On this episode of Thrifty Titans., we explore the process of creating and launching a new product in the D2C personal care space with Mohit Goel, Co-Founder and Director of Vedic Cosmeceuticals, a leading Private Label Cosmetic Manufacturer.
We touch upon the challenges of launching a D2C personal care brand and the process of creating a product from ideation to launch. We also discover that being frugal in the early stages can be an advantage for future success, and the importance of staying true to brand ethos when creating products to appeal to the online consumer market. We also identify gaps in the market and the potential segments Vedic has identified, from probiotics to postmenopausal skincare ranges and niche sexual wellness products.
Tune in to this episode to learn about the process of creating and launching a new product in the personal care space.
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00:00:32
Mohit Goel: Welcome to the U Incorporated podcast with Me, Saka.
00:00:35
Saikat Pyne: On this week's episode, I have the pleasure of being
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Saikat Pyne: joined by Mohit Mohit Goal. He's the founder and director
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Saikat Pyne: at Vidic Cosmeceutical, which is one of India's leading end
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Saikat Pyne: to end private label manufacturer for personal care, skin care,
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Saikat Pyne: hair care, baby care and intimate care products.
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Saikat Pyne: Hits Brand has really worked with the likes of Nika
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Saikat Pyne: Fa India Bomba Shaving company, you name it.
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Saikat Pyne: And these brands have made use of amazing manufacturing expertise
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Saikat Pyne: right from concept to the final product.
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Saikat Pyne: V is one of those brands that would help any
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Saikat Pyne: aspiring D two c founder in the personal care space
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Saikat Pyne: to really build their brand from an idea to the
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Saikat Pyne: shelf right, from brainstorming to sourcing ingredients from formulation to
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Saikat Pyne: having bang on dispatch ready final products.
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Saikat Pyne: In the course of this episode with Mohe, I'm going
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Saikat Pyne: to try and unpack the journey of AD two C
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Saikat Pyne: founder through some of these steps. Maybe somebody who just
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Saikat Pyne: has an idea of the sector, somebody who might not
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Saikat Pyne: know the insights and the inner workings of R and
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Saikat Pyne: D in the sector and how somebody anybody with a
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Saikat Pyne: bit of determination and a lot of help from Mohe
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Saikat Pyne: and his team
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Saikat Pyne: can really launch a successful D two C brand in
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Saikat Pyne: the personal scale space. So, guys, with that, please join
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Saikat Pyne: me in welcoming Mohe to the U incorporated podcast. Welcome, sir.
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Mohit Goel: Thank you. Second pleasure for me to be here on
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Mohit Goel: your show. I just heard your introduction. I must say
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Mohit Goel: I never thought it was so impressive.
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Mohit Goel: Never heard so much about way. They and I didn't
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Mohit Goel: realise that we could be of so much help to
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Mohit Goel: the D two C brands. Thank you for having me over.
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Mohit Goel: And I would love to contribute my experiences and my
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Mohit Goel: thoughts on how
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Mohit Goel: entrepreneurs
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Mohit Goel: can launch successful brands.
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Saikat Pyne: Uh, what does it take to be successful in the sector?
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Mohit Goel: So I think there's a broad spectrum of founders that
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Mohit Goel: we have come across in my 20 years. In fact,
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Mohit Goel: I would not say 20 years. I would actually say
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Mohit Goel: the past 78 years because the 1st 15 odd years
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Mohit Goel: for me were spent more in consolidating our business because
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Mohit Goel: D two c was not super. But in the last
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Mohit Goel: 7 to 8 years,
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Mohit Goel: there's been a boom in the D two C sector
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Mohit Goel: and primarily a lot to do with funding being easy,
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Mohit Goel: marketplaces coming up, where
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Mohit Goel: selling the products becomes easier and a lot of entrepreneurs
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Mohit Goel: wanting to get into the space right.
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Mohit Goel: Coming back to your question. I think the one thing
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Mohit Goel: that sets apart founders
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Mohit Goel: in this space is the will to
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Mohit Goel: continue
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Mohit Goel: and differentiate their products from what is available in the
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Mohit Goel: market
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Mohit Goel: Right, what
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Mohit Goel: beauty and wellness has always been. A space which has
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Mohit Goel: had a lot of products, has had a lot of
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Mohit Goel: interest from women across the board.
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Mohit Goel: They've been there since several years.
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Mohit Goel: But what these D two C founders or these New
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Mohit Goel: Age founders have seen is that they recognised that there
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Mohit Goel: is a lack of good products in the sense we
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Mohit Goel: used to have very generalised products. And most of the
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Mohit Goel: products that used to come in specific areas were mostly
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Mohit Goel: imported products. So you get some intimate care products, say,
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Mohit Goel: four years five years ago from people used to get
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Mohit Goel: them from the West from the US from Europe from Japan.
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Mohit Goel: They were not so easily available in India.
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Mohit Goel: There were two F M T G brands but they
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Mohit Goel: were not so easily available. And this is just one
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Mohit Goel: example that I'm giving.
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Mohit Goel: But founders realise that there is a space. There is
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Mohit Goel: a gap in the market which can be exploited, so
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Mohit Goel: to say, or which can cater to a certain demand
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Mohit Goel: that
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Mohit Goel: consumers may have.
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Mohit Goel: And they've gone ahead and identified those gaps and meet
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Mohit Goel: for you.
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Mohit Goel: When I say founders, I mean, I I I have
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Mohit Goel: come across a wide gamut of founders where some founders,
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Mohit Goel: so to say, come with plenty of research done in
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Mohit Goel: a certain field. And, uh, they have researched their product.
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Mohit Goel: They have researched exactly what they want, the gap that
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Mohit Goel: that they have identified in the market, how they can
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Mohit Goel: fulfil that
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Mohit Goel: they've done their research. The other set of is who've
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Mohit Goel: got lured by the Amazons and the Ni cars, and
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Mohit Goel: they feel that because there's decent money to be made,
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Mohit Goel: they could come into the space,
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Mohit Goel: right? No.
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Mohit Goel: D two C,
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Mohit Goel: while it seems easy to enter, is actually a space
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Mohit Goel: that requires a lot of determination, a lot of grit
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Mohit Goel: and a lot of funds to be able to survive slowly,
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Mohit Goel: everybody manages to get that EBRI in place.
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Mohit Goel: The founders who've come in because they've got the funds
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Mohit Goel: take a lot of assistance from manufacturers like us
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Mohit Goel: in terms of product. And the the founders who come in,
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Mohit Goel: who already got their research in place will come to
00:06:02
Mohit Goel: us talking of how to get economies of how they
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Mohit Goel: can scale up operations because they've identified a certain segment
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Mohit Goel: and we as manufacturers partner with them in terms of
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Mohit Goel: giving them the right product and giving them the right
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Mohit Goel: credit period so that they can make a successful brand
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Mohit Goel: out of whatever they are launching. But in my opinion,
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Mohit Goel: I think
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Mohit Goel: a lot of patience and a lot of determination needed
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Mohit Goel: to find success in this space.
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Mohit Goel: It's not easy. It looks easy. But I have seen
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Mohit Goel: brands which have lost products but have failed to even
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Mohit Goel: sell off their first order consignments. Forget about placing another orders.
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Mohit Goel: At the same time, I've seen brands which have been
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Mohit Goel: immensely successful, have sold off their brands in 4 to
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Mohit Goel: 5 years time,
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Mohit Goel: humongous valuations and they made good money and there are
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Mohit Goel: people at the same time who are continuing with that
00:06:57
Mohit Goel: brand because they wish to continue with that. They've gone
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Mohit Goel: into associations with various bigger brands, creating a brand or
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Mohit Goel: brand or a house of brands
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Mohit Goel: and and so on. Are
00:07:09
Saikat Pyne: these people primarily from the personal care
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Mohit Goel: domain? Second, if you ask me, I think only about 5%
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Mohit Goel: of my buyers people who've started this company. The founders,
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Mohit Goel: so to say, are from a similar background.
