In the marketplace, you have to give consumers what they want: Harsh Mariwala

Good ideas often fall flat in the marketplace. “Market research can only get you so far when it comes to launching a new product,” says Harsh Mariwala, chairman, Marico Limited. “You have to go to the marketplace to see whether what you are offering is working in the real world.”

A product might have all the right ingredients, but the cost of innovation is often failure. “What happens in the prototype phase is that instead of going to market research, you are testing your hypothesis among a [small] group of people,” Mariwala said at an event in Mumbai.

Even established companies like Marico are not immune to the odd miscalculation.

“Around five years back, we thought that there would be a demand for baked snacks. All the snacks in the market at that time were fried,” he recounted. The top management thought it wise to leverage their oil brand’s appeal with healthconscious consumers for the pilot project.

“We thought, why not offer a baked snack under the oil brand? We went ahead and launched it in Mumbai,” Mariwala said. “The product didn’t do well because in our minds, the oil brand was associated with health. Hence we gave more emphasis to the health part and not so much about the taste.”

Not one to be dissuaded by this failure, he took aim at another segment.

“We saw an opportunity in the breakfast cereal business around three years back,” Mariwala said. “Indians like savoury breakfast instead of sweet. So, if you look at oats, people mix it with milk, and add a little sugar and perhaps, nuts. We thought: Can we offer savoury oats that do not compromise on taste?” Market research was conducted, and the taste bud of the average Indian mapped. The product did well.

“We are not the market leader by any means, but we have established a niche,” Mariwala said. “The key learning for us was that in the marketplace, you have to give consumers what they want.”