Siddharth Singhvi, Vice President – Business Excellence and Country Head – Site Sales Representative, Wonder Cement, discusses marketing strategy and communication of the company in perspective of the present and the future market conditions.
Explain in brief the marketing strategy for Wonder Cement and its target customer base. The tagline for Wonder Cement is ‘Ek Perfect Shuruat’. Our marketing strategy has always revolved around our tagline for our customers. We strive to provide perfect quality; we provide great service for the customers; and that is how we have been able to grow the brand and build a loyal customer base in the last 10 years and multiply the plant capacity. We work hard on staying connected with our customers on ground. For that we conduct a lot of BTL activities and simultaneously we are heavy on television advertisements as well. Off late we have started doing a lot of site visits to individual home builders and that has been a marketing strategy that has shown that we are a transparent brand that provides high quality cement. The overall marketing strategy has helped place us amongst the top recognised cement brands of the country.
How does your organisation engage with the B2B customers? Our brand has a lot of focus on quality. We offer a superior quality product and thus, brand acceptability with our B2B customers have been very high due to our product offering. We have been tested in India and abroad at the best laboratories in the world. We have separate teams working on B2B business like key accounts team, non-trade business teams, regional business teams for non-trade business. We are working on sensitising our B2B customers on right construction practices with our technical services team. That is how we market cement to our B2B consumers. The quality of our product ultimately results in lower consumption of product in construction, which is a way of making savings and deriving good results, so that becomes another selling point for our brand to B2B customers.
What role does social media or digital campaigning play in reaching your target customer? Social media and digital marketing have picked up a lot in recent times. We are a young brand and right from the beginning we have been active on social media platforms and digital channels. We also are one of the most active and followed cement brands on these platforms. Having said that, cement as a category is not glamorous or attractive to engage customers, but post the pandemic we have seen a lot of change and traction on our digital platforms. We are working hard on these mediums and have been doing a lot of campaigns like People of Wonder, Stories of Wonder etc. where we engage our network – architects, contractors, masons and everyone involved with the brand. Off late we have been working on site conversion and lead procurement through digital means. That is helping the brand to grow and has started generating leads for us thus reaching new customers.
Tell us about any marketing activation that helped you break through the stereotypes of the industry? One of the biggest activation campaigns we did were in 2015 and in 2017. At that time, we were at a capacity of approximately 6.5MT in Rajasthan and wanted to penetrate in the minds of people and doing television at that time would be a spill over. So, we thought of doing a customer activation through cricket and named it ‘Saath 7 Cricket Mahotsav’. At that time in 2015 and 2017 we involved on ground more than 2 lakh people directly and they played with us and multiplied that with their family members coming to see the matches, so all in all we touched about 2.5 to 3 crore people across Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. This was a pathbreaking campaign that we did where we could reach a lot of people and this was a one-of-a-kind campaign done by any cement player at that time, which involved sports as an activation. At that time, it was one of the largest activations in the world, which involved cricket. Such big numbers are not easy to see anywhere. Currently with activations, we are sending our sales representatives to visit sites and to activate them and help customers understand our quality and product offering, and do tests for them. This on-ground activation is helping us gain good traction in the market.
How did the pandemic impact marketing and branding of your product? What changes were made during those times? The pandemic did shift the focus of the brand from typical cement advertising and inclined us to think about newer avenues in advertising. What we realised during and after the pandemic is that the footfall at the network and dealers shops has significantly reduced and most of the transactions are happening over the phone. This was a big takeaway that a tectonic shift is happening in the way in which consumers are buying cement. This kind of shift happened a little late in cement as compared to other industries like FMCG or apparel where sales and enquiries were happening online, but cement industry did see this kind of shift soon after. People started researching about cement and searching for dealers nearest to them etc., online and then started ordering the same via phone. This made us invest in digital advertising heavily and also pump up our site sales team that I spoke about earlier. Our technical teams and site sales representative teams started visiting customers directly and in big numbers and started getting those leads to our distributors. We were filling in the gap where customers were not going to our distributors. We were making our distributors get in touch with them. Top of the mind recall increased in a big way with this activity and it is very important to have that in today’s competitive environment. Any brand needs to explain about its product, quality features etc. thoroughly to the customers to make sales. Previously, when one would go to the shop, dealers would do that and possibly change their mind in the selection of the brand. This interaction became less likely because customers will not give their 15 to 20 minutes over the phone to understand about the brand and the dealer finds it difficult to take that time and explain details at the risk of losing customers. So, we covered this gap by sending our people on the sites.
