Mahesh S. Anand, President – Nippon Paint (India) Pvt. Ltd. (Decorative Division) tells us about the brand’s latest campaign, their continued focus on Tamil Nadu market & expanding their product range Paint manufacturer, Nippon Paint recently launched a 360-degree brand campaign for Weatherbond PRO – a high durable exterior emulsion. Launched in 2018, the company is only now ‘unleashing a brand campaign’, targeted specifically to the Tamil Nadu market, for the durable product that offers up to 15 years of protection against extreme climate conditions. Mahesh S. Anand, President – Nippon Paint (India) Private Limited (Decorative Division) says, “The rainy season in Tamil Nadu starts in September-October. We expect this product to be successful during this period as this product withstands harsh weather conditions - be it extreme heat, heavy rains, dust, algal and fungal attacks. This product is suitable for a tropical country like India. We expect to reach out to every nook and corner of Tamil Nadu and expect customer feedback and preference for this product to be overwhelming, especially during the pre-monsoon period. We are positive that the recovering markets combined with this advertising campaign will boost interest in the product amongst discerning homeowners. "

Spreading The Message During The Pandemic As a company, during the pandemic Nippon Paint continued to engage with its’ stakeholders by way of social and public awareness messages. The company continued to advertise on Television highlighting the need to sanitise and importance of social distancing. Even though it was a lull period when it came to sales, last year, the brand engaged with almost 3,000 painters and extended to the families essential commodities. This year it reached out to an additional 2,000 painters and their families. This gave us the brand an opportunity to work with the vulnerable and unorganised painter community who are an important loop in the paint industry ecosystem. Anand says that as Nippon is primarily focussed on the Tamil Nadu market it helped the brand focus. He explains, “We are very focused on the Tamil Nadu market, and a little bit on the Karnataka market. As we are not looking pan-India, we remained focussed and this is the reason we were able to sustain our investments.” Nippon Paint also launched two products during the pandemic. Speaking on the product launch he says, “We launched Nippon Paint Breeze Star Emulsion paint and Nippon Paint Atom Fibra 2-in-1 Multi-Purpose Emulsion paint during the pandemic and both the products are doing exceedingly well. We are lining up to launch a couple of more innovative products in the next couple of months.” Commenting on the year gone by Anand says, “During both the pandemic waves, the southern and the western states were badly hit. Our sales majorly comes from the South, 70 % of my sales comes from the South of which almost 60% -70% comes from Tamil Nadu followed by Karnataka and then Kerala and Andhra Pradesh in equal percentage. Even though there was a rebound that happened in the industry we were not able to grow, we were flat last year.” He continues, “This year as the lockdown was in a phased out manner and businesses and factories were allowed to function, we are expecting a good rebound this time. Despite the pandemic, we were able to survive and continue our business and plan to continue in the same way in the coming years. Our focus will be on the South, particularly the Tamil Nadu market and then Karnataka.” Anand is optimistic about the industry and believes the infrastructure push by the government, the focus on affordable housing, urbanisation and premiumization of the product will be the big growth drivers for the paint industry. With the entire painting process becoming easier, Anand says that the re-painting intervals have come down to five to six years and this is another growth driver for the industry as a whole. Looking ahead, in addition to introducing new variants, Nippon Paint is gearing up to expand its product range. While Paint will remain the core product, the company is expanding into construction chemicals, water proofing, sealants and adhesives. Adds Anand, “Collectively with paint and non-paint products, we would like to give the customer trusted products with an international lineage and hi-technology involved. That is what we at Nippon will be doing in the future.”