- Client
- Marshalls
- Services
- TVCs
- Social Media
Marshalls Wallcoverings is an interesting case study for Water Communications. Even before we came on the scene, the brand was doing well for itself – primarily because it occupied a very niche space at the time of its launch and through its early years. Our challenge lay in taking the brand to the next level by making it a household name.
Back in the seventies, when Marshalls came into existence, wallcoverings (or wallpaper as it was then known) was a rather alien concept to Indian households who always opted for the traditional painting makeover. To its credit, Marshalls managed to carve out a very small niche of households that had exposure to global trends or at least had a worldview. However, this was too small a niche, and although that was enough to make the brand a leader and pioneer in its domain, it had to scale up drastically to make business sense.
More than two decades ago, Marshalls approached Vandana Sethhi, the founder of Water Communications who, at the time, was helming another advertising agency. She literally took the brand under her wing and gave it her personal attention. Gradually the brand emerged from its little cocoon and into the public glare. But there was still plenty of work to be done in order to make it a household name.
After Vandana set up Water Communications, a Mumbai-based advertising agency with 360 o communications capabilities and resources, Marshalls received a further fillip to its brand equity. It wasn’t any haphazard or knee-jerk reaction, but a carefully crafted strategy that gradually evolved to help make Marshalls the national brand it is today.
Initially, Print was the lead media, but as the world snuggled deeper into the digital era, Water evolved a strategic plan that embraced Social Media which, over a period of time, drove the brand’s entire communications.
‘Media’ in itself was just a small part of the strategy. The content within was the gamechanger. Both brand and agency had done enough initially to effect a nomenclature education from ‘wallpaper’ (as consumers always called it) to ‘wallcoverings’. This first change of mindset was very important, simply because the ‘paper’ part in the word ‘wallpaper’, left a subliminal feeling of something flimsy, tear-able and very temporary.
This wasn’t true because Marshalls’ wallcoverings weren’t even made from paper, rather from material that was extremely durable and fully loaded with properties that were extremely beneficial to the home – washable, easy to maintain, peel-proof, scratch-proof, dust-proof, fire-proof and lots more.
Through a concerted approach of media selection and content, Water Communications gradually established in the consumer psyche that wallcoverings are more convenient, hassle-free and even more economical than traditional painting, and thus helped establish Marshalls as the pioneer, leader and authority in wallcoverings.
For the most part, there existed not just general ignorance of the product (wallcoverings), but the average consumer had plenty of misconceptions too, which Water Communications realised needed to be weeded out from their psyche. So, the agency suggested making educative videos for YouTube, where each of the concerns was addressed in an authoritative, convincing and yet affable manner.
To achieve that goal, the agency got the Founder’s son (who was himself now managing the business) to play
the role of the knowledgeable protagonist who takes a consumer through each of the myths, in a demo and educative sort of way. A hands-on and experiential video series was created where, to convey each property and benefit, the protagonist got the consumer to, for example, scratch the wallcovering and see for themselves that what was advertised was really true of the product.
Across this series of ten myth-busting videos, the Founder’s son knowledgeably addressed the range of myths and concerns, in an honest, relatable manner, which leaves the viewer (read consumer) realising not just that their misconceptions weren’t based on fact, but that there are so many more benefits to be gained by opting for wallcoverings over painting.
In the years prior to Digital becoming the lead medium, a brand like Marshalls had to be led out through Print. To maximize the client’s advertising rupee, we would focus heavily on festivals. Of course, being in a country like India that loves its festivals helped a lot.
It was sound strategy because it is usually in festive season that households suddenly realize the need to give their home a makeover, and are hence more receptive to such communication. So, we leveraged every festive occasion – Diwali, Holi, Rakshabandhan, Ganpati, Dusshera, Christmas, etc, and released attractive print ads in leading publications across the language and regional divide, such as the Times of India, Economic Times, Navbharat Times, Maharashtra Times,
Gujarat Samachar, Mumbai Samachar, Divya Bhaskar, Loksatta, Sakal, Lokmat, Indian Express, Dainik Jagaran, Dainik Bhaskar, Telegraph, Bartaman, Eanadu, Deccan Chronicle.
The ads made the product the hero, with the intention of leaving the consumer with the thought of ‘Hmmmmm, I’d like my home to look as stunning as that!’ Tactical in nature, these ads not only increased awareness of the brand, but also drove home the product’s several benefits and advantages.
To address the interior designer and architect community, we selectively placed other relevant ads in trade journals.
Finally, there were the ‘Value Addition Offer’ ads which would prominently occupy front pages of mass publications. This offer was first devised on the occasion of the Founder and Chairman’s 60 th birthday, wherein a fabulous 60% benefit offer was extended to the consumer (for every Rs 100- purchase, the consumer was entitled to Rs. 160- worth of products). With each passing year, the offer continued to be tick higher, in keeping with Mr. Sharma’s birthday – at last count having reached as high as 77%
social wave
Leveraging the influenceability factor of well-known TV, film and Social personalities, we created another series of videos of makeovers of their homes. Each video was created in keeping with the sensibility and social perception of these personalities – for example, in the case of stand-up artist Atul Khatri, we laced the video with humorous delivery.
From a more subliminal perspective, this series helped achieve a rub-off of their charisma on the brand’s own personality – leaving the consumer thinking that if these well- heeled and status-conscious celebrities are choosing Marshalls for their home, there must be plenty of credence and pedigree to this brand.
We made the brand very visible on Social – both static (Instagram, Facebook) and non-static (YouTube films, addressed in another section here). The numbers bear us out sufficiently: Facebook followers surged from zero to 59,0000; Instagram from zero to 24,000; YouTube from zero to 7280.
