#BergerXP Indiblogger meet in Mumbai-Busting the painting myths!

I was in Mumbai last week and was looking to meet as many people as possible, while in town. Early last week, Divsi alerted me to the announcement of Indiblogger meet in Mumbai. Sponsored by Berger Paints, the meet would be 3rd in the series, after Kolkata and Bengaluru. Indiblogger meets are always fun- we can meet all bloggers in town, get to win various cool stuff, learn about the brand sponsoring the event and return home with lots of memories.

The event was by invitation only but we could request for an invite. I promptly applied for one and waited with impatience for confirmation. The seats are limited and demand is high. Few days later I got my confirmation and was super happy. I checked Heebee's post (of Bengaluru edition) to get some idea about the event and prepare myself.

Painting is a complicated industry compared to FMCG or Consumer electronics or vehicles. Many of us youngsters who do not own a house might never had the opportunity to experience/understand what it takes to get a house painted. Painting a home is not an everyday activity- may be once in several years and the industry isn't really organized and standardized. Painting cost is usually just about 1% of house construction cost, so owners are fine with selecting most expensive option in market. But when painting doesn't last long or isn't up to the standard expected, painter could blame the paint brand, paint brand could blame it on bad weather or the workmanship of the painter.

Berger Paints claimed to have solution for above problem. They have launched a program called Berger Express Painting and we were about to find out more from the senior management of Berger Paints India on how they stand apart from the competition and how their offerings are unique.

I reached Vivanta By Taj President a few minutes late than scheduled time. The last time I was here was during the Grand Finale of Tata Nano Superdrive in June 2010. Mr Tatan Tata had flagged in the convoy that completed 28 days 15000 kms drive across India. I met Sujatha Tawde, Pooja Bhatt and Divsi at the lobby. Showed my Indipass, completed registration formality, grabbed some food and went inside.

Took some photos of the setup inside the venue while others took their seat.

Above photo (mobile version of it) when tweeted, later won me photo of the day award.

It also gave me my moments of fame as I spoke about my visit to Mumbai and the fact that this is my 10th Indiblogger event (Others being 1.Tata Grande, Chennai 2. Ambi Pur, Chennai 3. Oyo Rooms, Bengaluru 4. Nano Genx AMT, Pune, 5. Nano Chosen Ones, Ahmadabad 6. BNLF, Mumbai 7. Flipkart Outdoors, Bengaluru,8. Tata Zica, 9. Tata Hexa Hyderabad 10. Berger XP Mumbai) I got a Rs 1000 worth Amazon gift card from Berger India.

Below; A group photo with other Mumbai bloggers. From left to right-  Jaibala Rao, Anahita Irani, Sujatha Tawde, Riddi Sharma and Pooja Bhatt. Also met Avantika, BlogwatiG and many others- please pardon me if I have missed to mention your names.

As the event began, Anoop, Co founder of Indiblogger kick started the session with warm up activities, to activate sleepy attendees. The activity was musical chair. Has been decades since I ever played one. There were two rounds-I managed to retain my seat in first two. Last round was tricky with only 1 chair for 4-5 participants. I was sheer lucky in this round and won the musical chair for our table. Got a T shirt as my prize!

Next was the presentation from Berger Paints Management. I will summarize the key points from the talk of Chandranath Banerjee, Service Head, Express Painting, Berger Paints India.

• Berger paints was started in 1760 by Lewis Berger in Europe. The shade of blue that he introduced became extremely popular.
• Berger Paints is No.2 in India, No 1 is Asian Paints, #3 is Nerolac and #4 is Durex. But Berger Paints is closing in fast with non stop growth YoY
• Berger was first to introduce Express painting concept and modern tools to aid in painting.

Before Berger introduced Express Painting, below were the concerns of Indian consumers

-Repainting a house was a messy affair taking months of time, loads of dust and affecting daily routine. Because of this most customers preferred to postpone repainting as long as they could- once in 4-5 years or so (while in Europe the norm is almost once an year)

- Despite selecting most expensive emulsion, the final finish was not satisfactory- either due to poor mixing or poor craftsmanship of the painter

- Creating a perfect shade was a complicated process- paint vendor had to maintain dozens of different base colours and had to mix them manually to derive desired shaded- often prone to errors and not economically viable for small quantities.

Berger Paints has brought in following innovations:

Innovative machines: Berger has introduced different home painting tools, which when used reduce the time taken to paint, reduce the dust produced (machine sucks the dust into a pouch) and ensure a more qualitative output. Berger has been training painters on usage of these machines and the benefits of using them. These machines are motored and hence do make some noise, but nothing louder than that of a domestic vacuum cleaner. Some of their tools are Sanding Machine, Multi Purpose Mixer, Auto Roller, High pressure washer and airless paint sprayer.

5 base paints, unlimited shades: Berger has introduced a machine that can churn out huge combination of shades, with just 5 base colours. A paint dealer now needs to stock only these 5 base paints and any shade of customer's choice can be generated from this machine.

Express Painting: Professional painting services, at no extra cost: Interestingly, Berger's Express Painting services comes at no extra cost to end consumers. Only half of the total painting expense is on actual paints- rest is spent on labor cost. In mega metros, labor cost is as high as 65%. Though Berger paints partners need to invest in buying/renting the tools, they can finish painting much faster, requiring less labor expenses, so that overall cost to end customer remains highly competitive.. What would have taken 30 days traditionally, can be done in 18-20 days with Berger Express Paints (40% faster)

Training the painters- Berger has been training thousands of painters all over India to enable them use modern tools and finish their paint jobs more efficiently

Next we were given the activity to experience sanding. The previous team finished the task in 24 seconds, our team took 17. Not sure who won this activity.

Unfortunately it was time for me to leave. Had to go to Dadar station, pickup by bag and proceed to Airport via Santa Cruz. I learnt that the event lasted another hour or so wherein bloggers got their hands dirty trying the tools, painting their pictures and so on. I missed that part but was glad I could attend the first portion of the event and meet many bloggers. Many participants won generous gifts. A few bloggers are slated to win mega prize- to have one of their home walls painted with Berger Illusion paintings. We were told that Rachna Parmar won it in Bengaluru- let us see who wins it in Mumbai edition.

Overall I am glad I could attend the event. Besides meeting the friends, now I am more vise on the concept of painting. Thanks to Berger Express Painting, repainting a house is no longer a month long messy affair. It can be faster, cleaner and better and at no additional cost. Next time repainting is on your mind, do take a quote from Berger paints and their competitions, compare and decide for yourself.

Next edition of BergerXP meet is slated for Delhi on Feb 25.

Update: This post breaks into Top Posts of Day section on Indiblogger