Customers in today’s day and age are more aware of what they are buying. How difficult does it make changing their mind to choose your brand when it comes to making sales? Cement branding has always been more of a ‘Me Too’ branding, where every brand essentially advertised to remind its customer that it’s there in the market and to build a recall value with them. The category hasn’t been able to define a quantifiable benefit for its customers. For example, a car can be sold on its feature that it goes from 0 to 100 in 6 seconds. One may not go from a speed of 0 to 100 in 6 seconds, but it becomes a point of sale that helps its organisation market it better. This kind of quantifiable quality or product benefit isn’t there with cement and thus, no such communication has been done like that. Influencers like masons, contractors and architects have played a big role in influencing people to buy a particular brand. So, it becomes important to keep a good connection with them. And now, with on-site activities, we are communicating with customers how the difference in quality matters with the end result and we create a product differentiation like that.
How does automation and technology help you in optimising your marketing and branding efforts for the product and organisation? Technology has helped us in a big way in understanding the market and curating efforts towards it. We are one of the technologically advanced cement brands amongst others. Our team, our promoters, directors all believe that technology can help us solve a lot of problems that may arise. We have been able to continuously deliver on the technological front. In the latest events, we have built an integrated application for our teams and network to get everyone on board on the same platform. This new CRM that we have launched has changed the way our network has been looking at their business, or has been communicating with the company. This CRM aims at resolving their basic everyday issues like downloading an invoice, looking at ledgers, new promotional schemes etc. All these details and multiple updates are available to them at the click of a button. This CRM also allows us to track leads, customers, company initiatives that have been activated across. Dealers can send requests for branding, for technical services, which are redirected to the particular teams and can be attended to immediately. This has eased the life of the entire network of people associated with the brand and gives us a lot of data to look at the end of the day. It has increased transparency in the organisation and has allowed us to study behaviours and patterns of all concerned people across the network of people.
How do you foresee the future of cement branding in the coming years? The future of cement branding will be shaped from how we overcome challenges of product differentiation in the market. It will also depend on how much we educate and make our customers aware of the quality and benefits of the product we have on offer. Quality plays a very important role in cement. We believe that we offer one of the best quality products across brands and that would be a key factor in our strategy for the future. Decision makers are changing. Young people are playing bigger roles in buying houses and thus, I believe that digital marketing is going to play a big role in setting up brand positioning with them. Cement as a category has been lagging in its digital activations, but now we are catching up to the times and are digitising many processes. It is to play a pivotal role in the marketing of cement. It is a category that you see everywhere, from movies to sports traditionally, but that will change in terms of getting to the customer directly, in getting influencers to make an impact with their customers by managing them and educating them about the quality so that they can pitch about the same. This is how I foresee change in the marketing of cement. Besides that, application based cements are coming up in a big way. We have recently launched a high strength, high quality superior cement named Xtreme, which is especially for concrete. Such types of cement are gaining traction in the marketing and engaging customers, which is also likely to increase in the future and make cement interesting. People have always taken cement to be a standard, one-tone product. The more we go to the ground level and on sites and explain about the product to those consuming it, the more difference it will make, and help them understand the variety we offer and how quality and features matter, thus roping in loyal consumers.
Indian Cement Review (ICR) and Fuller Technologies brought industry, policy and technology leaders together to discuss how cement innovation can drive green construction at scale, writes Rakesh Rao.
