Kajaria Ceramics: Brand-Building Strategy in the Premium Tiles Segment

Industry & Competitive Context

India is the world's second-largest producer and consumer of ceramic tiles, accounting for approximately 13% of global ceramic output. The domestic tiles industry was valued at roughly ₹52,700 crore in FY22 (domestic: ₹40,000 crore; exports: ₹12,700 crore), according to management commentary reported in analyst research from ICICI Direct. The organised sector, comprising nationally branded players, has grown at a significantly faster pace than the unorganised segment. PA Wealth research notes the organised segment expanded at a 35% CAGR between FY18 and FY23, versus 12% for unorganised players, a divergence driven primarily by GST implementation, which increased transparency and reduced cash-based transactions in the fragmented, Morbi-cluster-led unorganised industry. Within the organised tier, Kajaria Ceramics, Somany Ceramics, Prism Johnson, and Asian Granito are the principal listed competitors. Kajaria holds approximately 25% market share within the organised sector and roughly 10–11% of the total market (including unorganised), according to Stock Axis and ICICI Direct research. The Motilal Oswal report notes that Kajaria's volume grew at roughly 12% CAGR over the preceding decade against the industry's approximately 5% CAGR, a sustained outperformance that reflects both distribution expansion and premiumisation. The most strategically important structural shift in recent years has been the rapid growth of the Glazed Vitrified Tile (GVT) segment. GVT tiles occupy the premium price tier above standard ceramic and polished vitrified tiles, offering superior aesthetic finishes, larger formats, and design versatility. Positioning and branding in the GVT category have become decisive competitive battlegrounds, since product differentiation at the functional level is increasingly difficult given shared manufacturing technology across organised players.

Brand Situation Prior to Strategic Escalation

Kajaria Ceramics was incorporated in 1985 and commenced tile manufacturing in 1988, initially with a production capacity of 1 million square metres per annum. Over three and a half decades it scaled capacity to 86.47 million square metres, becoming India's largest ceramic tile manufacturer and the eighth largest globally, as stated in its FY24 Annual Report. However, for much of its history, the Kajaria brand operated primarily as a mark of quality assurance in a commodity-adjacent category. Tiles were largely a builder- and contractor-specified product, with limited consumer pull and minimal aspirational brand equity among end-users. The company had historically served multiple price segments through a unified brand umbrella. The challenge that emerged by the mid-2010s was dual: first, how to establish a credible premium identity in the fast-growing GVT segment without diluting the parent brand's accessibility-oriented positioning; second, how to move the purchase decision closer to the consumer — the homeowner and the interior designer — rather than leaving it entirely in the hands of channel intermediaries. The India Infoline corporate timeline shows that Kajaria launched 50 large exclusive "Kajaria Prima" showrooms in FY15, signalling an early strategic recognition that premium positioning required differentiated retail environments. This was a foundational move: before a brand can charge a premium, it must create a premium experience at the point of purchase. However, the stronger premiumisation push only gathered momentum from FY17 onward, when Kajaria simultaneously launched the Eternity GVT sub-brand as a distinct premium identity and began systematically restructuring its channel architecture to support it.

Strategic Objective

Kajaria's premium strategy can be understood through three explicitly stated or publicly documented objectives. First, it sought to establish Kajaria Eternity as India's dominant brand in the GVT category — a segment the company identified as the fastest-growing in the tile industry, according to APPPL Combine's published case study on the Eternity repositioning engagement. Second, it aimed to shift purchase influence from trade intermediaries (dealers and contractors) to end-consumers, particularly the urban homeowner and the professional specifier community (architects and interior designers). Third, and most ambitiously, it set out to prove that an Indian tile brand could command the emotional and aspirational resonance typically associated with lifestyle categories — a goal reflected in the decision to invest in celebrity brand ambassadors more commonly seen in FMCG and apparel. These objectives were complementary but also in tension. Growing through Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities — a stated goal of the 2023 "Desh Ki Mitti" campaign — required mass-market accessibility and brand familiarity. Sustaining a premium price premium in GVT required restraint, exclusivity, and a distinct visual language. The architecture of the strategy, examined below, shows how Kajaria attempted to resolve this tension through a deliberate bifurcation of brand vehicles.

