Life at RoofandFloor: The Sweet Difference

My life in the corporate world began in June 2006. Having completed 12 years of work now, I have come to realise there is no such thing as the perfect place to work. It’s all about what you make out of it.

My journey with RoofandFloor started last year when an ex-colleague sent my resume without my knowledge. I only came to know about it when I was called for a discussion! After close to five rounds of discussions and interactions, I was finally a part of RoofandFloor in Chennai.

To be associated with anything that has to do with the Hindu Group is considered very prestigious, especially here in South India. My family was ecstatic! It took some convincing for them to understand that I would not be able to flash the PRESS sticker when in trouble or even for some attention.

Start-ups work differently

RoofandFloor is my first experience at a start-up.

A start-up is like a growing baby. Growing every day. New traits emerge. Some vanish. New challenges. Solutions.

Add marketing to this mix! Marketing is a versatile function. There is number crunching, analysing, and theorising, and there is also conceptualising, creating, and testing. Late nights and fights are by-products.

Branding it different

One of my first tasks was to build RoofandFloor as a brand to reckon with. The key challenge for brand RoofandFloor was to step out of the great shadow of the mother brand, The Hindu, and create its own identity.

For that, we launched a brand campaign earlier this year, focusing on the brand’s messaging of trust, transparency, and the promise of a hassle-free experience to home buying.

While all our core product offerings have been built around the two pillars of trust and transparency, getting this information out to the public is tricky. Every brand is jostling for that same space!

The other key challenge was to get this message out to a larger base, given the budget constraints that start-ups struggle with. We wanted to use our money wisely, effectively, and make a difference.

My first six months were spent on multiple consumer studies, onboarding a research and creative agency, briefing and debriefing, conceptualising and rejecting… and Tada! This was born.

We took the digital route as that was where our audience was. We supported it offline with print and outdoor. The film worked for us because it took into account all the insights gleaned and tried to address the concerns which came up during consumer research. Home buying can be a long-winding, painful, and confusing process!

The results were astounding. Our film was made into a Google case study because it outperformed set numbers in terms of click-throughs, views, and brand recall.

Quite a difference!

Now it’s time for me to think of the next campaign! How different do you think that’s going to be?