GCPL spent over Rs 1000 crore on advertising in India in FY’24
This is a significant increase for the FMCG giant, considering up until a few years ago, this spend was around Rs 350-400 crores
Sudhir Sitapati, Managing Director and CEO, Godrej Consumer Products Limited has said that the company is spending over Rs 1000 crore on advertising in India. This is a significant increase for the FMCG giant, considering up until a few years ago, this spend was around Rs 350-400 crores. Sitapati shared the figures in the company’s annual report 2023-2024
“In line with our strategy of category development, we have made significant investments in advertising. We were the fifth largest advertiser in India in 2023 from being number 17 in 2021. We are adding to this with investments in distribution,” Sitapati said.
These investments are funded primarily by GCPL’s focus on simplification. GCPL has reduced its SKUs overall by roughly 30%. In Raymond Consumer Care, for example, it reduced 550 SKUs to just 100. “On people, we also reduced the number of managers overall through creating larger, richer roles and introducing more modern tools,” Sitapati said.
He added that the company’s categories were being run differently across the world; advertising agencies were different, production was being done differently. “So, this was not only an additional cost, but we were also not taking the best from one part of the world to another part,” Sitapati shared.
Everyone was reinventing the wheel, Sitapati added. “So, we moved from multiple categories to a global category structure. From multiple briefs, we have a single brief, because consumer tasks are the same. From multiple agencies, we moved to a single agency which is our own in-house agency, The LightBox.”
From multiple executions, he shared, GCPL is moving to a single execution, shooting differently in the same location with different models for different countries. “This is a very efficient process in the context of massive advertising increase and resulted in savings of 40 BPS.” GCPL's spending on 'Advertising and Publicity' was Rs 1,011 crore for the financial year ended March 2024. This was 47 per cent higher than Rs 687.34 crore a year before.
On a consolidated basis, including foreign markets like Indonesia, Africa, the US, and some other markets, GCPL spent Rs 1,336.12 crore on advertising and publicity. Sitapati also mentioned how GCPL is prioritising spends on brands and less on cost to serve, more automation and less working capital.
“We increased our total addressable market TAM in India by investing in categories of the future like fragrance and sexual wellness. We are expanding our global reach and now serve consumers in over 80 countries globally. Products like Aer Pocket and Godrej Expert shampoo hair colour which are Indian innovations are finding acceptance in global markets, we have set up a GCPL international business to take them across the world,” he added.
