New entrant

How quickly can a new entrant rewrite an old category?

Birla OpusPaintsApr ’25 → Aug ’26

Over the 16 months from Apr ’25 to Aug ’26, Birla Opus’s Buying Intent rose from 13.9 to 112.8 (+710%).

What caught our attention

Birla Opus entered decorative paints at a scale usually associated with established players, in a category long led by a handful of incumbents.

A large launch is easy to see in distribution and advertising. Whether consumers are becoming ready to buy is harder to see.

What BII shows

Buying Intent

Buying Intent: 13.9 to 112.8, Apr ’25 to Aug ’26 · +710% in 16 months.

Why this matters

Presence in the market can be built quickly with capital. Consumer readiness usually takes longer to form.

A new entrant’s Buying Intent shows whether that readiness is taking shape, separately from how visible the brand has become. For Birla Opus, the 16-month movement suggests consumer keenness is beginning to catch up with the brand’s presence — though a rise from a low base should always be read alongside the levels themselves.

What we would watch next

BII reads every brand every month, so each of these can be followed as it develops.

  • Whether Buying Intent keeps rising, or settles, as the launch period recedes.
  • How Brand Trust develops — a new brand may have to earn it after it has been noticed.
  • How Birla Opus’s Buying Intent compares with the category’s established brands month by month.

How BII can be used this way

New-entrant and launch tracking

For a launch or a new entrant, BII tracks whether consumer keenness to buy is forming, and how quickly, alongside Brand Trust and Brand Desire.

For incumbents, the same reading shows whether a new entrant is starting to register in their category.

See the six ways brands use BII

Method and caveats

Period
Apr ’25 compared with Aug ’26 — 16 months of monthly BII readings.
Category
Paints.
Scope
BII’s monthly national reading across the 16 cities it covers.
Reading
The +710% change compares the first and last readings in the span. The Apr ’25 reading rests on a thin base, as is usual for a brand consumers are only beginning to consider, so the direction is more reliable than the size of the percentage. Figures describe what moved, not why.

Independent BII analyses. Brands featured are selected because we find the market development noteworthy; inclusion does not imply a client relationship.

What would BII show underneath your brand?

The same monthly readings — Buying Intent, Brand Trust and Brand Desire — for your brand, its category and its competitors.

More brand reads

  • Buying Intent · July ’26

    Buying Intent: 3.5, July ’26.

    Signature · Buying Intent
    35.8
    Royal Stag · Buying Intent
    22.9
    Brand Desire, May–Jul ’26
    1.2 to 4.4 to 5.8

    An acquisition can immediately transfer sales, scale and distribution. Consumer keenness to buy the brand is a separate asset that may still have to be built.

  • Rebrand / Turnaround

    Vi

    Can Desire recover before Trust?

    Buying Intent · Aug ’25 → Aug ’26

    Buying Intent: 67.8 to 121.3, Aug ’25 to Aug ’26.

    Brand Desire
    45.8 to 154.2
    Brand Trust
    88.5 to 63.8

    Vi’s Buying Intent and Desire moved sharply up even while Trust declined. A brand recovery may not move every consumer measure at the same time.

    What follows next — Trust?