Seminars In Marketing

Case Study

ICI Dulux Resets Its Position

Presented By:

Arooj Fatima MBIIE-12-06

Madiha Khalid MBIIE-12-04

Uzma Bhatti MBIIE-12-30

Tayabba Siddique MBIIE-12-08

Presented To:

Mr. Noor-ul-Mohsin Shah

Institute Of Management Sciences

Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan.

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Introduction:
ICI Dulux is a part of AkzoNobel, the largest paints and Coatings Company in the world. It was
set up as a public limited company in Pakistan in 1952. The ICI Group is a renowned
international business. It employs approximately 31,000 people worldwide.
In the early days of its existence, decorators and their suppliers were the main customers for
Dulux, with Say Dulux to your decorator used as an advertising slogan in the 1950s. By 1953,
Dulux was available in the retail market and ten years later the famous Old English Sheepdog
was used in advertisements, to the point where "Dulux dog" has become a common nickname for
the breed. The name Dulux is derived from the words DuPont and Luxury.

The ICI Dulux multinational company vision is to compete in the industry by emphasizing on
customer needs and to build and promote a culture of continuous improvement. It aims to create
superior value for ICI customers and shareholders, without compromising its commitment to
safety, health, environment and the communities in which it operates.
ICI believes that ICI Dulux Paints Pakistan strengths include its well-established brands and the
Global nature of the business which allow ICI Paints to use its resources, expertise and
experience to offer the best solution for each local market and the needs of the end users.
Great presence in places that the brand is better recognized
ICI Dulux has maintained an image of being the most expensive in the category along with
providing the best quality among its competitors. With the help of a lot of promotional activities
For its dealers as well as consumers, it has earned a great amount of goodwill over the years.
While its competitors concentrate more on variety and mass production and a lot of other
different strategies, the company is essentially a quality centric company.
ICI DULUX Company is having production setup in more than 55 countries, More than 80 years
of experience in the paints industry, offering wider range of products and Wider dealer network

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as compared to its competitors. Business volume of ICI Dulux is very high as compared to the
competitors and it focuses on safety, security, health and environment as a corporate social
responsibility.
The ICI Paint business can be divided into three categories
 Industrial
Automotive
Decorative
All the three business have embarked on programs which focus on the consumer and customer
needs. The focus is to understand the needs of the major stakeholders.
Market Analysis: ICI Weathershield
The decorative paint market can be divided into two broad categories, interior and exterior. The
Interior market as the name suggests refers to the paints being used for indoor decorations.
Similarly the exterior market corresponds to the paints being used to decorate the outdoors.
The exterior market of paints in Pakistan is of 7 Million Liters. ICI dominates the market share
With 4.2 Million Liters with its Weathershield.n Liters
Currently ICI has a 60% market share with its major competitor being Berger. Berger has a 20%
Market share followed by a 20% share by smaller brands which include Berger, Blackhorse,
Silversand, Master, Nippon, Gobi, Hapilac etc.
Challenge:
In 1973, ICI launched its Weathershield technology in UK. The Weathershield technology
reached Pakistan in 1984.but after this, Dulux has not done any innovation for a long time till
2005. In 2005 ICI Paints appointed its first chief marketing officer (CMO). Until then the
organization had been run as a multi-local organization, with each of the 50 countries including
Pakistan determining its own marketing strategy. There were examples of local success but
performance was patchy, the company struggled to leverage good ideas and, more importantly,
growth was slowing.

A pivotal question the company asked it was whether it could win against its competitors
through simply building local capability and leveraging best practice. Or was there actually an
opportunity to create advantage through building a global brand? Because The Dulux name was
present in many markets but it was far from being a global brand.

Being one of the oldest and the globally trusted brand it has not changed with time. This change
which is very cardinal for every company to grow over the years is nonexistent in Dulux. Dulux
has not launched variants and did not plan on it as well. They believed in providing quality and
not variety with mediocre quality. The brand has become just a traditional brand. In fact the
product is always successful because of its awareness among the customers. Despite of holding a
strong position in the market Dulux Paint has not been able to aware the customers fully about the three
new products. The knowledge among consumers is very less resulting in uncertainty of the
product among them. This is a result of less promotional schemes. There is a high degree of uncertainty
about the Dulux paints new products in
Market because a large market share was captured by competitors.

