Onida recently launched a new ad campaign, “Maximum Impact – Maximum Sound” for their newly launched KY Super thunder smart TV. Pratyush Chinmoy – Head of Marketing- Mirc Electronics tells us more about the latest campaign, how Onida has innovated to keep itself relevant and how the brand plans to establish itself as the market leader in the near future. Excerpts Please tell us about your recent campaign, “Maximum Impact- Maximum Sound’ and how does it reflect the positioning of the brand? Onida is a powerhouse of brands, our wide range of TVs being the frontrunners. The single most distinctive feature of our TVs vis-à-vis competition is the “WOW” sound. This sound is of the highest quality, clarity and is built around our proprietary KY Horn technology. Over the years, we have been loved by our consumers and channel partners too, recalling our TVs being very non-conformist in a way that has surprised them. Our recent campaign “Maximum Impact, Maximum Sound”, showcases our iconic devil in full glory in a contemporary and tongue-in-cheek manner, and also showcases our lead 4K range of TVs-  KY Super Thunder, KY Thunder, KY Rock which are all well-known for delivering thunderous, WOW sound in a maximum impactful way. Our positioning of a non-conformist and witty brand is re-informed by our ads. With brands increasingly moving towards digital medium for marketing, how has print and BTL activities been key to Onida’s promotional strategy? Is there something on the digital front as well? Print has been one of our preferred medium to reach our target users with our ads appearing across the national leading newspapers plus the regional ones. BTL activities, with the help of our channel partners and sales teams have been strengthened at each of our store fronts. We have also moved to digital media with a bang with higher spends and we are also highly active across our social media platforms. Which medium (of communication) has contributed the most towards the growth of the brand in the past few years? What has been the brands’ media mix? Onida TVCs have been iconic right from the 80’s and has a huge amount of recall and associations among our target users. We can show you the Devil, you would immediately say ONIDA! Our brand elements have been re-enforced through the years in these TVCs, Print, Radio and Outdoor campaigns. We are present across a wide range of categories of TVs, ACs, Washing Machines and Microwaves. In the past, whenever we would launch new products, we would launch our ad campaigns across multiple platforms. Our media mix which was primarily TVCs, print and radio has gradually transitioned towards a mix of print, digital, and BTL in decreasing order of spends. Onida’s Devil has been amongst the most powerful icons of advertising in the past. What was the intention of bringing it back? Onida – Devil and Devil – Onida are both inseparable, high on recall and association on consumer mind-sets.  We have encountered such devout fans of the Devil when we were doingour consumer studies. These consumers were well conversant with the Devil’s looks, mannerisms, expressions etc. and fervently wanted to have the Devil across all our platforms. It’s almost a cult figure in its own standing, at times bigger than the brand itself! Now as a brand, if you have such highly distinctive and high equity property, you are bound to use it unless you want to invest heavily in developing another such iconic property. We believe that we might re-invent the Devil in a more contemporary manner, but he is here to stay. The consumer electronics market is largely dominated by foreign players. In such a scenario, how do you plan to stand out, especially in terms of your marketing strategies? The foreign players have their own strengths and we respect that as a company. However, we are a multi-product Indian brand which has withstood continuous onslaught of foreign and Indian brands with huge spending prowess. At the same time, we have also witnessed the fizzling out of many competitor brands that had unsustainable business models. We have concentrated on our core strengths of being a trusted brand through the years, with our own service centers across India, a wide retail footprint and ever growing base of consumers who have preferred us over the years. We have stood out because of our differentiated content across all media platforms that shows us in a non-conformist, humorous with innovative products too. We have our own R&D which works tirelessly to develop new innovative products and improve existing ones. What have been the challenges while marketing in the consumer electronics segment and how has the brand innovated to keep itself relevant? There is a huge clutter of brands in the LED space, with retailer’s private labels, foreign brands, Indian players -both organized and unorganized, offering products across all price ranges to different target sets of consumers. To stand out, we are immensely focused in our efforts to have the best content in our creative, media mix to reach our target base. We look to capture the consumers’ attention when they visit our offline stores and also have a high online presence and look to capture the consumer’s attention in the digital arena too. We have also launched innovative products across all categories, with our users appreciating our efforts to serve them. We realize that we are not a manufacturing-led or product-led company, but a nimble service-led innovative product-rich company which puts consumers in the forefront before deciding on any form of advertising, product launch etc. After a relatively slower phase, how has the brand strategized to get back in the market and establish itself yet again? Our brand strategy has been coherent and has banked on our core competencies with strategies and plans developed to move forward faster than the industry. We have taken proactive steps in face of market volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. We have been market leader in the past decades and yet again we believe with our best foot forward we can reinvent ourselves to capture the market leader position in near future.