Godrej Locks, now branded as Locks by Godrej & Boyce, was inducted way back in the year 1897 by Ardeshir Godrej and Pirojsha Burjorji Godrej. It introduced lever technology in locks for the first time in India.
It became a symbol of the Swadeshi movement and was synonymous with the Indian manufacturing industry. During British colonial rule, when the fight for independence was at its peak, people began to ask for ‘Made in India’ products. Godrej Locks, being an Indian brand, became the choice of many Indians because it meant self-reliance and a way of patriotism.
Much has evolved over the decades of marketing strategy for Locks by Godrej & Boyce. Known for their rugged and reliable locks, it gradually diversified into other categories of security solutions like digital locks and smart security systems.
Shyam Motwani, Business Head, locks and architectural fittings and systems, Godrej & Boyce, a Godrej Enterprises Group company, says, “When talking of locks and safety solutions, increasingly, the talk has been about digital safety.”.
He adds that because it caters to sectors like hospitality, education, healthcare, residential, and real estate; due to which, one notices a perceptible movement of customer interest towards smart locks. Smart, premium, and keyless are the solutions people seek for their homes, offices, hotels, schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, and commercial establishments.
“Digital solutions come with several other benefits beyond enhanced safety. Options to programme access to homes, offices, commercial establishments, and places of public usage can be done by the user depending on authorisation levels and the chosen mode of access. These can range from fingerprint, biometric to even mobile-operated smart locks and BLE. We are excited about these emerging trends and focussed on decoding them to provide solutions that meet the evolving needs and expectations of upwardly mobile consumers in metro cities,” he adds.
Godrej & Boyce also offers new digital products in the marketplace under the brand Locks. Some will be launched in 2024 and others in subsequent years. According to Motwani, what the company is focusing on are technologies very familiar to consumers: facial recognition, voice recognition, Alexa, or Google Assistant.
Quick-commerce and e-commerce
Digital locks are a big feature of e-retail, according to Motwani, but the company is present on most quick commerce platforms. According to him, quick commerce platforms are primarily used for low-ticket items.
He says padlocks and certain special knives, which are often in demand at very short notice, can be sold quite effectively using quick-commerce channels. Greater ticket items, such as digital locks, kitchen fittings, bed fittings, wardrobe fittings, mechanical locks, and internal door handles, are more available on bigger e-marketplaces and less on quick-commerce sites.
“We are pitching for major products like digital locks to be available on quick-commerce in the future, but there is a bit of hesitation on the part of the quick-commerce marketplace as it takes a bit of time to install the same and educate consumers. I think it is a matter of time before we will migrate to it,” he says.
Ad and marketing spends
Godrej & Boyce’s Locks is stepping up its marketing strategies and product offerings in 2024. The company will have a great footprint both in terms of digital and traditional advertising. It is expected that the Company will sustain ad and marketing spend at 3.5-4% of revenue for 2024, which was 4% in 2023.
The digital locks campaign, Go Live Freely, was launched on social media in the year 2023, as per Motwani. Participation in large-scale events such as the Asia Cup and the World Cup has also been done. Key exhibitions have been participated in, and as part of National Home Safety Day on November 15, the company has been doing its bit for the last six years.
The company also does a number of promotional activities, such as demos in housing colonies and rural signage on all arterial roads, highways, state highways, and other expressways.
Looking ahead, Locks by Godrej & Boyce will shortly come up with a new campaign for architectural fittings and solutions. Motwani adds that the company will also participate in upcoming exhibitions from October to December and continue its home safety tours.
“We have established more than a thousand premium stores within the core cities to reflect top-end products supported with digital messaging and done a lot of in-shop merchandising across all our products, including digital locks. We want to ensure that our brand stays prominent,” he comments.
According to Motwani, Godrej & Boyce has an over-one-third share of the branded locks market and runs over 20% of the architectural fittings and solutions segment, thereby making it close to the leader in the category.
Talking about the strategic approach of the company towards marketing, he says, “One dimension of our strategy is the new inconsumer pricing that we have implemented. The other is substantially improving the margins for our retailers and distributors. We have thus had two things: better overall margins for our distributor and retail partners and reduced prices for our end consumers.”.
The firm is eyeing this strategy to increase its market share significantly from the current 30% to 50% in the next 2-3 years.
