Godrej Security Solutions (GSS) is in revamp mode. With over 35 newly developed products in the home-safes category, the company is pitching itself aggressively as a safety solutions provider with a tech edge. The company has set aside Rs 30-35 crore for its advertising spends in 2016-17, as it reaches out to customers in its new avatar.
GSS recently launched its first ever personal locker ‘Goldilocks’, targeted at the urban, working professional. The product, in a way embodies all that the brand wants to be: smart with technology, affordable and convenient. Priced at Rs 6,499, the locker is a box that weighs about five kilograms, is portable and is fitted with a touch panel. It also has an in-built alarm. “It has changed the definition of a safe”, says Mehernosh Pithawalla, head-marketing, sales and innovation, GSS. It is like the locker coming out of the closet, he remarks.
GSS is keen to build itself as a tech-savvy solutions provider for individuals. The company believes that there is a greater vulnerability among home owners and people in general leading to an increasing demand for safety solutions. It is thus a market waiting to be tapped. According to company figures, the home-security category has grown 35 per cent in the last five years from Rs 39 crore to Rs 145 crore. Home-safes, as a sub category, account for the lion’s share of this market, but the growth numbers for electronic home security products (CCTV, alarm systems) are sizzling. The segment has grown to Rs 11 crore from Rs 0.5 crore five years ago.
Currently, the company says, it is the market leader in home security in India. It has close to 80 per cent share of the market. The challenge however is not to widen its lead in the category but to increase the size of the market, which is dominated by a host of unorganised and unbranded players. To that end the targeted campaign that GSS has launched over the past couple of years seems to be working; GSS’s penetration has increased to 2.7 from a meagre 0.3 per cent in 2010.
