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The Spicy Success of MDH: How a Small Company Became a Spice Empire
Table of Contents
The Indian spice market is highly competitive, with both large corporations and small family businesses vying for market share. One company that has managed to rise above the competition and cement itself as a beloved household name is MDH (Mahashian Di Hatti). Through clever marketing, high-quality products, and perseverance, MDH has captured the hearts and tastebuds of millions of Indian consumers. This article will explore the comprehensive marketing strategy that has led to MDH’s spicy success.
About MDH
MDH was founded in 1919 by Mahashay Chuni Lal in Sialkot (present-day Pakistan). The company began as a small stall selling hand-pounded spices. After the partition of India in 1947, Chuni Lal relocated to India and set up shop in Delhi. He was joined by his son Mahashay Dharampal Gulati, who expanded the business by focusing on spice quality and innovative marketing.
Today, MDH has grown into a spice empire, with state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities and products available across India and in over 60 countries worldwide. However, the company has maintained its commitment to quality and its homegrown, family-business ethos. MDH is currently led by the third and fourth generation of the founding family.
What’s New with MDH
While MDH has maintained its core product line of pure spices over the decades, the company continues to innovate by introducing new products and variants.
Recent launches include:
- MDH Masala Tea: A range of premium tea blends infused with MDH’s signature spice mixes. Flavors include ginger, elaichi, masala chai, and more.
- Organic Range: Organic certified variants of top MDH spices like haldi, jeera, dhaniya, and garam masala.
- Chhappan Bhog: A special Navratri offering, this is a box of 9 distinct masalas for fasting recipes.
- Gourmet Seasonings: Premium gourmet spices and seasoning blends tailored for international cuisines like Continental, Thai, Chinese etc.
- Packaged Foods: MDH has introduced packaged foods like pulses, pickles, papad, and ready-to-cook meals under the MDH Tiffin brand.
These new product ranges reveal MDH’s desire to stay relevant to changing consumer tastes while capitalizing on emerging health food trends.
Buyer Persona
MDH targets a broad demographic of Indian spice consumers across geographies, languages, income levels, and ages. However, a few identifiable personas stand out among MDH’s core customer base:
The Homemaker
A married woman aged 28-50 who handles all the cooking and grocery shopping for a family of 3-5 people. She takes pride in serving delicious homemade food and is always looking for ways to enhance flavor and save time in the kitchen. She appreciates spices that deliver consistent quality and taste.
The Senior Citizen
An older customer above the age of 60 who has traditionally purchased and trusted MDH spices for decades. This loyal customer base helps MDH maintain steady sales.
The Youth
College students and young professionals aged 18-30 who have recently started cooking. They look for convenience and are more likely to purchase ready-to-cook foods and spice mixes instead of individual spices.
The Expat
Non-resident Indians living abroad who crave a taste of home. They purchase MDH spices online or at Indian grocery stores to make authentic Indian cuisine.
MDH employs marketing tactics tailored to each of these personas.
Marketing Mix of MDH
MDH has skillfully combined the four P’s of marketing – Product, Price, Place, and Promotion – to create a strategy that has catapulted a small family business into a leading spice brand.
Product Strategy
- Quality: From sourcing to packaging, quality control is paramount. State-of-the-art facilities and processes ensure purity.
- Range: MDH offers a vast range – whole spices, blends, packaged foods, organic, regional flavors etc. to meet diverse needs.
- Innovation: Regularly launches new products and variants in line with consumer trends.
- Packaging: Colorful, attractive packs with minimalist design help MDH stand out on shelves. The iconic MDH logo is widely recognizable.
Pricing Strategy
- Cost Leadership: MDH is affordably priced, offering high quality at reasonable costs through economies of scale.
- Price Segments: Separate pricing and packaging for regular, premium and bulk segments. Catering to budget-conscious and high-end buyers.
- Discounts: Regular promotions like discounts, bundle offers and free gifts especially during festivals to boost sales.
- Competitive Pricing: Benchmarked against competitor pricing but leverages brand equity for a slight premium.
Place Strategy
- Distribution Network: Vast distribution spanning 6.5 lakh retail outlets across India through carrying & forwarding agents and stockists.
- In-store Prominence: Visible merchandising with glow signboards, displays and banners improves in-store visibility.
- E-commerce: Tie-ups with Amazon, BigBasket and other major online grocers expanding reach.
- Global Presence: Exports to over 60 countries including UK, USA, Middle East, Australia.
Promotions Mix
- Print Advertising: Full page ads in newspapers focused during festivals and sale events. Reinforce availability, pricing, and offerings.
- TV Commercials: MDH owner as brand mascot connects with consumers. Catchy, memorable jingles dominate ads instead of product features. Nostalgic element.
- OOH Advertising: Billboards, banners, shop signages, and displays at retail outlets and on trucks/tempos.
- Digital Marketing: Active website and social media pages drive awareness and engagement among youth. Influencer marketing.
- Sales Promotion: Contests, discounts, freebies, bundled offers etc. to incentivize trial and purchases.
- Public Relations: Tie-ups with cookery shows, food events, and chef associations. Mr. Dharampal Gulati is a celebrity endorser.
