Our festive marketing was about fostering growth mindset among MSMEs: Nalin Jain

Godrej Capital is the financial services division of the Godrej Group and a subsidiary of Godrej Industries. It is also the holding company for Godrej Housing Finance & Godrej Finance. Godrej Capital has a digital-first approach with a keen focus on product innovation driven by customer-centricity. It offers home loans, business loans, and loans against property. The brand has the focus on building a sustainable retail financial services business in India which is long-term, supported by the 126-year-old legacy of excellence and trust of the Godrej Group.

In an exclusive interaction with Adgully, Nalin Jain, Chief Marketing Officer, Godrej Capital, speaks at length about the brand’s latest campaign ‘Badho Behisaab’, the media mix strategy for this campaign, and how Godrej Capital is focusing on meeting the financial needs of the underserved segments and MSMEs. Jain also discusses how the company has revamped its marketing strategies to create more personalized customer experiences, particularly in simplifying the loan process for customers.

Godrej Capital’s campaign, ‘Badho Behisaab’, is designed to support MSMEs during the festive season. Could you tell us more about the inspiration behind this campaign and how it addresses the unique challenges that MSMEs face during this crucial time?

The festive season is a crucial time for many small businesses, marked by increased demand, but also challenges like cash flow constraints and the need for quick access to capital. Godrej Capital’s Badho Behisaab campaign is inspired by these challenges, aiming to educate MSMEs on flexible financial solutions that help them seize growth opportunities without the burden of rigid repayment structures.

With offerings such as secured and unsecured business loans, higher loan tenures, and features like BizRewards, the campaign ensures that MSMEs can scale up operations while alleviating immediate financial pressures. The phrase Badho Behisaab, meaning “Unlimited Growth”, encapsulates the campaign’s focus on empowering businesses with the freedom to expand without limits.

By providing tailored lending solutions, the campaign promotes sustainable growth, enabling businesses to thrive during the festive season while maintaining long-term financial stability.

Could you elaborate on the media mix strategy for the ‘Badho Behisaab’ campaign? How did you decide which channels to focus on, and what role did each play in reaching your target audience, especially MSMEs?

For the Badho Behisaab campaign, we’ve adopted a robust multi-channel strategy to maximize our reach and engagement with MSMEs. The campaign spans across digital mediums, direct marketing, BTL activities, and a DVC, covering 40 cities and communicated in 8 languages to ensure a broad yet targeted approach.

We consciously decided to include region-specific messaging and local branding activities, like cab branding, to enhance visibility and connect with MSMEs on a more personalized level. The multilingual approach allows us to cater to diverse business owners, from metropolitan areas to smaller towns, ensuring the content is relatable and impactful.

We’re actively collaborating with our channel partners to extend our reach, ensuring the campaign resonates across all touchpoints. By leveraging technology to streamline and personalized communications, we aim to deliver tailored messaging that supports our goal of becoming a trusted lending partner for MSMEs during the festive season, helping them prepare before the festive rush begins.

Which creative or media agencies did you collaborate with for the development of the ‘Badho Behisaab’ campaign? How did their expertise contribute to shaping the campaign’s messaging and execution? Additionally, could you share what brief was provided to the agency in terms of campaign objectives and key messages?

The Badho Behisaab campaign was developed in collaboration with Publicis India, who conceptualized and created the Digital Video Commercial (DVC). Set against vibrant marketplaces and bustling festive preparations, the DVC depicts small business owners managing stock, upgrading machinery, and getting ready for the festive rush – capturing both the challenges and opportunities MSMEs encounter during the festive season. Publicis India’s storytelling expertise and market insights played a crucial role in highlighting the importance of a business’ readiness to fully capitalize on festive opportunities.

The campaign is a 360-degree, multi-lingual initiative, targeting MSMEs through digital platforms, as well as transit media such as taxis. This multi-channel approach ensures broad visibility across nearly 40 markets, including metro cities like Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi, and smaller towns. The brief provided to the agency emphasized the need to position Godrej Capital as a trusted lending partner for MSMEs, offering flexible financial solutions to help businesses prepare for the festive rush.

The key message focused on empowering business growth during this critical time, ensuring readiness and success through accessible financial support.

How is Godrej Capital focusing on meeting the financial needs of underserved segments and MSMEs? What innovative solutions are you providing to make these financial products more accessible?

