Today we're going to do a small experiment. We are actually going to build a live brand along with sir in real time. Where would you recommend that we focus on?
And do you think that's large enough of a market?
Huge. I don't believe in India 2, India 3 as a market. This doesn't mean business here. Top 10% of India accounts for 74% of all packaged goods and 85% of all beauty products.
How do you arrive at a branding decision that this is the kind of identity I'll go with? So Superu was built around Ranbir Singh which was like you become super you once you consume something he's always has a lot of energy. Is that a formula thing for you that you build a brand around a personality? So for this hair, we should get in somebody. Who should that person be?
Arian. The studios of the world worked because of a reason that people are making at least seven eight selfies of themselves every day. You don't want to be seen in the same hairstyle and the same clothes. Imagine the identities you can create with a styling gel.
What kind of a campaign are we looking at as a launch campaign? How do we make a huge noise in the market that this has come in?
Let's talk about the real game is distribution. Would you go blink it first? Where do you start? What's your first 100 days? Manufacturing? How does that work when it comes to D2C?
That's the easiest piece. Today, formulation can be done on AI right now.
Okay. To launch this product, it should not be more than 25-30 days.
Yeah, you can launch on 31st of December.
Thank you so much for giving us your time. This is our second try at getting you. First time he was supposed to come a month ago but sir had a fell sick the night before but finally we were able to get him. Thank you so much for keeping your commitment. I really appreciate. And we were thinking about what to speak to you today and what topics to cover, and then we saw some of your podcasts with Raj and a bunch of other people, and we realized everybody's already heard your story from Pantaloons to Big Bazaar to everything. We should try something different today. So guys, today we're going to do a small experiment. We are actually going to build a live brand along with sir in real time.
So what we'll essentially do is we'll actually come up with a decision tree. We'll ask him what kind of a product we should build today. We'll give him all the options. Then he'll narrow down. Then we'll figure out which product. Then we'll figure out the market. Then we'll figure out the pricing. Then we'll figure out the branding. Then we'll figure out the distribution. We'll try to build live strategy in the next one hour. You guys are with me? Okay, then I think this was the best way to utilize your time. Half of these students are looking to build a consumer brand. Half of them. I wish that number goes down a little bit because too many consumer brands. Nonetheless, I also challenge any of you guys as Sir is giving his ideas, you guys can go on to lovable or whatever and start crafting that brand, whatever we speak about in real time on your phones. I will not penalize you if you're on your phones for today's session with me.
All right. AI is something sir we hold very dearly and we've been speaking about it for the last few minutes as well. So sir we'll dive right into it. What kind of a category in the consumer space excites you the most? Consumer durables, fashion, apparel, home living, beauty, personal care, package services. What excites you the most today? I'm okay with I believe there are excitement in every category food, fashion, home and lifestyle goods.
I think we will go with beauty and personal care. You good with that?
Okay. So within beauty and personal care, we have skin, hair, bath, grooming, fragrance, hygiene. Where would you recommend that we focus on?
Let's do hair. So why did you choose hair and not the others? I'm okay because there are not many brands around here.
Big white space in hair. There is an opportunity, big opportunity, and actually today's generation kids especially the men is very conscious about the hair.
Fair. Hair. Skin you mentioned skin but you didn't speak about skin.
Skin there are multiple brands and there is an opportunity. So we are currently working on many, many brands around beauty and personal care.
So we'll focus on hair more than skin because skin has...
We need you to have conviction.
Hair. I think the next trend is not beard. The next clean. Yeah. Because beard came with an interesting meme. We work on a lot of understanding of the society and the cultural replication which is called memes. The current boys in generation, the current men, they have performance anxiety, that's why they grow beard.
And what else excites you about hair? So one is that less competition, not too many players.
It's not about hair growth. I would say it's about hair styling like gels.
It's not styling. Why do we want to come to a product first?
Okay, fair. So the problem statement within hair is hair styling. For men.
Yeah. You are coming out with a new style and you are getting appreciated.
Okay. So hair styling for men.
And do you think that's large enough of a market?
I would rather concentrate it only for men.
Okay. So men hairstyle and what are the current brands? Do you guys know?
Would you like to segment the market a little bit and say you want to go after India 1, India 2, India 3?
Only India one. There's no market India 2, India 3 for me.
I don't believe in India 2, India 3 as a market. Top 10% of India accounts for 74% of all packaged goods and 85% of all beauty products. So the tiger biscuit effect, the parli effect. What will you earn? Maybe you know the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. There is no fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. Silk Pad is dead and so is the theory.
