Zippo Manufacturing Company marked its re-entry in 2021. The brand goes live with its first landmark brand campaign in India – Live with Confidence. The campaign is a statement about pursuing an opportunity in life and showing resilience. The brand has some aggressive plans for the Indian marketplace in the future.
In an exclusive interaction with MI, Lucas Johnson, Associate Vice President of Zippo Global Marketing, emphasized their expansion plans and the growth of the FMCG industry.
Excerpts here:
Q) Tell us more about your journey in India.
Lucas: In India, we had our presence through different means for quite some time. But in 2021, we began implementing a new plan to increase brand awareness and product availability within the Indian marketplace. Our strategy aims to identify and tailor-fit communication for the unique audience that exists in India. The plan aligns with our global strategy to have global consistency with our local relevant messaging and product design options.
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Q) What are the strategies behind the campaign – Live with Confidence?
Lucas: We call it a platform because it informs all our actions, decisions, and communications. It speaks directly about who we are as a company. Our products are built in the USA with pride by people who are confident in craftsmanship. The campaign also embodies our customers and how they aspire to live.
The global brand film showcases confident people using Zippo products in various ways, ranging from everyday use to a bit extraordinary. The platform is a guiding compass for the next steps from the local field of consumer communication to the development of various products.
Q) What are the products lined up next?
Lucas: We have a lot of products in the pipeline. But we are opting for the fail-fast method, where we want to see if our older products are working in the market. In India, you will see more products that we offer globally. Though, in 2023, we have plans to bring out our first product developed for the Indian marketplace exclusively, considering the needs and desires of the market.
Q) How is the Indian market different from the global market?
Lucas: Every market is different around the world. The strategies that I talked about are globally consistent but locally irrelevant. It applies to many aspects of business and not just communication and marketing efforts. It’s also the product portfolio and how we go to the market. There are also driving factors outside of Zippo’s control, like Value Added Taxes in some countries, import duties, or transportation costs. In India, prices changed because of the revised strategies as of 2021 due to our establishment in the market. In the global market, you will see a variety of products based on their needs, but it is also based on how established that particular market is.
Q) A lighter is often tagged along with cigarettes. Do you think you’re indirectly promoting smoking as hazardous to people’s health by releasing new campaigns?
Lucas: As a company, we never position our core as a smoking accessory. There are a lot of purposes why people need a flame. We actively market our product as an ‘affordable flame’ for all lighting use cases. We also have extensive research about what these use cases might be. Once customers buy our product, they do what they intend to do. We don’t have control over that. But we try to reach people with our key partners and distributors and communicate that they should not use it as a tobacco accessory.
Q) How is the FMCG industry growth in India as well as globally?
Lucas: In India, it is an exciting space right now. Several factors are going around in the FMCG space. Indeed growth is happening. We saw 15-17% growth in 2021. We’re expecting robust double-digit growth throughout the year until 2023. Secondly, the pandemic has changed retail on a global basis. In India, the whole digitization is happening that has increased the pace of eCommerce. It has undoubtedly driven some growth. Thirdly, the Indian government is headed towards increasing foreign investments.
From a brand perspective, we see that some big FMCG companies, like Proctor and Gamble or Unilever, have dictated the terms in the market. They have had a strong hold over specific product categories. But it seems to have been taken over by some big retailers like Reliance and Tata in India. These retailers are creating private labels for those product categories. At this point, it is challenging to understand growth. It is because some of the currency growth is driven by price increases due to the rising cost of raw materials. At the same time, these private labels are more price-conscious and don’t contribute as much to the currency. But they are driving units well by increasing sales. So it will be interesting to keep an eye on this space over the coming years in India.
Q) Plans for offline space of Zippo?
Lucas: When the pandemic hit hard and lockdowns happened worldwide, eCommerce took a boom. Somehow we like to place an order and get the product delivered to our doorstep. However, we have seen it softening from 2021 to 2022. But eCommerce isn’t going away. When we talk about offline stores, I believe strong brands have a strong offline presence. It is because sometimes consumers want to interact with the brands in a certain way that can only happen in brick-and-mortar stores. So offline retail stores are not going away anytime soon. We are planning to work very diligently with a couple of big brick-and-mortar players in India. We are also getting into Reliance offline retail stores, though we have partnered with their online platform already.
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Q) How do the global disturbances/ issues affect the business in different aspects, like prices and procuring raw materials?
Lucas: We have been fortunate to a certain extent. For example, we have understood the likelihood of lockdown due to the pandemic. We understood that it might affect the supply chain. So we heavy-up our inventories in that scenario. We also have an inbound supply chain, which helps us not see any significant adversities that might disrupt our business in a meaningful way.
Q) Tell us about your reach in Tier 2-3 cities.
Lucas: Every eCommerce platform in India will find Zippo products in India, like Amazon India, TataClick, and Flipkart. Additionally, we are also available on our own platform Zippo.in. These eCommerce platforms have enormous reach across the country. We will soon be announcing partnerships with some major retailers. As of now, we have associations with some distributors, liquor stores, and cafes.
Q) What are your expansion plans and programs?
Lucas: We have some aggressive expansion plans in India. We hired Zippo’s first-ever Director of Sales in India. He is working directly with our distributors in India. We will continue to enhance our capabilities in India. We like to control our destinies as much as we can. Hence, with the growth of eCommerce, you may see some staff added shortly. It will help us work with these platforms and ensure the product is being presented correctly. In addition, the team might help us determine how we can grow our business in the territory collectively.
