We are into manufacturing and marketing of blended spice under the brand name 'Tablespoon'.

We position
ourselves as a premium brand with significantly better packaging while delivering authentic taste.

Background

Started 2 years ago.

Large institutional footprint in Pune.
Factory in outskirts of Mumbai with current production capacity of 15 Tons / month
Scalable up to 3 times of the current capacity.
We launched our product in retail market on the 22nd January and are aggressively growing our
footprint.

Institutional Market
We are present in institutional market however only in Pune.
Current Institutional sale: 2 tons/ months with 100,000 people eating food cooked with Tablespoon
spices everyday.
Cater to large IT and Pharma canteens in Pune like TCS, Mahindra, Emersons etc.
We differentiate ourselves primarily on taste and quality (pure spices)
Our clients have been able to reduce their consumption of spices due to quality - This is something
that will hold even in the retail space.
This allows us to command premium pricing vs. competition while delivering value for money in the
institutional space -- Again this holds for the retail space.
The packaging for the institutional space is markedly different - METPET pouches - as it meets their
needs better.
Present Retail Product Range

Our USP for Retail

Our retail SKU is a 100gm PET Jar in different bright colour caps.
Taste and quality will be our number 1 USP in the long run for the repeat customers.
We have significantly better packaging as compared to competition which should help us to get first
time customers.
PET jars retains flavour for longer period and are easy to store and use. The mass market brands
(Everest, MDH etc ) are packed in cardboard cartons which catch moisture and loose flavour
quickly.

 We are pricing it Approx. 30% higher than the mass market brands. However, we do not want to
send the message that the price differential is because of packaging. The packing cost for us is
minimal as the PET jars are manufactured by our sister concern.
The differential is primarily due to quality as that is justified to good extent as 'Tablespoon' spices
can be used more economically to deliver the same flavour.
We are one of the most competitive brand in terms of pricing when compared to the other brands
which are positioning themselves in the new burgeoning premium segment.
Retail Presence
We are present in BigBasket, Indias largest online food and grocery store for Mumbai and Pune.
We are in process of a national launch on BigBasket (in all the 6 cities that they are present in
B'lore, Hyd, Chennai, Delhi apart from the current two.) They plan to expand to 30 more cities by
this year end and we plan to ride this wave along with them.
We are also present in Greencart and Localbanya for Mumbai. Similar plan like BigBasket.
We are present in Reliance Retail Cash-and-carry in their Ahmedabad and Mumbai (Kalwa) outlet
as a test market.
We are present in 30 premium marquee shops in Mumbai and are adding 5 shops/ week.

Road Map
.
We plan to increase our retail product portfolio from the current eight varieties to 15 within a month.
Also try to have different products in different cities to cater to local demand. This is relatively easy
as our institutional portfolio already comprises of 40 different masalas. We only have to create the
retail package design for the new additions.
We have engaged freelancers (employed with market leaders) to help us with the creative aspects
of branding.
In terms of messaging we want to promote the idea that the taste you get comes from the authentic
taste of the region wherever possible-- ie. Madras sambar, Delhi chole, Puneri Misal etc.
We plan to be listed in all big online retail groceries in the major cities within next 3 months.
Once we are present in all leading online retailers we will roll out online and offline marketing
campaign to push the product before festival time around October- November
We are in the process of roping in a food blogger to generate content for social media marketing
and our own website.
After establishing a footprint in large online retailer we will look to getting distributors to penetrate
into brick and mortar shops.

Deliverables:
1. To find ways to increase penetration in the online retailer and gain market share.
2. Focus essentially on the online advertising and social media marketing.
3. To plan a strategy to use other channels (eg: food blogging websites ) where we can
reach our target group and get higher ROI as compared to advertising on the online
retail websites.
4. To perform a product gap analysis of Tablespoon spices and the competitors.