Colour Me Radico

Organic is the buzz word today. You launched your organic hair colour brand, Radico, in 1992. What inspired you?

There was hardly any knowledge about natural/organic things way back in the 90s. Even today in India we have awareness about organic food products only. However, using strong chemicals is not advisable. When I was trying to establish my business and researching, I realized how the Western countries were adapting to natural ways. That is how I began my efforts into developing an organic product.

Radico penetrated into international markets before the Indian. Did you plan it that way. Why so?

My honesty was never valued in India. After trying a few times, I decided to explore international markets.

Which markets according to you has been most stiff to penetrate?

Japan. It also happens to be the first market we penetrated in. My product was rejected 17 times before companies gave me a go ahead for the product. But the good part was, they never gave up on me. We both were persistent with each other. They would test and tell me the faults and I would diligently work on it with my team of scientists and researchers. Any other European or American country would have not entertained me after two trials. I am grateful for their support. Japanese are extremely loyal and quality conscious. By the time I was supplying to them, I knew I had made a good product. After that, other markets were a cake walk.

What challenges did you face while establishing the brand in India?

The lack of awareness about organic products. Consumers can compare your product to chemical-based dyes and hair colors, and think mine is an inferior product. But you are not comparing apples to apples here. Also, we do not mass distribute and there are very few organic stores. Now we have a 95% penetration into the organic goods stores and will be soon launching
with Apollo pharmacy.

Have you ever thought of diversifying into other organic cosmetic beauty products? When will you be launching/why not?

I wanted to focus on one thing and now that our hair colour range is established we are planning to diversify. We will be launching an organic hair wash bar. It took a lot of time to develop the product as we did not want to use any synthetics for foam. And later we will be launching more natural beauty products such as lipstick. But one product at a time.

Any message for budding entrepreneurs?

I believe in the 3Ps – patience, perseverance and practice. Learn from your mistakes and continue to upgrade your product and services. We changed our product from hair colour to henna tatoo for the Amercian markets. It was a huge hit and I made my first million dollars there. Believe in your self and always give back to the society. I strongly believe in the karma theory – all good karma multiplies manyfolds.

(A marketing initiative by Open Avenues)

About The Author

Open