Constant innovation, leveraging brand strengths key to success: Marico Chairman Mariwala

Marico Chairman Harsh Mariwala on Wednesday, speaking at the opening session of the CII National Leadership Summit in Mumbai, outlined how the company pivoted at key stages for sustainable and profitable growth to build the FMCG giant Marico.

The first pivot the company made was to increase market share for their key brands, Saffola and Parachute. In 2009, Marico – under its flagship brand Saffola, which was a health brand --launched baked snacks Saffola Zest. The product was healthy but not tasty and failed in the market.

"We had to withdraw that product and missed an opportunity because by then a lot of other players launched baked snacks," Mariwala, the founder of Marico, which is a Fortune India 500 company, with FY26 total income in excess of ₹16,000 crore, said.

"But subsequently, about six years back, we entered Saffola oats, and fighting against the big players, we got 10-15% market share," he said, due to the distribution of their brand. "In almost all the brands we have, we are market leaders in that particular segment. Market leadership gives you economies of scale and pricing power. This will lead to higher profitability, which ensures that one is not vulnerable to newer competition," Mariwala said.

Mariwala was always passionate to acquire market leadership position. "Gaining market leadership position in oats was a big challenge. We realized that Indian consumers liked spicy or savoury breakfast and had seen what Maggi had done in the noodles space."

But the fear of failing in snacks was haunting them and the taste profile, taste preferences change from state to state. "We did profiling of taste preferences across India, and we launched products which were in that particular region depending on the taste preference, a range of masala oats," Mariwala said. This emerged as a success.

"We have created a new category of Rs 400 crores of masala oats, in which we have 80% percent market share. And because of that, our market share in oats also has gone up, and if we combine both, we are market leader. So remember, it's okay to fail, but you must go on experimenting on a continuous way."

"Once you achieve 50%market share, then it's difficult to go on increasing market share. So I think the role shifts to increasing market size, and that's what we did in coconut oil, talked about benefits of using a packed oil in terms of hygiene and product itself. And I think that played an important role in converting users of loose oil to packed oils," Mariwala said.

Marico did more research and marketed the coconut oil product as a pre-wash product, rather than a post wash (hair) product as the modern youth did not want to use coconut oil after bath. "We realized that if you oil your hair prior to shampoo, and shampoo, then hair is far softer. So we came out with a campaign one-hour champi kiya. So before shampooing you must oil your hair one hour before that. That showed the modern youth continued using our product," Mariwala said.

Mariwala said it was important to evaluate and understand how a brand can leverage on its domain leadership position. "Over a period of time Parachute has gone from coconut oil to hair oils, into body lotions, skin care and Parachute shampoo. So a whole host of extensions: Parachute aloe vera, Parachute Ayurvedic, Parachute jasmine were also launched.

"You have to leverage on your area of strength. For Saffola, we went in from refined safflower oil to blended oils to Saffola foods like oats, masala oats and then launched a Saffola honey and Saffola soya."

Mariwala also spoke about expanding some of their brans globally. Marico now has a 80% market share in the coconut oil segment and the international business contributes about ₹4,000 crores to their total turnover. The next growth opportunity came through acquisition. "We have over a period made nearly 30 acquisitions in coconut oil and many other FMCG and D2C brands," he said, adding that the mindset to manage D2C businesses and brands should be totally different from FMCG brands.