So India one as per you how do you define India one sir? Anybody who has domestic help at home, part time or full-time anything. And what would that translate to in terms of... 10% of India, 11-12% makes so 10% as India one that that's actually not bad. For me that would have been India 2 almost like India 1 is south Delhi, south Bombay. That is Singapore from India 1 only 50 lakh people. That's India zero. India one also we have broken up into Singapore, Poland and Mexico. The first 50 lakh people accounts for 15% of India's GDP. Three and a half crores like Poland same per capita they account for 15% of India's GDP and then Mexico 8 and a half crore, they live on EMIs. So total that's the size of India around 12 and a half, 13 crore people. So the segment we have picked is the 10 crore India 1. They have domestic help and they're probably making... 5 crores are male. So that's essentially. But do the women buy for men or do men buy for themselves?
Women will also buy for them.
So then the market is that much larger. Okay. So 10 to 12 crores India 1, 5 crore people target market. And out of which there would be 1 crore people. So you get them out here. So sir what would be the price point now of this product and how many ml and how many kinds of bottles or SKUs would you create?
But has to do a little bit of work on what is the consumption per use and it should last minimum a month. 150 to 200 ml I would say.
150 to 200 ml and for India 1 what would be the price point for something like this?
It depends on how you market it, how you brand it, but I think the affordability will come at 295.
295. Below that? Anything below that or not above that if you are looking at decent numbers? But then it wouldn't be India 1. India 1 doesn't want it should be more expensive. 295 is a good price, it's expensive.
295 for hair styling though. Because he's spending for one hair styling, lasting him for a month, so he's spending 10 rupees per hairstyle per day.
Per day of hairstyle. If he's using twice a day it's 20 rupees.
So the way you arrived at pricing is how they're currently spending on hair styling.
They're not spending anything. So it's a new spend for them.
It's a new no for let's say when they go to the salon you're pegging the price somewhere around that.
It's not about a salon. It's about styling at home. You can give an alternate look every day. If you look at today's generation, their biodata or LinkedIn or Twitter account, they are multi-identities. I'm a photographer, I'm a tracker, I'm a student. They write about themselves at least seven eight identities so they can create seven looks.
Okay that's a brand campaign but we'll come to that. So 295, I want to argue on that a little bit. Why not 1,000? Why not 1,500? Doesn't the product truly become aspirational at that price point and isn't price point also a signal of the aspiration value?
I think aspirational value signaling will come by the content you build. 295 at least people will attempt and get into a new habit formation because it's a new habit formation.
Would you have any other SKUs or only this one?
You have to have one hero SKU then you can build a lot. It depends on the brand you build.
How do you arrive at a branding decision that this is the kind of identity I'll go with whether it's a good bug or any of your other brands Superu. How did you arrive at that?
We arrived at our last new brand which we are launching with Ranbir Kapoor. We looked at his persona. His films have shown him as a character who is indecisive and always in flux. So we kept the name Flux Theory. Superu was built around Ranbir Singh which was like you become super you once you consume something. He always has a lot of energy.
Is that a formula thing for you that you build a brand around the personality?
So for this hair, we should get in somebody. Who should that person be?
Karthik Arian. We'll build the brand around him.
I can think of a brand also.
It'll be something beds or something.
I would rather position this brand on the mating category wherein a boy is meeting somebody and he's recognized for the styling of his hair.
Axe. That's hunting. This is farming.
He gets appreciation. The studios of the world worked because people are making at least seven eight selfies of themselves every day. You don't want to be seen in the same hairstyle and same clothes. Imagine the identities you can create with a styling gel.
So changing identities. I think that's a brand identity we're going towards. So we'll get a name. Keep thinking. But we'll move on. What kind of a campaign are we looking at as a launch campaign? How do we make a huge noise in the market? Of course, we have Arian Khan.
I would show Arian Khan with a different hairstyle and with a different woman every time.
Will you agree to do that?
Okay. So direct the ad for us.
You have to build a content again and again. Theme is multiple identities, multiple relationships.
So you have integrated a product with an IP with a Netflix IP into one.
Maybe targeting everyone who has been in a controversy like Sam and Beer Bicep and getting them all together.
I like that idea. We are going sarcastic, punny, creating puns and going after alternate folks who have controversies.
This sounds exciting sir.
Okay. Clearly we are now looking at 18 to 24, 25 beyond that I don't know if people are...
No, you'll be surprised. I think I am 60 plus but I'm as young as you boss.
I'm sure.
But you will not use the gel. Sorry, not the gel, the spray.
I'm still talking till 45. Where is the problem?
Till 45 people are farming or hunting.
Now we have a great brand campaign, brand integration, Arian Khan, form factor in a spray, cool brand story. I can also imagine doing a launch with Sam in one of his podcast style things. Now let's talk about distribution. Would you go blinkit first? Will you go offline first?
It's a quick commerce product.
Quick commerce, modern retail, general trade, e-commerce.
Where do you start? What's your first 100 days?
Quick commerce. My students keep telling me they take 20%, 30%.
Let them take. They'll take 30% plus. Where's the problem?
But what would be the economics of this?
