With our interior products, we focus more on emotions: Rajiv Rajgopal, MD, AkzoNobel India

AkzoNobel along with Dulux Paints revealed its Colour of the Year 2019, ‘Spiced Honey’, on Thursday. The unveiling was done by Brand Ambassador, Dulux India, actor Farhan Akhtar. 

Rajiv Rajgopal, Managing Director, AkzoNobel India and Oscar Wezenbeek, Managing Director, Decorative Paints, South East & South Asia, AkzoNobel, gave the media attendees an insight into the Colour of the Year 2019. “Our team works around the year to translate our ideas into beautiful colour palettes and products that meet our consumers’ expectations. With AkzoNobel’s innovative digital tool, consumers would be able to experience the impact of colours digitally allowing them to make their decisions optimistically,” said Oscar Wezenbeek, MD, Decorative Paints, South East & South Asia.

Dulux started releasing the ‘Colour of the Year’ from 2004 and has been unveiling a new theme every year since. In 2004, the colour (mood) was ‘Windy Hill’ and last year it was ‘Heat Wood’. 

“Every year, AkzoNobel’s Global Aesthetic Center invites top design professionals from all over the world to come together to capture the mood of the moment. Our research shows that people around the world are experiencing a renewed sense of energy, optimism and purpose. Spiced Honey reflects these desires and trends – it’s a colour that can be calming or nourishing, stimulating and energizing, depending on the light and colours surrounding it,” said Rajiv Rajgopal, MD, AkzoNobel India. 

Exchange4media caught up with Rajgopal for a brief chat.

Edited excerpts:

The growth of Dulux India
“Our brand has more than 1,800 employees and five production sites in India. We are really focused on delivering profitable growth. We want to have a sustainable business approach that will be instrumental in the growth of Dulux along with innovation and production. We are going to look at the segments we operate in and the previous segments that we had. We are going to focus on the consumers and put them in the heart of everything we do.” 

ROI on Dulux, thanks to ‘Colour of the Year’
“If you look at the colours of the past we've had good returns on Colour of the Year. I think what it does is that it gives us a space to connect with the customers. We do that with our premium brands Dulux Velvet Touch and Dulux Weathershield. What we try and do is bring these colours into the point of sales and we truly believe that there has been a lot of acceptance for different colours with our customers in the past years.” 

Challenges 
“One of our challenges is that while doing our global study sometimes things are so varied due to global trends. The mood needs to be relevant. So we need to run through the research and make sure that the colour is truly reflective and it is blended in the key countries we operate in. I think that’s a huge challenge. I give credit to the research team and I feel proud that we have a global aesthetic centre which helps us select the colour of the year.”

Digital approach 
“Dulux is active on social media. Even personally we are quite active on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. I think we, as employees of the company and as a brand, see the potential of social media to reach out to our consumers. We hope to connect with the future generation who are often on social media.

Social approach v/s Functional approach of the brand 
If you look at Dulux, our exterior brands are very functional. We showcase that they are high on protection and water resilient. On the interior brands, there is a lot of feeling attached to the brand. When you look at Dulux Velvet Touch, there is a strong emotive feel to it, which is why the brand is endured as one of the strong brands in India currently. With our interior products, we focus more on emotions than the functional approach of the brand.