An evening with Nitya Ganapathy

About Nitya Ganapathy

Nitya Ganapathy is a Media Marketing and Sales professional with 22 years of work experience across companies like Bennett Coleman and Co. Ltd., Viacom18 and TV Today.  She founded Nei Native a luxury Superfoods and Consumables venture in May 2021. Nei Native offers homemade, handcrafted ghee made using a traditional family recipe. The family enterprise also offers filter coffee powder, and thirattipaal, a Tamil dessert and aims to launch more products this year.

Nitya graduated from Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi in Psychology (Hons) and Post Graduate Degree in Media & Entertainment Management from SP Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR).

Introduction

Till early 2021, Nitya had not really been thinking of entrepreneurship. But once the idea came to her, she dived deep, spending 3 months studying the market. She realised that food is a huge market in India. The traditional Indian foods or superfoods have a special appeal. On every special occasion there is food and lavish spread. Every second post on the social media is about food.

In a manner of speaking the pandemic has made all of us home chefs. Customers are today spoilt for choice but are we making the right choice? Food is something which is consumed daily. So we should consume the right kind of food. Nei Native is trying to move consumers in the right direction.

The value proposition

Nei Native’s value proposition has three dimensions:

Nostalgia: This is the emotional plank. The product is meant to bring back childhood memories, forgotten memories of the old dining table, memories of the time we spent with our siblings as kids, memories of a younger mother and of course Sunday morning brunches.

Health and nutrition: This is the reason for buying the product. The product strengthens the immune system, aids in digestion and weight control, improves good cholesterol (HDL) and reduces bad cholesterol (LDL). It is rich in antioxidants and nutrients. Nei Native is not just great for the body but for the skin and hair too. It is meant for the infant, youngster, adult and senior citizen. The product is free of chemicals and additives.

Ecommerce: This provides the ease of buying. Nithya’s products include filter coffee, honey, peanut butter and the popular South Indian sweet therattipal. Nei Native has a pan India presence with sales through the website, ecommerce platforms and physical stores.

Positioning

Today, ghee is available in the market in the price range Rs 400 to ₹4000 per kilo. Nei native has positioned itself in the upper end of the market.

Nei native is homemade and handcrafted. It has a superior aroma, granular texture and nutty flavour. Indeed, these are the USPs. The whole idea is to ensure that the recipe which has been passed down the generation is available to everyone. The only competitor to this product is the ghee made by a mother or the grandmother in the family.

Nei Native does not target joint families where in all likelihood, the ghee is being made at home. The product is meant for nuclear families. The product has already evoked very strong emotions and attracted more than 4000 customers with high levels of repeat purchases.

The process of ghee making

Ghee making is a lost art. It is time consuming and laborious. The bilona method which Nitya has adopted produces pure ghee of superior quality. The process of making this ghee is described in the diagram below.

The production of the ghee needs a quiet and peaceful environment. It is typically made in the wee hours of the morning. The ghee is handcrafted and made with a lot of care. Some 25 to 30 litres of milk are used to produce one litre of ghee.

The by-product is buttermilk which really cannot be consumed. Ghee is the primary product for Nitya unlike the regular ghee brands where all the products which are generated can be sold and ghee is only a by- product. For Nitya, the full cost of 25 litres of milk is reflected in one litre. That is why the product is also more expensive.

The Ghee Market

India is the largest market for ghee in the world. The Middle East and Southeast Asia can also emerge as important markets. The ghee market in India is valued at ₹ 260,000 crores of which culture ghee accounts for only ₹500 crores. 99% of the brands are mass manufactured.

Distribution

Nei Native is available on its own website and also on the various ecommerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, Bigbasket, Wellversed, OneGreen, Dilicious. it is also available in brick and mortar stores in Nature’s Basket which is a national chain.

Nei Native is also available in gourmet stores in Bombay, Delhi, Pune. It has a tie up with restaurant welfare associations. The company is in touch with farmers markets and various exhibitions.

A family enterprise

Nei Native is a family enterprise in the true sense of the term. Nitya’s mother is the creator of ghee. Her father is the architect of filter coffee. The name Nei native was coined by her daughter. Nitya’s driver takes care of the logistics. The financial matters are handled by her uncles. The maid is responsible for the packaging.

As the business has grown, the operations have been shifted from Nitya’s house to her farm 2 hours away from Bombay. Even though it's a small company, the team is very effective and there are separate managers for production, logistics and branding.

Finding customers

How does Nitya find aspirational customers? She believes in the classical model. She sends a sample to places where people assemble. She identifies customers within the fringes of the Tier one and Tier 2 cities based on sampling and feedback. For Nitya, sampling is important because if someone likes the taste and gets hooked to the product, it is easy to sell them the same product and even other products.

Nithya has already distributed 5000 plus samples. Her product has succeeded through classic viral marketing and word of mouth. Nitya’s belief is that the first sale should lead to a repeat customer and finally a lifetime customer.

Q&A

On the journey

Entrepreneurship requires patience and perseverance. Because of all the challenges involved, we will be tempted to give up quickly in the first few months. The initial returns are too less for the effort we are putting in. In the FMCG business, at least 10 to 20 issues are faced everyday.

