Voltas Limited: All Weather AC - How a pure play

Indian brand turned into a giant killer

Neha Chopra
Source: The WARC Prize for Asian Strategy, Local Hero and Gold, 2013
Downloaded from WARC

This case study describes how Voltas, the Indian air conditioning brand, acquired market leadership.

As a result of weak market share, Voltas chose to reposition the brand as a solution that doesn't
just resolve heat, but rather 'resolves any weather discomfort'.
The communication explored discomfort with changing weather conditions through a human
narrative relevant for the Indian consumer.
The campaign took the brand to its aspired No.1 position.
For the first time, an Indian pure play air conditioner brand toppled two massive 'foreign' white
goods players to take the top spot.

Neha Chopra

Campaign details
Brand owner: TATA India
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
Brand: Voltas Limited
Country: India
Channels used: Internet - display, Outdoor, out-of-home, Point-of-purchase, in-store media, Print - general,
unspecified, Radio, Television
Media budget: 5 - 10 million

Executive summary
This case is about Voltas, one of the first Indian brands with its core competency in the air conditioning (AC)
category. Over the years, with global white goods brands entering the Indian market due to their technological
superiority, Voltas was witnessing weak end market share.

With the ambitious task of acquiring market leadership in the AC category, Voltas knew that it would have to
fundamentally reposition all of the competition's tech jargon by creating new category drivers.

Research said that the entire category had so far been positioned through the limited role of 'resolving heat',
while consumer behaviour suggested that people seek solutions across all weather conditions. This offered
Voltas a big opportunity to reposition its AC as a solution that doesn't just resolve heat, but rather 'resolves any
weather discomfort'.

With the positioning of the 'All Weather AC', Voltas would give the consumer control over changing weather
conditions – be it heat, humidity or freezing cold.

The communication explored discomfort with changing weather conditions through a human narrative relevant
for the Indian consumer.

The result was historic. The campaign took the brand to its aspired No.1 position. For the first time, an Indian
pure play air conditioner brand toppled two massive 'foreign' white goods players (Samsung and LG) to take the
top spot.

Market background and business objectives

The Indian white goods market opened up in the mid-1990s. Since then, many of the previously dominant Indian
white goods brands have waned and folded against an onslaught from foreign brands – particularly the chaebols
(business conglomerates) of Korea. Today, Samsung and LG are the two most dominant players in the white
goods' market, and the AC market is no different.

Voltas, an Indian AC manufacturer, had recently lost its No.2 position to Samsung. If things continued in the
same manner, it was faced with the threat of soon fading to a distant No.3.

(Source: GFK Nielsen)

The consumer: foreign brand equals better technology

The Indian consumer wasn't making things easy for Voltas. She was obsessed with everything 'foreign' because
products brought by multinational (MNC) brands came with a quality, finesse and style hitherto unknown to her.

While in terms of functionality and technology Indian brands were on a par with MNC brands, with no Indian
brand being able to successfully dominate the white goods' categories in India, the consumer's mindset that a
foreign brand equals better quality had been cast in stone.
Voltas's loss of its No.2 position to Samsung was a sign of worse things to come. With a spate of other foreign
players making their presence felt in the Indian AC market, would this trend lead to a further dilution of the
brand's position in the category?

The retailer: better demand leads to better sales

In the Indian white goods' market, retailing is done via multi-brand outlets, where consumers compare and
evaluate brands and models prior to purchase. The retailers, therefore, are a brand's key sales driver and its
interface with the consumer. However, their motivation to stock one particular brand and push it over its
competitors is dictated by that brand already being in high demand – and so leading to a faster turnaround of
their stock.

In the absence of adequate demand from consumers, there was a high probability of Voltas losing both shelf and
mind space with retailers.

The category: one brand having many products means a large brand halo

The brand – Voltas: one brand having one product means a small brand halo

This is a category of brand halo multiplication. A single brand aims to occupy multiple product categories –
Samsung and LG are big players in phones, TVs and refrigerators in addition to ACs. This overwhelming
presence translates into consideration by the consumer and, consequently, market share.

However, Voltas only makes ACs. Nevertheless, it pulled together its resources and managed to finish 2011 at
No.3 in the volume market shares. But its presence in only the AC category meant that it had a small brand halo
and limited room to grow further.

Voltas' brand equity, as measured by Nielsen audits, stood at 1.9, while Samsung and LG were at 3.3 and 4.9
respectively.

Objectives

For Voltas, the objectives were clear: it had to arrest declining market share immediately and needed to
strengthen its equity to secure a sustained position.

1. Raise Voltas' brand equity to the Top 20 percentile

2. Acquire the No. 1 AC position from LG and Samsung by gaining market leadership
When planning for 2012, Voltas was behind the big shots, LG and Samsung, in market share. Could Voltas beat
them and breach the 20% share barrier?

Insight and strategic thinking

The market reality: AC = cooling in summer

India is the seventh-largest country in the world, with diverse climatic conditions. Since different seasons last for
different periods of time in different parts of the country, it was necessary to understand how people across the
country dealt with the various extremes of weather.

