Technology Marketing: The case of Asian Paints

Dr. Joy Mukhopadhyay MSc (IIT – Kgp), PhD (IISc)
Management and Education Consultant
24-March-2009

What is technology? It’s the application of science. Then what is science? A discipline governed by theories which have been validated. Starting on such a note, Dr. Joy took the students of ASB for a journey exploring the science and technology behind colors through the case study of Asian Paints.

Way back in 1970, though Asian Paints was one among the top players in the Indian paint industry, it still faced two major issues (1) Dealing with fungus which could produce an ugly patches on the wall (2) Standardizing the process so as to produce the same color shade in all the batches produced. The first problem was resolved as a result of the experiments in the Microbiology lab set within the Asian paints factory. A color Control Laboratory was set up to deal with the second problem. The problem was, How to standardize color? To understand the question, it is essential to understand the science of colors. Dr. Joy went on to explain the physics, mathematics and psychology of measuring colors, elaborating the fact that once anything is measurable, it is controllable. That meant that Asian Paints would be able to produce exact shades, batch after batch. Asian Paint made a considerable investment in purchasing the technology and were pioneers in India. The strategy paid well as the company surpassed all the competitors to emerge a clear market leader. But that was not all. Asian Paints saw the potential in marketing and selling this technology as their uses were many – right from textiles to food and consumables, leather to cosmetics, and so on. As consumers if we find a slight variation in the color of products we intend to buy, we perceive it to be an old stock or spoilt. This risk arising from competitors adopting the same technology was far small compared to the opportunity in marketing the technology and hence became the agents for the Asia Pacific region.