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Mohit Goel: Most of them are from varied backgrounds, but I also
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Mohit Goel: feel that to run AD two c brand, you really
00:07:31
Mohit Goel: don't need to be from that segment. You need to
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Mohit Goel: have the basic sense of how to penetrate the market
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Mohit Goel: for getting the right product. You could have a right team.
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Mohit Goel: You could team up with manufacturers like us, and but
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Mohit Goel: you need to have a keen sense on how to
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Mohit Goel: market the product,
00:07:46
Mohit Goel: right. If you have a technical background, it helps. But
00:07:51
Mohit Goel: so when I when we deal with people from various
00:07:54
Mohit Goel: brands who started their career in the personal care segment,
00:07:59
Mohit Goel: they've primarily been in either colour segment or they've been
00:08:03
Mohit Goel: working with an F MC G because, see, because five
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Mohit Goel: years six years ago, there were too many to C brands,
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Mohit Goel: so people who used to be working in, say, a
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Mohit Goel: Hindustan Unilever or a re
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Mohit Goel: or any mommy. Now, while they have the knowledge, their
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Mohit Goel: exposure to
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Mohit Goel: so many different segments is very limited. But they've identified.
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Mohit Goel: So say, for example, there's this lady who's been a
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Mohit Goel: brand manager at or Alex. I'd say maybe a
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Mohit Goel: no.
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Mohit Goel: She comes into the market. She wants to launch her
00:08:39
Mohit Goel: own D two c brand.
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Mohit Goel: And she realises, OK, I need to do AD two
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Mohit Goel: C brand in the intimate care segment because I've seen
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Mohit Goel: products in the West which do extremely well over there.
00:08:50
Mohit Goel: L'Oreal in L'Oreal She probably doesn't have the experience of
00:08:54
Mohit Goel: dealing with an intimate care range because it's not part
00:08:56
Mohit Goel: of their portfolio, right. But she has a keen sense
00:08:59
Mohit Goel: on how to market the product. She sees a segment,
00:09:02
Mohit Goel: and when she deals with our R and D team,
00:09:05
Mohit Goel: she is able to understand the nuances of the experiences
00:09:08
Mohit Goel: which are going into the product.
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Mohit Goel: When my R N B team explains on my N.
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Mohit Goel: P D team explains a certain product on a certain
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Mohit Goel: ingredient being in the product that she's looking at, she
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Mohit Goel: may have a fairly decent idea because of her bag
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Mohit Goel: now, seeing that the founders who are not part of
00:09:27
Mohit Goel: the personal care industry, would come to us identify a segment.
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Mohit Goel: And I think they do a test market run where
00:09:33
Mohit Goel: they have a certain number of users basis, which they're
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Mohit Goel: able to identify whether the product works or doesn't work.
00:09:39
Mohit Goel: So that's how it generally works in both the scenarios.
00:09:43
Saikat Pyne: Got the Indian consumer until the E-commerce boom was very
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Saikat Pyne: happy getting quote unquote branded products, which was often a
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Saikat Pyne: synonym for products from M N CS. So what changed?
00:09:57
Saikat Pyne: Do you think that led to this D two c
00:09:59
Mohit Goel: boom? I think it's a combination of several factors. Second
00:10:02
Mohit Goel: one is, of course, because of the Internet, they've got
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Mohit Goel: a lot more exposure to
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Mohit Goel: a number of products being sold online.
00:10:10
Mohit Goel: I think the travel for Indians per se has also
00:10:13
Mohit Goel: increased largely in the past decade or so. There's a
00:10:17
Mohit Goel: lot more people who are holding out, so the exposure
00:10:20
Mohit Goel: to to a large number of products is always there.
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Mohit Goel: Whether it's a duty free shop or you go to
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Mohit Goel: a mall in Europe or Singapore, you see a whole
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Mohit Goel: lot of these products,
00:10:31
Mohit Goel: right? Plus, OK, so if I take an example of, say,
00:10:35
Mohit Goel: somebody staying in a place like Ambala,
00:10:37
Mohit Goel: if you don't have a mall there, you will have
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Mohit Goel: some Kirana stores who are selling or some beauty stores,
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Mohit Goel: so to say, with beauty advisor selling a few products
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Mohit Goel: Now, when this person staying in Amra logs into, say,
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Mohit Goel: Amazon or an icon,
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Mohit Goel: they get to see so many products
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Mohit Goel: right that they have this, this desire to try that
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Mohit Goel: product
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Mohit Goel: and
00:11:02
Mohit Goel: they are just enamoured by the choice of products available now.
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Mohit Goel: So somebody from this small town in Bala went to Singapore.
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Mohit Goel: He saw so many products. There's a limit to the
00:11:12
Mohit Goel: number of products he or she can carry back one
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Mohit Goel: because they're expensive
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Mohit Goel: and secondly, they don't know how many to get. OK,
00:11:19
Mohit Goel: so you get 10, 12, 30 products, but then they
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Mohit Goel: finish off and then you're not travelling. So what do
00:11:24
Mohit Goel: you do? Even if you go to Delhi, you'll probably
00:11:26
Mohit Goel: find a little more choice. But when you log into
00:11:28
Mohit Goel: an Amazon, you log into a I car. You see
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Mohit Goel: so many different products products across brands you've never heard
00:11:34
Mohit Goel: of They're good looking products. They are products you've never
00:11:37
Mohit Goel: heard of. They talk of various various things So intimate
00:11:41
Mohit Goel: care products not so easily available on shops. For whatever reasons.
00:11:46
Mohit Goel: OK, in most of the towns, people are conservative. So
00:11:48
Mohit Goel: do you not find them easily available? Sexual wellness products
00:11:51
Mohit Goel: not easily available so people log in. They get the
00:11:53
Mohit Goel: best of products. They order there. That's where the boom
00:11:57
Mohit Goel: instagram instagram you open instagram. There are so many influencers there.
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Mohit Goel: There are so many ads popping up. You do get tempted.
00:12:05
Mohit Goel: I'm from this industry. I know how it works. But still,
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Mohit Goel: trust me. When I go on to instagram and I
00:12:11
Mohit Goel: see a certain ad, I get tempted to buy it.
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Mohit Goel: Maybe not in beauty. Maybe if I see, say, a
00:12:15
Mohit Goel: suitcase or I see shoes, I just get tempted to
00:12:18
Mohit Goel: buy them so I can well imagine how the consumer
00:12:21
Mohit Goel: is thinking
00:12:23
Mohit Goel: right.
00:12:24
Mohit Goel: And I think that's what when we create products, we
00:12:27
Mohit Goel: are to try and understand very clearly from the brand.
00:12:31
Mohit Goel: What their brand ethos is, what they are actually looking at,
00:12:34
Mohit Goel: because sometimes you realise that the brand owner is so
00:12:39
Mohit Goel: is so focused on launching their own products that they
00:12:42
Mohit Goel: sometimes may fall out of the line in the sense that, OK,
00:12:46
Mohit Goel: you have an IIC story, but you may want an
00:12:49
Mohit Goel: apple in cinema.
00:12:50
Mohit Goel: So if we're not fit that line, so our team
00:12:53
Mohit Goel: understands what exactly is the brand ethos? What is your
00:12:57
Mohit Goel: brand story? And then we develop products. According
00:13:00
Saikat Pyne: Let's through the course of this episode, try and develop
00:13:04
Saikat Pyne: a product.
