Touching The Emotional Chord Is A Sure Shot Way Of Doing Experiential Right: Amit Syngle, Asian Paints

Annually, Asian Paints introduces its exclusive ColourNext Colour and Material Intelligence forecast, a unique initiative in the subcontinent. This forecast predicts CMFT (colour, material, finishes, and textures) trends, unveiling the highly anticipated Colour of the Year. Rooted in the cultural and social influences of the time, this forecast mirrors the prevailing Zeitgeist.

With a history spanning over two decades, Asian Paints' ColourNext forecast process intricately analyses consumer behaviour, consumption patterns, socio-cultural sentiments, and lifestyle changes. Collaborating with esteemed institutions and industry professionals, the team orchestrates competitions, interviews, and workshops that culminate in the definitive colour forecast. Regarded as the subcontinent's premier colour and material intelligence, the entire forecast relies on research tools, colour psychology, and insights gathered from prominent tastemakers in architecture, art, interiors, fashion, sociology, media, and FMCG.

For the year 2024, the chosen Colour of the Year is Terra, celebrated for its rich primal tones that exude a profound sense of grounding and belonging. The nostalgic, ruddy hues tell a tale of finding comfort amidst chaos. The forecast extends beyond the Colour of the Year, presenting four design directions for 2024: Soil, Into the Deep, Indo Futurism, and Goblin Mode. This comprehensive forecast is underpinned by the science of research and the collective expertise of the country's leading influencers across various domains.

In an exclusive chat with Everything Experiential for our BrandCraft series, Amit Syngle, Managing Director and CEO, Asian Paints reveals about incorporating the element of experiential in ColourNext 2024, how the socio-cultural trends of the year add to providing relevant experiences to consumers and more.

Edited excerpts:

How has Asian Paints incorporated the element of experiential and the emerging trends in experiential marketing in ColourNext 2024?

When we work on ColourNext, it takes a lot of research, a lot of statistics into account.

When it comes to making it experiential, one of the biggest things is how you really amplify the trend in the story in a big way for customers to really see and feel the whole nuance behind it. Especially for the designers, the evolution of the story is important, and therefore the experiential element becomes very big.

If you see this entire ColourNext Pavilion at the India Design Week 2024, we have been kind of working with this for the over last 12 years for each of our trend stories. And what we do every year is that each story is really explored from the point of view of people experiencing the story right from the root of it.

There are a lot of nuances in the whole experience which we create. So whether it is from the point of view of the emergence of the core of the story to how the outcomes look in terms of amplifying in the sense of a decor, what does it mean in terms of colour usage and very importantly, how it really tells people about this whole area of CMFT (colour, material, finishes, and textures) which we bring about, which is the colour and material intelligence. This is very important because we showcase in an experiential form a lot of new materials, a lot of new colours, and how they sit with each other very strongly. For that experiential element, we create this experience zone, which is very immersive.

At the same time, it is something which is very emotional in terms of the way it grows on you. And This is a very sure shot way in terms of how we tell these stories in an experiential manner.

How do the socio-cultural trends of the year influence the colour, design, and lifestyle aspects showcased in the forecast stories and how does it add to providing relevant experiences to consumers?

We look at the socioeconomic changes which are happening in the country, then we look at what is the lifestyle pattern, from there what is the decor pattern, and therefore what are the colour patterns.

If you take the story Goblin Mode, the socioeconomic trend which was coming about was a lot about this Gen Z saying that we are not perfectionist – stating that we want to live in a more genuine way, which we are. We want to shun social media, which is all about showing oneself in a very different light. And we want to kind of really be genuine in terms of whatever we do to that extent.

So we picked up that socioeconomic trend, and called it the Goblin Mode because it was a state of the mind in terms of what it was talking of. And when we looked at this story, we passed the stories along with a lot of designers, a lot of people who have a say or they are opinion leaders around these trends to that extent.

And they felt that when they are kind of designing their houses, there are a lot of Gen Z people within the same house. And they look at basically the design and evolution very differently from what the others were looking at. And therefore, this entire story emanated very well from the point of view of saying that it is about this whole area of being your real self. Then we spoke about the whole maximalist nature of this trend, where you are living in a clutter, but you like that clutter for that yourself. It is aesthetic. It is something which you indulge in to that extent. And you don't really care what others are talking and or what the societal pressures are around with it to that extent.

And therefore with them, it translated into what kind of colours would mean and given the kind of segment, the colours were more vibrant, the colours were happening, and it had an element of metallics coming into that extent.

And the whole area of material was large knits. That is how we incorporated the whole thing into one story, which is Goblin Mode, from the socioeconomic trend.

How have you linked colour psychology in ColourNext 2024 with the kind of experiences that you wish to deliver to your consumers this year? What insights can you share about the psychology behind colour selection and its influence on consumer experiences?

The colour stories are very strongly integrated into the main story. So if the main story is about Soil, the whole colour palette will appropriate something which is about the earthly tones which are there. It will talk of, literally, the material kind of trends which are kind of coming in and subsuming with the colour to that extent.

The colours which come from the colour palette is actually about the story, and it is true to the story in terms of what comes in the psychology. Today, when people experience the story, they should experience the colour palette in that same way in terms of how the story appropriates it to that extent. And therefore, in that case, Soil, is about the tones. There are warm hues which have come in, and that's the colour psychology we use. And then we are able to tell people that if this is a colour palette, this colour/colours can be used with other colours very easily in terms of what you can do. So it becomes literally like an aid to the customer or a designer that I can use this colour palette like this.

How has Asian Paints incorporated the touch and feel elements and other experiential elements in ColourNext 2024 to enhance consumer engagement?

When you look at each story, each story has an element of texture and finish embedded into the story. So the whole element of tactility kind of comes in very strongly because there are these textures which are tactile in nature, very appealing for the eye and very different.

In the whole material and texture palette, we try to subsume what are the kind of tactile elementswhich can get into the story so that we can stay true to the story in the way it takes shape.