A Maestro of Marketing: Spicy journey of Spice King- A Tribute

At the age of 98 spice king Mahashay Dharampal Gulati took his last breath, a household name. His journey is studded with so many crowing accomplishments that ordinary mortals take several lifetime to achieve. 

The company was founded by his father Mahashay Chunni Lal Gulati in the year of 1919 in Sialkot, Punjab province in British India (Now in Pakistan). He joined the business with father. After partition the family migrated from Pakistan to India. With very limited resources family migrated first to Amritsar and then to Delhi.

He had very little amount and chose to continue with his line of business. He was left with a wealth of fifteen hundred, a portion of which he spent on buying “Tanga” and some money was invested for buying spices.  He started with philosophy of quality product at reasonable price. Quality control was his area of expertise, gradually aroma of his products started spreading. He bought his first shop in “Karol Bagh” and later in 1959 in “Kirtinagar” he set up his first manufacturing unit.

Spicy Fact about Mahashay Ji:  At the age of 94, Dharam Pal Gulti was the highest paid FMCG in 2007.

What was behind this grand success? Product quality & his unmatchable understanding for marketing and promotion with changing time. Last but not the least he had a vision for the Brand MDH. He understood the advantages of building the Brand. He invested heavily in building the Brand MDH despite knowing the fact that it would have no immediate returns. His Farsightedness and the vision for the Brand MDH not only made it a household name across India but also created global footprints by expanding its reach to western world.

The wisdom & intelligence of Mahashay Dharampal Gulati balanced 4 P’s of Marketing gelled with changing business environment. And of course you required having that vision too.

Lets discuss how he managed these 4 P’s

Product:  

MDH has range of spices and MDH Dant Manjan, MDH Kesar and MDH Havan Samagri in their portfolio. But what made them to stand at commanding position in the stiff competition in the market, is the quality of the products.

MDH has fully automated manufacturing plants in New Delhi, Gurgaon, Nagpur and Sojat in India and a fully functional unit in Sharjah, UAE.

Time to time introduction of other variants of spice mix as per market demand to keep their repertory stocked for their customers, so that they stick with MDH flavor only.

Price:

MDH is known for its quality, distinct flavors and traditions. This spice giant has targeted households all over the country and has distribution channels in the smallest of towns in India.

This company faces a lot of competition from other brands and hence has adopted a competitive as well as penetrative pricing strategy because it wants to sell its products in every part of the country. Both these models have helped in larger sales volumes and greater revenues for the company.

Place:

MDH is not only household name in India but this brand is available in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Japan, The United Kingdom, Canada, Europe, The United States of America and a few parts of South East Asia as well.

MDH Masala has a widespread distribution channel in India that includes more than 400,000 retail dealers, 1,000 wholesalers.

Abovementioned facts are the elaboration of widespread presence and easy availability.

Promotion:

MDH has a huge brand recall and has maintained it branding and advertising strategy for a very long time. They have intensive marketing done via print, TV and digital mediums. They also have a good offline marketing strategy by advertising in local magazines, food magazines, women centric magazines and hoardings.

The appearance of Mahashay Dharampal Gulati has helped the brand to attain such strong recall in the mind of viewers.

Unique, Carefully chosen catchy taglines and appearance of Mahashay Ji in their advertisements impactful and hence has a very prominent recall value in the minds of the consumers.

‘Asli Masale Sach Sach – MDH’ – Depicting MDH as synonym of Spices

‘Nature Jaisi Shudta’ – Richness of flavours

‘Mahashay Dharam Pal Gulati Journey Ad’ – Flavor of success

MDH Promotion Campaign:

MDH has unique selling preposition in terms of its quality and traditional yet distinctive flavours. It utilizes its USP in all its promotion campaigns. From Television, print media to its entire social media handles the marketing communication in sync with its USP.

The owner of MDH has become a known face with his appearance in the advertisement. All the ads made by the brand feature the owner of the company Mahashay Dharam Pal Gulati, which is unique and hence has a very prominent recall value in the minds of the consumers.

MDH- A Case Study in Advertisement & Promotion:  The success of MDH is depiction of effective marketing and promotion strategy. It has to be constant to create brand recall value. Brand Building  never goes in vain. It fetches business one way or the other. One has to be patient and consistent. Branding is not related with one time sale. it’s a complete exercise that one has to stick with to yield long term results & benefits.

There were many products who were capturing good market stake at the point when MDH was trying to create its market, the difference remained that they cared for immediate sales & MDH for brand building. And rest is the case study.