Jaideep Nandi: The how & why of Bajaj Consumer Care’s plan to build on equity of Brand Almond Drops

Jaideep Nandi: The how & why of Bajaj Consumer Care’s plan to build on equity of Brand Almond Drops

Jaideep Nandi, Managing Director of Bajaj Consumer Care, talks of his three-pronged strategy to achieve the company’s diversification agenda, as well as his belief in a culture of openness and trust

Srabana LahiriUpdated: Monday, July 25, 2022, 10:26 AM IST
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Jaideep Nandi, Managing Director of Bajaj Consumer Care | File

A cup of Darjeeling tea on a rainy afternoon sets the tone for a conversation with Jaideep Nandi, Managing Director of Bajaj Consumer Care, at the company’s office in Andheri. Nandi has distinct tastes, and has taught the office attendant the art of brewing the tea perfectly, steeping it for no more than six minutes.

No wonder this discerning trait of his, and the extra effort to get exactly what he wants, comes in handy while enhancing the product portfolio of the Rs 900 crore Bajaj Consumer Care, which is now on a diversification spree.

Here are some excerpts from the conversation:

You have been MD of Bajaj Consumer Care for two years. What does your role look like right now and what are your top priorities?

Just two months after I joined the company in 2020, COVID-19 struck. Our Chairman Kushagra Bajaj discussed hard business numbers with me, and the next thing he did was to call a townhall to declare to 13,000 employees that there would be no salary or job cuts. I had been worried about downsizing, and his words brought great relief to me and gave me confidence in the value system of the company.

We are a listed company, so the priority right now is looking at the stakeholders’ expectations and delivering on them – this includes the Chairman, governing body, investors and most important for me, the employees. After evaluating the company’s strengths and weaknesses, we are bringing in value-adds to maximise returns for stakeholders and also to ensure that the company is governed with our value system. Our aim is not only to deliver sheer business numbers, but also to create a culture that we can be proud of as a group.

You just entered the soap category under the Bajaj Almond Drops brand. What are your expectations there?

There is a background to it. The company started in 1953, and was built on Brahmi Amla Kesh Tel. Today, only people aged 70+ use it. In the meantime, the company did a fantastic job with the Almond Drops brand. In a deeply penetrated hair oil category, where most products were ingredient stories (coconut oil, amla, sarson, etc), Bajaj Almond Drops came with the proposition that it was good not just for hair, but also the brain.

Our stories were – ‘Look at glamour, look at aspiration, look at style…also look at health’ - that caught on with people, and were a marketing success with glamorous models promoting the product. A brilliant innovation was the Re 1 pack, making it affordable, and taking it deep into rural areas. Today, there are 43 lakh retail outlets through which this product sells, reaching possibly one crore consumers.

But while we were a small company with a single impactful brand, efforts to expand beyond it weren’t that strong. We did buy a company called No Marks in 2013, and did some good work with its anti-blemish products, but it did not really take off the way we had anticipated.

In 2020, we realised that our big strength is the brand name Bajaj Almond Drops and its reach, and we decided to expand on it. So we launched Amla Aloe Vera oil in 2020, Sarson Amla in 2021 (mainly for UP, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh) and then coconut oil including value-added products like Coconut Onion hair oil.

That was strategy 1. The second was to cash in on the huge equity of Brand ‘Almond Drops’ for which we did a nine-month long survey with marketing agencies across the country. The feedback was that it could be leveraged in quite a few categories other than hair oil. Subsequently, research work started to develop products on those lines and we launched soaps. We are not just entering a category, but launching the Bajaj Almond Drops umbrella under which the soap product will sit along with other upcoming products over the next 2-3 years.

The third pillar of the strategy is to look at the D2C space with premium brands, to cater to new age customers looking for specific solutions. For instance, we have a super-premium brand called Natyv Soul, with a range of personal care products for hair and skin; its premise is that each product will have one exotic hero ingredient, like argan oil, buriti oil or apple seed oil. Also in the D2C space is Bajaj’s pure oils range - cold pressed, virgin coconut, kalonji (nigella), olive, jojoba and castor oils.

The Bajaj Almond Drops umbrella, under which the soap product will sit along with other upcoming products

The Bajaj Almond Drops umbrella, under which the soap product will sit along with other upcoming products | File

Why does Natyv Soul not carry the Bajaj name?

The thought is not so much as to whether Natyv Soul should carry the Bajaj name or not, but to connect to the new age consumer who wants a brand that is seen as more young, vibrant and jolly, beyond the Bajaj name that denotes solid trust.

What percentage of the company’s revenue comes from the flagship product Almond Drops Hair Oil?

Last year, 90 % of the turnover was from Almond Drops hair oil. That is significantly changing with the new brands that are coming in and over a period of time, while the Almond Drops portfolio itself will contribute in double digits, the other products will also be a significant part of the overall portfolio, and dependence on just one product will be much lower. This is our strategy to de-risk Bajaj Almond Drops hair oil, as today, everything is based on its success.

What are the challenges before the brand as well as hair oil as a category?

Hair oils is the second largest FMCG category after soap, with a size of Rs 13,500 crore. It is a traditional category, and new age customers are not exactly jumping in and signing up for it. Growth in this category has been mid-single digit, at best. Having said that, we are only 10% of the market, and have lots of headroom to grow. Bajaj Almond Drops enjoys 60-65% market share in its segment, but overall, in hair oils, there is scope for growth. It's also a stable category.

