Nikhil Gupta, Head of Marketing & Integrated Communications and Commercial Operations, SA, Signify, shares insight behind the new TVC, synergies with the new brand ambassador, and marketing strategy
The decorative lighting market is expanding rapidly in India with increasing disposable incomes, rapid urbanization and the revival of new home construction in Tier 1 and 2 cities. Signify Innovations India (Previously Philips Lighting) has launched a new TVC ‘beauty that moves you’ for its decorative lights segment. According to Nikhil Gupta, Head of Marketing & Integrated Communications and Commercial Operations, South Asia, Signify, the campaign tagline emphasizes how these decorative lights not only add beauty and brighten up the ceilings and corners of your house but also uplift and brighten up your mood. He further adds, “Our TVC for this campaign perfectly captures the exquisite beauty of each decorative light and how it enhances the overall mood of the physical space. The TVC’s call to action is to drive consumers to Philips smart light hubs to experience this exclusive range of products.”
The pandemic has also accelerated a shift in consumer behaviour with more people investing time, effort and capital into designing and customizing their special corners/workspaces and lighting is one of the key design elements on their checklist. Gupta shares “Essentially, in this category, the consumer seeks designs that match their home design language and aesthetic. At the same time, this market is cluttered with unorganized players who sell unbranded products wherein reliability is an issue. Organized players like us offer not only a wide range of designs, but also additional benefits like product reliability, warranty and installation support. These can be really beneficial for end consumers, especially considering the higher ticket size and longer replacement period of these products.”
The 50-second TVC features the newly appointed brand ambassador actress Sanya Malhotra. Sharing the synergies between Malhotra & Signify, Gupta shares “Sanya Malhotra is one of the most promising and talented actors of this generation. She is an exemplar of a self-made actor, extraordinarily versatile and respected by critics and the audience alike. The choice of having Sanya on board as the brand ambassador was an easy one. We wanted a brand ambassador who could lend a youthful and fresh energy to the brand and Sanya fit the bill perfectly.”
Distribution Strategy & Plans Ahead
The Philips home decorative lighting range is exclusively available at the branded stores called Philips Smart Light Hubs. There are more than 25 smart light hubs spread across the country in both tier 1 and 2 towns. Says Gupta, “By visiting these stores, consumers can get a first-hand experience of our wide range of designs in the home decorative lighting space including pendants, chandeliers, table and floor lamps, amongst many other products. Currently, this range is exclusively sold at the Philips Smart Light hubs, but in the future, we will retail this range on online channels as well.”
While the brand retails a wide range of designs in the decorative lighting category to suit different aesthetic languages, it aims to keep adding new products every year. The new designs will be inspired by consumer insights and current décor trends in the market.
Reading The Key Marketing Trends
There has been a paradigm shift in the marketing world in the last two years, and in a short span of time, brands have quickly realized the importance of going digital-first. Sharing the key takeaways Gupta says, “In 2022, the focus will be on creating strong brand imagery through compelling storytelling across multiple platforms and then effectively measuring the success of that storytelling through digital tools and analytics. It's no longer enough to create a great brand and expect it to sell automatically. The Indian market is flush with several new brands in each category and there is a lot of clutter in the market as consumers are constantly bombarded by marketing messages across different platforms. In order to reach your target customer, you need a strong combination of the right message and the right platform.”
Commenting on the strategy going ahead, Gupta shares that owing to these trends and increasing internet penetration, Signify’s marketing strategy is evolving to become digital-first. He adds, “Increasingly, we observe that customers are leveraging the internet to research products and services before buying. Thus, it becomes imperative to be present across all digital channels. For 2 years, our outlay for digital marketing has more than doubled in terms of marketing spends and we expect that this will increase further in the coming years. We are also leveraging new technologies like AR and VR to enhance the consumer’s online experience with our brand.”