The agency undertook a primary research across eight cities and towns around the country that are particularly
well known for their weather extremes, to understand how they coped with the weather conditions and the role
of ACs in their lives.

The findings were interesting:

Three types of weather cause the most discomfort – heat, cold and humidity
Each weather type was dealt with using very different solutions:
Heat – dealt with using ACs and air coolers (low end)
Cold – room heaters and woollens
Humidity – fans and, in some cases, ACs.

However, with regard to the role of air conditioners in their lives:

Air conditioners = cooling in summer only.

This resulted in a large number of people rejecting the category, as they believed an air conditioner was too
much of an expense to justify its limited summer use.

A quick competitive scan showed that all brands in the category were currently built on this, the one-dimensional
role of the air conditioner as a 'cooling' solution.

The AC was nothing more than an expensive cooler.

The Voltas ACs however, like many other competitive offerings, were air conditioners not air coolers.

And from here, Voltas derived its proposition:

Voltas ACs offer all-weather comfort

This meant an opportunity to widen the scope of the AC from cooling to also heating and dehumidifying, and
ensure greater relevance for the brand across the country throughout the year. This could become the key lever
that would enable Voltas to outperform competition and build stature as a brand.

The big idea

The task of getting consumers to re-evaluate ACs in the light of the all-weather claim was approached through
communication that explored its relevance not just in its functional context, but also through an ironical life
narrative. And once again, the weather became an inspiration. Its unpredictability, nature blowing hot then
blowing cold, its ability to make you feel uncomfortable; all of this inspired the perfect metaphor – the boss from
hell!

The boss decides the weather – literally!

From Dilbert to Horrible Bosses, we have enough examples of the 'boss from hell' who takes great pleasure in
making his subordinate's life miserable.

In the Indian context, if a subordinate were to incur the wrath of his boss, a transfer to a remote location is an
almost expected reprimand! These transfers, which often tend to be punishment postings, became the perfect
set-up to bring alive the promise of the Voltas All Weather AC.

From product feature to emotionally engaging stories

The agency developed a hapless, honest character – Murthy – who was at the mercy of his crooked boss.
Honest Murthy was constantly incurring his boss's wrath for being too straightforward, and hence wasn't
rewarded with an increment but a transfer!

This meant that the protagonist kept getting transferred to locations with extreme weather conditions, and
subsequently Murthy had to deal with unbearable cold, heat or humidity.

But irrespective of the weather, Voltas All Weather AC kept him comfortable and smiling.

Implementation, including creative and media development

The idea was brought to life in a series of TV commercials, each featuring a remote Indian location with extreme
weather: Mukteshwar being freezing cold, Kota a desert, and Cherrapunji a place which receives the maximum
rainfall in the country. Despite being subjected to all these extremities of weather, Murthy remained unperturbed
and in good cheer, because he had the All Weather AC by his side to control the environment inside his house.

Radio

Radio spots carried forward the idea, with more engaging Murthy plots tailored to regional weather conditions,
thereby helping establish connect with consumers across the country.

Tactical print
This communication took Murthy's All Weather AC message to national and regional dailies, as these were the
key source of information for the smaller towns.

In the final stages, a comprehensive retailer education exercise was undertaken with the support of relevant
POS material. The objective was to establish 'all weather' as an important evaluation parameter in making a
purchase decision.

Performance against objectives

Objective 1: Raise Voltas brand equity to the Top 20 percentile, as measured by Nielsen

Result:

The campaign helped Voltas move its equity scores up from 1.9 to 3.3. Not only was this the highest single-year
change in equity scores in the white goods category (as recorded by Nielsen), it also put pure play Voltas' equity
higher than the behemoth Samsung!

Objective 2: Acquire the No. 1 AC position from LG and Samsung by gaining the highest share of the
market

Result:
2012 saw Voltas emerging as the No. 1 AC player in India, beating both LG and Samsung.

Voltas beat LG by a whopping 7%

Furthermore, it succeeded in breaching the 20% MS mark.

This was despite being outspent by LG and Samsung by five times and seven times respectively.

As expected, the Voltas TVC scored high on persuasiveness, making consumers who saw the ad want to
go out and buy the product.
The campaign received Gold at the Indian Effies, and won accolades from peers as one of the most
memorable pieces of communication of the year.
But perhaps the most telling effect of the Voltas All Weather communication for its air conditioners is
reflected in what the retailers said. Here's a quote from Pankaj Electronics, one of the largest multi-brand
retailers in northern India:

"Voltas has brought a new feature to the AC market after a long time. Now all our customers want All Weather
ACs. Other brands will soon need to catch up because demand for Voltas has surged."

Lessons learned
As communication and marketing experts, we often get too caught up in brand health tracks that pre-define
category drivers (technology, best cooling, stature, etc) and hence tend only to imagine a brand's scope within
these existing definitions.

This case study is a reminder of the fact that when a brand chooses to redefine the category drivers, it truly
acquires leadership both in the market as well as in the mind.
© Copyright WARC 2013
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