India is a core growth engine for Kansai Paint Group: Hirokazu Kotera

As India’s paints market expands amid urbanisation, infrastructure development, and rising aspirations, competition has intensified well beyond decorative coatings. In this context, Hirokazu Kotera, Executive Director of Kansai Nerolac Paints Limited, believes the real differentiator lies in playing the long game, tailored to India’s structural realities. 

In a candid conversation, Kotera explains why India is not only Kansai Paint Group’s largest growth market but also a global benchmark in the making, contributing nearly a quarter of group revenues and anchoring ambitions across decorative, industrial, and automotive coatings.

From leveraging India’s industrial and automotive strength to rethinking marketing for a mobile-first, celebrity-driven culture, and from building trust in a low-frequency category to localising sustainability narratives for Indian homes, Kotera outlines how Kansai Nerolac is shaping a distinctly India-first strategy, while staying rooted in Japanese craft, discipline, and long-term brand thinking.

Edited Excerpts

What differentiates Kansai Nerolac in an increasingly competitive paints market?

Competition is intense, especially in decorative. Our differentiation is that we’re not a single-engine company. Nerolac is built on a balanced ‘3-pillar’ portfolio - Decorative, Industrial and Auto, so we can keep investing through cycles, not just chase the loudest season.

Second, we compete as a solutions provider, not just a paint seller. You can see that in how we’re extending the category into ‘PAINT+’ experiences, like professional painting services with site supervision and AI-enabled colour tools that reduce friction for homeowners.

And third, we bring Japanese technology + global resources, but execute with India-first speed -premiumisation, network expansion and faster adoption of new technologies are explicit strategic levers for us.

Read On: Emotional connect builds long-term equity: Pravin Chaudhari, Nerolac

From a global portfolio perspective, how strategically important is India for Kansai Paint today?

India is a core growth engine for the Kansai Paint Group. Publicly, we’ve stated that India represents about a quarter of Kansai Paint Group revenue (FY 2023), and we see India as a segment that can drive growth of the entire group.

We also have a clear ambition. In India, we aim to be No. 2 in the coatings market, while keeping leadership where we’re already strong, like maintaining No.1 in Auto and pushing for leadership in Industrial coatings.

This matters because India has visible structural drivers like urbanisation, infrastructure, and a major automotive base. So, for Kansai Paint, India is not ‘one of the markets’, it’s a market where we can build a global benchmark growth model.

What is your roadmap for strengthening Nerolac’s position and closing the gap with the market leader in India?

Becoming number one is extremely challenging in the Indian market. However, India’s paint market is very large, and per capita paint consumption is still relatively low, which means there is significant room for growth.

This growth will not come only from decorative paints. Industrial paints will play a major role, and in industrial paints, we are already number one. As industrial demand continues to rise and we successfully maintain our leadership there, it will create opportunities to close the gap with the leading players.

How is your marketing strategy and spends evolving globally?

We run marketing like a portfolio as well, brand salience for the long purchase cycle, plus sharper digital for consideration and conversion. In India, for example, our leadership has shared that marketing budgets are maintained in line with sales and market position, while the media mix has shifted with digital taking a larger share as it becomes central to engagement.

Globally, the direction is similar: strengthen the brand platform, but modernise execution - more data-led planning, retail excellence, influencer ecosystems (painters/contractors), and content that is culturally relevant. The aim is not to be the loudest, it’s to be the most meaningfully remembered.

How do you balance data-led marketing with the intuitive, long-term brand thinking Japan is known for?

We don’t see it as a trade-off. We call it ‘two-speed marketing’: data for decisions we can measure weekly, targeting, creative testing, lead journeys, and long-term brand thinking for what we measure yearly - memory structures, distinctive assets, and trust.

Japan is known for craftsmanship and kaizen - continuous improvement. Data helps us do kaizen on execution, but the brand idea must stay stable enough to compound over a 3–5 year repaint cycle. That’s why we protect iconic assets and refresh them without losing their DNA.

Read On: Asian Paints signs ₹45-crore deal as BCCI’s new official partner

In some markets like India, celebrity ambassadors have played a big role in paint advertising. What is your view on leveraging local cultural icons vs. global brand ambassadors?

In a category like paints, high involvement, but low frequency, familiar faces accelerate trust and recall, especially when the creative is built on a distinctive brand asset like our jingle.

Our view is: culture is local, values are global. In India, local icons can encode emotion, festivals, family and aspiration far better than a single global face. That’s why Nerolac has historically worked with leading Indian cultural figures and evolved that approach over time.

At the same time, what stays global is the ‘why’ - quality, responsible innovation, and technology. The ambassador is the storyteller; the substance must be true across markets. By the way, we did collaborate with Manchester United for the purpose of expanding our globally in the past (2017 to 2020).

How has digitalization reshaped your marketing strategy across regions, especially in markets with high mobile penetration?

Digital didn’t just add channels, it changed the product experience. We’re building journeys where mobile helps people choose, validate and execute; from inspiration to colour selection to service booking.

In India, specifically, we’re leaning into mobile-first behaviour with initiatives like digital-led launches for services and AI-enabled colour tools, because the hardest part for many consumers is not paint quality; it’s decision anxiety and execution reliability.

And beyond consumers, digital is also about the ecosystem - painters/influencers and partners. Capability building and structured engagement with influencers is part of how we strengthen preference and loyalty in-market.

Sustainability and low-VOC products are increasingly central to brand messaging globally. How do you shape that narrative differently for diverse markets?

We keep the science and standards consistent globally, and e-carbon the benefit language. The backbone is common: e-carbonization targets, responsible materials, and product stewardship, including low-VOC and heavy-metal-free propositions.

In markets where indoor air quality is the sharpest concern, we lead with health and ‘clean air at home’ outcomes. In markets where durability and climate stress dominate, we lead with performance that also reduces lifetime impact - longer-lasting coatings, lower rework, and efficient application.

We also try to avoid ‘green talk’. We prefer proof points; for example, life cycle assessments on key product lines and third-party green building recognition on products, so the message is credible, not cosmetic.