Brand love is sustainable; it makes one forgive mistakes: KE Ranganathan, Roca Parryware

The exchange4media group hosted the Delhi edition of its flagship property, Pitch CMO Summit 2021 on Friday, 28th May. The summit assembled some of the most dynamic leaders in the industry to encourage the right conversations. This edition of the Pitch CMO Summit was co-powered by Colors, while Adobe and ShareChat Business were the Co-gold partners. The theme of the summit was “The Power Of Brand Love”, considered one of the most powerful marketing strategies for growth during an economic downturn. 

The keynote address for the summit was delivered by KE Ranganathan, Managing Director, Roca Parryware who shared his experience of over 30 years in brand-building. Addressing how the digital era has enabled brands to reach out to consumers in a way they could have never imagined, Ranganathan discussed the topic “Building Brand Love in the Digital Era” in his keynote. 

Opening his session on a light note, talking about the one place where he has been for more than the last two decades - the bathroom. According to Ranganathan, in today’s world bathroom is the only place where one can get a little privacy and also get to reinvent themselves. He said, “We are a brand that you will never forget because the pot in your bathroom is the first brand that you see every day.” 

Talking about brand love, he shared: “It is the new mantra of building brands in this decade. This is a new way of believing marketers are bowled over looking at creating brand love, which is what is going to take them to the next level. 

"Emotion is the in thing today for the consumer as they are attaching themselves to the brands now. It is beyond the logical reasoning of which product must meet one’s requirement.” 

He also added, “Love is sustainable, it makes one forgive when there is a mistake. It’s a long term journey”. 

Emphasising the ever-increasing importance of brand love, he explained: “Brand love, obviously leads to a lot of loyalty, and the storytelling then becomes very easy when you try to build a brand story right. For example, there are many brands that are talking about consumer stories and word of mouth it keeps spreading virally. This is how brands are getting connected to the consumer today, and what better locking tool rather than so we brand love to do that? It’s very clear that brand love is here for the foreseeable future.” 

Ranganathan further shared the importance of digital mediums to build brand love by talking amount the brand’s audience segmentation. 

Parryware’s audience is divided into four categories: the tiny tots comprising the kids, the young dynamics comprising age group 20s-30s, the accomplished who are between 40 and 60 years of age, and the "young of heart" who are 60+. 

He explained, “India is leading the world on the digital revolution side and we have another half of our population still left for joining this club. One can imagine how powerful in terms of the network these digital channels are, and if you really look at, the age group that is probably spending more time on the internet are between 20 and 30, the bulk user. 

"The average time spent online is almost three hours a day, which has skyrocketed even more owing to the pandemic. Having understood the importance of brand love, and also growing the digital influence on the consumers, we need to be able to connect with the consumer digitally and create something called a brand love effect.” 

He also shared some digital initiatives done by the brand with the aim to make the consumer experience seamless and generate brand love. 

“We created a beautiful campaign in the digital medium called the ‘TapToPot’, which is a very interesting concept in terms of connecting with the consumer through the digital media and flushing their worries out. 

"We created films which were put across social media and all the digital platforms. In the last one and a half months or so, they have already reached 50 million people. While making these films, we kept the curiosity quotient very high because that is when you engage with the consumer. 

"If we really look at the engagement part of it, it's almost 1.2 million. In such a short span, we have been able to achieve this digitally.” 

Concluding his session with the core of the brand efforts that truly build brand love, Ranganathan added “As a global and responsible brand, we do quite a lot of social development by developing the sanitation and the water bodies. This is something which will take pride in doing. 

"The consumer of today is also able to connect very clearly with a brand that is not just trying to sell a product but whether it is a relevant brand in a social context or not is what consumers are looking at today.”