A$10 billion paint market in India, in 2024, which could grow to $15 billion by 2029, is seeing new entrants, making their way, into an old category. Across many decades, the brands which are there in this old category are: Asian Paints, since 1942, which went public in 1967. The other existing brands in this old paint category are: Berger Paints, Kansai Nerolac, Akzo Nobel with its Dulux brand. There are others too.
Over the last few years, new entrants have started coming into this market. The new entrants are aggressive, come out with clear positioning, have strong distribution network, good advertising, innovative pricing and have a competitive edge, in one way or the other. This means that the new entrants are serious players who want to consider the Indian paint industry as a serious growing market and want to participate in it and grow. This is causing a huge appeal and upheaval in the market. To use the industry language, they are literally painting the town red.
Indigo Paints, JSW Paints, and now Birla Opus Paints are the new entrants which are making their mark as new brands in an old category.
That does not mean that the existing players are sitting idle. They have come out with new initiatives in terms of products as well as in terms of communication, to defend their market share and to be able to continue to retain their loyal customers and consumers.
I would not be surprised, if other large industrial houses also want to enter this particular paint market and also plan to participate strongly in it. The market would definitely grow and the biggest beneficiaries would be the customers. This market requires substantial amount of reach and servicing, and there is a lot of scope, for growth, as you penetrate down the town classes.
Interestingly, this phenomenon of new brands entering old categories is not only restricted to the paint industry. There are many other industries which are going to witness a similar trend.
In the car market, there are similar trends emerging in the last few years. While in the old category of cars, brands from Maruti, Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Škoda and others have entered with their new brands in recent years and are revitalising the market. MG and KIA, with their sub-brands have entered with much fanfare. They have launched their sub-brands such as MG’s Gloster, Hector and Blackstorm. Existing sub-brands like Creta, i10 or sub-brands like Alto, Dzire, Wagon R, or sub-brands like Safari from existing players are active in the market.
New sub-brands, from existing players have started making their mark, like Nexon and Punch, in both IC and EV versions. The trend of new brands in old categories is growing very fast, accelerating the rate of growth in those categories.
Similarly, Aditya Birla group is entering the old category of jewellery, through the new brand Novel Jewels. Existing players like Tata group’s Tanishq will be watching keenly. On the other hand, a few years ago, Tata, through their new brand Taneira entered the old category of sarees. While new companies are entering old categories, with new brands, existing corporates are also entering old categories, with new brands.
This is an extremely healthy trend, for the Indian market, since growth will be triggered, and consumers will get a greater choice of brands. Companies will see a lot of marketing activity with new challenger brands in old established categories!
Strategically, the new challenger of brands in old categories, will have to bring out marketing plans of differentiation, having a separate and distinct competitive edge, better reach, innovative product, quality, and communication, which help the brands to enter the minds and hearts of existing and new consumers. These new challenger brands in old categories will not only have to fight the existing strong brands, but will also have to cater to new aspirations and expectations of new consumers, especially the younger ones.
Having new brands come into old categories, is a wonderful marketing environment in our country today. Certain categories which were considered as saturated or were considered having plateaued, will get a new life and will come alive with new players which will change the entire scenario helping the top line and the bottom line of companies grow substantially. Not to forget, existing players in old categories, coming up with new brands to strengthen their portfolio, and to counter challenge the new companies coming in.
With this trend, we are in for an exciting market in time.
The author is cmd, Samsika Marketing Consultants. He can be reached at
jk@samsika.com