Philips India recently unveiled a new product category for men within the Philips body grooming range at a high-profile launch event in Delhi. Everything Experiential’s Shantanu Jain discusses with Anurita Chopra, Director Marketing, Philips Personal Care, the importance of experiential for Philips and the need to keep its TG engaged.
Q- Tell us about the new product category?
A- So this particular product is something that we came as a solution to men for their body hair problems below the neck. In our research we clearly discovered that there were enough men who were using razors, scissors and creams which were painful and temporary solutions to their body hair problems. Getting rid of body hair gets messy, dirty, is unhygienic and leads to body odor and we found out the majority of men were struggling with it. And here we smelt a strong sense of opportunity and hence the genesis of body grooming came up. We thought of keeping it very simple by launching one product for the sensitive body area and making the life of men simpler.
Q- How important is experiential for Philips?
A- Experiential is integral actually because the entire personal care category is such a new space and we have been actively working on it. One can obviously do traditional marketing and send out a one-way message but these practices do not really give the consumers a flavor of what our product is all about.
Q- What are the key elements common to all your experiential endeavors?
A- Innovation is imperative to any experiential campaign we design. We always seek out fun and engaging ways to connect with the consumers. Our main focus is that consumers should have as much fun with our products as we have coming up with it.
Q- Is experiential part of the marketing mix in the launch of this product?
A- Men who face the issue of body hair are often hesitant to openly ask for a solution to their problems so the idea is to reach out to them digitally with a solution. Instead of going through traditional channels to promote we plan to make them experience the product.
We have planned a Google hangout with Arjun Kapoor where he is going to be talking about the use of product in a really fun way and then there is also a radio activation that we are doing at a mall where he will engage with the youth.
Q- Is there anything particular that you look for in an event agency before you partner on a campaign?
A- Ideation is the core of any campaign that we want to execute at Philips any event agency that comes to us needs to have a stunning idea in place. The power of execution comes next because an idea can only be powerful if executed a certain way. You can have a great idea on Powerpoint but really struggle in terms of execution. Overall I think it is also the attitude of the agency and the partnership spirit in them that makes us give us a final go ahead.
Q- Any experiential campaigns by any other brand that you’ve loved?
A- I think Lakme has emerged with some really interesting campaigns in the past. As a brand we at Philips continue to take inspiration from interesting campaigns by different brands all the time.