Godrej Capital is committed to addressing the financial needs of micro, small, and medium businesses by offering innovative and flexible solutions that make access to credit easier. One of the key approaches is providing both secured and unsecured business loans with customized features like Design Your EMI, which allows businesses to structure their repayments based on cash flow, offering flexibility that is often crucial for smaller enterprises.

Additionally, Godrej Capital has introduced longer loan tenures and higher loan amounts to meet the diverse needs of MSMEs, particularly those facing cash flow challenges. Through initiatives like BizRewards, businesses can also earn rewards on timely repayments, further enhancing the value of the financial products on offer.

To improve accessibility, Godrej Capital leverages technology to streamline loan applications, ensuring faster approvals and minimal documentation. With a presence in 40 cities across 180 locations, the company aims to reach MSMEs in both Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities. These innovative solutions are designed to make financial products more accessible, helping MSMEs grow and thrive, especially during key periods like the festive season.

In what ways have you revamped your marketing strategies to create more personalized customer experiences, particularly when it comes to simplifying the loan process for your customers?

A key aspect of our marketing strategy is our multilingual approach, which allows us to deliver content in multiple languages, helping our clients better understand our brand and offerings. This not only makes our communication more accessible, but also strengthens Godrej Capital’s position as a trusted lending partner for businesses across the country.

Our strategy embraces a balanced digital and offline split, creating a 360-degree approach that ensures we reach MSMEs at various touchpoints. On the digital side, social platforms enable us to provide data-driven, personalized content tailored to regional preferences and business needs. Offline, we’ve implemented transit media solutions, such as taxi branding, also done in multiple languages, which help maintain a strong local presence and enhance brand visibility.

In addition to this, we’ve streamlined the loan application process by digitizing it, reducing paperwork, and allowing customers to apply for loans online easily. This not only accelerates approvals but also simplifies the entire experience, making it more efficient from start to finish. Our industry-best Net Promoter Score (NPS) is testament to our exceptional customer service.

Technology plays a vital role in this effort, with chatbots for self-service and personalized dashboards providing support and guidance throughout the loan process.

Ultimately, our goal is to create a customer-centric approach that not only simplifies the loan process, but also fosters trust and loyalty among our clients.

Data analytics has become a key driver in marketing success. How is Godrej Capital leveraging data-driven marketing strategies to develop more targeted campaigns, and how has this approach contributed to business growth?

At Godrej Capital, we harness the power of data analytics to adapt our marketing strategies and create campaigns that resonate with our audience. By analyzing a diverse pool of metrics – such as audience behaviour, engagement patterns, conversion rates, and regional preferences – we can align our messaging with the topics that matter most to our customers.

Our previous campaigns, including ‘Hum Samajhte Hain Business’, ‘Iss Loan Mein Load Nahin’, and last year’s ‘Be Festive Ready’, have provided valuable insights into demand trends and customer sentiments, helping us identify challenge statements and refine our approach. This allows us to optimize targeting and channel selection effectively.

We also prioritize regular updates to our data inputs through research and by analyzing customer feedback and digital engagement metrics. This consistent process enables us to sharpen our strategies continuously. For instance, our recent pre-festive campaign is active across 40 regions in 8 languages, ensuring our messaging is relatable and culturally aligned.

Adopting a data-driven strategy not only enhances customer engagement but has also significantly contributed to the overall impact of the brand.

Apart from the ‘Badho Behisaab’ campaign, what other marketing strategies does Godrej Capital have in the pipeline for this festive season? Could you share insights into any upcoming initiatives or campaigns designed to engage customers during this crucial period?

Building on the foundation established by last year’s ‘Be Festive Ready’ campaign, we are furthering our focus this year to encourage businesses through Badho Behisaab translating to “Unlimited Growth”. We aimed to encourage MSMEs to think bigger and seize the limitless opportunities available and be ready during the pre-festive period for maximum business outcome.

The Badho Behisaab campaign embodies this philosophy by urging businesses to not only prepare for the immediate demands of the festive season but also to envision their long-term growth potential. The aim is to equip businesses with flexible financing solutions that facilitate scalability, enabling them to meet customer needs without being constrained by traditional financial limitations. I

n addition to financial solutions, Godrej Capital offers Godrej Nirmaan, our flagship platform designed as an essential resource for small businesses. Godrej Nirmaan provides tools and insights that enhance their digital presence, improves operational efficiency, and enables them to expand beyond geographic limitations through national and global selling offerings. Together, these initiatives empower MSMEs to maximize their potential and thrive during the festive season and beyond, reinforcing our commitment to being a trusted partner in their growth journey.