00:13:05
Saikat Pyne: Let's say we have an aspiring G T C founder
00:13:08
Saikat Pyne: in the skincare segment or, let's say, sexual wellness. And
00:13:12
Saikat Pyne: let's say her name is Rea. So Shreya is this
00:13:17
Saikat Pyne: marketing manager at some startup. She has always had a
00:13:21
Saikat Pyne: passion to build something of her own in the intimate
00:13:25
Saikat Pyne: care segment, and
00:13:28
Saikat Pyne: she does not still have a semblance of what it
00:13:31
Saikat Pyne: is that she wants to build.
00:13:33
Saikat Pyne: So what should be the steps that Shia should guide
00:13:37
Saikat Pyne: herself through before she approaches? We take very
00:13:41
Mohit Goel: good question because I think that is one question that
00:13:44
Mohit Goel: most aspiring founders would like to hear. Uh, so in
00:13:47
Mohit Goel: Rea's case, I think she needs to do some research
00:13:51
Mohit Goel: on
00:13:52
Mohit Goel: the kind of products currently available in the market
00:13:55
Mohit Goel: say in the Indian market, right? At the same time,
00:13:58
Mohit Goel: look at trends in the West because
00:14:01
Mohit Goel: ultimately there's a lot of friends from the West that
00:14:04
Mohit Goel: come into India. But a little later we eventually do
00:14:07
Mohit Goel: come in here. OK, while we also pioneered something, but
00:14:10
Mohit Goel: it's a new category which is already prevalent in the West.
00:14:14
Mohit Goel: It's quite popular there in the West, but it's catching
00:14:16
Mohit Goel: up now in India, So she should do her research
00:14:19
Mohit Goel: on the products available in India. She should do her
00:14:21
Mohit Goel: research on the products available in, in, say, the US
00:14:25
Mohit Goel: or in Europe. And then what she needs to understand
00:14:29
Mohit Goel: is
00:14:31
Mohit Goel: whether she wants to
00:14:33
Mohit Goel: go via Amazon or she wants to go directly to
00:14:37
Mohit Goel: the consumer by opening shops.
00:14:40
Mohit Goel: Right. But this is going to be a medium to
00:14:42
Mohit Goel: approach the consumer. She then needs to. She then needs
00:14:45
Mohit Goel: to come to us, have a preliminary discussion with us
00:14:48
Mohit Goel: at this. This is what I want to launch. This
00:14:50
Mohit Goel: is what I'm aspiring to launch. Take some inputs. We
00:14:54
Mohit Goel: are always there to give inputs. She will give us
00:14:56
Mohit Goel: her data on what she's accumulated, and we will give
00:14:59
Mohit Goel: her our thoughts on on her idea. If we don't
00:15:03
Mohit Goel: have enough information, we will tell her that we'll get
00:15:05
Mohit Goel: back to you in, say, a couple of days or
00:15:07
Mohit Goel: three days. Four days.
00:15:09
Mohit Goel: We do some research on that, get back to her
00:15:12
Mohit Goel: and then, of course, then she needs to go on
00:15:14
Mohit Goel: to a brand agency and get all those things in place.
00:15:19
Mohit Goel: When share discusses this project with us, we also give
00:15:22
Mohit Goel: a tentative ideas on where the cost of the product
00:15:25
Mohit Goel: will be. What is the best way of packaging the product? So, say,
00:15:29
Mohit Goel: for example,
00:15:31
Mohit Goel: are you
00:15:34
Mohit Goel: in a jar?
00:15:35
Mohit Goel: So while you may have identified a very fancy looking jar,
00:15:39
Mohit Goel: a very good looking jar the product per se may
00:15:41
Mohit Goel: probably not be good enough in a jar, so it
00:15:44
Mohit Goel: has to go in a tube. And this is just
00:15:46
Mohit Goel: just one of the examples that are right, right? So,
00:15:49
Mohit Goel: packaging formats, how the product is going to be priced. What,
00:15:54
Mohit Goel: according to us, are some of the things that she
00:15:58
Mohit Goel: needs to take care of. For example,
00:16:01
Mohit Goel: maybe not in this category. We have some actives which
00:16:04
Mohit Goel: are good when you use them on the face right
00:16:08
Mohit Goel: now when you use these active. These are expensive actives, though,
00:16:10
Mohit Goel: if you want to use them for a marketing purpose,
00:16:13
Mohit Goel: no need to use them at a high percentage in
00:16:16
Mohit Goel: a rins soft product
00:16:19
Mohit Goel: because the products will get washed off. The actor will
00:16:21
Mohit Goel: not stay on the body part where it's applied, so
00:16:25
Mohit Goel: it didn't make sense. So these are smaller tips or small.
00:16:29
Mohit Goel: What should I say? Small suggestions that we give to
00:16:32
Mohit Goel: founders when they are not aware of where
00:16:35
Mohit Goel: they want to be or what they want to launch. Exactly.
00:16:39
Mohit Goel: They have a brief idea. They have a vague idea,
00:16:41
Mohit Goel: but they don't know exactly what to do because they
00:16:43
Mohit Goel: are not from a technical background or they don't have
00:16:46
Mohit Goel: enough knowledge of that product. So that's where we step in.
00:16:48
Mohit Goel: We guide them
00:16:50
Mohit Goel: and they'll take it on from there.
00:16:52
Saikat Pyne: Got it? So Mohi. Let's see, we are having a
00:16:55
Saikat Pyne: look at the research that Shia has done. How detailed
00:17:00
Saikat Pyne: or how vague does that homework need to be for
00:17:04
Saikat Pyne: you to be able to help Shia at any level?
00:17:06
Mohit Goel: So second, before I answer that question specifically, I'd like
00:17:09
Mohit Goel: to say that we've reached a stage where
00:17:12
Mohit Goel: there's a lot of crowding in the D two c segment. OK, great.
00:17:17
Mohit Goel: When it comes to personal care, care, care care, true
00:17:20
Mohit Goel: now both and then I feel that
00:17:23
Mohit Goel: the only way a brand
00:17:26
Mohit Goel: can be successful
00:17:28
Mohit Goel: is by causing some sort of disruption.
00:17:31
Mohit Goel: OK, whether it's a disruption in category
00:17:34
Mohit Goel: or it's a disruption in packaging,
00:17:37
Mohit Goel: there has to be some sort of a disturb. Otherwise,
00:17:40
Mohit Goel: it's a way to
00:17:42
Mohit Goel: OK so I can launch
00:17:45
Mohit Goel: saying that it's not that me two products don't do well.
00:17:47
Mohit Goel: Me two products also do extremely well, and I will
00:17:50
Mohit Goel: give you examples of that.
00:17:52
Mohit Goel: Bye.
00:17:53
Mohit Goel: When it comes to a new category that Shea is
00:17:56
Mohit Goel: looking at, there could be two scenarios. One
00:17:59
Mohit Goel: similar products are already available in the D two C
00:18:01
Mohit Goel: segments or the d two c space here or they're
00:18:05
Mohit Goel: probably available in the G t space here.
00:18:08
Mohit Goel: Hm. The second scenario is that these products are
00:18:12
Mohit Goel: in a minimalist. They have a minimalistic presence in B
00:18:15
Mohit Goel: two c space, but they are popular abroad,
00:18:18
Mohit Goel: right?
00:18:19
Mohit Goel: So Sharia will typically come to us with a list
00:18:23
Mohit Goel: of products or some examples where she may have physical
00:18:26
Mohit Goel: samples or she may have a link like OK, this
00:18:28
Mohit Goel: is a product which is available in the U SI.
00:18:30
Mohit Goel: Want to launch this? I have seen similar products in
00:18:34
Mohit Goel: on Amazon, manufactured by blah, blah, blah sold by Rand.