Campaign Architecture & Execution

4.1 The "Desh Ki Mitti" Masterbrand Campaign

In 2016, Kajaria launched the "Desh Ki Mitti" campaign (literally, "soil of the nation"), appointing Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar as its brand ambassador. As reported in Media Infoline's contemporaneous coverage of the campaign launch, Rishi Kajaria, Joint Managing Director, stated that Akshay Kumar was chosen because "his work and personality resonates with and exemplifies the company's mission statement." The campaign's tagline — "Desh ki mitti se bani tile se desh ko banate hain" (We build the nation with tiles made from the soil of this land) — was a strategic decision to anchor Kajaria's brand story in a national pride narrative, associating a construction material with emotional significance and Indian identity.

This was more than a creative choice. It was a defensive brand-building move: by embedding the brand in a patriotic narrative, Kajaria sought to create an emotional moat against price-based competition from unbranded Morbi-cluster manufacturers, who can produce comparable functional tiles at lower cost but cannot credibly claim any brand story. Akshay Kumar's sustained association — confirmed in his own statements that he had been associated with the brand for more than six years by the time the 2023 campaign launched — provided consistency and recall continuity across multiple campaign cycles.

4.2 The 2023 "Desh Ki Mitti" Campaign Escalation

In August 2023, coinciding with the company's 35th anniversary, Kajaria substantially escalated its masterbrand campaign by adding Ranveer Singh as a second ambassador alongside Akshay Kumar. As reported by Economic Times Brand Equity, Business Standard, Financial Express, and Exchange4Media, the campaign was conceptualised by agency 82.5 Communications and executed as a 360-degree pan-India initiative. The campaign's core message was "Hum Alag Hain, Par Ek Hi Mitti Ke Hai" (We are different, but made of the same soil). Structurally, the ad film deployed the two celebrities as Special Forces officers — contrasting personalities who set aside rivalries when united by a mission. The choice of metaphor was deliberate: it mirrored Kajaria's own market positioning as a brand that unifies diverse Indian aspirations under a common quality standard. The TVC was released in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam in addition to Hindi, reflecting the explicitly stated strategic objective of deepening penetration in southern markets. The campaign was shot over five days in Mumbai and Jaisalmer, according to multiple press release-sourced media reports.

4.3 The Kajaria Eternity GVT Sub-Brand

Running in parallel with the masterbrand campaign is the Kajaria Eternity sub-brand, which operates as the company's premium GVT identity. As documented on the Kajaria Eternity official website, Eternity is positioned as offering "1,200+ SKUs with widest range of big sizes technical body vitrified slabs" and holds the self-designated positioning of "India's No.1 GVT Brand." The brand repositioning, as detailed in APPPL Combine's published case study, involved transitioning from the earlier, more abstract "Tiles Forever" tagline to the assertive "India's No.1 GVT Brand" — a category-leadership claim designed to bridge the perceived value gap between GVT and standard ceramic tiles in the minds of price-sensitive consumers. Eternity's product architecture is notably distinct from the parent brand's commodity-adjacent range. The Eternity website documents 15 tile sizes, including extra-large formats (120×240 cm, 120×180 cm, 120×120 cm), co-developed in design partnership with "European master-designers" according to the official brand page. This European design provenance narrative is a direct response to a consumer insight prevalent in premium interior markets: aspirational Indian consumers in the post-2015 period increasingly associated premium interiors with European or Italian design aesthetics, and domestic brands needed to credibly invoke this reference system.

4.4 Exclusive Retail Experience Infrastructure

A consistent theme in Kajaria's documented premium strategy is the investment in proprietary, experience-oriented retail formats. The India Infoline timeline records the launch of 50 Kajaria Prima showrooms as early as FY15. By 2022, the company had opened its 100th Kajaria Eternity World showroom — an 11,000 square foot flagship in Lajpat Nagar, New Delhi — which Business Standard reported offered tiles and Kerovit bathware products under one roof, with trained professionals available to consult on bathroom design. Rishi Kajaria's statement at the time confirmed the intent: "We intend to open more large stores across India." In November 2024, Kajaria further inaugurated a 15,000 square foot Experience Centre in Chennai, segmenting dedicated display zones for GVT and Kerovit bathware, as documented by Mordor Intelligence's industry report citing the event. This experiential retail strategy is strategically significant: it removes the premium tile purchase from the undifferentiated context of the general dealer showroom and places it in a branded environment that justifies a higher price point through sensory engagement.

