SATO, an award-winning social business, part of Lixil, unveiled a new brand identity globally with an updated tagline – ‘A Better Life. Every Day.’– and a refreshed look that reflects its customer-centric approach to business and impactfully communicates the brand’s purpose.
Passionate in Marketing spoke with Ms. Anandita Kakkar, Marketing, South Asia – Leader, SATO, to discuss about the new brand identity, brand values, and how they leverage innovative rural marketing strategies to spread the message of sanitation and hygiene
Excerpts from the conversation.
What are SATO’s new values, vision, and purpose of SATO post the refreshed brand identity?
Distilled down to its core, SATO is a transformational brand that changes the lives of millions through innovative and award-winning sanitation and hygiene solutions. We want to put these solutions in the hands of more people around the world and, as we expand into new markets, build new partnerships, and reach more consumers.
The key purpose of the business is to empower people to enjoy a brighter future through innovative hygiene and sanitation solutions. We believe that this new look better reflects our customer-centric approach to businesses and communicate the purpose clearly and impactfully: to empower people everywhere to live a better life, every day.
With this new approach, we have curated a new brand personality that is more human, youthful, vibrant, empowering, aspirational, optimistic, and caring. It reflects the difference we aim to make in people’s lives.
What are the marketing strategies that SATO will adopt with the refreshed brand identity?
Well, our marketing initiatives align well with our business approach, which is empowering the lives of people every day and everywhere. Since our primary markets are rural and peri-urban areas, we benefit from the increasing penetration of digital technologies and complement them with on the ground activations. With this approach, we ensure that our product reaches the right customer and is able to bring a positive change to their life.
Our new website offers many more features such as enhanced product detail pages, installation videos, and downloadable brochures that explain in detail about the key happenings in main markets like India and Bangladesh. Keeping customer centricity at core, our customer experience centres will keep supporting the customer journey and provide details of products and other info our customers require.
Also, we have been working closely with retailers and distributors in multiple rural locations in India with an objective to raise awareness about the efficiency of innovative handwashing & sanitation solutions. These retailers and distributors are the real influencers who joined hands with us and helped in creating product adoption. They have made invaluable contributions towards making rural communities aware of the right hygiene practices and changed the perception of local people.
How does the refreshed brand identity position SATO in the market? How does it resonate with its audience?
SATO offers aspirational, innovative yet affordable sanitation and hygiene products so that people can lead a better life. SATO is an award-winning brand that consumers trust, and our products last for a long time – Our machine-tested trap door used in SATO toilets, for example, is designed to last for 100 years of use by a household of five members. And our refreshed brand identity encapsulates us as a brand that empower rural communities to live a better live and live a brighter future.
Our customer-centric approach communicates our core capabilities of reinforcing the fact that we know how to engage customers by aligning their critical needs with our innovative, water-efficient products. We have a track record in successfully influencing change behaviour not just for the individual but for communities as well.
What were the motivations for the change in the brand identity?
As a consumer centric brand, we work to provide solutions to the everyday challenges of life and use our expertise in product development to empower individuals. It is, therefore, important that we are seen as a consumer champion that listens, adapts, and innovates. As our business evolves, our product portfolio and the corresponding target audience too, expand. For example, in our recent campaign we installed SATO Taps with multiple street food vendors at multiple locations, which aimed to provide solutions to make consuming street food healthier and safer.
SATO is a transformational brand that empowers millions through innovative and award-winning sanitation and hygiene solutions. Our new brand identity and the tagline – A Better Life. Every Day – encompasses these attributes and help establish a stronger emotional connection with our target audience and give a clear message of what SATO represents as a business.
What initiatives has SATO taken in the past to create hygiene and sanitation awareness?
To spread the message of hygiene far and wide, SATO engages in awareness and upskilling activities in rural part of India. Our Wash Haats, for example, have been successful in collaborating with last mile influencers for sanitation and hygiene in their communities. They also present new opportunities to upgrade skills and spread hand hygiene awareness. We also organized a soap-making activity in rural villages of Bihar, UP, and Orissa.
Under our collaboration with UNICEF through the ‘Make a Splash’ campaign, we build viable sanitation and hygiene ecosystem serving millions of people. We do this by expanding the availability, affordability, and quantity of goods and services.
Our recent campaign #DhoDaal in March 2022, aimed to make hand hygiene convenient and affordable for all. The campaign used innovative rural marketing and influencer marketing, and mass media communications – radio and wall branding – to ensure that the message of hygiene reaches maximum people.