00:18:37
Mohit Goel: But I don't like this. No, this product gives a
00:18:40
Mohit Goel: very discrete look. It gives It's very well packaged, but
00:18:42
Mohit Goel: the one available in India is not so well packaged,
00:18:45
Mohit Goel: so I don't know. But I think the space is
00:18:47
Mohit Goel: going to do well. Now.
00:18:49
Mohit Goel: If somebody asked me specifically that, OK, this is a
00:18:51
Mohit Goel: product that you want to create. Will it do well?
00:18:54
Mohit Goel: I don't think we have answers.
00:18:57
Mohit Goel: Every product can do well.
00:19:00
Mohit Goel: Two things. 11. It needs to look good. It has
00:19:03
Mohit Goel: to be marketed right. And of course, the product has
00:19:06
Mohit Goel: to be effective.
00:19:07
Mohit Goel: Product efficacy. I'll not talk about because I presume that
00:19:10
Mohit Goel: product efficacy will come whether it's manufactured at or it's
00:19:13
Mohit Goel: manufactured by any other manufacturer. That's a given. Like you
00:19:16
Mohit Goel: go to a restaurant, you can't say I need good food.
00:19:18
Mohit Goel: You will. It's an assumption. It's a given that the
00:19:21
Mohit Goel: food will be good so right. What makes the restaurant special?
00:19:25
Mohit Goel: Maybe the ambient. Maybe the meals there at the restaurant,
00:19:28
Mohit Goel: maybe the service. These are a few things that
00:19:31
Mohit Goel: work in that environment
00:19:33
Mohit Goel: here. What, apart from the product being good, it needs
00:19:37
Mohit Goel: to have good packaging. It needs to be visually appealing
00:19:41
Mohit Goel: to the consumer, and it should be in the consumer's eyes.
00:19:45
Mohit Goel: Of course, the price factoring is always important,
00:19:48
Mohit Goel: right?
00:19:49
Mohit Goel: But I think these are the few things that are important. No.
00:19:55
Mohit Goel: When she tells us that these are the products that
00:19:58
Mohit Goel: she needs, we will give her advice on OK, how
00:20:01
Mohit Goel: we can differentiate this product from a product that's already
00:20:04
Mohit Goel: available in the Indian space. We may well be copying
00:20:09
Mohit Goel: the product, which is available in the US, to a
00:20:11
Mohit Goel: large extent because it's not available easily here. So it's
00:20:14
Mohit Goel: OK to do that. A lot of brands do that,
00:20:17
Mohit Goel: and we don't mind doing that because then there's some
00:20:19
Mohit Goel: sort of an appeal here to consumers. They feel the
00:20:22
Mohit Goel: product is very similar to the one in the US
00:20:24
Mohit Goel: and all that. So end of the day, the aim
00:20:27
Mohit Goel: is to give a good product to consumer right right now.
00:20:31
Mohit Goel: So when she comes to us with this limited knowledge,
00:20:33
Mohit Goel: we give her all these inputs. And then which in
00:20:35
Mohit Goel: many cases we work very closely with the design agency
00:20:38
Mohit Goel: that share is working with and give them our inputs.
00:20:42
Mohit Goel: So that's that's practically that's precisely how it works now,
00:20:47
Mohit Goel: coming back to the point that I made about products
00:20:50
Mohit Goel: right in meat products. Also, there is a certain differentiation
00:20:54
Mohit Goel: that is needed so we may have a body lotion,
00:20:57
Mohit Goel: and I'm seeing this lately. There's a lot of interest
00:21:00
Mohit Goel: in body care product. It's a plain, simple shower. It's
00:21:03
Mohit Goel: a plain, simple body lotion.
00:21:06
Mohit Goel: Yeah, what makes these perks work?
00:21:10
Mohit Goel: We have a regular Vaseline. We have a Vaseline lotion.
00:21:14
Mohit Goel: We have X Y Z lotions. We have a shower gel.
00:21:16
Mohit Goel: What makes it work?
00:21:18
Mohit Goel: Very plain. Simple concept Fragrance has to be outstandingly good.
00:21:22
Mohit Goel: Packaging has to be outstandingly good. I think that's where
00:21:27
Mohit Goel: has created a mark. Many people wanted to copy body shop,
00:21:32
Mohit Goel: but
00:21:34
Mohit Goel: a bath and body works. I've seen teenagers going crazy
00:21:38
Mohit Goel: about bath and body works. Nobody sees the ingredients. They're
00:21:41
Mohit Goel: plain simple body lotions, plain simple body washes, body mist
00:21:45
Mohit Goel: the appealing thing. There is the fragrance, so there has
00:21:49
Mohit Goel: to be one particular aspect which you need to identify. OK,
00:21:52
Mohit Goel: this is what is going to make this sort of
00:21:54
Mohit Goel: a product work.
00:21:56
Mohit Goel: OK, yeah, and and capitalise on that.
00:21:59
Mohit Goel: So how you get the differentiation is you have to.
00:22:01
Mohit Goel: That main point has to be there, plus a differentiating
00:22:04
Mohit Goel: factor
00:22:06
Mohit Goel: when you can get a combination of these two.
00:22:08
Mohit Goel: I think you got up. You got the right product.
00:22:11
Mohit Goel: When you go for a face cream, say for you,
00:22:13
Mohit Goel: you're going for a vitamin C cream. Now
00:22:15
Mohit Goel: a vitamin C cream is a cream that's made of
00:22:18
Mohit Goel: a certain active that works on the skip. If you
00:22:22
Mohit Goel: compromise on that active, I think the product will get compromised.
00:22:26
Mohit Goel: But that's where you can be active there. In the
00:22:29
Mohit Goel: case of body products, you'll go with, say, the fragrance
00:22:32
Mohit Goel: because it's an experiential product
00:22:35
Mohit Goel: with an experiential product. There is a product that tackles
00:22:38
Mohit Goel: a particular problem.
00:22:40
Mohit Goel: Those are the two segments that you look at and
00:22:43
Mohit Goel: then you create products. Accordingly. You try and create products
00:22:46
Mohit Goel: which fit in one of the other segments.
00:22:50
Mohit Goel: Got it. Take
00:22:51
Saikat Pyne: me through the first day that you'd meet Shia until
00:22:54
Saikat Pyne: you delivering 10 products or
00:22:55
Mohit Goel: whatever. So typically, how this works is that when she
00:22:58
Mohit Goel: comes to us with a list of products we would
00:23:01
Mohit Goel: actually be discussing rather grilling her on why she wants
00:23:05
Mohit Goel: to do this. What she sees in the market that
00:23:09
Mohit Goel: is wanting her to enter this segment. What are the
00:23:12
Mohit Goel: benchmark products that she's got?
00:23:14
Mohit Goel: Uh, what is the pricing segment she's looking at? And
00:23:17
Mohit Goel: once we have an idea on all this, we tell
00:23:18
Mohit Goel: her that. OK, we are going to formulate a few
00:23:21
Mohit Goel: products for you
00:23:23
Mohit Goel: basis, which we can then move on to the next step.
00:23:26
Mohit Goel: So she goes back home. Shea is busy studying the market.
00:23:31
Mohit Goel: She's probably trying to find other manufacturers also probably going
00:23:34
Mohit Goel: and meeting other manufacturers also, And then finally, we call
00:23:37
Mohit Goel: she after, say, a week, 10 days, and we can
00:23:39
Mohit Goel: share your products already so you can come and have
00:23:42
Mohit Goel: a look at them or we courier them out to her.
00:23:45
Mohit Goel: So she has a feel of this product, and most
00:23:48
Mohit Goel: founders would typically try the product on themselves first because
00:23:53
Mohit Goel: they don't
00:23:54
Mohit Goel: have the test market as such. Now they would give
00:23:58
Mohit Goel: it to friends and families, rather the product, so
00:24:02
Mohit Goel: the feedback would be good. The feedback would be.
