Think back to your childhood - the days of art and crafts, DIY and school projects and what you might remember is experience of the glue sticking to your fingers, the unmistakable smell, peeling it off the skin and even the glue turning dry making it difficult to use. And if you are a marketer at the adhesive major, Pidilite Industries, then these are insights for solutions to make the product usage better for their popular art and craft glue brand, Fevicol MR.
Fevicol MR now sports a new avatar with an innovative packaging and design. Kashyap Gala, Senior Vice President for Consumer Products, Pidilite says, “At Pidilite, we have always been innovative and a pioneer across all the categories that we have been building. An important facet about innovation is product-centric and how the consumer experiences the product. You don’t need to overhaul the product to innovate, it could also be rejuvenating the outer packaging looks and bringing something new to the consumer. Packaging has become an important facet of our overall innovation.” He continues, “If one looks at the art & craft and stationery category, children are always seeking something new and unique and we look for new ideas for consumers so that can experience it day in and day out.”
The focus is to make the brand contemporary and relevant to today’s kids – the GenZ and Gen Alpha. An insight that repeatedly came from consumers was kids losing the cap and hence the glue drying out. A further deep dive on the existing product led to the realization that the smaller round bottles were fine, the bigger round bottle size made it quite a handful for kids to hold the bottle. Gala says, "We went back to the drawing board, took help from our design and technical teams, and saw this as an opportunity to make the bottle ergonomically better. We came up with a pen-shaped design which makes the product easy to hold, use and also makes the flow of the adhesive easy. Our new design has a unique push and pull design, which ensures that the cap does not get lost. The key messaging of the campaign, “Pull Karo, Stick Karo, Push Karo”, highlights the ease and simplicity of the application process of the new packaging. To make the product attractive and exciting at the point-of-sale, we came up with six unique, colourful, different front of the pack designs which has made the product more differentiated and distinctive from the competition.” The entire process was led and executed by the in-house design team which was also involved in customer interactions. The new packaging designs also include a QR code that links to creative video tutorials – Fevicryl Hobbyideas & Fevicreate – that have high engagement rates, are an engaging learning tool for kids and ensure a seamless journey for the consumer. Fevicreate and Hobby Ideas has 350,000+ followers on Instagram and 500,000+ on YouTube.
Digital-First Approach
A key pillar for the consumer products division is to be digital first in everything that is done and leveraging technologies across all campaigns. The brand’s strength lies in its content, anchored in art and craft, on its platforms, Fevicryl Hobbyideas & Fevicreate. Gala says, “Along with the product, the platforms enable ideation and creation. We have a strong internal team, which comes up with content, on a regular basis, that is holistic, recreational, occasional. With a wide array of content available, kids have to select what they want to do and this is a good tool for the kid to be engaged for half an hour to 45 minutes.” A challenge today is mobile usage with parents looking to limit screen time for youngsters. The strategy here is to repurpose the time a child spends on the screen/mobile by creating something meaningful and creative and what gives the child joy and a sense of achievement.
Engaging With Parents & Teachers
While kids are the core TG, as expected the brand engages with parents and the entire school ecosystem - teachers, principals. With the consumption of digital going up across all consumer cohorts, digital forms the linchpin to reach out to consumers, across multiple touch points such as social media, the website seen as a ‘strong hero asset’, YouTube, Pinterest, search, art & craft influencers etc. Gala says, “Today's consumer and shopper journey is to quickly look at solutions around art and craft solutions. Across different consumer journeys, we intercept the consumers by being present in all kinds of content, largely video led, and having a meaningful presence. We want to make it easier for everyone to create art and craft articles and projects.” The other touchpoint leveraged for the new launch was the point-of-sale, with retailers turning advocates for the brand, by placing larger than life cutouts of the store owner with their child along with the new bottle.
The other key aspect is the experiential space with the on-ground school program, FeviCreate. Pidilite reaches out to almost 15,000 schools and 2 million children, across the top 30 cities and towns, throughout the year. The brand partners with the art & craft teachers with the latest and relevant content to educate students. He reiterates, “We leverage the entire breadth of the digital ecosystem from social, search, website, and influencers, and also leverage video as content. We are a very strong partner in the school ecosystem and have a strong relationship with them for years now. Equally strong is our on-ground effort making it an experiential in-person experience for the schools and students. We are looking to penetrate into the right schools and want to build on the 15,000 schools. We want to further add more schools in the geographies we are present because we still not maxed out our opportunity here as well.”
Talking about the response to the product and the campaign Gala says, “We launched the product pan India in December – January and the roll-out was completed by February. We went live on television in March and April. We have seen strong double-digit volume growth in our products across the markets where we have launched. In terms of mind measures, this has significantly moved up, the awareness is high and has seen significant uplift in all the scores on believability, credibility, uniqueness and performance of the product. As for our measure of MOUB (Most Often Used Brand), we have significantly gained. Our key messaging of the ease of the product use has been picked up. This new launch has helped to enhance the overall equity of Fevicol as a brand, given that product performance is the best form of equity.”
Combining Arts & Crafts and Science
In addition to the school reach out program, the brand’s other experience product is Fevicreate scholastic and recreational kits. a set of 45 products. These kits are subject specific, enable building of specific skills, experiential and centered around scientific concepts. Gala says, “We realized that there was a need for a science-based contest and thought if a science-based contest can be anchored and rooted in art and craft. This led to the creation FeviCreate Idea Labs, an art and craft led science-based competition around a decade back.” Topics include themes around water conservation, sustainability, solar system and anything related to science brought to life through art and craft. The competition has been scaled up year-on-year, and this year the FeviCreate Idea Labs received 2.4 lakhs applications, nearly double the number from last year’s 1.3 lakhs. Gala says, “We activated through multiple touch points - right from digital, on-ground, website registrations which enabled us to get this participation. For the second year now, we have taken the contest on television and this year the contest is live on Sony YAY.” He continues, “We want to make FeviCreate Idea Labs aspirational for every school kid to win this competition. Every year, we are seeing encouraging numbers and more schools want to participate and are looking at building scale on this.”
Looking ahead, the brand is looking to experiment with a limited-edition pack in the coming months. Other possible strategies include partnering with leading IP characters, editions for special occasions and festivals. Another trend is premiumization in a non-indulgent category as Gala explains, “We are constantly looking at premiumizing our portfolio and have ideas on how we can further premiumize, elevate the overall experience for the consumers and move up the value chain.” He continues, “As the new education policy focuses on learning by
doing and project work, the number of art and craft occasions are dramatically increasing. Today a project work goes beyond paper-to-paper sticking and you need to stick multiple materials to bring that project to life. So, we came up with multisubstrate glue stick called Fevistik Power. We are solving a higher need, providing a superior experience to consumers, and could charge more for that stick. This is how we're able to premiumize the consumers. A lot of the existing Fevistick users have moved up to Fevistick Power.”
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