India is building at a pace few countries can match. Highways, airports, housing, logistics parks, industrial corridors and urban infrastructure are reshaping the country’s economic geography. But beneath this growth story lies a difficult question: can India continue to build at scale without locking itself into a high-carbon future?
That question formed the core of an online panel discussion titled “Driving Green Construction Through Cement Innovation”, organised by Indian Cement Review (ICR) in association with Fuller Technologies as the Presenting Partner on June 25, 2026. The webinar brought together experts from cement technology, R&D, global industry platforms, building performance policy and international development cooperation to examine how low-carbon cement and material innovation can accelerate India’s green construction transition.
The discussion came at a crucial time. India has committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2070 and reducing the carbon intensity of its economy by 45 per cent by 2030. At the same time, the country’s construction sector is expanding rapidly, driven by urbanisation, infrastructure development, housing demand and industrial growth. Cement, as one of the most widely used construction materials, sits at the heart of this transition. It is indispensable to development, but also central to the challenge of reducing embodied carbon in buildings and infrastructure.
Moderated by Nitika Krishan, Senior Urban Infrastructure and Sustainable Policy Consultant, the panel featured:
Dr Hemantkumar Aiyer, VP and Head R&D, Nuvoco Vistas Corp Ltd;
Devika Wattal, Innovation Lead, Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA);
Dr Sunita Purushottam, MD, GBPN India (Global Buildings Performance Network); and
Vaibhav Rathi, Senior Technical Advisor, GIZ (the German Agency for International Cooperation)
Setting the tone for the discussion, Nitika Krishan underlined the scale of the challenge before the sector. “The question before us is no longer whether we build, but how we build sustainably,” she said. She pointed out that construction accounts for nearly 40 per cent of global energy-related carbon emissions when both operational and embodied carbon are considered. Cement production, she added, remains one of the hardest industrial processes to decarbonise.
For India, this is not merely an environmental issue. It is a development issue, a competitiveness issue and increasingly, a market issue. As one of the world’s largest cement producers and among the fastest-growing construction markets, India’s material choices will influence the carbon trajectory of its built environment for decades. As Krishan observed, sustainability solutions in economies such as India must not remain limited to laboratory success. They must be scalable, commercially viable and practical at national level.
The innovation gap: From technology to market
Experts believe that there is a need to bridge the innovation gaps for making decarbonisation in cement and concrete scalable. Devika Wattal of GCCA, explained, “The starting point must be the core cement manufacturing process itself. The first and foremost is the heart of our process, the heart of cement manufacturing. How do we reduce clinker? That is always a topic where industry is working very intrinsically.”
Clinker reduction remains one of the most important pathways for lowering emissions in cement. Since clinker production is energy-intensive and chemically emits carbon dioxide, reducing the clinker factor through supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), blended cements and new chemistries can have a significant impact. Wattal also noted that carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) will have a role, though it may not be the first lever for all markets.
However, she stressed that innovation cannot stop at technology development. A solution that works in the lab must also be adaptable to industry, scalable in production and acceptable in construction practice. “It is important for that innovation to be adaptable, to be scalable, and so that it can be executed in real time,” she said.
Wattal also called for stronger enabling systems around innovation. These include performance-based standards, product-level embodied carbon databases and clearer frameworks for evaluating green materials. Without these, low-carbon cement products may struggle to compete with conventional materials in procurement and design.
R&D must balance carbon, cost and performance
Bringing in the R&D perspective into the discussion, Dr Hemantkumar Aiyer of Nuvoco Vistas emphasised that low-carbon cement development cannot be treated as a single-variable exercise. Cement must perform in real construction conditions. It must deliver strength, durability, consistency and cost competitiveness, while also reducing carbon.
“The root of understanding and balancing all these aspects lies in materials, and knowing the materials,” he said.