What are your observations on the overall consumer and market sentiment during the festive season this year?

From an MSME lender perspective, this year's festive season is marked by a palpable sense of optimism and resilience among small businesses. Many MSMEs are eager to capitalize on the increased consumer spending, driven by a recovering post-pandemic economy and a renewed focus on celebrating traditions.

However, the most common roadblock for these enterprises remains access to credible financing. While they are looking for flexible solutions that allow them to scale operations efficiently, many face challenges in securing the necessary funds. This highlights the critical role of lenders in providing tailored financial offerings that address specific needs, such as inventory management and working capital.

Looking beyond the festive season, it’s important to recognize that the government is also keen on supporting MSMEs, as they are the backbone of the Indian economy. Various initiatives and policies have been introduced to bolster this sector, including easier access to credit, skill development programs, and incentives for innovation and technology adoption. Government support, coupled with a lender’s commitment to understand and address the unique challenges faced by MSMEs, can create a robust ecosystem that fosters sustainable growth.

Ultimately, this collaborative approach can empower MSMEs not only during the festive season but throughout the year, ensuring they receive the support they need as vital contributors to the economy.

What formed the core of your festive marketing strategy this year?

The core of our festive marketing strategy centered around the philosophy of “Unlimited Growth”, embodied in our Badho Behisaab campaign. Building on the insights gained from our previous ‘Be Festive Ready’ initiative, we aimed to inspire MSMEs to not only prepare for the immediate demands of the festive season, but also to recognize and seize the limitless opportunities available to them.

We aimed to support businesses through access to credit that enables them to scale their operations effectively. By promoting our tailored financial products, we aimed to empower MSMEs to meet customer needs without being constrained by financial limitations.

Additionally, our strategy incorporated a multi-channel approach, ensuring that we engage with our audience across various platforms. We leveraged digital marketing, social media, and localized content to reach MSMEs in diverse markets, ensuring our messaging resonated with them. By understanding their pain points and addressing them through targeted communications, we aimed to build lasting relationships and establish ourselves as a trusted lending partner in their growth journey.

Ultimately, our festive marketing strategy was not just about immediate sales; it was about fostering a mindset of growth and resilience among MSMEs, encouraging them to think beyond the festive season and invest in their long-term success.

Could you tell us about your campaign strategy for the festive season?

Our festive season campaign was built around reaching MSMEs where they are, ensuring broad visibility and engagement through a multi-channel approach. We leveraged digital platforms, which allowed us to engage with businesses online, while also incorporating regional outreach through transit media, including taxi branding. This helped us capture the attention of business owners in both metropolitan areas and smaller towns.

To enhance our connection with a diverse audience, we ensured that the messaging was delivered in multiple languages, allowing us to resonate with businesses across about 40 markets. This localized approach was key to making sure our communication remained relevant and impactful, no matter the region.

Additionally, by working closely with our channel partners, we extended our reach further, ensuring that businesses not only heard our message, but also received the personalized support they needed. Whether it was helping MSMEs understand how to best capitalize before the festive season or offering financial solutions that allowed for growth beyond the immediate period, our strategy was designed to provide meaningful engagement that drove business success during this crucial time.

Given the increasing fragmentation of media consumption, how did you allocate festive ad budgets across different platforms?

Our approach to allocating pre-festive budgets is more data-driven and platform-specific. We are focused on a balanced distribution between digital and traditional platforms to ensure maximum reach and engagement. A significant portion of our budget was directed toward digital platforms, where we could target MSMEs with precision, using data analytics to deliver personalized content that resonates with specific business needs.

At the same time, we invested in regional outreach through transit media like taxi branding, allowing us to maintain a strong local presence across 40 markets. This blend of digital and on-ground activation helped us reach MSMEs in metropolitan cities as well as smaller towns, ensuring that our messaging remained relevant and accessible.

Also Read: Storytelling is at the heart of all our marketing efforts: Nalin Jain, CMO, Godrej Capital