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Among the many challenges to cope with competition there is one more which is the most
important one for the brand, it is keeping brand awareness at optimum levels at all times. Long
term and short term goals have to be set for the brand and strategy is of utmost importance here.
In the later promotional activities of Dulux there needs to be equilibrium of creating awareness
even in the areas which have never tapped before. The challenge here now is to tap the niche
market in a way which has never been before and to create a new category inside the existing so
that an automatic niche is created. Being the first in a category gives an automatic brand standing
in the eyes of the consumer.
The one important thing to look at here is that the strategic advertising opportunities were not
really explores well enough. The awareness of the brand has almost diminished in places where
it was already low. There is no brand recognition in most rural areas what so ever. The brand is
far from being recognized a paints manufacturer, it has lost its identity in most developing urban
areas as well. There is no brand presence of Dulux paints in the economy brands because
of which when middle class consumers opted for better quality and premium emulsions they did
not consider Dulux, instead, they stuck to the same brand they knew very well. When it comes to
media planning and placements,
ICI Dulux has been far behind the requirements of the band wagon of pacting. The only thing
because of which the brand loses out on popularity is that, consumers nowadays think that if a
brand is out of sight it is out of function and so they tend to deviate from it.
Competitors:

Berger paints

Master

Direct Competitors Diamond

Direct
Competitors
Marvell

Silky

Tiles

Wood peeling

Indirect Wall papers

Competitors
Rockwall
Paint puree

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Because of these competitors, ICI Pakistan is facing a serious problem in attracting the new
customers and retaining their existing customer. In order to meet the competitors ICI paint
Pakistan has to spent more money on advertising , promotional activities and area coverage for
their customer satisfaction. Recently, new competitors are coming in the industry, which is the
sign of growth of paint industry. According to industry analysts, this tough competition , high
promotion strategies and increasing trend toward paint industry are the clear chances of the high
growth in paint industry.

Discussion Questions:
What are the opportunities to create advantage through building a global brand?
What are the marketing strategies they must be used to create awareness and reposition
the brand?
Who are the competitors and how they are threat for ICI Dulux?

Strategies for brand promotion and recognition in Pakistan:

ICI Dulux took many strategies to become more recognizable among market and target
customers. Some strategies are as follows:
Lets Colour’ Strategy
The mission was to spread colour all over the world – a bold and immense task. „Lets
Colour‟ was launched as an initiative to makeover targeted drab looking buildings with
the help of local communities. By launching a campaign, Dulux hoped it would inspire
audiences to regenerate anything – big or small, inside or out, with colour paint.

To get local communities interested in taking part, momentum was built around a social media
campaign. The project started with the launch of a „Lets Colour‟ project blog – with blogs being
the channel that the brand saw as the most open and direct way to start sharing its project with
the public.

ICI Dulux started this compaign to increase the awareness in people mind so that they can build
the brand equity.they held different events and increase the customer brand resonnannce. The
events include in this project are:

IAPEX 2011 “Building Materials Exhibition”:

ICI Dulux sponsored the “Building Materials Exhibition” held at the Expo Centre Karachi in
May 2011. The event was organized by the Institute of Architects Pakistan (IAP) to provide
one-stop solutions for homeowners, builders and interior designers on the latest products, ideas
and emerging architectural techniques in the field of building and construction. The event
attracted 250 architects from all over Pakistan, 400 architectural students from various
universities and around 10,000 general visitors.

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IAPEX Karachi 2012: Institute of Architects Pakistan, Karachi Chapter organized its seventh
international exhibition of building products in which more than 100 exhibitors displayed their
stalls. The ICI Dulux stall won the 1st prize at IAPEX Karachi 2012.
CSR Activities
Lets Colour Mayo Hospital: On 9th April, volunteers from ICI Dulux along with students from
National College of Arts and employees from BF Bioscienes enthusiastically participated to add
a splash of colour to the cancer ward at Mayo Hospital
PIID Road Show Lahore 2011
PIID Road Show Karachi 2011
Own a Color
Lets Colour Layton Rehmatulla Benevolent Trust
PIID Road Show Lahore 2011
ICI Dulux Stall wins at IAPEX 2012
Transition Event held at ICI Paints Business
AkzoNobel Pakistan wins the "Most Colorful Workspace" contest globally!
Let‟s Color Week:
Color Week was about celebrating the transformative power of color and how it can
improve lives around us. Running from October 10 to 14, the “Let‟s Color Week” helped
employees worldwide discover what they know about color and how they can bring to life the
shared ambition of “Adding color to people‟s lives.” The purpose of Color Week was to enable
employees to experience color, joy, engagement and a sense of community.
There were workshops, contest, e-learning modules, on-ground activities, workspace painting,
community painting and many more interested activities to spread the color around.

