One for the long haul - JSW Neosteel ft. Rishabh Pant
Steel has traditionally been a commodity with little differentiation in the minds of customers; hence brands are looking at attractive ways to deliver their communication and possibly opting for a long-term strategy by targeting the younger audience. The new Neosteel ad by JSW featuring Rishabh Pant aims to bring out the importance of good quality products in the foundation in a humorous and relatable way.
In this piece, we try to analyze the various elements of the campaign from consumer behavior and marketing lens. If you haven’t seen the ad yet, quickly watch it here before reading the blog further.
Shifting the Target
We believe that products like cement and steel, which were usually aimed towards older people building their houses, are now being targeted to a younger demographic. With Wonder Cement being the first-ever cement brand to run an IGTV campaign [1] and JSW signing a Youth Icon — Rishabh Pant as their brand ambassador, these brands seem to follow a long-term strategy of connecting with the younger audience now so that when they build their houses few years down the line, they would have these brands in their mind. This kind of nudging could set the foundation (pun intended) needed for such products, which are decided more based on predispositions about the brand than an active search like TV ads. Also, this ad focuses on communicating the importance of using high-quality products in the foundation, even when they cost more, as opposed to other ads just claiming that XYZ is the best in the market — again a long-term approach of primarily talking about the benefit to the customer and subtly mentioning how their product provides that. This makes sense when you are trying to nudge the younger audience in the long run, who are anyways not going to buy the product today. It also gives them the option of implanting the idea that quality products will have premium pricing.
Making Steel Fun
Okay, this might sound blunt, but steel is boring. At least to the younger demographic who don’t have much interest in building their house in the near future. But with the flashback and the comical music, the ad manages to add a fun element and make it attractive to the younger audience. Also, with the IPL fever running high in the country (even though Delhi Capitals lost the final yesterday), adding the cricket element captures the attention even more.
An interesting thing is that even though Delhi Capital is sponsored by JSW Steel and Rishabh Pant can be seen wearing a DC Hoodie, the flashback is that of an international cricket match between India and West Indies. This could be done to connect with audiences across the country rather than just DC supporters.
Changing the roles
From a B2B buying process perspective, the contractor plays the role of the Influencer while the customer whose house is being built is the End User. Usually, the Decision Maker in the process is the contractor (the influencer) and not the end-user as Indians who generally are Risk Averse [2] and Uncertainty Unavoiders (Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory [3]), would delegate the responsibility to the expert who is the contractor. However, as the ad showcases, the goals of the influencer could be different from the end-user. Hence, the end-user (Rishabh Pant) overrides the recommendation by the influencer (the contractor). This could again be done to change the dynamics and nudge the decision-making towards the end-user in the long run.
Another interesting note is that usually, the brand ambassadors act as an expert on the product recommending it to the customers (e.g., Saurav Ganguly recommending TMT, Akshay Kumar recommending Harpic, etc.), but here we see Rishabh Pant as a customer rather than an expert, making the scenario more relatable and credible.
Overall, the campaign is quite unique and interesting and could help the brand build good equity in the future.
Let us know your thoughts in the responses. For more interesting campaigns and analysis follow Nacho Marketing!
