A Natural Alternative

The brand’s vision is to provide natural alternatives to skin and hair care using traditional Indian herbs. “It is India’s first plant-based Ayurvedic and organic skincare brand,”said Gaddam, adding, “Our unique formulations are so potent and pure that they transcend the trends.” According to her, if used in the right proportions, the pure organic extracts from plants and roots can be an effective alternative to conventional skin and hair care products.

“Most of our products are in pure organic powder forms or cold-pressed oil forms. The business is largely driven by social media. We started small as a homegrown social media focused brand and today our customers have played a major role in spreading positive word of mouth about the brand,” she told BW Businessworld.

What, we asked her, was the secret of the success of the two-year-old brand. “Performance of natural products and collaborating with right influencers has majorly helped the brand move forward,” said Gaddam. A critical contribution to the entrepreneurship space, she felt, had been information technology, which had allowed consumers to look beyond the big brands and build trust in startups.

“There are Indian ingredients that people do not know about. We wanted to bring them before the world and the credit for it goes to technology. Up until last month, we were a 100 per cent online store. Technology really helped get our message and product out into the market,” she said.  “We are 100 per cent natural; we use sustainable packaging for our products in reusable steel tins or glass jars to do our part for the environment,” Gaddam said proudly.

Women had been a quintessential part of the brand’s  journey, she emphasised. As much as 80 per cent of the workforce of The Tribe Concepts comprise women. The company, quipped Gaddam, had been founded by women. The Tribe Concepts advocates the ‘women in business’ notion and provides support to women at all levels –  from handpicking the ingredients to shaping up a product.

Gaddam revealed that the ingredients of the company’s products were   sourced from the most fertile soils of the Godavari Belt. The soil in the region is pesticide-free and the environment too is pollution-free. “We follow sustainable sourcing practices from Girijan corporations and local farmers. Formulating in the right combinations is key to our performing products,” she said.

Gaddam conceded that the last one-and-a-half years had been difficult for the company like most businesses. “There were logistical issues. For example, sourcing tin jars and glass bottles during the lockdown restrictions was challenging. The flip side was the growth of e-commerce. We were able to see a rise in digital reach as everything was online,” she pointed out.

“Digital is the biggest change during the pandemic and this change is only going to beautify and multiply over the next two years, not only from a brand perspective but also from the consumers’ point of view,” said Gaddam. We wish her team all the very best for the future.