- Packaging: Serves as a mobile billboard. Emphasizes quality, value, and key product details.
MDH Competitor Analysis
MDH dominates spices in North India but faces stiff national competition from established brands and regional players.
Everest Spices
- Owned by Mumbai-based Kohinoor Foods, Everest is one of India’s earliest branded spice companies (1928).
- Portfolio of over 50 spices, seasoning mixes, and ready-to-eat foods.
- Premium pricing and international quality certifications. Targets higher SEC urban consumers compared to MDH’s mass market positioning.
- Limited advertising except digital presence. Distribution through modern trade channels.
Catch Spices
- Launched in 2009, Catch has gained significant market share by positioning itself as a pure, unadulterated, clean-label spice brand.
- Communicates purity, safety, and traceability. Popular among health-conscious buyers. Sold online and in modern trade outlets at premium prices.
- Parent company is German conglomerate OmniActive Health Technologies. Leverages international expertise in testing and quality control.
Regional players
- In South India, MDH lags behind challengers like MTR Foods, Eastern Masala, and sitaram Spices.
- To expand, MDH will need to compete against such deeply-entrenched local companies with product localization and impactful marketing tailored for those markets.
Marketing Strategy of MDH
MDH’s phenomenal success stems from adopting marketing strategies perfectly suited for the Indian spice consumer. Their tactics to drive awareness, engagement, and sales are examined below:
Branding with a Face
Instead of using celebrity brand ambassadors, MDH chose to make its owner, Dharampal Gulati, the face of the brand. This helped build immense trust and approachability. The friendly elderly ‘MDH uncle’ consistently featured in ads, packs, and communications for over 5 decades. Consumers felt like they personally knew him! His memorable one-liners like “Asli masale sach sach, MDH MDH” became pop culture staples.
Heartwarming Storytelling
MDH commercials stood out by using sentimental storytelling focused on emotions and family values rather than product features. Nostalgic ads depicting family bonding over food cooked with MDH spices touched many hearts. This allowed consumers to form an emotional, rather than just transactional, relationship with the MDH brand.
Consistent Messaging
“Asli masale sach sach” (Real spices are really true) has been MDH’s tagline since the 1950s. Such message discipline across decades drilled quality and authenticity into consumers’ minds, creating a huge first-mover advantage over new entrants. Folksy minimalism worked better than changing trendy phrases.
Distribution Depth and Breadth
With around 500,000 retail outlets reached, MDH achieved unmatched distribution penetration into every nook and corner of India. From tiny kirana shops to giant hypermarkets, MDH is available everywhere Indian consumers buy spices. This physical availability shapes perceptions of MDH as the default, top-of-mind spice brand.
Value Pricing
MDH is priced modestly compared to premium competitors. This affordable pricing and regular promotional offers appeal to price-sensitive Indian households. By sacrificing profit margins, MDH achieved large volumes and economies of scale which fueled further growth.
Customer Insights
Instead of fancy market research, MDH gained insights into customer needs through old-fashioned face-to-face conversations. The founding family themselves would interact with neighborhood consumers daily at their Delhi spice shop. This helped them create authentic products and messaging that truly resonated with Indians across socioeconomic divides.
Pride in Roots
MDH wears its ’desi’ origins proudly on its sleeve through the brand name, logo, packaging, and communication style. This desi personality clicked instantly with Indian consumers and prevented MDH from seeming like a foreign/artificial import. The indigenously authentic image also provides a competitive edge.
Spice Variety
MDH offers an unparalleled range of over 60 single-origin whole spices and 100+ blended masalas. This depth and width of portfolio caters to diverse regional tastes and cuisine needs nationwide. Availability of desired spice options is a key driver for shoppers to choose MDH.
The X-Factor Behind MDH’s Success
Among all the strategies discussed, one hugely impactful tactic employed by MDH from the beginning was the unique use of catchy radio jingles in advertising.
Back when television was unfamiliar and print ads were only seen by literate urbanites, MDH tapped into the reach of radio to popularize its melody-driven spices commercials. In 1955 when no company even understood the concept of branding, MDH created a wildly popular 40-second radio spot sung in Dadra tune. This infectious musical Mnemonic cemented both the brand name and credibility in public memory like never before.
The legendary jingle went “Asli masale sach sach, MDH MDH, MDH!”
Through the simple power of repetition via mass media, this audio branding was instrumental in taking a fledgling family shop from Sialkot and turning it into a pan-India spice powerhouse within years. The tune was so addictively catchy that even illiterate consumers started demanding “MDH wala masala”.
Bollywood is known globally for its song and dance. MDH smartly leveraged this Indian love for music. The musical ads ensured recall while the owner’s visual presence added trust. The rest, as they say, is (spicy) history!
Conclusive Words
MDH’s journey reveals how old-fashioned conviction paired with insightful marketing strategies can enable spectacular business success even in a traditional industry. By combining a quality product, persistent branding, a charismatic founder, and an understanding of the local consumer psyche, MDH has become a quintessentially Indian company admired by millions. This inspiring underdog story holds valuable lessons for newcomers seeking to compete against larger players in any domain. When passion meets strategic thinking, the recipe for success gets spicier.
