Paints for retail sales

With the onset of spring, and the sale season receding into the background, retailers are not exactly painting the town red. And with the festival of colours – Holi - also having gone by, retailers will now be more prone to redo their stores in colours which epitomize the coming seasons.

Colours are crucial

Colours have always played a major role in a retail outlet. “Depending on the detailed brand positioning, colours are required to generate the mood,” says Sumit Patel, Director at The Leaf Design. For example in a Mexican restaurant, with Spanish rhetoric culture, a ribald colour scheme would be used accordingly, adds Patel. Paints and colours are used to define the brand positioning and communication and to convey the theme of the brand. Thus, vibrant colours are used for the youth store, bright paisely colours for the kids store; green, purple and red for grocery stores and neutral shades for a more mature audience. Thus colours become a significant part to convey the ambience experience of the store to the target audience.  

In the retail industry, for kids stores, fashion, and speciality stores colours used are more and they could constitute roughly 50-60 per cent of the concentration of colours in retail formats. Where the places are more casual the concept allows you to use more colours. Thus, speciality and departmental stores would constitute about 20-40 per cent of the colour concentration in retail formats. On the other hand if there is a premium brand, it allows you to use less of multi colours and a more subdued, elegant and understated look.

A retail outlet basically consists of signage, visual merchandise, display and colour. So how would you characterize the role of paints in the design of a retail format and how is the choice and planning of colours done? Says Patel, “Signage and visual merchandising are defined from the main theme of the store, which is the dominant communication. Thus, the scheme of colours used is determined by the consumer touch points of the areas, such as,  the help desk, gift counter, knowledge centre, and services areas, where colours are utilized to the hilt.

Colours and paints in the retail outlet also influence buying behaviour and sales. If colours are used effectively to display the merchandise, then it brings value. Thus, summer season would be reflected in the use of bright yellow, autumn in shades of brown and green, winter in darker shades and spring in shades of pink, green, red or blue. The colour combination helps you connect with the product display, and helps communicate the idea. This helps to emphasise the visual merchandising and helps generate the sale. Paint companies collaborate with retailers and sometimes through their design firms. When the retailer engages a design firm, the branding company recommends the colour palatte. The design firms recommend the paint companies who can then supply the necessary colours or paints. Very often recommendations go from the design firms to the retailers to get the colours that are necessary.

Role of paint companies

Paint companies are in the forefront of supplying colours to the retail industry. In fact 10 per cent from the organized sector and another 15 per cent from the unorganized sector are utilized for providing paints to both the organized and the unorganized retail industry in India. Asian Paints India Ltd (APIL) dominates the decorative segment with a 38 per cent market share with brands like Tractor, Apcolite, Utsav, Apex and Ace. Goodlass Nerolac Paints Ltd (GNPL) is the number-two in the decorative segment, with a 14 per cent market share.

The buy-it-yourself (BYI) concept has begun in India with increasing consumer interest at the point of purchase. The initiatives to involve consumers have been going on since a very long time. The colour-tinting machines at the dealer shops, whereby, one can mix and match shades to get the desired colour, has been a hit in the Indian market ever since its first launch in the late nineties. Today there are about 16,000 such machines across India.

So what are the innovative practices started by the paint companies? Berger Paints is the only paint company, which can be credited for setting the trend of “Customization” in the paint industry. It has also started an “Innovative Preview service”, through which a user can actually see how his outlet would look in different color schemes, before actually painting it. As Mr. Abhijit Roy, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing says, “The advent of organized retailing (Hypermarts/Shopping malls) has completely redefined the way we shop and has added a pleasant new dimension to the overall shopping experience in terms of ambience, convenience, price competitiveness etc. We have revamped/rebranded some of our retail stores to provide an ambience, where a customer can touch and feel various paint textures, get color consulting and expert home painting advice, and  can avail exciting product offers etc.”

