In this era of cost cutting and reduced ad spending, no other form of advertising offers a lower cost per impression value than vehicle branding. Whether a firm owns delivery vehicles or a sales fleet on the road, each day these vehicles offer an incredible proposition for logistics and allied industries to generate awareness about its brand or product and create a vibrant image for that company.
In addition to this unique advertising opportunity, branded vehicles are mobile and do not cause ay accidental hazards (unlike still advertisements). Although there are umpteen companies in matured markets like the US and Europe where you find specialized vehicle branding firms focussed on painting the logo of the vehicles of a particular logistics or cold chain supplier, there are only a few of them in India which have gone off the beaten track and ventured into this space by serving marquee clients.
One such company making a mark in that space is Kala Kutir (which means ‘art cottage’ in Hindi), running its outfit near Delhi’s international airport. Floated by Mr. Shri Kishan Meghwal in 1999 with a corpus of barely around Rs. 1.5 lakh, the business has flourished manifold with the outfit managing to clock Rs. 1 crore on an annual basis.
To get a sneak peak about the creative ingenuity of Kala Kutir’s business model, we spoke to Mr. Meghwal, Director, Kala Kutir Pvt. Ltd. He states: “We started in the year 1999 somewhere during March. We felt that in the logistics industry, the number of vehicles is pretty huge thereby giving us a lot of scope for branding and advertisement. In the last decade, hoarding (still advertisements) was banned and movable business was mushrooming. At the same time, cargo business was also doing pretty well. So we sensed an opportunity by getting into the vehicle branding space. With the years of experience and backed by the team of industrial experts, we are able to offer a huge array of high quality ‘Commercial Vehicles Body Painting’ which are highly demanded in the market. All the commercial vehicles are painted as per the designs and specifications suggested by the clients. We also assist in designing logos, drawings, artworks and miscellaneous colour combinations. In addition, nominal prices are being offered to all our clients.”
Talking about the USPs of his company, he says: “We offer a complete professional team at the site of painting the vehicles who provide round- the-clock services. All the work undertaken goes through a meticulous planning stage and all measurements are carefully taken and calculated perfectly through hi-fi computers only. To top it all, every job is painted by hand, by fully trained and skilled manpower to perfection. And, our services are available all over India.”
Some of the leading clients the Delhi-based firm is catering to are TNT, Reliance Fresh, Flywheel, DB Schenker, Safexpress, Gati, TNT, SpotOn, etc. However, the company doesn’t make the paints itself but instead sources them from leading companies like Asian Paints, AkzoNobel, etc. “We tell the paintmaking firms to customise them according to our requirements with minimal price differentiation,” says Mr. Meghwal.
Having a headcount of 200 in-house trained painters, Kala Kutir does not run any plants as it is majorly into on-site services. A single team consists of five to seven people and can go up to 10 depending on the complexity of the vehicle and its size. However, everything is hand-painted, and mechanised solutions are offered. “Since we provide on-site services, we have no plans to set up any facility. But we can penetrate into even tier-II or tier-III cities like Kanyakumari and Palakkad in south India. The location is decided by our clients,” he stated.
Referring to its future course of action, he said the company is actively in talks with OEMs and other STUs, among other clients like Mahindra, Tata, Eicher, DTC, DTDC. Kala Kutir is also looking to ally itself with paintmakers in order to become an end-to-end solutions provider. Plans are also afoot to gain a strategic toehold in the booming bus branding business. However, the company will never seek any alliance with application builders as its primary objective is tying up with logistics players for their end products.
As far as its promotional activities are concerned, the company is going the extra mile by participating in some of the key shows which are relevant to its business model. It participated in the India Cold Chain Show (ICCS)’13, a leading annual exhibition and conference for cold chain, cold logistics, temperature controlling, refrigeration, storage, distribution and cold supply chain sectors. It is now gearing up to participate in the India Warehousing Show (IWS)’14 in New Delhi in July. Incidentally, this is the leading exhibition and conference for warehousing, intra-logistics and supply chain. Running in its 4th annual edition, the event is usually attended by over 7,000 industry professionals each year representing high-level decision-makers and buyers from across the globe.
So, will Auto Expo’16 be a logical progression? The answer was in the affirmative, and Mr. Meghwal noted: “If we get the right kind of business visitors, then why not? We would love to be present in the biennial annual auto show, but we have to work out the cost equation for that.”
Despite its robust expansion and marketing plans, there is one major deterrent to literally every industry – unorganised players present in every nook and corner of the country. “These roadside vendors are there in every lane of this city. That is our biggest hindrance. They charge peanuts vis-a-vis what we quote for our clients. Having said that, the market is evolving, and we are happy that the customers have discerned the impeccable services that we offer. So we are hopeful that we would be able to garner more clients as they discern our expertise. This is because our business is based on the pillars of Durability, Unmatched Quality and Excellent Print. Moreover, they are precisely designed keeping in mind brightness and ability to withstand adverse market conditions”.
He was also speaking in favour of FDI in multi-brand retail which will give a massive fillip to the domestic cold chain industry.
Going forward, Kala Kutir will also look into franchiseeship model across the country in phases. Mr. Meghwal, however, maintained that it would forge such alliances with only those people with whom it has a similar thought process and without compromising on quality and other parameters.
Despite the slump in the economy, the company is aiming to double its turnover to Rs. 2 crores and to become a Rs. 10-crore firm by FY 2017-18. By that time, it is confident that it will go global by extending its services to multinational firms overseas too. “Our vision is to provide quality-based services and become a renowned brand,” he added.