Know about plywood – Ask Greenply

Greenply has recently launched a new advertising campaign – Ask Greenply. The campaign comprises three ads – 'Nayi Maa', 'Dhongi Baba' and 'The Couple'. In each of the ads an awkward situation is shown and when a character is asked a question he gets dumbfounded. The ads are humorous and the primary objective of this campaign is to urge consumers to ask questions on plywood, in order to enable this a website (www.askgreenply.com) and helpline number appear at the end of each ad. There is no need for me to describe these ads in detail since I have embedded them below at the end of this article.

Over the decades plywood manufacturers have promised strength and durability as product benefits for their brands of plywood. Regardless who the manufacturer is or what brand it is advertising the message has always been about strength and durability; this has been happening for decades even till today. In this product category there is hardly any product differentiation and hardly any distinctive claims are made by any brand, almost every brand simply promises strength and durability.

Plywood is a low involvement category for the ultimate consumer, here brands hardly matter, and the plywood category has always been a commodity. The consumer simply does not understand it, so he leaves the decision to his carpenter or his interior decorator. It is not that consumer is not bothered at all; he is concerned about the strength and durability of the plywood or if it is pest resistant but he can’t do much because he lacks knowledge and does not feel empowered to address his concerns.

Since there is no product differentiation among brands, the only way to bring about distinctiveness has been through advertising. Greenply, for years has used humour to give itself some distinctiveness; there have been some interesting ads of Greenply like the one showing a little Sikh boy remembering his pastlife or the ‘Always Hoyenga’ ad, both were humorous at the same time they sent clear messages to the consumers. Kitply had last used a film actor (Nana Pateker) to get their ad noticed. Quite recently Greenply had also used a celebrity – Arjun Rampal, the ad was devoid of humour, I have my doubts if the campaign worked because they are now back to using humour and do not have any celebrity to endorse their product. Archidply tried to be a bit different from its competitors, they made a distinctive claim which perhaps no other plywood manufacturer had ever made before, their claim was that Archidply will not cause allergies and side-effects; I wonder how convincing it sounds to the

consumer. Does anyone really believe that plywood can cause allergies and side-effects? If at all it were true, is the population of such consumers large enough to merit such an advertising campaign?

In the present campaign Greenply has done something quite different. On one hand, through their three ad campaign they have conveyed to the target consumers that Greenply plywood is fire and water resistant, and it is strong enough to take heavy weight. This implies that Greenply is strong and durable and better than those of its competitors. Apart from this Greenply has taken note of the fact that

consumers are not properly informed regarding plywood and are totally dependent on carpenters and interior decorators, the consumer needs information on plywood but does not have the means to obtain it. The three ads urge the consumer to seek more information on plywood by calling a helpline number or visit a website specially created for the purpose so that he/she can take a decision which would be based on facts; in a way the ad campaign is trying to empower and engage with the consumer. This differentiates the Greenply campaign from all other plywood brand ad campaigns. The humour continues as before. Overall this campaign, in my opinion has gone a step forward, while retaining its claim of strength and durability it has also shown that it cares for its consumers by helping them in making a choice. This I think is good for the brand.