00:24:06
Mohit Goel: If feedback is bad, we will rework the product and
00:24:09
Mohit Goel: send out to share again.
00:24:11
Mohit Goel: If the feedback is good enough, we may tinker around
00:24:13
Mohit Goel: a bit with, say, fragrance, colours and other things. So
00:24:16
Mohit Goel: she might say OK, the product smells nice. The product
00:24:19
Mohit Goel: looks nice, but the products a little sticky or I
00:24:24
Mohit Goel: like I'd like a little more hydration to my skin
00:24:27
Mohit Goel: because that my skin feels dry. So those are the
00:24:29
Mohit Goel: few changes that we make and give it out to
00:24:33
Mohit Goel: Now's typical question. There would be
00:24:37
Mohit Goel: What is the cost of
00:24:39
Mohit Goel: right? So we work out a costing structure for her.
00:24:43
Mohit Goel: She'll say, OK, I want to go with 100 m
00:24:45
Mohit Goel: l 200 m l whatever pack size X y z
00:24:47
Mohit Goel: and then she will say OK, now I would like
00:24:51
Mohit Goel: to get some samples so that I can try them
00:24:54
Mohit Goel: out on more people and get a genuine feedback because
00:24:57
Mohit Goel: right now it's been tried on friends and family. But
00:24:59
Mohit Goel: I'd like to try
00:25:01
Mohit Goel: now in such a case. We generally tell that we
00:25:04
Mohit Goel: would like to give you two or three iterations so
00:25:07
Mohit Goel: that
00:25:09
Mohit Goel: if a customer doesn't like one and likes the other,
00:25:13
Mohit Goel: then we can at least take a call, depending on
00:25:15
Mohit Goel: the number of users who've tried it.
00:25:17
Mohit Goel: Typically, this lasts between 2 to 4 weeks, where the
00:25:21
Mohit Goel: trials come in and then by that time things are
00:25:24
Mohit Goel: more finalised. Now. At this stage, Rea is clear with
00:25:28
Mohit Goel: her go to market strategy. The product goes into stability
00:25:33
Mohit Goel: with a commercial pointed,
00:25:36
Mohit Goel: So we will then apply for the manufacturing licence for
00:25:40
Mohit Goel: that product. I mean, we have to take an approval
00:25:42
Mohit Goel: from the FDA. We will put the product in any
00:25:45
Mohit Goel: case goes into ST she may launch it. Now she
00:25:47
Mohit Goel: will launch it six months down. The line goes to stability.
00:25:50
Mohit Goel: We start. If she's ready with that, go to market strategy,
00:25:53
Mohit Goel: then trials on the packaging start taking place if she's
00:25:58
Mohit Goel: clear with her packaging option.
00:26:00
Mohit Goel: So when the trials start taking place and all these
00:26:03
Mohit Goel: activities go hand in hand till a Shea is ready
00:26:07
Mohit Goel: to launch the product. If Shea is ready to launch
00:26:09
Mohit Goel: the product then of course, stability takes anywhere between 2
00:26:13
Mohit Goel: to 3 months on an expected basis.
00:26:15
Mohit Goel: And during this time, mostly founders get their artworks and
00:26:19
Mohit Goel: the designs and everything finalised.
00:26:22
Mohit Goel: And then I go in for
00:26:24
Mohit Goel: a commercial order replacement, where we order the raw materials,
00:26:27
Mohit Goel: the packaging materials, and then take it out from there.
00:26:31
Mohit Goel: In a lot of cases, I've seen that post the
00:26:33
Mohit Goel: first two or three orders. There are some minor changes
00:26:36
Mohit Goel: which are needed in the products which manufacturers are to
00:26:40
Mohit Goel: do because they may make a wider feedback that they
00:26:44
Mohit Goel: get from the market. They may decide to make those changes,
00:26:47
Mohit Goel: and those changes could be very simple in terms of
00:26:49
Mohit Goel: maybe
00:26:50
Mohit Goel: changing the pump of a bottle because
00:26:53
Mohit Goel: they found that it breaks during transportation.
00:26:57
Mohit Goel: Or you might say that the fragrance dosage needs to
00:27:00
Mohit Goel: be increased slightly, So some of them do that some
00:27:03
Mohit Goel: of the bigger ones, the bigger companies who are now
00:27:06
Mohit Goel: getting into the D two C segment are well versed
00:27:09
Mohit Goel: with all this. So they will do the trials accordingly,
00:27:12
Mohit Goel: and they will not go with changes during the once
00:27:14
Mohit Goel: they've launched the so both these things happen, and both
00:27:19
Mohit Goel: are OK
00:27:20
Mohit Goel: because some are trying out and some have crossed that
00:27:24
Mohit Goel: stage where they've done. They've probably gone through it three
00:27:27
Mohit Goel: years ago, four years ago, but now they're well versed.
00:27:30
Mohit Goel: So they know. OK, these are the problems that can
00:27:32
Mohit Goel: come in, so we might as well do an extent trial,
00:27:34
Mohit Goel: other things,
00:27:37
Mohit Goel: how the process
00:27:38
Saikat Pyne: works. Got it. I have two questions for you here. Mohe.
00:27:42
Saikat Pyne: One is you said it will go into stability. Could
00:27:45
Saikat Pyne: you explain what that would mean?
00:27:48
Mohit Goel: So every product that's formulated is we have to do
00:27:51
Mohit Goel: a stability in the sense that the product is kept
00:27:54
Mohit Goel: at various temperatures. We keep it at five degrees. We
00:27:56
Mohit Goel: keep it at room temperature and we keep it at
00:27:59
Mohit Goel: 45 or 50 degrees,
00:28:01
Mohit Goel: and we study how the product is behaving over a
00:28:04
Mohit Goel: period of three months.
00:28:06
Mohit Goel: In most cases, it's supposed to be done for six months,
00:28:08
Mohit Goel: but most of these brands don't have the time, so
00:28:11
Mohit Goel: there's an accelerated study that happened.
00:28:13
Mohit Goel: We typically study these after one week or two weeks,
00:28:17
Mohit Goel: then a month,
00:28:18
Mohit Goel: and we record all this data and then we analyse
00:28:21
Mohit Goel: whether the product is stable. It's not stable. What are
00:28:24
Mohit Goel: the changes which are occurring? So sometimes you see that
00:28:27
Mohit Goel: because and it's not to say that, OK, if I
00:28:30
Mohit Goel: made a body lotion with tomorrow, I use the same
00:28:34
Mohit Goel: thing with the Y fragrance. It's going to be stable. Look,
00:28:36
Mohit Goel: maybe the fragrance causes it to causes the product to
00:28:39
Mohit Goel: separate or break down. These are typical nuances that happen
00:28:43
Mohit Goel: with every product,
00:28:44
Mohit Goel: right? We have to ensure that the product given out
00:28:48
Mohit Goel: to the consumer state,
00:28:49
Mohit Goel: of course, because you don't want to be opening a
00:28:51
Mohit Goel: jar and finding water floating on on top or oil
00:28:55
Mohit Goel: floating on top so you don't want that you want
00:28:57
Mohit Goel: a product that is has a consistent texture. Looks good.
00:29:02
Mohit Goel: It's not granular unless it's a scrub and it feels
00:29:06
Mohit Goel: nice from the top of the jar to the bottom
00:29:08
Mohit Goel: of the jar.
00:29:09
Mohit Goel: It stays that way for the shelf life of the product.
