The most underated business maharajas of India this is a story for man from being a sweet seller to building of 1500 crore business Empire which now cells agarbatti is not just in India but to 75 countries all across the world and the reason why this case studies very very special is because 1948 during the time when the conditions in India was so bad that most people was struggling that time even survive that time India just got independence it was just recovering from the horrors of both partition and the India Pakistan war . where more than half of the country is in poverty would you think about starting of business when let alone investors even having a three time would you think about rising your savings to start of business but yes what even in this terrible market conditions conditions this man went down to build a premium agarbatti brand and eventually turn it into such a humongous business Empire that today it’s time is inspiration for the next generations of India this business late Mr Narayan Ranga Rao and the brand that you build he is what we all know today as cycle pure agarbatti.
1948 Mysore by this time ravji was 36 years old and by this time ye tried multiple jobs in business used to buy and sell sweets used to repair a time pieces tuitions and even learnt typing and shorten and both these kills were very very rare skills during that time but some how it could not find is calling in any of these fields but this is when ravji so great opportunity with the agarbatti.
Out of all the things that he tried why did he specifically choose agarbatti’s will first fall in love fregrence in general and the second part of this answer lies in the importance and value agarbatti’s in our older generations. Only 2 to 3 sets of clothes and have these clothes passed on the younger siblings just so that they can save money for food and shelter but you know what in spite of all these compromises there was one thing that the old generation never ever compromised on and that was the offering to god in case of South India the oldest generation would never compromise on the coconut the prasadam and these and while most of first night look and agarbatti’s as a mayor instrument of fragrance to our old generation it was in instrument of hope that complemented they are prayers and more specifically in South India in the evening time it is the Sandhya column where bhai people played to Lakshmi who is the goddess of wealth and if you remember or grandparents offerened insisted on cleaning the house just so that the goddess of wealth can come to our house and this is when those two agarbatti is played a vital role in the culture notice instruments of fragrance but as instrument of hope to welcome the goddess of wealth this is a reason why extremely importantvery big opportunity to start a business with the best part was that sandalwood which was the main granite for agarbatti’s.
It was very affordable in Mysore back then and the Maharaj patronised with the making of agarbatti and fine fragrances and this is went lays in German Ranga Rao found three major gaps in the market number one most of these agarbatti companies was so only focus on the quantity of the incense sticks and not on the quality of the fragrances and this was the reason why extremely thin and low quality stakes secondly these takes neither give out a strong essence of fragrance no did the burn completely and they just stopped burning up replay so again you had to get a matchstick and then like them and lastly nobody was key on innovative with different and superior quality frequences in fact these companies was so complacent that these incense takes back in containers of investing money into making better frequences in the money on packaging this is a reason why Ranga Rao ji decided to enter the market with the vision to sell the best incense takes mysored ever seen and as we often see in case of many successful entrepreneurs his wife many successful entrepreneurs his wife panda jewellery to provide the seed fund for his udashes dream this is how Ranga Rao started his quest to establishing need for a self in the markets of Mysore and now most of us would think that what is the big deal with baking in sensitive and this is exactly what I thought to but guess what as it is out decoding great frequency is an art and requires a lot of acumen and lord of experimentation and its not like decoding electronics so just back in the 1980 if you want to IBM PConly to do was operator check the parts by the exact same specification of parts and assemble them that’s it that’s all you need to do to make an IBM clown in the 1980 and this was a reason why many people including Michael Dell becameli news during that time but when it comes to fragrances you have to do all the recording without even seeing the product so just with the smell you have to decode 3 types of notes in a single figures so if it is Jasmine you can’t just go to the store and say give me Jasmine flavour ingredients you have to actually three notes that top not the mid note and the base note in case of a Jasmine flavour agarbatti unity essence of early morning due as your top not you need the rose note as the mid note and then you need a muski essence as the and once you figure out these notes you have to find the ingredients and the propor tion of that will give you the perfect perfect Aroma and this require as a loan of permutations and combinations no one would reveal these secrets right.
