Super Foods Is Going To Be An Important Part Of The Consumers Diet: Gaurav Aggarwal, Director Lasons India
Most of the people have accepted that they don’t eat enough green vegetables. It’s because of the lifestyle we live in. Nowadays, it is becoming hard day-by-day for an everyday go-getter to fit in a wholesome diet and includes healthy alternatives than opting for easily accessible junk.
Gaurav Aggarwal, Director Lasons India, decided to overcome the traditional intake of supplements as tablets and capsule. Gaurav, started his journey in the nutrition, wellness and pharmaceutical field at the young age of twenty.
He notices a growing gap in the lifestyle of every individual, environmental changes and everyday challenges in keeping healthy. Nutrition and wellness taking a backseat, and illness and diseases taking a toll on everyone’s routine and life
In 2017, he created a brand with products that cater to enhancing health and wellness in the simplest yet most effective way.
In an interview with BW Businessworld, Aggarwal talks about the importance of super-food and more.
What made you to enter super food market?
The consumer at large is constantly looking at newer delivery systems for their nutrition intake as compared to the traditional tablets and capsules. Super foods have many advantages. They are mostly and largely natural, they can be consumed in the right dosages as they don’t have restrictions with sizes like in the case of capsules and tablets, they can be made taste and easy to consume and last but not the least mentally the consumer looks at tablets and capsules as a medicine even though that may not necessarily be the case. I believe super foods is going to be an important part of the consumers diet and requirements and is here to stay and grow in the coming future.
What have been the biggest challenges in while setting up the brand?
Setting up a brand is not a challenge its the easier and probably inexpensive part of the journey. The true test of every aspect begins when you put the brand in motion. It is an expensive, time consuming and extremely complexed industry where the end users are way too many (B2C) and satisfying each and every customer is and always should be a priority. From channel distribution to online sales, return, payments, product expiry etc are some of the key areas where difficulties are faced specially for new entrants and one must evaluate all these aspects ahead of making important decisions.
How much investment has been done till date? Bootstrapped or Investors.
OneLife is a bootstrapped brand and no external investors have been onboarded since inception. The investment so far is in excess of 10 crores
There are a lot of other brands around, how is OneLife doing things differently?
OneLife - Live it right the name suggests it. We believe in doing things larger than life in every possible way. We are one of the only brands that has launched successfully over 100 products in just 24 months. We have products in the health & supplements, FMCG, wellness and personal care space. We are available offline in more than 1000 locations across more than 15 cities and online on more than 10 portals including Amazon USA (fulfilled by amazon). Although we are a home grown brand we wish to establish ourselves as a market leader and are walking that journey. We thrive on customer satisfaction and quality control is paramount. The fact that we are a 40 year pharmaceutical manufacturer with exports to more than a 100 countries and have accreditations like US FDA has taught us the importance of quality control and checks and there are no short cuts there
What is you marketing strategy?
Yes we have tried it all and continue all in different proportions. I think these are all only to create that first purchase. Your product has to be the star after all. The consumer wants value for money. If they aren’t satisfied with the results for which they buy the product they won’t come back no matter what the strategy is. we focus on product and everything else will eventually fall in place. It is extremely important to use all forms of digital marketing. Key is eye ball traction on multiple platforms.
To whom you considered as competition and why?
I think every brand is competition and I believe it is a good thing. In some cases we educate the customer and in some cases the competition educates the consumer. In either case the consumer becoming aware is a good thing. Rest is all upto the product and how well it works for the customer. That being said every brand is competition and some will stay and some won’t make it forward beyond a certain time for some reason or the other. Every brand has a different approach and marketing strategy that differentiates them and most are doing a decent job.
What's your take on the future for start-ups and entrepreneurship?
I truly believe that if you can dream something you can achieve it. The difference is implementation, discipline and patience to walk that journey thro the ups and downs. If you have an idea and truly believe there is potential then don’t discard it. Discuss it with very trusted family and friends or mentors as you feel comfortable. Draw out a plan depending on your resources and walk the road. There is market for everything. The worst decision you will ever make is not deciding. Either go for it or let it go. Don’t ponder over it forever.
What are your expansion plans in or out of the country?
We are looking forward to our exports starting in the coming few months. We have already appointed distributors in some regions and are awaiting approvals amongst other things. The focus is the domestic market though and we will focus our resources and energies in this region. We wish to grow steadily and consistently in the coming few years.
Future plan in terms of new product developments?
We are very particular about product selection and moving forward will be even more. Every product we wish to introduce must be unique in its own way.