This application was most visible in a dealer Thakkar Trading Company. He switched over to Berger after seeing the complete retail solution provided by the company. It included making his shop suitable for format retail by introducing an entire gamut of trend busting steps like installation of more than one tinting machine for better customer servicing, keeping the entire range of products in  packs, upgrading his shops to a value added shoppe status and ensuring always ready availability of more than 2000+ paint SKU's through Just in Time Management of his inventory.

Synergies with difference

Environmentally-friendly paint has also made inroads and this is most evident in the case of  Jenson & Nicholson, which has given a fillip to this trend through its 33 branches and stock points across the country and manufacturing plants at Naihati (near Calcutta), Sikandrabad (near Delhi) and Panvel (near Mumbai). On the growing use of environmentally-friendly products, Sanjay Sibal, VP (Sales & Marketing) of Jenson & Nicholson says, “The fact that all our products contain a very nominal percentage of environmentally hazardous raw materials, means that with the modern day requirements of safety for the environment and for people, Jenson & Nicholson is leading the way into the next millennium in the field of coating industry.”

Another paint company which has created synergies with leading retailers is Jotun India. Jotun's diverse products range includes decoratives, floor/concrete protection and intumescent coatings, bearing a solid testament to the company's reputation of being truly a single source solution for clients, consultants and contractors alike. Jotun India suggests and gives paints for the different concept rooms in Home Centre, which is a furniture store of Lifestyle International. At these stores, the management creates several concept rooms to showcase the latest furniture.  Jotun advises them as to what color shades would match and in turn the company is given space for advertising its brand. The company suggests them as to what shade will suit the concept room as per the furniture they intend to put in. But what made Lifestyle go in for Jotun paints? Lifestyle International was convinced by the quality of their products and by the synergies in their brand positioning. As a result, Jotun India invests around Rs 30-40 lakh every year in this tie-up. Mr Percy Jijina, General Manager Decorative, Jotun India Pvt Ltd says, “Our plan is to carve a segment for ourselves in this crowded market. The idea would be to always provide quality products, and recognize the needs of the consumer before they do so themselves.”

On the other hand, Kansai Nerolac Paints has come up with the concept of Impressions Style Zone. It is not another paint shop but an experience centre where consumers not only get an experience of color in an exciting manner but also make an informed choice on the product. Here the company takes care of all worries of the consumer and provides one-stop-solution for all painting needs. Nerolac Impressions Style Zone is for families renovating their existing house, those shifting into a new house,  contractors, architects & interior designers with specific needs for their clients.

Kansai Nerolac offers an end-to-end solution for home users and retail formats. The pre-purchase includes product information; expert advice and assessment and special offers to consumer. During purchase the solutions include brand information and benefits, comparison of products, demonstration of product application, colour matching as per requirement and home delivery of products. Post purchase solutions include complete paint solutions, maintenance contracts, warranty of service, touch up jobs and CRM – loyalty. As Mr Harish M Bharuka, Managing Director, Kansai Nerolac Paints Ltd says, “We are upbeat about the future and  are looking at the future growth trends, hence have taken up a greenfield expansion at Hosur in Tamil Nadu that would be the water based manufacturing factory. We are also looking at building strong brands and offering the value added services through our exclusive franchise outlets. The focus will be on building  our core strength and making us ready for the future."

Supplying to retailers

So, what is the suggestion for small mom and pop stores or kirana stores for utilizing paint to do up their interiors? In fact how can paint add value to the small kirana stores? Patel is candid: “Colours should not just be used for beautification but should also be functional. They should not create unnecessary clutter and noise. They should be used to highlight the area, to enhance the space and make them look bigger. Paint companies can be good suppliers and vendors to retail outlets by educating retailers on the products being brought about by the paint companies. They should be more forthcoming with the new range, new techniques and should demonstrate to the retailers. They should bring about more eco-friendly paints.”

For long, different suppliers and vendors have developed specific solutions for various industries. Over the years, the IT industry has developed solutions for retail as have the design firms too. Paint companies too can collaborate with the retail industry and develop turnkey solutions for it. This symbiotic relationship between the paint companies and retailers will work out well. So if the retailers will have reason to smile, the paint companies will have reason to cheer.