00:29:14
Saikat Pyne: Got it? The second question that I had was, except
00:29:17
Saikat Pyne: for reading
00:29:19
Saikat Pyne: how many other plug and play players that I need
00:29:24
Saikat Pyne: to work
00:29:24
Mohit Goel: with. I think in the beginning, most of these most
00:29:28
Mohit Goel: of the brands outsource everything, whether it's warehousing or it's distribution,
00:29:33
Mohit Goel: transportation to Amazon or
00:29:36
Mohit Goel: agency. Also marketing. They typically market through influencers or they
00:29:41
Mohit Goel: have ads coming on in the online space. So all
00:29:44
Mohit Goel: these things are typically outsourced. Still, the time they get
00:29:48
Mohit Goel: in little money from product sales or from funding. And
00:29:51
Mohit Goel: then they build a team, which starts doing a lot
00:29:53
Mohit Goel: of this in house. So I've seen brands typically reach
00:29:58
Mohit Goel: that stage in, say, 12 months where they slowly build
00:30:01
Mohit Goel: onto their teams. They'll slowly get an R and D
00:30:03
Mohit Goel: person also on board, who can help,
00:30:06
Mohit Goel: uh, formulate the product and then come to us. So initially,
00:30:12
Mohit Goel: I don't think many of them that they start off
00:30:15
Mohit Goel: with
00:30:16
Mohit Goel: a whole team in place, unless they are very well funded,
00:30:20
Mohit Goel: where they have the money to hire people and keep
00:30:22
Mohit Goel: them in house.
00:30:24
Mohit Goel: Generally, the ones who start small would outsource and then
00:30:27
Mohit Goel: slowly start their teams.
00:30:29
Saikat Pyne: Correct. And that sort of leads us to the most
00:30:33
Saikat Pyne: important question in this entire episode, which is, if Rea
00:30:36
Saikat Pyne: is not funded, how much money does she need to
00:30:39
Saikat Pyne: bring to Mohit? Uh, it's
00:30:42
Mohit Goel: a vast ocean out there when it comes to
00:30:47
Mohit Goel: and launching and sustaining
00:30:50
Mohit Goel: If you say that, what's a typical amount that Sharia
00:30:53
Mohit Goel: needs to come? As irrespective of the fact whether she's
00:30:56
Mohit Goel: going to launch the product or not, It's a very
00:30:58
Mohit Goel: miniscule amount,
00:31:00
Mohit Goel: probably less than that for three products under piece, much
00:31:05
Mohit Goel: less than that
00:31:06
Mohit Goel: which includes the sampling fees, which includes typically the fees
00:31:10
Mohit Goel: for the samples, the charges for the samples and she
00:31:12
Mohit Goel: has cost on test marketing of those between friends and
00:31:16
Mohit Goel: families or a close user.
00:31:18
Mohit Goel: But
00:31:19
Mohit Goel: when it comes to how much money a brand needs
00:31:22
Mohit Goel: to have to get into this, I think
00:31:25
Mohit Goel: nothing less than a few crows is also
00:31:29
Mohit Goel: is enough,
00:31:30
Mohit Goel: of course. So market plans would say that OK, an
00:31:34
Mohit Goel: amount of a couple of growers would go down pretty
00:31:38
Mohit Goel: fast and and would be at a stage where you'd
00:31:41
Mohit Goel: be looking to raise money. And trust me, you don't
00:31:44
Mohit Goel: want to be wanna be. Of course,
00:31:47
Saikat Pyne: for the next couple of months, as grows, this brand
00:31:53
Saikat Pyne: logistics is going to be a very important part of
00:31:56
Saikat Pyne: her operations, and warehousing is going to be important for her.
00:32:00
Saikat Pyne: How does that work?
00:32:02
Mohit Goel: So unfortunately, second, we don't we don't do warehousing for
00:32:05
Mohit Goel: any of our clients.
00:32:07
Mohit Goel: It typically ours is a model where the product is
00:32:10
Mohit Goel: made to order, and once it's ready, it shipped.
00:32:14
Mohit Goel: It's also a lot to do with space constraints, because
00:32:18
Mohit Goel: most of the space that we have is already locked
00:32:20
Mohit Goel: up in empty cartons or empty unused packaging materials or
00:32:24
Mohit Goel: raw materials. Or
00:32:26
Mohit Goel: I think everybody is. This grows that they find the
00:32:29
Mohit Goel: only thing in life is decent enough space. Any amount
00:32:33
Mohit Goel: of space that you take will get filled up
00:32:36
Mohit Goel: true, but yes, seeing that what I have seen founders
00:32:39
Mohit Goel: who've launched brands and managed to store products in their
00:32:42
Mohit Goel: one V H. K, where they stay because they want
00:32:44
Mohit Goel: to save every penny that they can. And in fact
00:32:47
Mohit Goel: that is the way
00:32:49
Mohit Goel: that is the way we've all started out that way.
00:32:51
Mohit Goel: When we had we've not had enough funds, we've not
00:32:53
Mohit Goel: had enough resources. We ourselves, I've done it. I'm I've
00:32:57
Mohit Goel: seen a lot of founders who lots of brands have
00:32:59
Mohit Goel: done it. They will typically stand there and get the
00:33:01
Mohit Goel: truck loaded on their own, or they'll come in their
00:33:04
Mohit Goel: own car and get the take the stuff on their
00:33:06
Mohit Goel: own because they want to save everything, and that's pretty normal.
00:33:08
Mohit Goel: I think it teaches you a lot because if you
00:33:11
Mohit Goel: are conservative with your funds in the beginning, it shows
00:33:15
Mohit Goel: that you're on the right path.
00:33:16
Mohit Goel: You splurge when you have enough money. When you don't
00:33:18
Mohit Goel: have money, you can work. You you save that for
00:33:22
Mohit Goel: every little thing that
00:33:24
Mohit Goel: you save can give you a little bit more,
00:33:27
Mohit Goel: right? So I've seen a lot of founders were staying
00:33:29
Mohit Goel: in one V H K two V H. K s
00:33:30
Mohit Goel: and they they've got the product there. They don't worry
00:33:34
Mohit Goel: about having a nice television or a fancy
00:33:38
Mohit Goel: the where they stay. It's all filled up with that,
00:33:41
Mohit Goel: and
00:33:42
Mohit Goel: that's how it is that we saw in this space.
00:33:45
Mohit Goel: And there's a different excitement to it because when two
00:33:49
Mohit Goel: years down the line, three years down the line, things change,
00:33:51
Mohit Goel: and when they change, you realise that you feel it's
00:33:54
Mohit Goel: an achievement and it is actually because, you know, you've
00:33:57
Mohit Goel: been in a room. If I say she has been
00:33:59
Mohit Goel: in this room where she's got her bed, she's got her,
00:34:03
Mohit Goel: she's got a little cooking area, and she's even got
00:34:07
Mohit Goel: products lying there,
00:34:08
Mohit Goel: right? She'll have a friend or a cleaner or someone
00:34:11
Mohit Goel: coming in and helping her with shipping these out. And
00:34:14
Mohit Goel: then slowly, she makes money and she moves into a
00:34:16
Mohit Goel: two b H K and a three b H K,
00:34:18
Mohit Goel: and then they outsource the storage. So it does give
00:34:22
Mohit Goel: you a kick in life because it's an achievement.
00:34:24
Mohit Goel: Whether it's small, it's an achievement. So it's as good
00:34:27
Mohit Goel: an achievement for as compared to a brand. Getting 100 grows.
00:34:31
Mohit Goel: So a brand, which is already at 50 c r. Turnover.
00:34:35
Mohit Goel: 100 c r turnover for them to get 100 crows
00:34:37
Mohit Goel: at that stage is a big achievement for Sharia to
00:34:40
Mohit Goel: typically from a one B H K going into two
00:34:42
Mohit Goel: B H K or a three b H K. Where
00:34:44
Mohit Goel: she can keep the cartons in a separate area is
00:34:48
Mohit Goel: also an achievement
00:34:49
Mohit Goel: of. But that's I think that teaches you a lot.