Content was uploaded in real time to the blog and to You Tube, Twitter, Facebook and Orkut.
The content was quickly picked up upon by other blogs and online newspapers all over the
Pakistan, building momentum ahead of the city visits.

ICI Dulux Thematic Campaign -

A Theme for Every Dream 2011:

This campaign centered on the tagline „A Theme for Every Dream‟, and reinforced the ICI
Dulux brand personality as the leading innovative one-stop shop decorative solution provider in

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Pakistan. The campaign subtly introduced AkzoNobel as the new parent company and
highlighted ICI Dulux groundbreaking services such as Customer contact center (0800-Dulux),
color consultancy/interior decoration advice service and color studios. All communication
platforms including television, radio, newspapers and outdoor exemplified an assortment of
colorful themes nationwide.

ICI Dulux weathershield vs their competitors:

ICI Weathershield dictates prices in the exterior market. All the competitors including the
smaller players follow the same pricing strategies. The price of ICI Weathershield is 5% more
than that of Berger‟s Weathercoat.
Berger has still to come-up with a product to compete with the new Weathershield Fresh which
comes with an added feature to repel dust. The new ICI Weathershield is also available in a lot
more colors than any other exterior paint in the market. Thus Berger is lagging behind in its
product development strategies.
Recently, all the other paint providers besides ICI dulux have developed a new strategy to give
incentives to painters and contractors by offering them discount-tokens. These tokens vary from
a discount of Rs. 50 – Rs. 300. As these painters and contractors have a significant influence
over the consumer in choosing which paint to use, this token scheme has helped boost up their
sales significantly.
However ICI Weathershield believes in focusing on the end-consumers instead of giving tokens
to contractors. It believes that this will help develop long-term loyalty from its consumers
resulting in repeat sales.
Sale Of Fake Paint:
All personnel interviewed expressed their firm opinion that at least 20% of the paint sold in the
local market is “fake paint” sold under popular brand names. Since ICI Weathershield is the
most popular brand for the exterior paint, the percentage of fake paint sold under its brand name
is even higher. Although ICI dulux Paints has a large number of authorized dealers and most of
these dealers are loyal to the company, however the general public was not completely aware of
how to differentiate the genuine dealers. Also some of these authorized dealers are not quite as
loyal and ICI Paints has occasionally received complaints in this regard, which ici dulux have
dealt with increasing the incentives of dealers. In addition the ICI paint products including the
Weathershield is also being sold by other shopkeepers who are not authorized dealers. Paint
purchased through these shops has even lower credibility.So ICI dulux established their own
Point of Sale Tinting and its own Model Shops.
ICI Weathershield is supplied in metal containers, which are not sealed in any foolproof fashion.

Point of Sale Tinting (POST)

ICI Dulux Point of Sale Tinting (POST) offers over 2000 shades available all over Pakistan at
designated dealer outlets. Colour consistency and quality is our forte and our customers can be
confident that the colour they bring home is exactly what they paid for.

Repositioning:
Dulux weathershield and its enhancing attributes which are known but never emphasized on
would be a good positioning turn for the brand. After lets color project ,Dulux has captured 70-
80%share in paint market and the sales of each brand increased till 2012 .

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 Weathershield Sun Reflect:

Innovation has been the key driver behind the success of Dulux in creating the brands and
initiative for sustainability.Dulux SunReflect was launched in March 2011. This latest launch,
ICI Dulux Weathershield Sun Reflect is a revolutionary exterior paint that reduces the
temperature of walls by up to five degrees!Dulux says: For us, innovation begins with great
insight into our customers‟ needs and with Pakistan facing its worst energy crisis ever.

