Indian Consumers Highly Dynamic In Nature: Param Bhargava, The Ayurveda Co

"Indian consumers are highly dynamic in nature and they want to try and test products before buying them," said Param Bhargava, Founder and Managing Director (MD), The Ayurveda Co.

While speaking at BW Emerging Business Summit & Awards, Bhargava explained that large legacy brands did not have that many repeat buyers. Ayurveda was very mass-marketed, where brands operated at Rs 100-150 which could not be supported by the supply chain with the ever-increasing prices of raw materials. 

On the other hand, he stated that there were premium luxury brands that made Ayurveda unaffordable for a large population of India, many consumers cannot repeatedly buy a Rs 1500-2000 product. He said, “For us, the first problem to solve was to create a product portfolio marketed at the right price.”  

Bhargava explained, “Ayurveda has a legacy of over 5,000 years, but it was never a mainstream category for India. There have been quite a few brands but there were no effective ayurvedic products in the pure sense. Consumers were not getting to experience the actual benefits of Ayurveda.”  

He stated that if one looks at the new age economy and the emerging businesses, India is becoming extremely aspirational. Consumers are also becoming more upfront, they want the products they buy to reflect quality. It's important that when you’re building something large, the centricity lies in your consumer feedback mechanism, and you operate with transparency, he added.  

He asserted, “This India’s decade, Indians are now creating large global consumer brands which will drive an even more aggressive dream of becoming a 10 trillion-dollar economy."

Talking about how he started his company, Bhargava said that he realised that the younger generation in the country was not aware of Ayurveda. He further explained that he wanted to bring out a product line, a segment that connected and related to the younger generation. He emphasised that for something to grow at scale, it’s important to get the youth behind it.  

He said, “I always had the feeling that someday I will build something of my own. But entrepreneurs generally are never built with a plan, you stumble onto something accidentally, get an idea, and then chase that idea to convert it into reality."