Over two decades in India, Häfele’s marketing has evolved alongside changes in how consumers discover, evaluate and buy kitchen and home solutions. While the company continues to work closely with architects, designers, dealers and other trade partners, its marketing has increasingly had to account for homeowners who research products and brands well before entering a showroom.
The brand’s recent marketing has also brought questions around celebrity associations, consumer relevance and the role of physical retail into focus. In this conversation, Shweta Rangra, Vice President, Marketing, Häfele India, discusses the association with Sachin Tendulkar, the thinking behind its “Maximising What Matters the Most” platform, and how it is approaching an increasingly informed consumer journey across digital and physical touchpoints.
The discussion also looks at how Häfele adapts its marketing for different audiences, measures the impact of campaigns beyond conventional digital metrics, and seeks to build a broader understanding of its offering among Indian consumers.
Edited Excerpts:
Q) After more than two decades in India, what has changed in the way Häfele needs to build its brand and engage with consumers today?
Globally, Häfele operates predominantly as a B2B brand, recognised largely by the furniture industry, carpenters, project customers and, of course, architects and interior designers. In India, we are structured differently, following a heavy trade-centric approach that combines different retail formats like Exclusive Franchisees, multi-brand dealers and a large network of distributors who in turn sell to small hardware stores across the country.
This approach has brought us close to end-customers who increasingly recognise the brand for its premium positioning and strong relevance in the modular kitchen industry.
The introduction of various kitchen and home allied products like built-in appliances, worktop surfaces, furniture and room lighting, digital security solutions and, more recently, customised cabinet fronts for kitchen and wardrobe furniture, has presented new opportunities for our brand to strengthen our connect with homeowners over the last few years.
At the same time, we are equally connected with decision-influencers like architects, designers, contractors and carpenters, as they play a pivotal role in the overall customer journey. This combination presents a unique opportunity to combine different levers of marketing to engage with different customer entities through a more integrated and experiential approach.
We use digital marketing, search, social media and relevant content to create awareness and consideration. At the same time, we recognise that the most powerful way to understand Häfele is to experience our solutions in a real-life setting. This is addressed through in-person and intimate experiences like Design Centre tours, cooking demonstrations, chef-led events and other on-ground engagements.
Q) Why was Sachin Tendulkar the right choice for Häfele, and what brand or consumer challenge did the association need to address?
Häfele already enjoys a strong recognition value within the kitchen category in India, owing to the comprehensive ecosystem of solutions we have built for the kitchen space over the years. What we needed was to establish a stronger understanding among customers about the depth of our offerings in this space.
Our association with Sachin Tendulkar was thoughtfully designed to go beyond his cricketing persona and explore facets of his personality that aligned strongly with our brand.
For example, we already know that he is a big foodie and occasionally also enjoys cooking traditional family recipes. We wanted to tap into his connect with the kitchen space, making this association relevant to the category rather than merely promotional.
We also saw great alignment between his personality and Häfele’s core brand values of being determined and attentive. His career has been shaped by determination, discipline and a constant focus on improving his craft. These qualities resonate strongly with Häfele’s own commitment to precision, quality and continuous improvement.
Finally, there is a shared understanding of legacy. Häfele is a family-run company with more than 100 years of global heritage, while Sachin has built an enduring legacy by remaining grounded in his values, culture and roots. That authenticity made him a natural fit for the brand.
Q) How have you ensured that the celebrity association creates relevance and not only attention?
For us, Sachin is not simply a celebrity endorsing the brand. In many ways, he personifies the consumer we are speaking to.
The Häfele consumer values premium experiences, but we do not define premium purely through price. Premiumness comes from thoughtful engineering, lasting quality, dependable service, sustainability and the overall experience that a brand creates.
Sachin reflects these values through his authenticity, attention to detail and grounded personality. Therefore, when he appears in our brand stories, the intention is not merely to capitalise on his popularity. The objective is to place him in relatable, everyday situations and demonstrate how thoughtfully designed solutions can make life at home more convenient.
The underlying message is: this could be your home and this could be your experience with Häfele. By integrating him into stories around real products, functionality and everyday needs, we have sought to move the association from celebrity recall to genuine consumer relevance.
Q) What central consumer insight shaped the campaign films?
The central insight was that Indian kitchens are shared, functional spaces used by different members of a household. Products therefore need to deliver advanced functionality while remaining intuitive and easy for everyone to use.
Consumers can sometimes perceive a European brand as sophisticated but potentially complicated or insufficiently adapted to Indian lifestyles. Through the campaign films, we wanted to address that perception directly.
The stories demonstrate that Häfele solutions combine European engineering and quality with an understanding of how Indian homes and kitchens actually function. They offer convenience to the homeowner, while also being intuitive for family members and household staff who may use the kitchen regularly.
This insight influenced the way we portrayed Häfele’s role in consumers’ lives. Rather than presenting technology as something complex or intimidating, we positioned it as an enabler that simplifies everyday routines, reduces effort and helps the kitchen work better for everyone.
Q) How has “Maximising What Matters the Most” evolved, and what is different about this next chapter?
“Maximising What Matters the Most” is an India-specific communication expression derived from Häfele’s global purpose of “Maximising the Value of Space. Together.”
We wanted to translate the global proposition into a more emotional and personally relevant idea for Indian consumers. Within a home, different things matter to different people. For one person, it may be better utilisation of space. For another, it may be time-saving, convenience, organisation, comfort or a more seamless experience in the kitchen.