Positioning & Consumer Insight

The core consumer insight driving Kajaria's premium strategy is the aspiration-to-quality gap in the Indian building materials market. As Indian household incomes rose through the 2010s, a growing segment of urban and semi-urban homeowners began treating home improvement as an expression of identity rather than purely a functional investment. Tiles — previously the domain of contractors choosing on behalf of homeowners — became a considered purchase. This shift created the conditions for brand-led premiumisation: consumers willing to pay a premium would now also seek a brand that validated that premium choice socially and emotionally. Kajaria's strategic response operated on two registers simultaneously. At the masterbrand level, "Desh Ki Mitti" was designed not to signal exclusivity but to signal trustworthiness at scale — the brand is Indian, it is reliable, it builds the nation. At the sub-brand level, Kajaria Eternity was designed to signal sophistication, aesthetic authority, and design leadership. Together, the architecture allowed Kajaria to be chosen by a Tier 3 first-time homebuilder (for whom national pride and reliability are primary purchase drivers) and by an upscale Delhi apartment owner (for whom Eternity's European-designed GVT slabs represent legitimate premium value) — without contradiction. Kajaria's FY24 Annual Report explicitly articulates this evolution: "No longer simply a commodity product, Kajaria has elevated tiles into an aesthetic solution, adding elegance and beauty to modern spaces." This is the formal, board-level articulation of the brand's repositioning thesis.

Media & Channel Strategy

Kajaria's advertising expenditure as a percentage of sales is a publicly traceable metric. Motilal Oswal research data shows advertising and sales promotion expenses climbing from ₹163 million in FY11 to ₹1,053 million in FY18, before settling between ₹896–903 million in FY19–FY20, and recovering to ₹1,364 million in FY22 and ₹1,522 million in FY23 — representing a sustained advertising intensity that the StockAxis report notes peaked at approximately 3.88% of sales in FY18 and stood at 3.19% in FY20. The documented channel strategy combines three tiers. The first is mass television: the "Desh Ki Mitti" campaign was explicitly designed as a TVC-led initiative with pan-India broadcast reach, extended to regional language markets through Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam versions as reported in the campaign launch press release. The second is out-of-home and in-store: the APPPL Combine case study documents a nationwide outdoor hoarding initiative tied to Eternity retail locations, alongside refreshed in-store branding. The third is digital platforms: both the 2023 Desh Ki Mitti campaign and the Eternity repositioning were stated to be extended "across various digital platforms" in official press releases, though granular digital spend data is not publicly disclosed. The dealer network has expanded significantly. Motilal Oswal research tracks dealer numbers growing from 900 in FY14 to 1,500 dealers by approximately FY21, while Arihant Plus analysis as of Q3 FY26 references over 1,900 exclusive tile dealers. This network serves as a critical last-mile amplifier: as dealer exclusivity increases, Kajaria's in-store brand environment exercises greater influence over the purchase decision, complementing the pull created by above-the-line media.

Business & Brand Outcomes

Kajaria's documented financial trajectory validates the brand-investment thesis at the top line. Revenue grew from ₹2,808 crore in FY20 to ₹4,578 crore in FY24 — a 63% cumulative increase over four years — while EBITDA expanded from ₹416 crore to ₹700 crore over the same period, per the FY24 Annual Report. Net profit grew from ₹255 crore in FY20 to ₹422 crore in FY24. Critically, in the flat-revenue environment of Q3 FY26, Arihant Plus analysis documents EBITDA margin expansion to 17.20%, up 442 basis points year-on-year, with consolidated net profit growing 30.95% year-on-year over the first nine months of FY26 — suggesting that premiumisation and operating leverage are simultaneously reinforcing each other. On brand recognition, Kajaria's official company website records that the company has won the Superbrand Award 14 consecutive times, and is the only tile company in India to receive the "Asia's Most Promising Brand" award in the premium tiles category. The Superbrand classification is independently assessed based on criteria including perceived brand image, mindshare, consumer loyalty, and emotional bonding — making it a rare third-party validated brand equity indicator for a building materials company. For the Eternity sub-brand specifically, the APPPL Combine case study, published as an official agency credential document, states that the repositioning campaign "generated substantial momentum for Kajaria Eternity across India" and "solidified Kajaria Eternity's position as India's No.1 GVT brand," though no quantified market share or sales data specific to the GVT segment is publicly disclosed in a form attributable to a company or credible secondary source. The retail expansion metric is verifiable: Business Standard reported in March 2022 that Kajaria had reached its 100th Kajaria Eternity World showroom, an explicit milestone in the company's own documented expansion targets. By November 2024, the Chennai Experience Centre at 15,000 square feet represented a continued escalation in the format's footprint.

