Mumbai: The India Brand Summit held on 28 November 2023 at The Lalit Mumbai, convenes leaders, marketers, entrepreneurs, and experts to explore current trends, challenges, and opportunities in the dynamic brands and marketing arena.

The session explores the profound impact that startups are having on India's evolving business landscape. The session delves into various aspects of this transformation, highlighting the innovative approaches, disruptions, and opportunities that startups are bringing to the forefront.

The key highlights of this session are: Startups are reshaping business models by leveraging technology and agility, fostering innovation, and embracing fresh perspectives. Their willingness to take risks drives growth, while understanding evolving consumer behavior aligns with modern preferences. In India, startups impact job creation and skill development. Navigating challenges through strategic partnerships and collaboration within the ecosystem is key. Startups play a transformative role in reshaping the business landscape and can lead India towards an export-oriented economy.

The session moderated by The Small Big Idea CEO and co-founder Harikrishnan Pillai had panelists including Whoppl founder & CEO Ramya Ramachandran, Chalo Mobility co-founder and director Priya Singh, IGP founder & CEO Tarun Joshi and Sawai Fragrances CEO Pushkar Jain.

Pillai began the session by asking panellists about what their business is about and how they are disrupting the market.

Answering the first question Jain said, “Our brand is called Eze Perfumes. It’s a family-run business since the past 70 years. Always when you speak about perfumes the first that comes to mind wasn’t India but many of the western countries that were said to be the manufacturers for fragrances. But we’re disrupting the market with fragrances from India that are going to the west and becoming Indian manufacturers that are selling fragrances outside our country, with the top quality resources that are available in our country. So that has been the USP of Sawai Fragrances for a very long time with the promise of international quality fragrances at affordable prices. That’s what Eze stands for and that’s what we’re doing right now.”

Jha then introduced himself and his brand that started our journey in 2016. Giving a throwback about his past that how he missed celebrating festivals and important moments for many years. Emphasising on the same, he said, “That’s when we started thinking that while the whole ecommerce industry is picking up in  such a big way. But one core thing which is important to all of us as Indians we celebrate almost about 14 festivals. So overall if you see there is an industry which is five billion purchases being made. So a country with 100 crore population which actually has a willingness to spend money, they’re atleast celebrating about five festivals in a year. Why there is no single platform which is a go to retailer where you can actually go and help you celebrate these. So that was our starting point.

Now another important thing that came out was - a lot of us are migrated individuals, so its not only celebrating your own house but how can I send and make my family members happy. That’s where we started our international gifts platform (IGP). Today we’re a company with two and a half thousand plus people. We’ve 100 warehouses. We send products and gifts to almost 150 countries globally. So that’s been our journey.”

Moving on to Ramachandran, she began by saying, ”What we primarily do in Whoppl is, three things which help your brands sell better on social media platforms. Number one being content. We build brand narratives and what’s required for you and your brand to stand out. Second one being creators. Today we’re doing so much influencer marketing, influencer marketing, creator marketing, etc. My third vertical is commerce. When there is a brand, there is some sort of customer loyalty which you’ve to build for your brand over a period of time. So that’s exactly what we help brand with.

India is such a beautiful rich country for celebrations. How do we create these nudges for brands so that we stand out? There are more options, and more reasons for brands to be as the top of minds awareness and also part of the conversion funnel. So that’s primarily what we do. We’re four and a half years old and cater to a bunch of segments - FMCG, fashion, retail, edutech, martech. We’ve about 100 plus brands on our portfolio and we’re just growing.”

After which, Singh began her statement by first asking the audience that who all take BEST buses for travelling and then said, ”We are transport technology company called Chalo Mobility. We’re solving the real life buses problem for India which is called digitizing the buses and live tracking. So we thought that we’ll solve the public transport and now we’re established in 51 cities in India., We live track around 18000 buses in Mumbai. We have solved international, inter city but we’re yet to solve intra-city commute which is what our focus is.”

Ending the panel on a lighter note, Pillai spoke about hiring the GenZ.