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Updated Dec 20, 2025 03:06 PM IST
Asian Paints MD Amit Singhal says the company defended leadership by sticking to long-term strategy, building brand trust, executional excellence and product innovation, rather than reacting with short-term discounting.
(Interviewed by: Ayesha Faridi)
Asian Paints’ MD and CEO Amit Singhal, in an interview with ET Now share insights into how the company defended its market leadership amid rising competition, detailing its long-term brand strategy, executional excellence, innovation focus and resilience in a rapidly evolving paints industry.
On being asked about the toughest moment and whether he ever felt like giving up, Singhal said, "I never really felt like giving up, to be honest. There were taxing moments, with a lot of excitement and anxiety about what was happening in the market. Overall, we kept strategising and re-strategising on how to strengthen our position by leveraging our long-standing strengths. Yes, there were anxious moments, but we stayed firm to our core strategy and focused on navigating through the storm ahead."
Instant discounting in industry
Responding to a question on whether instant discounting helps expand the paints business, Singhal said, "Our industry is not like FMCG, nor is it like consumer durables -- it lies somewhere in between. In the paint industry, consumers typically repaint once every five years, unlike FMCG where purchases are frequent and there is constant brand interaction. Therefore, unless you have the capability to build a brand over 10, 15 or 20 years, it is very difficult to survive. Instant discounting or aggressive pricing may get you a customer temporarily, but not sustain the business."
How Asian Paints defended its leadership?
Responding to how Asian Paints defended its leadership, Singhal said, "I think one of the biggest things we did was to stand our ground and stay true to our strategy. We never felt the need to react impulsively. Instead, we remained firm on our core approach, which was all about creating excellence."
"From a branding perspective, we focused on building brand excellence and strengthening brand equity, because we believe this is where customer trust lies. In many ways, Asian Paints continues to remain top-of-mind for customers. The initiatives we undertook were aimed at reaching customers in non-conventional ways and engaging with them differently. We also looked closely at new segments such as millennials and Gen Z, ensuring that we are not just a legacy brand but also a brand of the future."
"Alongside this, we gave a strong impetus to executional excellence -- an area Asian Paints has always taken pride in. This included how we approach distribution, manage our supply chain and leverage technology. We significantly raised the bar by adopting more advanced technology, improving service levels and expanding our market reach. The third major focus area was product innovation. We took innovation to the next level, revolutionising several existing products and introducing many new offerings to the market," Singhal said.
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PremiumUpdated Dec 20, 2025 07:34 PM IST
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