How did all this story behind .it saw this is a story 1948 to 1950 and during this time books or information on the knowledge of perfume was not available abundance and most agarbatti manufacturers counted only on forest produce and natural oils and they new nothing about a aromatic substances and obviously every manufacturer head kept this processes secret and would not reavally to anyone so you know what Ranga Rao did he spend 600 rupees and imported three volumes of pouches books on performing guess what he imported them all the way from Germany and you know what it took 6 months for him to get these box because back then there was no internet and international stupid was practically a nightmare what do you see the return of investment from these books was nothing short of extraordinary these books became the reason why Ranga Rao became the first manufacturer in India to realise the importance of using things synthetic substitutes in order make agarbatti’s that do not just rely on forest produce this is lot of permutation and combinations ravji master is product and this was the first phase business growth and this is where he face the second challenge which was marketing.Rao ji did not just get accepted in the market easily but also sold is agarbatti at 3 times the cost of conventional Agarwal please and that to write from the early days self while other companies sold a pack of 100 sticks for rs 1 sold just 30 sticks for the same one rupee and that who without giving extraordinary margins to the dealers the question is without a big fat without a name in the market how is it even possible that somebody can sell a new product and three times the cost and how the hell did the dealers agreed to pages have to price well as it turns out ravji used marketing strategy is not going to the stores to pieces product one by one he is simply went to each of the stores during the light it is incense takes write outside the store and left and what happened next was very very interested as more and more customers came to the store they love the fregrance immediately ask the shopkeeper if he had his boxes of incense sticks so the shopkeeper had no other option but to deny them then again on the second day again went to the stores lighted his incense sticks and was just about the leave but this time the shop he will stop him and they asked him to sell these boxes of agarbatti I cannot send you these agarbatti is because you cannot of them so just enjoy the free state and after saying this he just left and the next day again many customers who came to the store ask for the agarbatti’s but I can he refused to sell the sticks not do you realise her staying it would have been for the shopkeepers summer random kid comes up lights of a sting with the fantastic fragrance and even though it could be profits for both of them they are two embarrass themselves but denying the customers.so now on the third day when went to light is takes the shopkeepers giving an ultimate and they told him to do either sell US these boxes or don’t like them at on but even then ravji doesn’t accrete to cell so now he is the only two states and tells them I will give you two States uses for your house and not for the shop about the selling talk about it later so now many of the shopkeepers went home and light is these states and this time there wives and neighbours loved these fragrances.
You want to be a good company first for example to promote women empowerment they have consciously supported 100000 women over the past 75 years and currently support 25000 women at work board directly and indirectly similarly while most companies just maternity leave cycle along with maternity leaves even personality leaves of 21 days for the fathers on that all delete employees are covered under insurance. We are the first company to be certified carbon neutral by finding the Robin gas in the market through his genius sales strategy with an extraordinary level of dedication towards empathesing with the customers and by passing the same level of dedication and devotion to the next two generations ravji built of 1500 Empire by selling the best incense takes Mysore. Most sellers so agarbatti as Just another instrument of fragrance raoji solid is an instrument of hope for an ordinary families dreams as a result he was able to command a premium and Domino the global agarbatti market lesson number 2 if your product is extraordinary even in this clouded hypercomedy world that we live in the product itself will serve as your most powerful marketing tool and wherever this extra value is showcase the right way negotiations will no longer be the cause of friction in this case because of raoji’s simple yet genius acting of lighting agarbatti’s outside the details struggled for the product and not otherwise and more importantly when the realise the value of cycle negotiation was no longer a problem and last and most importantly like I said I doesn’t time in the past empty and persistence are the activities that can turn a commoner into a king in this case the empathy and the persistence of raoji gave rise to one of the greatest plans in India which we all know today as CYCLE PURE AGARBATTI