Do you think of the single brand focus so far as an advantage or disadvantage?

In fact, both. Having a single brand has clear advantages – one, you can keep your resources to the minimum, and focus only on that brand, with total energy spent on just that one brand. From CEO to workers at all levels, every person was fully focused on Bajaj Almond Drops hair oil – a huge advantage for the brand. But for the organisation, it may not have been that advantageous - if the category does not grow, obviously you don’t want to have all your eggs in the same basket.

Will the new ranges launched under the Almond Drops umbrella be in the premium or affordable range?

Well, the premise of almond drops itself is premium. We will launch products in the premium category, but at a price which is a little more affordable, though not economy pricing.

How do you see Bajaj Consumer Care hold its own in a market dominated by the likes of HUL and ITC? What would you say is the USP of your brand?

I am looking at establishing the Almond Drops umbrella in a way that it fulfils all of a consumer’s hair and skin needs. That is where I want to be after three to four years. Our USP is that we are from the trusted house of Bajaj, with ingredients that consumers have trusted for a long time.

SHORT TAKES

ON THE COMPANY’S TOP PERFORMING MARKETS: “In India, we are strong in the Hindi-speaking markets, Uttar Pradesh being our largest market. Our market-shares go slightly lower in the South, and dip further in the West and East. Beyond India, we do not have a very large presence, but Bangladesh, Nepal and UAE comprise our international market. We also supply to 30 other countries, through exports.”

ON ADVERTISING STRATEGY: “We are pretty high on our advertising spends, with a budget of about 18-20% of our revenue, that is seeing a little bit of an upswing because we are now launching newer brands. We’ve had a great association with Parineeti Chopra for Bajaj Almond Drops and Ileana D’cruz is the brand ambassador for Bajaj Coco Onion. We may not have a star ambassador for the new soap category. We are also advertising for Natyv Soul in the digital space.”

ON SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS: “Our plants are geared towards ESG principles, in terms of water and energy conservation, and sustainable packaging material. We follow the three R's – reduce, reuse and recycle – to try and leave as little carbon footprint as we can.”

ON HIS LEADERSHIP STYLE: “I ride through with passion, and believe completely in empowering people and letting them be on their own. No micro-managing ever for me. Trust is a very important factor - something that you can only break once. I am very comfortable with people who can be open and straight with me, rather than sulk. I believe in a culture where people thrive at work, enjoy each other’s company and have a place to which they want to come back every day. I’d like to leave a legacy of workplaces where people enjoy working.”

ON HIS MOST INTERESTING EXPERIENCES: Nandi’s career has taken him across India, South East Asia and the Middle East, working with Asian Paints and Berger Paints, before he joined Bajaj Consumer Care. He recounts his interesting experience of dealing with people at different places with much amusement.

“I was new to Singapore when I was conducting a business meeting. My team members – mostly Singaporean or Chinese – sat through it with zero response. I found it very disconcerting, even offending. This happened day after day, until I asked someone the reason for it. He said, ‘As Singaporeans, we are very closed people. By nature, we don't get very warm with outsiders. It will take time for you to build trust.’ Cut to 10 years later, I became so close to them that they would come complaining against ‘Indians’ to me, considering me a local!” says Nandi.

“While in Muscat with Asian Paints, which ran in partnership with a Middle Eastern company, I was surprised when my sales manager came and asked for permission to get his passport, to travel to Dubai. I got to know that all passports had to be deposited with the company, which feared the workforce comprising Indians, Sri Lankans and other workers would run away otherwise. I had to intervene to ensure the basic independence for employees to hold their own passports. It created a lot of hue and cry, and I had to speak to my bosses to get it done. It’s a fantastic memory!” Nandi recalls.

THE PASSIONATE PHOTOGRAPHER

Born in Kolkata and brought up in Hazaribagh (now in Jharkhand), Jaideep Nandi studied at St Xavier’s School, imbibing the Jesuit value systems and principles. He represented the school in hockey and cricket. A mechanical engineering degree from Jadavpur University followed, along with a shift in interest to Bridge and organising Bridge tournaments.

A person of technical orientation, he had no intention of getting into sales or marketing at that point. Entry into IIM Bangalore happened by accident, says Nandi, who took the CAT exam as everyone else was doing it, and got selected, much to his surprise.

“Suddenly, everything was not under my control. It was a phase of steep learning,” recalls Nandi. Around that time, he discovered his love for photography and it quickly became a passion.

“I didn't have a camera of my own then, and shot on borrowed cameras. I decided that once I started earning, I would take up photography seriously. As my career progressed, I also honed my skills behind the lens, reading books and teaching myself the finer nuances of photography. About 15 years back, I actually planned to quit because I wasn't enjoying my work too much and wanted to take up photography. Now, I am comfortably settled, pursuing both my work and my passion. I conduct workshops once in a while for budding photographers who want to learn how to use the SLR, DSLR cameras. I also travel for photography,” he says.

Solitary monk in the corridors of Ananda Temple, Bagan, Myanmar

Solitary monk in the corridors of Ananda Temple, Bagan, Myanmar | JAIDEEP NANDI

Moonlit night in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia

Moonlit night in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia | JAIDEEP NANDI

Inle Lake, Myanmar

Inle Lake, Myanmar | JAIDEEP NANDI

Antelope Canyon, USA

Antelope Canyon, USA | JAIDEEP NANDI

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