#VocalforLocal: How Indian Startups Can Make the Most of this Opportunity

admin / June 18, 2020 / Coronavirus, COVID 19, India, NewCrop, Opinion, Startups, Women Entrepreneurs

By Varun Alagh and Ghazal Alagh

The Prime Minister’s clarion call to support local brands has captured the country’s imagination during these challenging times. Whether it’s Fevicol or Asian Paints or Mahindra & Mahindra, local brands have always found a way to retain market share and build brand loyalty. But today, there is a massive opportunity for the next set of powerful home-grown brands to emerge.

As of now, there is a strong sentiment among consumers to support local brands — both on the ground as well as on social media. But ‘Vocal for Local’ is not about sentiment alone. There’s a slew of measures that the Government is taking to add substance to their stance, which makes this a perfect opportunity for Indian startups. If leveraged at the right time, the “Vocal for Local” wave can become a game-changer for both early and growth-stage startups. Here’s how:

(Varun Alagh and Ghazal Alagh, Co-founders of Mamaearth)

Getting Marketing Right

When we started Mamaearth in 2016, Make In India had been announced just a couple of years back. So we immediately saw this brand acceptance and respect that came with being a home-grown brand. “Vocal for Local” is a similar wave. We see so many influencers across social media tagging our products (completely organically) because we’re known for being a home-grown, local product. This is the time for startups to find their compelling brand story — how and why they are a home-grown, local brand with global aspirations. This kind of brand story will automatically enable them to ride this wave of overwhelmingly positive consumer sentiment.

Of course, this piece isn’t just about marketing gimmicks. It’s about taking a long hard look at what makes your brand intrinsically Indian and what, if anything, you can do to enhance this. With Mamaearth, for instance, local is a big part of our brand identity. It’s not just about being a home-grown brand— it’s also the fact that Indian ingredients are an intrinsic part of our products (whether that’s onion, turmeric, essential oils, etc.). Plus, all our product formulations are based, to some extent, on traditional Indian wisdom. So building a marketing effort that takes these things into account becomes a lot easier.

Local Manufacturing

With COVID-19 making cross-border movement difficult, and the Government keen to support local manufacturing, this is the right time for Indian startups to shift their manufacturing to India. In fact, at Mamaearth, it was our commitment to local manufacturing that really helped us get back on our feet post the lockdown. If we had been dependent on any foreign player, it would have taken us a lot of time to shift base and get things restarted. Since we work primarily with local manufacturers, we were able to get back on track much quicker. In fact, even during the early days of the lockdown, we were able to get sanitizers manufactured due to local partners. This commitment to local manufacturing is something we intend to keep pursuing. For startups who have been dependent on foreign manufacturing so far, this could be the perfect time to make the shift.

Funding benefits and debt relief

The Government has announced a whopping Rs. 3 lakh crore as part of a collateral-free fund for MSMEs. Then there’s the Rs. 20 thousand crores of subordinated debt for distressed firms in the MSME space. There’s also an additional Rs 4,000 crores that the Government has issued for the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises. Whether it’s to stay afloat in these challenging times or to push for growth, take some time to understand the terms and conditions for these funds and see if you’re eligible to avail them. This could prove to be just the boost you’re looking for.

Local partnerships

As Vocal for Local gathers steam, we should soon be able to see an entire ecosystem of local companies. Many of these companies will be B2B businesses that supply to other home-grown companies. In such a scenario, it makes sense for Indian startups to collaborate more with other home-grown firms and keep fueling this ecosystem. As the lockdown started easing, most of our foreign supply chain partners took time to get back on their feet. It was our local logistics partners like Delhivery and Rivigo, who helped us start deliveries within time. Even today, our focus continues to be on finding and strengthening these local partnerships as we prepare for growth in a post-COVID world.

There are undoubtedly some challenging times ahead, precipitated by an unprecedented global crisis. Having said that, this time also brings with it some massive opportunities, particularly for home-grown Indian startups. It’s time to reclaim our pride in our Indian-ness and leverage the benefits of “Vocal for Local”.

(Varun Alagh and Ghazal Alagh are Co-founders of Mamaearth)

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