According to Dr Aiyer, R&D teams must understand the variability of raw materials such as fly ash, slag and clinker. Different sources produce different material behaviours. This makes mix optimisation, material characterisation and processing-property relationships critical. When performance is affected, cement manufacturers must understand how strength enhancers, admixtures and other performance chemicals interact with the material system.
He also linked material science with process efficiency. Clinkerisation takes place at extremely high temperatures, around 1,400 to 1,450 degrees Celsius. Any improvement in raw mix design, process control or energy optimisation can, therefore, help reduce emissions and cost. Dr Aiyer pointed to artificial intelligence-based optimisation, Cement 4.0 tools and advanced software as important enablers for real-time process and material control.
“The more you understand the materials, the more you can control it,” he said.
LC3: The promise is proven, the sequencing is not
Limestone calcined clay cement, commonly referred to as LC3, has attracted global attention because it can reduce clinker content significantly by using calcined clay and limestone while maintaining performance in many applications. Kiranmai Sanagavarapu of Fuller Technologies said the technology itself has already moved beyond proof of concept. Fuller Technologies has worked with calcined clay technology for nearly two decades and has seen plants running in France and Ghana. These plants, she said, are meeting local and national specifications, while the economics are beginning to make sense.
“The calciner is performing, the economics is stacking up, it is making business sense to produce,” she said.
But if the technology is viable, why has adoption not scaled faster? For Sanagavarapu, the answer lies in project sequencing. Too often, clay characterisation happens after equipment is specified. This, she warned, is a backward approach because calciner design depends on clay mineralogy, kaolinite content, iron levels, reactivity, moisture and other variables.
“If you don’t know what your deposit looks like before you commit for the equipment, you are, in a way, going blind into designing,” she said.
She also identified permitting and plant integration as major bottlenecks. Environmental clearances, mining permissions and local regulatory approvals must begin early. Similarly, calcined clay must be integrated into existing grinding, blending and logistics systems from the design stage, not treated as an afterthought during commissioning.
India already has IS 18189:2023 standard for LC3, but Sanagavarapu pointed out that the standard is not yet visible enough in procurement documents. “The gap between what is technically being permitted and what the procurement is asking is the single biggest bottleneck,” she said.
In her view, successful scale-up depends on getting the sequence right: clay characterisation first, permitting in parallel, standards aligned with construction, and integration built into plant design.
India’s LC3 journey: Progress, but demand remains thin
Providing details of India’s LC3 commercialisation experience, Vaibhav Rathi of GIZ noted that JK Cement carried out the first commercial production of LC3 at its Rajasthan plant, followed by JK Lakshmi Cement three months later. These initiatives were supported by the International Climate Initiative of the Government of Germany, with IIT Delhi contributing deep institutional knowledge on LC3 research and BIS certification.
Rathi said India’s early experience has produced clear lessons. One of the biggest was the need to build capacity among regulators. While BIS certification existed, State Pollution Control Boards were unfamiliar with the technology and unsure about the approval pathway.
“The capacity building is not just needed amongst the producer and the users of the cement, but also the regulators who are working with this technology for the first time,” he said.
He also highlighted the need for better information on China clay deposits. Since China clay is currently classified as a minor mineral, centralised data on availability, quality and location is limited. If cement manufacturers are to adopt LC3 at scale, stronger mineral intelligence will be important.
The third issue is demand. LC3 has already been used in projects such as Palava City in Mumbai and Noida International Airport, but these remain limited examples. “It is in a chicken and egg situation,” Rathi said. “Cement companies are saying we need more demand, and users are saying there is not enough cement available.”
Public procurement, he suggested, could help break this cycle. If agencies such as CPWD and other public bodies begin testing, accepting and specifying LC3, it could create the market confidence needed for cement companies to invest in production and storage.
Building codes must catch up with innovation
Dr Sunita Purushottam of GBPN India argued that material choices will determine built environment emissions over the long term, but India’s current policy signals remain fragmented. Although LC3 has received BIS recognition, she pointed out that building codes, municipal bylaws, schedules of rates and sustainability codes do not yet provide uniform guidance on low-carbon cement.
