Rolling out the DESi POPz

Since our journey started in 2018, we’ve been focusing on one product -DESi POPz Imli. Last year, we sold more than 8 million pops. The product has exceeded expectation both in retail and online with great repeats. To grow further, we had two options:

1. Go for the untapped consumer base to reach out to, consumers who have not been exposed to DESi POPz Imli

2. Increase the depth of GO DESi in the outlets by giving more options to consumers.

Keeping in mind the variety-seeking consumer behaviour in the snacks & confectionery category and also to make the scaling up more capital efficient, we decided to work on our product range expansion.

When we started with DESi POPz Imli which is a regional delicacy, we had the traditional recipe to fall back on. Since we had the basics in place, we focussed on standardizing the product and enabling scale. However, when we started to add to the product range, we had to do it from scratch.

Step 1: Deciding the flavour concept: Our GO DESi brand is rooted in Nostalgia, and was created with a simple thought in mind: to take people back to their roots.

We started with the question of what is one fruit that is associated with childhood. Whether it is the memory of climbing a mango tree or the street vendor selling "Keri with salt & chilli", the answer was MANGO.

Step 2: Developing the product: Even though there were many other products in the market with similar flavours, we wanted to take things a bit further. We wanted to trigger childhood memories and to recreate stories of nostalgia in the minds of our consumers.

Our taste tests were done with the real thing & we evaluated the product on how close DESi POPz was to Kachi Keri.

Getting product ratings from a large sample size would have been expensive and time-consuming so we reached to our consumers to vote with their wallet. We placed our DESi POPz flavour with minimal packaging at the same retail counter where DESi POPz Imli was placed and we iterated till the rate of sale matched or overtook that of the DESi POPz Imli

Step 3: Preparing for Launch It is often easy to think that all the world is waiting for is your product and will hold it aloft the same way Rafiki lifts Simba up in Lion King. Keeping this in the back of our minds, we set ourselves realistic objectives:

1. Stir curiosity
2. Limited launch so as to keep the iteration possibility alive. This creates a possibility of a big upside but a limited risk in case things do not go as per plan.

So we decided to do an online-only pre-order campaign. The challenge was to get people to pre-order a lollipop.

Step 4: Rolling out the Lollipop

1. We started sending 1 of each DESi POPz with every online order with a small note mentioning the date and time of the pre-order launch.
2. We created content on Mango, like different ways of eating a Mango & Mango Map of India, on Mango Nostalgia & childhood memories.
3. We planned our timing for after Valentine’s Day to avoid the peak on chocolates. I guess DESi POPz also provided a spicy relief to the overdose of sweetness ;)
4. The launch was announced with two videos focussed on nostalgia insight and the ingredient story.

6. The team developed a dedicated landing page for the pre-order. With a pre-order discount, we wanted to hit 1000 orders in 7 days of pre-order.

7. Emails, newsletters, SMS, Whatsapp messages were sent out to our loyal customer database. Our DESi Ambassadors also amplified the marketing effort.

8. We tried to address any fears of customers about pre-ordering. We had a detailed FAQ page, day-wise progress of campaign showing images of DESi POPz reaching the godown, delivery timelines etc. We adopted all the best practices of a successful Kickstarter launch.

Result:

• We got 700+ orders in the first 4 days, had to restrict the sales to online payment to reduce the flow of orders.
• The best part of the launch was that it did not eat into our DESi POPz Imli sales, the launch sales added to the growth of the company
• It created inbound enquiry from retail, this helped us open retailers which were sitting on the fence because of an absence of range
• The product is seeing good repeat rates online.

It is still very early to pass judgement on the product launch. However, we believe the launch achieved a critical mass and managed to stir curiosity in our customers, which we hope will give it a fair shot at succeeding.

It took us 6 months from concept to launch. The entire process felt smooth & at no point, we felt rushed.

The biggest learning for my team and I was the collaborative, software project type approach to the entire launch. Focus on the process and the end result will take care of itself.

P.S. The team which worked on this project: Tejesh for Product Development Palka & Sheejo for Digital Marketing, Akhil for Product Photography & Operations, Raksha & Radhakrishna for moving things from kitchen trials to large scale manufacturing.