Case Study

Modernizing Colour Commerce

JSW Paints

Services

Industries

Paint & Coating

Overview

Reinventing Retail

Revamp painting sector's retail from product oriented, product-led to an Inspiring, uncluttered and customer oriented retail.

Standard Formats

Uniform design identity for all outlets of 150 -1000 sq ft to maintain brand consistency.

Digital-First Journey

Help visualize products, aid decision making, AR/VR enabled, kiosks and visualization lab.

Scalable Roll Out Design

Identity enabled easy rollout to >1000 stores, thanks to modular fittings, pre-engineered identity module, standardized BOM.

JSW Paints was poised to go digital and customer-centric and to win over the contractors and home owners and to redefine the fragmented Indian paint market.

JSW paints launched in the $12bn JSW group, planned to re-shape the fragmented indian paint market. The core strategy centered around redefining the traditional paint retail from a transactional space of uninspiring and dull stores into a creative "experience journey" inspired by and centered on the customer.

The Problem with the Industry

JSW Paints entered in competitive industry which had multiple challenges,

Disorganized Distribution: In this industry there are 50000+ un-organized outlets, with no standardization of operation.
No Brand Recognition: The varying experience leads to the no-brand recognition.
Domination of Contractor: It serves mostly the contractors, consumers (home owners) are on the back seat.
Uninspiring Stores: Painting is the category where a painting becomes the product- material. However, it is not provided with a smart and a modern retail feel to it.

Hence, JSW paint required the scale of the brand identity which attracted not just the contractor in the Tier-1 metros and regional but the home-owners of Tier 1 metros and regional market.

The Mission

Challenge

With a disparate industry filled with contract-shop fronts setting poor examples of standards, JSW Paints faced a daunting challenge to provide clear and simple decision-making processes for paint colors.

Solution

To achieve these objectives, using our “Educate - Experience – Unify” brand strategy, we delivered a unified store brand concept that could easily scale in three different shop formats offering a consistent and elevated experience.

Outcome

Our work delivered more progressive and engaging shop environments driving more foot fall from contractors leading to rapid scalability with a pipeline of over 2,000 store locations towards JSW Paint’s expansion target.

Store Rollout Accuracy

This new retail system was modular, easily updating the system to keep accurate to brands, and was ready to be rolled out nationally inexpensively and rapidly.

Educate–Experience–Unify Model

Customers had support to help educate their purchase decision, supported by a beautiful brand enabled customer journey.

Three Formats Scalable System

The same design language adapted to store sizes 150 – 1000 sq ft improving space planning at every scale.

Ultimately, the desire was for a scalable digital brand to facilitate growth rapidly whilst delivering and maintaining brand standards. It aimed to turn stores into education-led retail experiences.

The Strategy Framework

The retail research led us to three big strategic interventions,

Reinforce Retail Identity: Brand it luxe and consistent across all touch-points and locations.
Reimagine Customer Engagement: Switch from transactional to a relationship model through “Educate. Experience. Unify.” stores - places to learn, play and be helped make a choice in a unified way with technology.
Build A Scalable System: Create a store concept that is feasible for a 150 sq ft. Outpost as well as a flagship store of 1000 sq ft to enable quick scale up to 2000 stores.

Pull-based exploration, segmentation of journeys, digitally led design and futuristic spatial ambiance were key guiding principles.

With JSW Paints we aimed to simplify color choice for everyone through its mix of luxury visual and steel strength of JSW, breaking down the stores in three customer areas - ‘Invite,’ ‘Engage,’ and ‘Convert,’ to be applied across flagship, middle and compact stores.

The System of Design

The objectives in terms of colour choice of the system is simplify, inspire, and immerse.

The Design Philosophy

Younger, luxurious, relevant, minimalist & Self Reflection is at its heart.
Most of all it uses the iconic material language of JSW Group pipes, CR sheets & TMT bars as differentiating elements.
Invite- Engage-Convert: Zoning Strategy

The store layouts led a consumer through the three key zones,

Zone	Function	Key Elements
Invite	First Impression & Attraction	Iconic facade; clear sightlines.
Engage	Education & Interaction	Welcome Desk; Digital Kiosks; dedicated Contractor Experience Zones.
Convert	Decision Making & Transcation	Modular dispalys; Live Demo Units; Visualisation Lab (AI/AR/VR); Consultation Counters.

Scalable Formats

3 Scalable Formats were developed and were consistent with the same design language & concept to ensure coherence.

Format A (750 -1000sqft) - Full Digital and Physical Experiential Flagship store.
Format B (300-500sqft)- optimized Mid- sized Store with Digital functionalities & the main engagement features.
Format C (150 -250sqft)- penetration driven High Street, small Format with Digital Tools and with required brand identity.

Led to a quick & stable expansion of JSW Paints outlets in a plug- and- play fashion thereby enhancing footfalls, brand recall, Professional engagement, and has changed the indian paint purchase journey forever.

Rollout and Impact

Engineered for the most effective production process and ease of customer experience, the solution implemented a plug-and-play architecture using off-the-shelf branded components. For future-ready stores, the stores also featured visualization labs and the AR/VR experience. User-friendly operational guidelines guaranteed uniform adoption and performance across channels.

In the wake of this implementation, results showed a spike in store walk-ins, professional visits and increased brand recall as we scaled to over 2,000 stores. Not only were consumers increasingly happy with a more convenient paint purchase experience, the initiative also turned JSW Paint into the next generation disruptor in India's paint ecosystem.

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