At the BreakfastBrief huddle in Ahmedabad, Yash Mehta, Founder, JoySpoon, said digital visibility and founder-led credibility have helped the young brand reach markets and retailers it had not expected to access so quickly.
Yash’s comments were useful because they showed how online content can create offline opportunity for a young brand. He spoke about retailers reaching out from Guwahati, Shark Tank and YouTube-led discovery, founder visibility, quick-commerce and marketplace thinking, financial discipline, and how being seen and recognised as the founder can sometimes create more trust than conventional influencer-led activity. And more. In a quick Q&A format.
Tell us briefly about JoySpoon.
I am Yash Mehta, founder at JoySpoon. I am basically a chartered accountant by education, not a marketer at all in my career trajectory, but I have been in FMCG for 10 years now.
We run JoySpoon with the vision of building a confectionery brand from India, with mouth freshener and mukhwas as the first focus category, and now gradually launching other products.
In one line, we are building a Perfetti Van Melle from India for the world, but in a better-for-you format — no artificial colours, no artificial flavours, and bringing down the sugar in the overall category.
Where is JoySpoon placed today?
JoySpoon is just 19-20 months old. We will finish two years in July.
We are a D2C brand, majorly driven by quick commerce. We are there on the new platforms, including Amazon now, and on the older ones like Zepto.
We are backed by Gulab Oils and Ritesh from Shark Tank also.
Why is quick commerce important for your category?
As you rightly said about the impulse category, when you are having your dinner or even midday munching, and you see that you need to add something to fill that Rs 20, Rs 30 or Rs 40 gap in your cart, our product starts from Rs 40 to Rs 50 for a bottle on quick commerce.
I think it is a very impulse category. Being present there where the customer orders is very important.
What has worked for you in terms of brand-building?
What has worked most for us is founder-led communication.
My wife Vaishali is my co-founder, and the product started from her learning these during Covid from her mom and nani, then bringing it to me and saying, “Yash, you have eight years of FMCG experience, why not focus on this category and build a brand?”
Both of us as faces of the brand have worked a lot more than any influencers could have worked for us in the past.
Why do founder-led brands matter for new-age brands?
For new-age brands, if somebody is starting anything in India, I feel founder-led brands work.
People realise brands because of founders as well, and those founders then double down with content marketing.
What have you learnt about creator costs and ROI?
We did one recent campaign in Bombay with very new-age creators. The per-content-piece cost was Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000.
One piece, after multiple iterations, worked and got us 1.2 million reach at a cost of Rs 1,500.
We have spoken to some of the biggest content creators also. Some bigger creators have even posted for us organically. But when we speak to bigger content creators, the budgets do not make sense for a new-age brand.
I am a CA, and I take care of the P&L myself, so that cost ROI does not make sense.
What kind of opportunities has content opened up?
A lot of opportunities open up because of content, and it has opened up opportunities like the Guwahati one that I mentioned.
The format that is working for us is performance marketing plus content and some physical presence.
How do online and offline work together for JoySpoon?
I was recently at Zepto Nani Ka Ghar event. We were invited, and luckily our Aam Papad was very well placed on the Aam Ka Ped that was there.
Zepto, being a quick-commerce platform, took the lead in marketing it in an experiential format. Hocco was there, Badshah Masala was integrated in the achaar.
Thinking of those integrations in an offline format, where 100 creators are called and then it is talked about online, that works really well.
For quick commerce also, attribution to CPAS is evolving. On Zepto, we had a format where we were running Meta ads for people to be directed to Zepto. New properties that quick commerce is bringing are working very well.
What role does taste and offline presence play?
For us, taste is the biggest preference.
Even our visiting card is designed in such a way that it has a mouth freshener inside. Chandan from Zepto’s marketing team loved it and mentioned it online.
For us, the offline touch, along with bringing our faces again and again to consumers online, ultimately converts into a buying funnel.
What offline placements are helping build credibility?
It is a traditional category and unorganised. Everyone has seen this since childhood.
Our placements help. We are placed in Taj Udaipur, Taj Ahmedabad, and we are coming up in airlines probably. We are there at airports. Offline touchpoints like Nature’s Basket, airports or Taj Skyline help build brand recall.
Then people ultimately go online and buy it.
What has Shark Tank and content helped you unlock?
In two years, getting that distribution or unlocking all channels is difficult. We are now coming up in Maharashtra offline and have finalised a distributor in Delhi.
Content and Shark Tank helped us bring the ex-CEO of Chandan Mukwas on board.
If I had reached out to him, I would have paid him 5x the amount in consultancy and effort. But he approached us and said, “Yash, I left Chandan in 2019, and I saw you on Shark Tank. I want to build this category with you because I have 20 years of relevant experience in the industry.”
Those opportunities open up because of performance marketing, content or people watching you continuously online. That then converts into a lot of offline opportunities for brands.
