28 February, 2018
The capacity building program was undertaken by Mr. Arindam Som, Consumer & Market Insights (CMI) Lead at GSK CH; ex-CMI & Marketing Director at Unilever. The workshop attended by 10 startups.
Mr. Som spoke about “India needs to nurture the dreams of start-ups as they become the future engine of our economic growth”. He mentioned that the Start-ups have great innovation ideas, many of them are positioned to solve some genuine problems of ours or enabling people to aspire big.However there are few basic questions which we need to solve for to make a profitable business out of it. These are:
(i) ESTIMATE THE UNVOICED or PERCEIVED NEED GAPS
Is there a genuine or perceived need gap in people’s livestoday, around which our idea exists? Would people really spend more money than usual, to buy this new product / service from you? How do we understand or observe for people’s genuine needs which many a time, may remain unvoiced?
(ii) THE NEED FOR A BRAND
In many instances, people would spend a bit extra to buy a product (over any other) because it comes with certain credentials. Is it just the highest quality? Or are they looking for an enhancement of their image, what they would like others to think about her / him while consuming this product / service?
(iii) APT COMMUNICATION IN THE RIGHT CHANNELS
How do you make sure that the news of your product / service has reached the right people in the right way, hopefully at the minimum of the expenses? You may not be able to advertise in TV but you still need to make the news viral. Are you doing things required as per the evolution of the product / service?
(iv) VALUE FOR MONEY, ITS NOT ABOUT THE PRICE
Indians need to feel smart while buying your stuff. We would like to extract the maximum value for whatever we spend our money in. Is your product / service up for this challenge? Have you packed ‘more things for less cost’? Do people see a value of your idea beyond its usage life cycle?
(v) RUTHLESS CONSUMER CENTRICITY
In a market when a maximum 5%-10% innovations survive with decent margins, really think ‘consumer centricity’ is the answer which can fool-proof our idea against all odds (even while talking to potential investors and incubators). Spending time with consumers (even potential) and shadowing them and having genuine conversations with them is going to provide the much-needed solutions for need gaps, branding, communication approaches and how to optimize cost and price. If we do this for atleast 3-4 hours in a week with discipline and without distractions for all members of your organization, its bound to provide practical solutions for not only your business but also your self.
Lastly he mentioned that , our entrepreneurs are already superb with their thoughts, are willing to sweat it out and are focused on making a business. At the same time, the market is ruthless in weeding out the ‘weak’. Therefore, we need to think practical and always think ‘how to make money’. It really helps us in prioritization.
The workshop ended with an interactive Q & A session, where questions were posed by not only the participants but faculty as well.
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