Strategic Implications

Kajaria's premiumisation strategy offers several instructive lessons for brand management in industrials and building materials — a sector where brand-led strategies have historically been under-deployed relative to FMCG. First, the architecture of a parent brand and a premium sub-brand serving distinct consumer occasions is a replicable model in category contexts where a single brand cannot simultaneously signal mass accessibility and premium exclusivity. Kajaria's maintenance of a separate Eternity brand identity — with its own website, dealer format (Eternity World), campaign messaging, and ambassador strategy — suggests that the company understood the brand equity incompatibility between a scale narrative and a luxury narrative. Second, the emotional branding pivot from "tile manufacturer" to "nation-building partner" via "Desh Ki Mitti" is an example of a commodity brand using cultural narrative to create an emotional moat. The campaign's strategic durability — active for over six years across multiple production cycles — also demonstrates that brand platforms, unlike product campaigns, require sustained investment and narrative continuity before they build genuine consumer mindshare. Third, the experiential retail investment — from Prima showrooms to Eternity World flagships to the Chennai Experience Centre — reflects a strategic understanding that in a category where colour, texture, and size can only be evaluated physically, the retail environment is not merely a distribution point but a brand asset. The shift from dealer-led distribution to branded experience formats is structurally equivalent to what luxury goods brands have done for decades, adapted for an industrial category. Finally, Kajaria's bathware entry under the Kerovit brand, offered alongside GVT tiles in Eternity World stores, reflects a documented attempt to capture a higher share of the bathroom renovation wallet by cross-selling within a trust architecture already established by the tile brand. The Arihant Plus analysis of Q3 FY26 notes that bathware quarterly revenue reached ₹103 crore, growing 9% year-on-year, and identifies the 1,900+ tile dealer network as a natural cross-selling engine — an outcome made possible by the prior decade of brand-building investment.

Discussion Questions

1. Kajaria's brand architecture separates a mass-market masterbrand ("Kajaria") from a premium sub-brand ("Kajaria Eternity"). What are the risks of brand equity bleed between these two identities, and what structural safeguards — product, channel, and communication — appear to mitigate this risk in Kajaria's documented strategy?

   
   

2. The "Desh Ki Mitti" campaign anchors a commodity-adjacent product in a national pride narrative rather than product performance claims. Evaluate the strategic trade-offs of emotional branding in a category where functional attributes (durability, water resistance, size range) are verifiable and directly comparable.

   
   

3. Kajaria's documented advertising-to-sales ratio has consistently exceeded 3% — unusually high for a building materials manufacturer. How should a CFO evaluate the return on this marketing investment, given that brand equity in a B2B2C category (where intermediary dealers mediate the final sale) is structurally harder to attribute than in direct-to-consumer markets?

   
   

4. The company explicitly stated that the 2023 "Desh Ki Mitti" campaign targeted Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and southern India. Assess the strategic tension between geographic breadth (necessary for revenue scale) and premium positioning (which typically requires geographic concentration in affluent markets). How should Kajaria manage this tension as it scales?

   
   

5. Kajaria appointed a Chief Marketing Officer for the first time in March 2026 (per BSE regulatory disclosures via Screener). What does this institutional signal suggest about the evolution of Kajaria's marketing function, and how should a newly appointed CMO prioritise between consolidating the existing brand architecture and accelerating digital-first brand engagement in a category where physical product experience remains central to the purchase decision?