“The current cement regulations are largely prescriptive and favouring traditional materials,” she said. This limits the ability of alternative materials to compete on performance, durability and emissions.
Dr Purushottam also raised the issue of taxation. Cement, including LC3, currently falls under the same GST bracket as conventional cement. A differentiated tax structure, she argued, could help accelerate market adoption. “In order for the market to demand LC3, that differentiation in the GST could go a long way,” she said.
She noted that green building certifications such as IGBC and GRIHA are already creating demand for low-carbon materials by assigning points for embodied carbon and sustainable material use. However, she said large-scale adoption will require regulatory mandates, particularly through building codes and state-level notifications.
She also cautioned that low-carbon cement alone does not solve the entire building performance problem. A material may reduce embodied carbon, but the operational carbon of a building depends on thermal performance, design, insulation and energy use. “The energy part has two elements,” she said. “One is the embodied carbon of the material itself, and the other is the operational carbon.”
Collaboration is the bridge between invention and impact
Wattal said GCCA sees innovation as a strategic priority and works through platforms that connect industry with academia and start-ups. “There is no way we will decarbonise our sector without innovation,” she said.
However, she stressed that research must be connected to actual industry challenges. Innovations developed in isolation may fail when they encounter real-world barriers such as raw material variability, plant integration, cost, standards and finance. Start-ups, too, need industry mentorship and scale-up pathways.
Wattal also flagged the importance of finance. Even strong technologies may struggle to attract investment if there is no common understanding of bankability. “We have always put projects into, is this a bankable project? But the definition of a bankable project has never been defined,” she said.
For India, she saw strong potential in its academic and start-up ecosystem, but said the challenge lies in alignment and prioritisation. The country has the research base, industrial capacity and market size. What it now needs is a coordinated route from innovation to deployment.
There is a practical concern for cement manufacturers: how can existing plants be adapted for lower emissions without compromising reliability or commercial viability?
Kiranmai Sanagavarapu addressed, “The reliability risk in calcined clay retrofit is definitely real, but it is almost always self-inflicted. The risk arises when a new process is added to an existing circuit without properly redesigning grinding and blending configurations.”
Existing cement plants, she explained, can take two broad routes. The first is external sourcing of calcined clay combined with mill optimisation. This requires lower capital investment and can potentially move in 12 to 18 months if other conditions are in place. It may reduce emissions by around 20 to 30 per cent. The second route is integrated calcination on site, which requires higher capital expenditure and longer lead times, but provides greater control over quality, supply and emissions reduction potential.
For Sanagavarapu, the principle is simple: low-carbon retrofits must be designed with intent. “Design it with an intent properly from the start. Start in the market conditions where the economics are already working,” she said.
Circularity: The overlooked advantage
According to Vaibhav Rathi, fly ash and slag are already well established in cement and construction (C&D), but construction and demolition waste remains underutilised. “C&D waste is a growing business opportunity which not many have taken up,” he said. India’s continuous construction and demolition activity creates huge volumes of waste, much of which contributes to air pollution, land degradation and material inefficiency. With the right processing and standards, this waste can be converted into useful construction products.
Rathi also pointed out that LC3 has a circular economy dimension that is often overlooked. It can use low-grade kaolin-rich clay left behind after high-grade clay is extracted for other applications. “LC3 is not only a low-carbon solution, but also a circular economy solution,” he said.
At the same time, he cautioned that LC3 in India is not yet cheap because it has not reached scale. Site-specific techno-commercial feasibility studies, supported jointly by development agencies and industry, could help companies assess whether LC3 production makes technical and financial sense at a given location.
Dr Purushottam added that India must address both low-carbon cement and construction waste together. “Both low-carbon cement and C&D waste go hand in hand. India does not have an option but to work on both,” she said.