Even after the initial days, new issues will keep coming up. So, mindset is extremely important for an entrepreneur. We should be in it for the long haul.

As an entrepreneur, we must play all the roles from the peon to the CEO. We must be aware of any problem which occurs even though we don't need to micromanage. Heavy investments are required to begin with. But we don't get any fixed salary at the end of the month. So the finances should be in order to the extent possible, we should avoid borrowing. At the end of the day, when we get into entrepreneurship, it should be a calculated risk, not a gamble.

Lessons from the past

The entire body of knowledge comes into play though we do not realise this in the thick of things. To take an example, Nitya was not very good in accounting. But after she became an entrepreneur, she realised that it is important to understand the profit and loss account, the balance sheet, how the taxes are filed, various regulations and so on. Every skill is important. When we become entrepreneurs, all that we learned in the past, comes in very handy.

Major challenges faced

Nitya talked in detail about the challenges arising out of one key issue: packaging. Indeed, she has a newfound respect for the packaging industry. Making ghee or peanut butter is relatively easy. But reaching the product to the customers in good condition is far more challenging.

The packaging should be sturdy and prevent leakages. The customer looks at both the packaging and the contents. The customer will be thrilled only if the unboxing experience is good. Only then the product itself will come into the picture. In short, the packaging is as important as the product itself.

When she began her venture, Nitya noticed that 7 to 8% of the packages were breaking. This was specially so while making shipments outside Bombay. Every time a bottle broke, her heart broke. She was also worried about the poor customer experience. Gradually she realised the importance of packing the glass bottles like an Egyptian mummy.

Thanks to all the streamlining which has been done over the last few months the breakage rate is now less than 1%.

Nitya also realised that licenses should be in place in the FMCG business. Testing is extremely important to ensure the promised shelf- life. The quality of the final product and all the ingredients must be carefully monitored. Relevant parameters should be put on the label in a particular font as per the regulations.

Going global

Nitya is targeting clusters of markets. The problem is similar to what heritage sites in India face. Even though India has many heritage sites, still Taj Mahal is the preferred tourist spot. Similarly, India is known only for yoga. Why are we not known for our other pursuits?

Nitya feels that the Middle East and Far East are relatively easy markets to capture. Western countries are more difficult to penetrate. Nitya plans to start with the Indian diaspora in these countries but going forward she might decide to target the local population as well. After all there is scope to replace butter or some other existing foods.

One participant mentioned that people in the US are moving away from carbohydrates and consuming good fats and even coconut oil. Clarified butter from New Zealand is also popular in some parts of the US. But it lacks aroma. So there is probably some market potential for Nei Native in the US.

Who is the typical customer?

Nitya started off by explaining who her customers are not. There are many joint families in Bombay who are very rich and even buy luxury cars without batting an eyelid. But when it comes to buying ghee, they become tight fisted and prefer a lower priced brand. Clearly these are not her customers.

The target segment for Nitya consists of the well dressed, well-read people typically from nuclear families. Not just women but even men could be customers.

Of course, it is not just the rich and the privileged who are targeted by Nei Native. It's also the aspirational customers who are planning to buy the next big house or the next big car and who are looking forward to the better things of life.

Nei Native is a quality product. With quality comes class and there is a premium involved. But it is not necessarily a luxury product. It is targeted at people who have arrived in life or are aspiring to arrive.

How did you choose Bombay?

Nitya has been living in Bombay for 23 years. Her farm is 2 hours drive from Bombay. That is why she decided to start off in Bombay. It so happens that Bombay is also a very good market to be in. It is a large market and there’s no need for test marketing. After penetrating Bombay, Vidya plans to move on to Pune, then Delhi and Bangalore. Nithya feels that the Bombay market is a very challenging market. If she succeeds here, she can capture other markets more easily. But she did admit that Delhi is a somewhat different market.

On her goals for the next 2 years

Nitya's top priority is the website. She needs a “surround of activities” to make the website more dynamic. The website should be good enough to generate loyal customers.

Ecommerce is another important priority. Nei Native is present across all the popular ecommerce platforms. Initially Nitya decided not to be on Amazon. But later on she realised that Amazon is huge in this space. Each platform requires a marketing commitment. Otherwise the product will not sell.

The brick-and-mortar stores are also important for Nitya. She avoids distributors because they often lack passion. She has visited 320 stores in Bombay and finally selected the right kind of store for a business. She decided to avoid stores which were selling low priced ghee. And even after selecting the stores carefully, Nitya realised that it was important to promote the product. The product should move. Otherwise, nobody will buy the old stocks which are more than 6 months old even though the shelf life is one year.

International marketing is another important priority for Nitya. She's looking very carefully at the UK, Australia, Far East and Middle East markets. In these markets, licenses are required, and various permissions are involved.

Corporate gifting is another important segment. Ghee can be a very good gift to give during festival time. But it is important to plan ahead. The packaging should be right, and the customer experience should be good.

We thank Dr. Vedpuriswar for bringing out the highlights in the form of this note