00:34:55
Saikat Pyne: Of course, the last couple of questions let's try and
00:34:59
Saikat Pyne: deep dive into helping prospective sharers listening to the episode
00:35:06
Saikat Pyne: and in terms of setting up the business for success
00:35:11
Saikat Pyne: and not just launching a product just for the heck
00:35:14
Saikat Pyne: of it.
00:35:15
Saikat Pyne: What are some of the niches that you see in
00:35:18
Saikat Pyne: the personal care segment through across the board, where you
00:35:23
Saikat Pyne: see there is a dearth of products where some of
00:35:27
Saikat Pyne: the people listening to the show can do their due
00:35:29
Saikat Pyne: diligence and come back to you or sand with their
00:35:32
Saikat Pyne: product ideas. Since
00:35:34
Mohit Goel: 2010, I think there are four or five concepts that
00:35:37
Mohit Goel: I worked on second. So then I worked on, but
00:35:40
Mohit Goel: we also had the temptation to launch our own brand.
00:35:43
Mohit Goel: In this segment,
00:35:44
Mohit Goel: we've realised that the grass always seems greener on the
00:35:47
Mohit Goel: other side. Our core area of expertise is
00:35:52
Mohit Goel: manufacturing and best to do that.
00:35:55
Mohit Goel: But sometimes you do get so excited because we're dealing
00:35:59
Mohit Goel: such a wide variety of ingredients. We do so much
00:36:01
Mohit Goel: of research on ingredients, and when we see a space
00:36:04
Mohit Goel: that's that's empty, we get empty
00:36:08
Mohit Goel: right. But you identified at various stages. We've identified various
00:36:12
Mohit Goel: segments which have possibly then, over a period of the
00:36:16
Mohit Goel: next 6 to 10 months, 6 to 12 months have
00:36:19
Mohit Goel: got
00:36:20
Mohit Goel: brands coming in,
00:36:22
Mohit Goel: even when we are not associated with those brands.
00:36:25
Mohit Goel: One of them was
00:36:27
Mohit Goel: the probiotic sector, which we identified some five years ago.
00:36:32
Mohit Goel: Probiotics
00:36:35
Mohit Goel: brands have come into it, but still
00:36:37
Mohit Goel: a pretty empty space. So to think
00:36:40
Mohit Goel: the other is postmenopausal range space, which is pretty empty.
00:36:46
Mohit Goel: I think that has a vast potential because these are
00:36:50
Mohit Goel: these are women who are approaching menopause or have attained menopause.
00:36:56
Mohit Goel: And they typically face a lot of issues with their kids,
00:37:01
Mohit Goel: which needs to
00:37:03
Mohit Goel: a brand that can take care of that, a brand
00:37:06
Mohit Goel: that can speak to them. No wonder. I think I
00:37:09
Mohit Goel: know that a couple of brands in the US have
00:37:11
Mohit Goel: launched in this space that did pretty well. Sexual wellness
00:37:14
Mohit Goel: is another category that's really coming up in India. Indians
00:37:17
Mohit Goel: are getting bold about things, so
00:37:20
Mohit Goel: it's really catching up. Yeah, I think art from this.
00:37:24
Mohit Goel: I mean, if I don't look at purely personal care
00:37:28
Mohit Goel: skin care, I think even the pet care Cate wonders.
00:37:32
Mohit Goel: So
00:37:34
Mohit Goel: while a large number of I think it's gonna be
00:37:36
Mohit Goel: more ingredient driven
00:37:38
Mohit Goel: rather than segment drive right now, we got a whole
00:37:41
Mohit Goel: lot of a lot of brands in the mom and
00:37:43
Mohit Goel: baby care sector.
00:37:45
Mohit Goel: Yeah, we were a lot of brand
00:37:47
Mohit Goel: a regular
00:37:49
Mohit Goel: post meal I don't think we have to that we
00:37:52
Mohit Goel: don't have brands that cater,
00:37:55
Mohit Goel: say people who are suffering from diabetes.
00:37:59
Mohit Goel: Diabetes is a medicine is a medicinal problem.
00:38:03
Mohit Goel: A lot of Indians suffer from
00:38:06
Mohit Goel: it's. It has its effect on the skin. So
00:38:09
Mohit Goel: I've seen it. In the West, you have ranges of
00:38:13
Mohit Goel: a typical number of products coming only for
00:38:16
Mohit Goel: care patients. Got it, got it.
00:38:19
Mohit Goel: I think it's there are a few segments which are
00:38:22
Mohit Goel: still intact,
00:38:24
Mohit Goel: and these are I personally feel that
00:38:28
Mohit Goel: post menopausal segment is a good enough SEG adapted.
00:38:34
Mohit Goel: You also spoke
00:38:35
Saikat Pyne: about how ingredients are going to work and not necessarily segments.
00:38:41
Saikat Pyne: And that sort of led me on to my next question,
00:38:43
Saikat Pyne: which is
00:38:44
Saikat Pyne: when aspiring founders are thinking about a prospective brand that
00:38:50
Saikat Pyne: they might want to launch. They often go very product
00:38:53
Saikat Pyne: specific as well,
00:38:55
Saikat Pyne: to the point where it might get too niche. And
00:38:57
Saikat Pyne: they said, So let's say I'm giving the most, you know,
00:39:00
Saikat Pyne: ballistic idea, which is, let's say, lip cap. I launch
00:39:04
Saikat Pyne: a special lip care product and my entire brand would
00:39:08
Saikat Pyne: be around lip care, and we'll have 100 variants of
00:39:11
Saikat Pyne: lip care products. Do you see that
00:39:14
Saikat Pyne: sort of product strategy ever working in markets like India,
00:39:18
Saikat Pyne: where a brand wants to own a segment and it's
00:39:21
Saikat Pyne: not vertically integrated, occur with multiple products associated products? What
00:39:26
Saikat Pyne: does your experience tell you about how Indian consumers go
00:39:30
Saikat Pyne: about wanting to buy products, especially personal care
00:39:33
Mohit Goel: products?
00:39:38
Mohit Goel: My thought is that when you restrict yourself to one
00:39:41
Mohit Goel: particular product segment, you are limiting yourself to a certain
00:39:47
Mohit Goel: segment of the society, which is good by it by society.
00:39:51
Mohit Goel: I believe that.
00:39:53
Mohit Goel: Say, for example, now, typically you are restricting yourself to
00:39:57
Mohit Goel: only for people who are gonna be using lip pus
00:40:01
Mohit Goel: right.
00:40:03
Mohit Goel: When somebody
00:40:05
Mohit Goel: buys a certain product from a certain brand,
00:40:08
Mohit Goel: the brand can then, and if the product is good,
00:40:10
Mohit Goel: the brand can then capitalise on
00:40:14
Mohit Goel: the
00:40:15
Mohit Goel: consumer, liking the product from that brand.
00:40:19
Mohit Goel: And should I move into other segments, other products in
00:40:24
Mohit Goel: it may be a similar segment or maybe other segment.
00:40:26
Mohit Goel: I don't see anything wrong with that.
