning, ad/martech, product marketing, branding and measurement.
As HOD, he will accelerate OMD’s digital leadership agenda, rooted in helping clients address their business challenges and digital ambitions. He will be supporting OMD’s local teams in APAC on operational excellence, and digital transformation frameworks and roadmaps; and the development and implementation of our digital leadership agenda. He will also be working hand in hand with both our regional and global networks to initiate complementary workstreams for our clients in APAC.
“We will continue to invest and win in digital as part of our wider goal to be our clients’ most trusted business transformation partner,” said Charlotte Lee, CEO of OMD APAC.
“It is our global ambition to continue our leadership position in digital, data and technology. In line with this ambition, we are excited to have Singh come on board the OMD APAC leadership team. His background of agency, in-house and start-up experience position him perfectly to understand and address our clients’ business needs,” added Lee.
“Digital media and access to our audience, as we know it, is changing quite rapidly around us. This puts most of us in a delicate but remarkable position, a position from which we can shape and contribute to conversations about the next evolution of digital media. As we embark on this journey, I want to leverage the strength of the OMD network – people, technology, data, tools and platforms – to help our clients pivot and navigate through all the new and evolved possibilities in digital media. With this, I aim to position OMD as an unrivaled partner for our current and future clients; to dominate and succeed in this incredibly competitive and multifarious digital realm,” said Singh.
Singh will report to Lee, and work closely with the team including Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), David McCallen, and Chief Client Officer (CCO), Sadhan Mishra, to drive and support APAC local markets as well as regional clients on digital, data and technology needs.
Mishra was promoted to CCO of OMD APAC recently in June 2023. He will continue to be CEO of OMD Singapore, a position he was promoted into last August. Mishra has been with OMD for over 13 years and in his concurrent new role as CCO, he will focus on key client relationships, understanding their business needs and ensuring we remain a critical partner on their transformation journeys.
McCallen was elevated to the role of CSO of OMD APAC in April 2022, and was previously the CSO of OMD New Zealand for five years where he helped the agency to attain the top place in the market for new business, overall billings and award wins. Since starting in the APAC role, his focus has been on connecting and elevating strategic best practices across the region, building capabilities across a range of strategic outputs, and supporting new business growth both regionally and locally.
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Chandrayaan 3: Brands over the Moon
Some of the best moment marketing posts on India's crucial lunar mission
The nation is in a celebratory mood with its moon mission Chandrayaan 3 making its smooth landing on the lunar surface on the evening of August 23, 2023. The Pragyan rover is in pursuit of discovering water on the moon and is a vital feat for India's ambitious space research.
To celebrate this momentous episode in Indian space research history, netizens have taken to the internet to express their excitement, hopes and fears for the nation's lunar mission. Joining them are brands who have crafted creatives to mark the historic occasion and capture the emotions of the nation who have their eyes set on the moon. Here is our pick of some of the best Chandrayaan 3-moment marketing posts.
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BCCI rakes in Rs 4670 cr in Women's Premier League team auction: Jay Shah 26 Jan
WPL has broken the inaugural auction record of Men's IPL in 2008, tweeted Shah
As expected, Wednesday turned out to be another historic day in Indian women's cricket with BCCI having a windfall gain of Rs 4,600 crores by auctioning five team franchises for the first season, a higher sum compared to what men’s IPL franchises offered to the cricket body during the launch in 2008.
Adani, IndiaWin Sports, Royal Challengers, GSW- GMR cricket and Capri Global have won the bid, BCCI secretary Jay Shah tweeted.
Shah shared in a series of tweets, “Today is a historic day in cricket as the bidding for teams of inaugural #WPL broke the records of the inaugural Men's IPL in 2008! Congratulations to the winners as we garnered Rs.4669.99 Cr in total bid.”
“This marks the beginning of a revolution in women's cricket and paves the way for a transformative journey ahead not only for our women cricketers but for the entire sports fraternity. The #WPL would bring necessary reforms in women's cricket and would ensure an all-encompassing ecosystem that benefits each and every stakeholder.”
“The @BCCI has named the league - Women's Premier League (WPL). Let the journey begin…”
The country's top corporates had bid aggressively for the league. Over 16 groups including IPL franchise owners, Adani group, Torrent and Haldiram were believed to be in the fray.
Given the popularity of IPL in India, the event is touted to be a big draw for all stakeholders involved.
The BCCI was reportedly expecting ₹4,000 crore gain through team auction.
It’s noteworthy that Viacom18 has won the Women's IPL media rights for Rs 951 crore for the next five years creating euphoria around the league whose first season will be held in March.
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