We recognise that there cannot be one benefit that speaks to everyone in the same way. People’s homes reflect their individual personalities, priorities and lifestyles. The platform acknowledges this diversity and communicates that Häfele can help maximise the aspect of a space that matters most to each consumer.
What is fundamentally different about this chapter is that we are moving beyond a purely functional articulation of products and features. We are connecting functionality to a more meaningful human outcome: enabling people to use their spaces in ways that support what they genuinely value.
Q) How is Häfele’s marketing strategy changing as Indian consumers become more informed and aspirational?
Marketing cannot operate independently of the business. It must follow the organisation’s priorities and the experience the business is equipped to deliver. As a company, Häfele is increasingly moving towards a solution-oriented approach, and our marketing strategy reflects this shift.
Today’s consumer journey begins much before a showroom visit. Consumers search online, compare brands, review solutions and educate themselves before making a purchase decision. We therefore need to be discoverable at the exploration stage and provide high-quality, relevant content through search, social media and our digital platforms during the consideration stage.
However, for Häfele, the showroom remains the moment of truth. Our solutions are best understood when consumers see and interact with them in fully realised settings. A showroom allows them to visualise how a product or solution would look, feel and function in their own home. Our teams can then guide them through the options and help them make a well-informed decision.
This is also how we communicate premiumness. Premium is not simply a higher price point or a visual aesthetic. It is the complete experience created through product quality, relevant communication, knowledgeable consultation, service and long-term value. Our marketing is therefore designed to connect digital discovery with physical experience.
Q) How are you adapting the marketing mix across architects, designers, dealers and consumers without diluting the brand proposition?
The purchase journey in our category is influenced by an entire ecosystem. Architects and designers may guide the specification, dealers and franchise partners enable access, carpenters and installers influence implementation, and consumers ultimately experience the solution in their homes.
Our approach is therefore audience-specific, but the central brand proposition remains consistent.
We have dedicated teams that engage with architects and designers, understand their project requirements and introduce them to relevant solutions. Dealers and franchise partners are supported through a comprehensive marketing approach that helps maintain a consistent brand environment and customer experience. A consumer should experience the same Häfele philosophy whether they visit a company-owned showroom or an authorised partner showroom.
We also organise showroom events, product demonstrations and exhibitions where architects, designers, dealers, project customers and consumers can experience the complete breadth of Häfele’s capabilities under one roof. For carpenters and other implementation professionals, we conduct educational engagements and loyalty initiatives that support longer-term relationships with the brand.
The communication may be customised for each audience, but the promise does not change: Häfele offers thoughtful, high-quality solutions that maximise the value and functionality of space.
Q) Where is the biggest opportunity for Häfele to differentiate in the premium kitchen and home-solutions market?
Our strongest differentiator is the comprehensive ecosystem that Häfele brings to the kitchen. We offer solutions across fittings, hardware, work surfaces, lighting, appliances and, more recently, customised cabinet solutions.
This allows us to act not merely as a one-stop shop, but as a one-stop authority for the kitchen. It gives us the ability to understand the space holistically and ensure that its different elements work together to deliver the best possible outcome for the consumer.
Our second point of differentiation is the way we combine global heritage with local relevance. Häfele brings more than 100 years of international expertise, engineering and quality orientation. At the same time, over more than two decades in India, we have invested considerably in understanding Indian homes, cooking habits and consumer requirements.
As a result, our solutions retain the promise of European quality while incorporating features and functionality suited to Indian lifestyles. It is this combination of complete solution capability, engineering expertise and local understanding that creates a distinctive brand proposition.
Q) What metrics matter most, and how will you assess whether the campaign has changed consideration or perception?
We monitor the standard campaign metrics, including reach, video views, view-through rates, click-through rates and website traffic. These indicators help us understand whether the communication is attracting attention and encouraging engagement.
However, for us, the more meaningful measure is whether digital interest translates into physical engagement with the brand. We have a mechanism to monitor showroom walk-ins and understand how visitors discovered the brand, including whether a campaign or advertisement contributed to their visit.
The showroom is a critical point in our consumer journey because it is where visibility can become consideration. A consumer may enter a showroom because they have seen an advertisement for a particular appliance, but once there, they are introduced to the wider Häfele ecosystem.
Even if the immediate purchase is limited to one product, the consumer leaves with a deeper understanding of what the brand can offer across the kitchen and home. Therefore, we assess effectiveness not only through exposure or immediate conversion, but through the campaign’s ability to bring consumers into an environment where they can experience the brand, expand their consideration and build a more enduring understanding of what it offers.
Q) What larger shift do you want to create in the way Indian consumers perceive Häfele?
The larger shift is from partial awareness to a fuller understanding of Häfele.
Depending on their experience with the brand, some consumers may primarily associate the brand with appliances, while others may know us for kitchen fittings or hardware. We want consumers to recognise that the brand represents far more than an individual product category.
In the kitchen, we aim to strengthen our position as a one-stop authority, with an ecosystem that extends across fittings, surfaces, lighting, appliances, hardware and customised cabinet solutions. Beyond the kitchen, our broader portfolio enables us to add functionality, convenience and value across different areas of the home.
Ultimately, we want Häfele to stand for thoughtfully engineered, locally relevant solutions that help people make more of their spaces. We want consumers to see us as a trusted partner that brings together quality, expertise, service and a deep understanding of how people live.