Dr Aiyer called for policy shifts from both government and industry, including preferential purchasing of sustainable materials, minimum supplementary cementitious material requirements in public and public-private projects, and faster regulatory implementation. “If we can fast-track the regulatory standards and their implementation on the ground, that is the way to go,” he said.
From green ambition to green construction
Cement innovation is no longer only about chemistry. It is about systems. Low-carbon cement will scale only when technology, standards, procurement, finance, regulation, education and construction practice move together.
LC3 and other low-carbon technologies have shown promise. India has early commercial examples, strong research capability and growing market interest. But mainstream adoption will depend on whether demand can be created, regulators can be capacitated, standards can be embedded in procurement, and manufacturers can see a clear business case.
For a country building at India’s scale, the opportunity is enormous. Cement will continue to be central to infrastructure and urban development. The challenge now is to ensure that the cement used in India’s growth story carries a lower carbon burden.
Rakesh Rao
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JK Cement gained after being declared preferred bidder for the Gilund Limestone Block in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan, a lease area of 370.96 hectares. The firm saw its shares trade at Rs. 5550.05, up by 28.45 points or 0.52 per cent from the previous close of Rs. 5521.60 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs. 5569.15 and touched a high of Rs. 5625.00 and a low of Rs. 5531.00.
The stock recorded turnover of 1742 shares on the counter and the BSE group A stock with face value Rs. 10 has a 52 week high of Rs. 7565.00 on 20-Aug-2025 and a 52 week low of Rs. 4670.05 on 12-Jun-2026. Last one week high and low stood at Rs. 5625.00 and Rs. 5329.00 respectively. The promoters holding in the company stood at 45.66 per cent, while institutions and non-institutions held 40.61 per cent and 13.73 per cent respectively.
The e-auction conducted by the Government of Rajasthan resulted in the company being declared preferred bidder for the mining lease, and the allocation will enable the company to plan phased development of the deposit, subject to regulatory approvals. The Gilund block spans 370.96 hectares and its allocation is intended to support raw material security for the company’s cement operations in the region. The designation follows the government auction process and will allow the company to plan development and integration of the deposit into its supply chain.
The current market capitalisation stands at Rs. 430.38 billion (bn), reflecting market response to the mining news and prevailing valuation levels for the sector. Investors and analysts will watch for formal allotment and related disclosures that can clarify timelines, capital expenditure and expected production profiles. The report is intended for informational purposes and does not constitute investment advice, and market participants are advised to consult advisers before making decisions.
Star Cement has been declared the preferred bidder for the mining lease for Boro Lakhindong West Block following e-auctions conducted by the Government of Assam. The block is located in Boro Lakhindong Village, Umrangso Tehsil, Dima Hasao District, Assam, and extends over an area of 123 hectares. The estimated limestone resource is 207.822 million (mn) tonnes (t), a quantity that will supply raw material for cement production and support the company’s manufacturing operations in the region.
The company is engaged in the manufacturing and selling of cement clinker and cement and distributes products across the north-eastern and eastern states of India. Star Cement operates plants and logistics networks that procure and process limestone to produce clinker for cement, and the addition of Boro Lakhindong is presented as a strategic enhancement of feedstock availability. The preferred bidder status secures rights to the specified lease area under the terms of the auction process.
Financial results for the company in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026 showed a consolidated net profit rise of 20.24 per cent to Rs 1,481.0 mn on an 11.54 per cent increase in revenue to Rs 11,735.5 mn compared with the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Those results reflected higher sales volumes and revenue growth in the company’s primary markets and are cited in company disclosures accompanying the lease announcement. The reported performance provides context to the company’s ability to pursue and finance new mining lease opportunities.
Market reaction to the declaration was modest, with the scrip rising zero point thirty six per cent to trade at Rs 212 on the BSE. The award of the Boro Lakhindong lease concludes the e-auction process for the west block and assigns operational rights to Star Cement as the preferred bidder, subject to completion of statutory and contractual formalities.
