Godrej unveils brand refresh with INR 1,500 crore marketing blitz

Godrej Enterprises Group (GEG) launched a refreshed brand identity with a new, purple coloured logo yesterday. The new identity, according to the company, represents its focus on modernity, innovation, and sustainability.

This initiative aims to showcase the organisation's deep understanding of the changing consumer expectations and position itself as being ready for future growth in a dynamic and competitive market environment. GEG's diversified portfolio of businesses currently covers aerospace, commercial appliances, engineering solutions, intra-logistics, real estate, security systems, and furniture and fittings.

The rebranding campaign focuses on the theme, ‘Unlocking new worlds’ for its customers and stakeholders. Stating that the new identity represents the group’s ability to stay relevant throughout its long history, Anil Verma, executive director and CEO of Godrej Enterprises Group, said, “As a group, Godrej has stayed relevant for 127 years by two qualities: by retaining the trust of the customer, and through continuous innovation, trying out new things without fear.”

“The key to our sustained growth has been our ability to always remain relevant to India’s development needs and the brand refresh reflects our quest to continually reinvent ourselves,” added Jamshyd Godrej, chairman and managing director, Godrej Enterprises Group.

Moving away from its former three-colour visual identity, the group’s new logo features a single and vibrant purple hue, which is aimed at allowing for greater consistency and synergy across the group's businesses. The new logo, however, retains the original cursive design to echo the founder Pirojsha Godrej’s signature and reflect the group’s 127-year-old legacy along with it.

GEG's new logo

“There is a deep thought process behind the choice of colour. It combines the stature of blue and dynamism of red,” explained Sumeet Bhojani, head – brand and strategic insights at GEG. Blue symbolises qualities including serenity, trust, honesty, authority, and security. Red symbolises strength, passion, boldness, and competitive spirit. The purple colour, therefore, is meant to signify a sense of dynamism and confidence, symbolising GEG’s ambition to lead with sustainability, innovation, and engineering excellence.

Nearly six months ago, the Godrej family agreed to restructure the group by dividing it into two parts. As part of the settlement, Adi and Nadir Godrej retained the control of publicly listed entities and Jamshyd Godrej took the helm of the unlisted businesses and land holdings. According to Sumeet Bhojani, the family settlement also provided a timely trigger for the group to undertake brand refresh.

“The last brand refresh was carried out by the group in 2008, and to stay competitive, continuous upgrades are essential.” The timing, thus, was just right for the group to create a distinct and yet recognisable brand identity that could suitably position it and all its businesses in the market going forward.

The marketing push

GEG’s rebranding exercise will be supported by considerable investments in marketing. In the next three years, the group will direct over INR 1,500 crores worth funds towards various marketing and branding initiatives. For starters, the company has already launched an ad campaign around the theme ‘Unlock new worlds’.

The campaign depicts a group of children who suddenly discover an attractive, lock shaped pinata. Upon discovery, they are shown breaking it down through team work and resourcefulness, finally to get access to the hidden toys inside. Those toys are also shown to represent different businesses that the group is into.

The lock shown in the film, besides sporting the colour of the new visual identity of the brand, also mimics the design of the first springless lock that Godrej had patented in 1908, signifying the rich legacy that the brand is known for. Conceptualised by the group's creative partner Lowe Lintas, the campaign has been directed by Katie Bell and produced by Entourage Films. The campaign has been released in two languages, Hindi and English.

Over the next 12 to 15 months, GEG plans to release a series of campaigns under the same theme (Unlock new worlds) to create stronger consumer connections with the new visual identity. In line with brand refresh, the group also aims to create an omnichannel customer experience with uniform brand identity across touchpoints including the group’s website, social media channels, and retail counters. The company has overhauled its website and will soon equip it with e-commerce capabilities to deliver the intended omnichannel brand experience.

Providing details about the group’s media mix, Bhojani explained that given the diversified nature of businesses that GEG is into, it will take a balanced approach to distribution of ad spends. “Our ad spends will be directed towards all media types. However, we will allocate a larger portion towards digital media.”

In effect, while the group will invest in print, television, and out-of-home, its exposure to digital media including connected TV, search campaigns, and OTT platforms will be a shade higher.