Glass of class

N.Ramakrishnan

Future of Glass. Since 1665. A pithy caption. Which, along with the worldwide logo of Saint-Gobain, has helped Saint-Gobain Glass India carve a niche for itself in the growing float glass market in the country.

For Saint-Gobain Glass India, the caption is meant to convey several things to the buyers - heritage, innovation, reliability, and quality. And, surprisingly the caption was created in India as Saint-Gobain Glass India set up operations last year and sought to build a brand. This is one of the things developed by us and is now exportable, says B. Santhanam, Managing Director, Saint-Gobain Glass India Ltd, as he explains how the caption, along with the brand-building exercise by the company helped it achieve a fifth of the float glass market in the country.

A nine-month market seeding effort, when the Indian company imported glass manufactured by the French multinational elsewhere and sold it in the market, preceded the commissioning of Saint-Gobain Glass Indias plant at Sriperumbudur, about 45 km from Chennai. Our market seeding, where we had imported a lot of glass from our companies at a fairly high cost, is almost like an investment that we made in understanding the customer, the market and the logistics,says Santhanam.

He points out that the market seeding helped the company have a smooth entry into the market. Otherwise, when such a huge capacity suddenly becomes available (650 tonnes per day), it would have been difficult for a company to learn overnight about the customers, the market and the logistics. The market seeding helped Saint-Gobain understand not only the customers and the market, but also the transportation and logistics involved. In short, the nuances of the market. It was expensive, but the investment we make in the market-seeding was worth it, says Santhanam.

He claims Saint-Gobain approached the issue of marketing and selling glass differently from other manufacturers. That is because it believed that the glass industry in India was highly fragmented and hence companies had to understand customers and the logistics of glass in India rather than try and sell their products straightaway. Quite a few companies end up making reasonably good glass, but the problem is they do not understand the market, the customers and the logistics involved, he says.

Apart from focussing on its heritage and reliability as part of its marketing and brand-building exercise, Saint-Gobain Glass India ensured that its quality levels were even more stringent - similar to the quality of Saint-Gobains global operations - than what was required of companies here. For instance, it has defect levels of one defect per 100 sq.ft. of glass, whereas the Indian standard allows up to 10 times that, according to Santhanam.

Along with this, Saint-Gobain focussed on clarity. It had a series of advertisements highlighting the clarity of its glass. For this, it needed to ensure that quality was high. Saint-Gobain introduced the concept of diamond standards in glass. We judge glass in ways very similar to how a diamond is judged. We judge it in terms of clarity, consistency, cutting ability and the range of colours, says Santhanam.

"Our whole brand-building campaign was built around the theme of clarity. It (the glass) should be non-interfering. The beauty of glass is that it insulates you from heat and noise. It is the only thing that allows a sense of sight, at the same time cutting out the sound and heat.

All this, according to Santhanam, helped Saint-Gobain change perceptions about glass in the minds of the people. We moved glass from being seen as an undifferentiated commodity to something where it has some very specific qualities and properties attached to it. That has been well appreciated by the customers and the intermediaries, he says.

Working with the intermediaries was another strategy that Saint-Gobain consciously adopted to build a brand. The brand building activities, according to R. Subramanian, National Manager (Marketing and Sales), were based on the companys assessment that there are different people who help the end consumer take a final decision about what glass to use. This covers the architect, the builder, the carpenter, the glass fabricator, the glass cutter, the retailer and the interior decorator. Any or all of them will have a say in the decision-making and each will have a different requirement. There is a multiplicity of needs. That is the whole point of the campaign. It is necessary to address all their needs and have an integrated approach to marketing, he says.

Another aspect that Saint-Gobain focussed on was the thickness of the glass. It launched a campaign called True Thick where it told its customers that if they bought glass from them, the thickness of the glass will be what it was claimed to be. For instance, a glass of 5 mm thickness would be 4.93 to 4.95 mm thick, when it was perfectly legal and acceptable to pass off glass of, say, 4.75 mm thickness as 5 mm glass.

In a sluggish market, Saint-Gobain realises that it has to offer its customers something new. It will be adding new products, especially reflective glass. We see it as a significant growth opportunity. In terms of volume it may not be high, but in terms of value it represents a significant opportunity, says Santhanam.

However, pushing the sales of float glass requires not only new products but innovative marketing too, especially to reach out to a large number of decision-makers. There is not much of knowledge about how to use glass and what type of glass is to be used, except among the top architects and interior decorators. Therefore, the next level of builders, architects and interior decorators has to be educated about the use of glass, according to Santhanam.

Saint-Gobain sees the opportunities presented by the small commercial buildings that are coming up as one of the interesting marketing challenges. Anywhere in India, points out Santhanam, a lot of rebuilding is going on. Each one of them offers a challenging opportunity to market advanced products. It is really left to the imagination of the glass industry to tap this potential.

We are investing significantly more than we do in any other country in marketing. Mainly because this country is at a point where glass is changing from being a commodity to being a brand, from being used for only one function (which is to offer a view) to multi-function, where the glass is used also to cut out heat, dust and noise, says Santhanam. He adds that huge investments are needed in marketing, which Saint-Gobain is doing. I think these investments are paying off in terms of getting people to change their views about glass. Our marketing activities are multi-pronged, he says.

Saint-Gobain has looked at consumer education, where it did innovative programmes for the intermediaries. It made a special film on how to cut glass and screened it for the glass cutters and glass fixers. It even made special educational film for glass fabricators and carpenters. It also conducted safety campaigns on how to handle glass. We are trying to tell a whole lot of intermediaries that it is time to change the way we have dealt with glass. We have begun well but we have a fairly large task to make these changes to take place, says Santhanam. Building brand through advertisements, hoardings and point of promotion displays is just one part of the marketing effort. Educating the intermediaries in working with glass is a major part of the overall effort. The market is responding to when you talk to them about functions, according to him.

Till Saint-Gobain came into the country, says Santhanam, the glass industry was an undifferentiated continuum. I think we have a great opportunity to segment the market and grow the different segments rapidly. And, that is really our goal, he adds.

Pic.: Float Glass manufactured at Saint-Gobain Glass India Ltd, plant at Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, being taken for packing and trasportation.

Picture by Bijoy Ghosh