Powering the “Made in India” brand!
Now this blog stems from a recent discussion I had with few friends explaining them our business. While I was extremely confident of the wonderful thing we are doing by trying to replace China procured gift items with our indigenous artisanal produce, I seemed to neglect the fact that I sounded like someone hoping to create an imperfect market by replacing the cheaper and more efficiently produced Chinese products. Now howsoever strange it may sound, defining a start-up’s strategy and value proposition at times itself can be very fluid and an iterative process. Building on the discussion, 15 months in the business, I once again got down to my yellow sheet to clarify in my head, what we actually want to do!
Well the clear part was that we promote social inclusion by promoting Indian arts and artisans through the medium of gifts. But this, even to me, sounded a bit like charity while the very heart of our business is its opposite i.e. creating self sufficiency. Together with my business partner, I started to contemplate upon some of the examples of orders we have won/lost in past.
The first order we served for German beer brand, we created a marble plate with statue of Bavaria painted in between beautiful Indian gold leaf painting. The product eventually became a talking point for our client with their international channel partners.
Another order we served was for an e-commerce platform for their employee birthday gifting. We mixed the traditional Rajasthani wooden art with metal casting to design a photo frame that had each individual’s name and birthday printed on the side. While everyone knows of the beautiful Rajasthani elephants sold in the handicraft shops, we used this craft to expand our producer’s market size by developing high utility contemporary products like photo frames. The product garnered rave reviews not just from the management but from the recipients themselves.
The mementos we made for a college festival proved to be our first design mistake where our enthusiasm for creating a unique design made us commit to a product which was not possible to make at a mass scale. Despite being located 2,000 kms away from client and with no formal contractual obligations, we accepted our mistake and bent head over heels to finish an alternative design for the client in a quarter of scheduled time. The client appreciated our sincerity and recommended us for a repeat order. Â
A lucrative order we could not compete for was for supplying neck ties to a multinational machinery supplier for their annual conference gifting. This is not an area we mastered in and we chose to not look for a “trading opportunity” as it is not true to our mission. The customer appreciated our honestly and though it has not converted into active orders yet, we maintain our stance.   Â
Another order that we could not get was when a consulting company ordered wooden frames from a Chinese vendor which were a bit cheaper than our produce. Unfortunately, the frames had a balance issue and would topple with slightest force. This caused embarrassment for the company and there was no way of rectifying the problem.
These cases together helped me sum up our USP, i.e.
Quality: I am sure all parts of the world including Chinese suppliers (against whom we have no personal animosity) can produce high quality gifts but sometimes they don’t. We just make a small exception to NEVER deliver sub-standard quality products.
Utility: We will add this component to the arts which a modern client wants. The barely educated artisans themselves cannot understand this concept but with little inputs they can create the most beautiful products that one will be proud to use in their daily course.
Authenticity: We give what we commit. Today we have a network of 150 artisans who master in 10 different art forms. Till we expand the scope further, we will only provide these indigenously produced, hand-made art forms to our clients. Further, we will enhance the value of products by telling loud the story of manufacturing of our products which requires great effort and craft of our artisans.
Service: This, I believe, is our biggest differentiator. Especially in the gifting segment, I can boast of us being a pioneer of touching imagination of people through our creations. So many people are looking for a “different” gift but are unable to explain it. We try to give shape to those ideas and creating something exclusively for our clients. Furthermore, we stand till the very end and wait for that smile on our clients face. Until then, we are at their service.
I am not sure if they seem like frivolous management concepts but they really form the core of what we offer. We are not rocket scientists and are not claiming to re-invent the wheel but are, in our own little way, bringing innovation to gifts and gifting services. We believe that the German cars or French perfumes are also a result of these basic qualities. Therefore, we see Elements as a medium of empowering the “Made in India” brand.
Our success or failure would depend on our users. We hope to trigger a small revolution where a gift recipient can clearly see the enhanced value of our product in comparison with the widely available generic gifts. This could make the people giving those gifts slightly more conscious of what they are giving. Gifts can truly become one way of touching ones heart and in the process support millions of poor artisan families.
To sum up, this business is not a charity. We are just a medium of putting the right price on the otherwise neglected talent of Indian artisan. If only we were able to reach out to 10% of Indian arts and artisans we would be one of the biggest employers in the world and that will translate into a lot of smiles!! Â
To know more about us, please visit www.elementsmart.com