Other products it came up with, include:

1. ICI Dulux Woodcare Shades

2. Dulux Super Gloss finish Enamel
3. Dulux Metallic Finish Enamel
4. Dulux Matt Finish Enamel
5. Dulux Synthetic Enamel Fan Finish White
6. Dulux Pentalite Special Plastic Emulsion (Acrylic Based): Now a days the Television
commercial of the ICI Dulux plastic emulsion can be watched which emphasizes the
6134 shades it has.

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 7. Dulux Pentalite Natural White Special Plastic Emulsion with Added
8. Fragrance (Acrylic Based)
9. Dulux Contractor‟ s Plastic Emulsion
10. Dulux Weather Shield (Acrylic Based)
11. Dulux Prime-on
12. Dulux Water Repellent
13. Dulux Once…
It is a new breakthrough in paint technology as it completes the job in just one coat. This
special emulsion saves time has a high coverage and therefore is highly economical.
Coverage: 7-8 m2 /ltr/coat (Only one coat needed)
14. Paintex Duraguard
15. Paintex Star Emulsion etc.

Oil base paint which has no smell; is odourless or has fragrance. It is available in Dulux
Matt Enamel, Dulux Enamel and Dulux Pentalite Classic. It would be an achievement to
have the same quality available in ICI Weathershield.

Positioning By Price:
The wide range products is positioned according to customer needs
as customers are always in need of the varied products. ICI is
acquainted with flexible product as it has an extensive range of 52 two-tone
colour paints. Consumers can be offered any colour scheme according to
their needs and on reliable prices in comparison to the competitors.
Positioning By Promotion Strategy:
As ICI Dulux has a diversified market it has to use a number of promotional Tools.

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Radio Advertisement

Print Advertisement

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 Point Of Purchase Advertisement (e.g. color cards, brochures and other informative
materials at dealers shops etc.)
Out Door Advertisement e.g Sign boards at busy areas for maximum people to see.

Sales Promotion:
Sales promotion is also a very important promotional tool used by ulux in which different short
term and long term incentive schemes are offered to the dealers.
Sometimes the company provides the dealers with extra discount if they sell upto or more than a
target amount preciously decided.
Dealers are sometimes also given small incentives like T-shirt, wall clocks, folders, brochures,
pen holders etc in return of the sales promotion.

ICI Dulux has increased customer awareness of typical painting problems and develop their
ability to understand the causes and offer solutions for how they can be rectified. All solutions
are available on ici dulux website.dealers also help and give advices to their customers. This
service has solved mainly the problems of customers working in fine arts and fashion industry as
well as painters.

CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS:

From the above discussion it is concluded that ICI Paints has a lot of resources and well
equipped. It is true to say that ICI Paints is Market leader and it is fully applying all of its
resources on Quality Practices, Customer Retaining & Satisfaction, Research & Development
and Environmental Control, but it needs to show some management commitment to retain its
position, because one of its competitors is penetrating in the market.
Recommendations:
Raising public awareness through advertisement about the fake paint sold in the market.
Taking suitable measures whereby ICI Paints official Dealers are easily recognizable –
perhaps by displaying a sign board.

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Forward integration: ICI at the moment is depending on dealers for the sale of their
products. The dealers store company‟s products, retailers have to get ICI products from
the dealers & then offer customers for sale.
If ICI instead of depending on dealers use their own on distribution to supply products to
Retailers then they can increase the sales of their products by giving products to every
possible retailers and in this way they can get acceptance of every retailer to get their
product and offer it to customer for sale.
Backward integration: Presently ICI Pakistan is purchasing its raw material from
Both local as well as foreign suppliers. About 75% material is purchased from foreign
countries and 25% is purchased locally.
As such as huge quantity of raw material is purchased from foreign countries that‟s why
change in government import duties have a great impact on prices of raw material which
also increases the prices of finished products.
Therefore if ICI acquires local suppliers to start making its own raw material then it can
Save itself from such fluctuations in prices, which could result in the stabilization of
prices, and customers can purchase the products at low prices.
If ICI gains control over their local suppliers by ownership and take charge of their
operations then a significant cost cutting is possible. After getting ownership if ICI start
manufacturing all or most of the required raw material locally then they can significantly
reduce the volume of import thus avoiding the heavy import duties imposed by the govt.
It will result in decrease in cost of product and ICI would be able to offer its product at a
relatively cheaper price.

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