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Ajita Shashidhar

Venus attempts to get consumers to build an emotional connect with its water heaters to set itself apart in the rather low-involvement category.

A BOY comes out of the bathroom after a bath and walks towards his bed to pick up the T-shirt laid out for him. Instead of slipping his arms into it, he puts in his legs! He then wipes the mist off his spectacles and realises he'd mistaken them for his shorts. He is embarrassed. The camera then focuses on the product, Venus Water Heaters, which is accompanied with a voice-over that says — `Venus Water Heaters. Garam sparsh ka ehsas.'

For the 40-year-old water heater brand, Venus, from the Chennai-based Standard Electric Appliances, the greatest challenge is to position its brand as a sophisticated electronic product instead of as a mere electrical gadget. Says I. Ram Kumar, Director (Sales), Standard, "A large segment of consumers consider a water heater an ordinary electrical gadget, and are not really brand-conscious while purchasing one for their house. Therefore, we felt that making an emotional connect with the consumers through our ad campaign would help."

This campaign is probably the first television campaign that any water heater company has ever done. Says Vidyut Srinivasan, Account Supervisor, J. Walter Thompson (the agency that handles the Venus account), "Most water heater companies only have print campaigns which are mostly feature-based. In the Venus campaign, we have tried to build an emotional association between Venus Water Heaters and hot water, by talking about the soothing, relaxing effect of hot water."

The campaign, which was tested in Tamil Nadu late last year, was rolled out nationally last month.

Apart from the new advertising campaign, the company is doing its bit to remove the `electrical gadget' impression among the consumers by foraying into the digital segment. The company recently launched a range of remote control water heaters for the domestic segment called e-Splash. The e-Splash models, available in 15 and 25 litre capacities, come with a digitally-operated remote control which features digital temperature display and setting, a electronic temperature sensor, a microprocessor-based control system, an on/off timer and an audio alarm to alert users at the end of heating.

"We forayed into the digital segment after extensive consumer research, where we realised that consumers wanted a water heater which would switch off by itself," says Kumar.

Says P. Arun Kumar, Senior Manager, Quantum Market Research (the agency which did the market study for Venus), "The consumers found it boring to talk about water heaters and were looking for some excitement in the segment."

Looks matter

Apart from making the product exciting technologically, the important aspect that the company had to consider was looks. "As consumers are spending a lot of money in building stylish bathrooms, there has been a demand for sleek-looking water heaters. Huge, voluminous heaters are no longer in vogue," says Kumar of Venus.

The company has launched two new compact models in the Splash range, which contain a shower featuring the aqua flow sensor technology.

The water heater market

The organised water heater market, according to Kumar, is estimated at Rs 150-160 crore, but there is an equally large unorganised market that co-exists.

In fact, North India is where the unorganised sector plays an important role. This, according to industry experts, is partly to do with the acute winters, and a segment of consumers there find it unaffordable to buy a branded heater. "However, with excise duties being reduced in this segment, the price gap between the branded and unbranded heaters has come down. People are gradually giving importance to safety and quality. Moreover, all branded water heaters also consume less electricity," says Kumar.

However, Southern India, according to B. A. Srinivasa, Director, Viveks Ltd, a South-based consumer durable retail chain, is more brand-conscious. "Consumers down South are brand-conscious and are very particular about after-sales services, whereas North is a price-conscious market."

Kumar of Quantum feels that brands have not really built in values. "A water heater brand for a consumer is merely a label. Therefore, they are okay with buying unbranded heaters."

Strategy

Considering that water heaters are a low-involvement segment and that consumers don't have a clear picture about brands in this segment, Kumar says the company will reinforce the branding exercise at the shop level too, by putting up POPs and so on.

The other factor, which the company plans to focus on with renewed interest, is after-sales. "Post-sales service is important in this segment, and we are going to lay importance on this," he says.

Future plans

The company also plans to venture into gas heaters and solar heaters for both the domestic as well as commercial segment shortly. Kumar claims that gas heaters would reduce electricity consumption by almost two-thirds.

The company is also looking at the institutional market in a big way. "We are planning to offer attractive pricing and even offer customised products," he says.

The company is also planning to launch water heaters with smaller capacities so that the consumers find it more affordable.

Also on the cards is obtaining an international certification to enter the export market.

But the need of the hour, according to Kumar, is to increase the penetration of the branded water heater segment, to make it more affordable and easily available. And, that buying a water heater is not an experience to get all hot and bothered about.

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