We are in the business of securing peace of mind: Pushkar Gokhale, Godrej Security Solutions

The ubiquitous Godrej cupboard was a familiar sight across most Indian households two to three decades ago. The tagline ‘desh ki tijori’ (country's locker) for the security solutions provider’s latest campaign, therefore, can be deemed as a not-too-far-fetched fair claim. 

 

Notably, the over-century-old company already manages the locks and digital security systems for historical landmarks such as the Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Qutub Minar, and Ajanta Ellora caves, as well as for financial institutions like State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, and Muthoot, to name a few.

 

Godrej Security Solutions, a business unit of Godrej & Boyce, and the flagship company of the Godrej Group, unveiled a campaign with its long-time brand ambassador and actor, Ayushmann Khurrana. 

 

The brand also announced the launch of its mobile ‘Smart Home’ - a van designed like a home locker with a smart home integrated inside that will travel across 100 cities in India to showcase its latest smart home solutions. It has been doubling down on innovations and tech-enabled solutions through its platform 'Secure 4.0'. 

 

We caught up with Pushkar Gokhale, SVP and business head, Godrej Security Solutions who spoke about the transition happening in the security solutions space and the importance of 'visibility' in today's evolving landscape even for a legacy brand.

 

Edited excerpts:

 

What is the message you wish to give out through this latest campaign and the tagline ‘desh ki tijori’? 

 

We were trying to understand where we stand as a brand and as a security provider. In the safes and vaults business, we have close to a 60% market share in the institutional business. When one looks at the homes category, the entire category has been built by us. There was nothing called a home safe or home locker category when we started. And today we have a market share of nearly 80%. We sold close to 2,00,000 safes last year for homes. The name Godrej has become synonymous with ‘security’. That's when we said that we definitely can make a tall claim of being ‘desh ki tijori’. And that's how it all started. 

 

We have taken a lot of insights from our customers, to understand how the entire security landscape is changing, and what we need to do for our customers. The secure 4.0 platform which we have created talks about how we, as a company have evolved from 1902 to 2023. This is a fourth-generation security, which has a lot of intelligent devices with integrated solutions. This means it has a lot of intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), interconnected devices etc., where the safe communicates with you. In the earlier generations of security, the safe was always a dud sitting in a corner. Now we have given life to it through digital initiatives and technology which we have today, and that is the core of the entire secure 4.0 play of interconnected devices. 

 

As a legacy company in the security solutions space, how are you looking to boost penetration through marketing initiatives? What’s your go-to-market strategy?

 

Yes, it's still a highly underpenetrated category, especially the home lockers and safes. So apart from the secure 4.0 and ‘desh ki tijori’ campaign, which is a part of our go-to-market strategy, we look at omnichannel presence and an omnichannel strategy which we have got into. Today, we are already available in 3,500 outlets across the country. We want to further build it up. So in the next two years, we are looking at to reach 5,000 outlets. That expansion is going to happen in the general trade.

 

We also have our site where we are present online and are selling to Amazon, Flipkart etc. And of course, there’s a lot of influencer management and a lot of initiatives on social media. Ultimately events such as these also help us in terms of creating that awareness to drive the category. 

 

How do you divide your ad spend across media, be it traditional media like television, print or new-age digital?

 

To give you a broad figure, we look at anything around 5% spends on our advertising and promotions overall. And then we break it up depending on various factors. Now of course there's a lot which goes into digital - with more than a 40-60 split between it and traditional media. Print is there but not to that much extent and is decreasing in importance for us. Today I think the entire ecosystem is shifting towards digital media, so the traditional TV campaign is also taking a backseat. A lot of spend also goes on OTT which is another shift which we are seeing now and working on.

 

Also, apart from the mainstream media campaign, what was the thought behind the ‘smart home’ vans initiative, why did you feel the need to reach out to the consumers on-ground as well?

 

Through this campaign, we wanted to make consumers aware of what we have, as a part of the secure 4.0 platform, what are the threats, what are the risks, and how they can mitigate them, basically helping them to select the right security product for them. So there are four mobile vans, which will move out in four directions - East West, North and South, which will have actual products on board, in addition to education tools. You will have kiosks there, so one can search for a product or features and get to know what kind of product offerings are there. The customers can test, and touch-feel the product. That's the entire objective.

 

The entire thought process was again arrived at, basis our discussion with the customer when we saw that digital or online commerce is growing. We realised that for our category, although a user would ultimately go back and place an order on e-commerce, he or she would first like to go and test it, touch and feel the product because after all, they are going to store their valuables like jewellery, cash etc inside. So, they need to know how strong is the product, how strong is the door, the lock, how’s the handle and so on. That is how we thought of having these mobile ‘smart home’ vans which will go around spreading awareness, and also allow customers to test the product. 

 

We are looking at metros as well as tier II cities and setting a target of covering 100 towns in 100 days. Ultimately, it's about spreading awareness and also about visibility, as we need to be more visible. 

 

Take us through the transition witnessed in the space, from mechanical locks to today’s technology-led integrated digital security systems in the last few decades.

 

This transition is happening, and we are the ones who have to drive it as a market leader. The onus is always on the market leader to drive the industry. 

 

Given the kind of digital initiatives which are happening across the board, with the increasing penetration of 5G, the entire digital backbone is getting ready. I'm sure that this kind of tech-enabled product will be required in the ecosystem. Now with the changing dynamic, the realisation is dawning upon users that they need to have something secure to protect their valuables at home.

 

One more thing we have realised from our customers is that security is no more about a product. It is more about how we can empower the customer to take control of things. And the entire security solutions ecosystem is moving towards monitoring and tracking. Today’s consumers like to be aware of what's happening to their safe and be in control of it even remotely, when he/ she is not around the safe. 

 

Apart from India, which are the biggest markets for the company? What per cent of your overall revenue comes from exports? What are your plans on this front?

 

Exports are very much on our radar. Our export revenue for our safes and vaults category is 12% overall at the moment. We are present in close to 60 countries across the globe but if you look at the largest markets for us, it would be Europe and the US. Besides that, of course, there’s the traditional Africa, Middle East, and Southeast Asia; we also export to Australia and New Zealand. We have started in Korea as well now. 

 

We have a good amount of international certifications from various countries because one cannot sell the products which you sell in India in these markets as they have their standards. Within India, we have the Bureau of Indian Standards - the ISI, which Europe and the US won't accept. So we have to get our product certified, and for that, we have to first design the product, which we have already done. That’s the other strategy we are working on. 

 

What are some of the challenges that you see in the global security solution space in the near future?

 

The opportunity is much bigger than the challenges right now. Even the ‘China Plus One’ situation is an opportunity. So when I look at the US and European markets, where earlier it was only dependent on China, today I see that they are much more open for a manufacturer like us coming from India. So I think the opportunity is much more. The rollout or product rollout of certifications in these countries is going to be one thing which we have to speed up. That, I think, would be a challenge however the opportunities are way bigger, especially with ‘China Plus One’ (the business strategy to avoid investing only in China and diversify business into other countries).  

 

You have completed two decades at the Godrej conglomerate, of which nearly 15 were at GSS -the flagship company of the Godrej Group. What is your future vision for the security brand?

 

The broader objective for us is to offer peace of mind at home and at work. And then the products are incidental. Of course, we want to maintain our leadership and keep going strong - changing with the times, keep evolving with the evolving security landscape, keep building intelligent products and building IoT. The next step would be machine learning, which of course is on the radar. But I think IoT-based products will be the next big thing which will come up.