To that end the Rs 800-crore Asian Paints has stepped up marketing activity to increase the end consumer's level of involvement in the purchase process. Last fortnight the company extended its `Asian Paints Consumer Helpline' to Delhi after test marketing the concept in Chandigarh for afew months.

``The Asian Paints Consumer Helpline is a paging service using which the consumer can contact the company's sales people and obtain information related to painting -- the cost, products available, suitable paint options etc. The consumers can also get help from the company in hiring a painter-contractor using this service,'' says KBS Anand, vice-president sales and marketing, Asian Paints India Limited.

Besides this the company has been developingthe exclusive retail store concept for paints over the past one year. The only company to have taken the exclusive route, Asian Paints has four exclusive outlets, with one located in Mumbai, Calcutta, Amritsar and Dehradun each. The company plans to expand its exclusive retail shops steadily over the next few years.

Spearheading the retail thrust are also 400-odd shop-in-shops branded under the Colour World name. These tinting machines launched early last year have seen a perceptible improvement in the retail ambience and shop floor environment. The company has invested close to Rs 30 crore in upgrading the retail outlets which house the `Colour World'.

The idea is to get more and more consumers to visit the paint shops and endorse the brand rather than stop at choosing the desired shade. Consider this: the purchase decision in the case of paints accords significant importance to the intermediary over the end consumer. This is, because more often than not, it is the painter or the contractor who makes thefinal decision of choosing the brand.

Further according to Anand, ``Research has revealed that mostly the consumer's interaction with the category is on the lower side. Once the house is painted most users do not retain even a modicum of interest in the category until the house has to be repainted.'' What with the shoddy and unfriendly appearance of most paint shops, the purchasing process is regarded as cumbersome and lacklustre.

For that reason existing paint companies in the Rs 3,500-crore paint market have had a two pronged communication strategy so far. Where on the one hand companies have programmes for painters and contractor incentivisation -- for example, Asian Paints intends to invest in 200 painter meets this year -- the corporate image of the company is to kept alive through mass media advertising.

The Asian Paints name already enjoys high recall thanks to its consistent mass-media advertising. By investing in the retail end of the market the company might just be able to motivate consumersinto participating actively in the buying process.

Says an analyst, ``By taking initiatives at the retail end of the market, Asian Paints has toned up its communication strategy to include the end consumer as well as the intermediary. However changing established habits will take a much larger effort on the part of the company. Moreover the initiative is not likely to impact the rural market for paints in any major way.'' It's far from a glossy finish as yet, but Asian Paints has certainly begun priming the market for change.