00:40:29
Mohit Goel: Like, I don't think I've come across a brand which
00:40:32
Mohit Goel: is launching
00:40:35
Mohit Goel: only lip palms and then with 20 lip balms,
00:40:38
Mohit Goel: right? But seeing that
00:40:41
Mohit Goel: I do know of brands who've launched
00:40:43
Mohit Goel: five different products. Or maybe what you said started with
00:40:46
Mohit Goel: one launch five variants because they've got a decent response
00:40:51
Mohit Goel: they've launched onto. They've gone onto another product, launch five
00:40:55
Mohit Goel: or six variants there, then launched another product. They've launched
00:40:59
Mohit Goel: six or seven variants there, and they all
00:41:02
Mohit Goel: that strategy also works. But yes, the number of products
00:41:05
Mohit Goel: need to be more, because then you're targeting something more
00:41:08
Mohit Goel: than you. You are targeting a wider user base
00:41:12
Mohit Goel: with just 11 product, maybe different variants. Your user base
00:41:16
Mohit Goel: is very restrict
00:41:18
Mohit Goel: is like
00:41:20
Mohit Goel: it's a it's a very unless it's a very
00:41:23
Mohit Goel: this specific product. Even then I've seen. So there is
00:41:27
Mohit Goel: There are a couple of brands which say hair growth serums.
00:41:31
Mohit Goel: I launched that
00:41:33
Mohit Goel: go to sports,
00:41:35
Mohit Goel: but
00:41:36
Mohit Goel: after three years, four years,
00:41:39
Mohit Goel: because there are other players in the same segment. Now
00:41:44
Mohit Goel: you need to move on. You need to definitely launch
00:41:47
Mohit Goel: a new product because you identified a gap.
00:41:50
Mohit Goel: You launch a product there. You hit the market hard,
00:41:53
Mohit Goel: but suddenly, after two years, three years, you realise competition
00:41:56
Mohit Goel: is now presented,
00:41:57
Mohit Goel: so it's not as lucrative as it was three years ago.
00:42:01
Mohit Goel: What do you do in the case.
00:42:03
Mohit Goel: You definitely identify another segment, which is
00:42:07
Mohit Goel: barely up to now and hit that.
00:42:10
Mohit Goel: Got it. That's a a decent enough strategy which
00:42:14
Mohit Goel: ensures that the brand does well for a longer period
00:42:16
Mohit Goel: of time.
00:42:18
Saikat Pyne: Got it, Mohe. My last question would be around what
00:42:22
Saikat Pyne: you said about thinking ingredient first and thinking about ingredients
00:42:27
Saikat Pyne: and not just consumer segments. Often what would happen for,
00:42:31
Saikat Pyne: Let's say, Rea, who might, let's say, be in her
00:42:33
Saikat Pyne: late twenties. She knows one segment very well, and that
00:42:38
Saikat Pyne: is where, given that she's not from the industry, she
00:42:42
Saikat Pyne: presumes that her understanding of the user behaviour of a
00:42:47
Saikat Pyne: specific segment is going to ensure success in that segment.
00:42:51
Saikat Pyne: I know the teenage segment very well because when I
00:42:54
Saikat Pyne: was a teenage girl, I wanted multiple lip balms of
00:42:58
Saikat Pyne: X y z. I didn't have it so that sort
00:43:01
Saikat Pyne: of in that data set of one
00:43:04
Saikat Pyne: purely from your personal experience, you then presume Yes, this
00:43:08
Saikat Pyne: is going to work because you know the segment well,
00:43:11
Saikat Pyne: how can people who are not from the industry start
00:43:16
Saikat Pyne: thinking in ingredient
00:43:17
Mohit Goel: first? So, second I one I don't think anybody is
00:43:22
Mohit Goel: wrong
00:43:23
Mohit Goel: seeing that
00:43:25
Mohit Goel: we are not 100% always
00:43:27
Mohit Goel: when it comes to identifying a segment.
00:43:30
Mohit Goel: So when we get AAA new found, say somebody like
00:43:35
Mohit Goel: a coming in right and Shia wants this, we will
00:43:39
Mohit Goel: bounce off ideas basis. Our experience, they may or may
00:43:43
Mohit Goel: not be accepted by Shia does not mean that if
00:43:46
Mohit Goel: she doesn't accept what we say, we tell her. Sorry,
00:43:49
Mohit Goel: we're not doing it. No, it doesn't work like that.
00:43:51
Mohit Goel: So she's views are very well respected.
00:43:54
Mohit Goel: She may have a very valid point. We are not
00:43:57
Mohit Goel: the experts when it comes to marketing, we feel we
00:44:00
Mohit Goel: are good at creating products.
00:44:03
Mohit Goel: But when it comes to marketing, I think the brand
00:44:05
Mohit Goel: owners are far ahead of what we think. We only
00:44:08
Mohit Goel: give them suggestions on how typical product should be formulated
00:44:12
Mohit Goel: basis the brief that they want. We will give them
00:44:14
Mohit Goel: our experiences and carry on. So when
00:44:20
Mohit Goel: Shea says that she wants four different lip bums, but
00:44:24
Mohit Goel: it's very much doable and it is done
00:44:27
Mohit Goel: coming to the ingredient story. I think that is simply
00:44:30
Mohit Goel: one of the factors which differentiates a product
00:44:34
Mohit Goel: in certain products. The ingredient may not play play so
00:44:37
Mohit Goel: much of a role when it's more about experiential
00:44:41
Mohit Goel: products. So
00:44:44
Mohit Goel: a typical lip balm would. The basic purpose of a
00:44:48
Mohit Goel: lip balm is
00:44:50
Mohit Goel: moisturising the lips.
00:44:52
Mohit Goel: OK,
00:44:53
Mohit Goel: what gets added to it is a good flavour,
00:44:56
Mohit Goel: so you wouldn't want you wouldn't want a balm on
00:44:59
Mohit Goel: your lips. You want a good flavour,
00:45:02
Mohit Goel: you can
00:45:05
Mohit Goel: it. It should moisturise your lips so that the moisturiser
00:45:08
Mohit Goel: stay stays for a longer time, so, like you apply
00:45:11
Mohit Goel: it and after 10 minutes you need to apply it again,
00:45:13
Mohit Goel: or your lips get chapped or something. So these are
00:45:17
Mohit Goel: the two very important factors. Yes. Now, if you ask
00:45:21
Mohit Goel: me differentiation,
00:45:22
Mohit Goel: you suddenly you have a lot of smokers there. You
00:45:25
Mohit Goel: suddenly get something that
00:45:27
Mohit Goel: removes the darkness of the lips, or it removes a
00:45:30
Mohit Goel: tan from the lips, and I think you've covered it all.
00:45:35
Mohit Goel: When it comes to, say, a bad gel, the ingredients
00:45:38
Mohit Goel: play a very minimalistic role.
00:45:40
Mohit Goel: What, what? The fragrance it's about?
00:45:43
Mohit Goel: How will you feel
00:45:45
Mohit Goel: how the whole bathroom smells once you've used it? Those
00:45:50
Mohit Goel: are typically the important factors, saying that yes, it should
00:45:54
Mohit Goel: not be a drying bath gel
00:45:56
Mohit Goel: that those are the basics there, but the differentiating factor
00:45:58
Mohit Goel: there will be the fragrance,
00:46:00
Mohit Goel: ingredient or segment is something that's decided when the founder
00:46:06
Mohit Goel: discusses his or her venture to us. And in certain products,
00:46:11
Mohit Goel: the ingredient may play a different differentiating destructive factor.
00:46:15
Mohit Goel: In certain cases, the segment may be disruptive or
00:46:21
Saikat Pyne: got it. And on that insight note, guys, it's a wrap.
00:46:24
Saikat Pyne: Thank you so much for being on the show. Mo.
00:46:26
Saikat Pyne: It's really appreciated taking time
00:46:27
Mohit Goel: out. Thank you. Pleasure to be here.
00:46:31
Saikat Pyne: Guys. Please do tune in next week for the next
00:46:33
Saikat Pyne: episode of the U Incorporated podcast.
00:46:36
Mohit Goel: See ya.