Many years ago, when I worked at BIM Trichy, we got some of the best-tasting Chandrakalas in the Raja Bakery of BHEL Kailasapuram township and the BG Naidu Sweet Shop in the town.
We have a small sweet shop in our Chennai neighbourhood, run by an annachi from South Tamil Nadu, where we used to buy fresh sweets, snacks and savouries regularly. He also does some on-demand merchant exports in a small way to the USA and Europe.
Annachi sells a range of sweets from Laddu to Gulab Jamun, but I have never seen him selling Chandrakala.
I asked him why he isn't selling it, and he spoke about product-market fit, claiming that not many in the neighbourhood buy it. Another major point he made was about the process involved in hand-made ornamentation of Chandrakala to make it aesthetically pleasing, which needs special labour. He added that using a mould doesn't help as it isn't attractive compared to a hand-twisted design (craft vs scale paradox).
With all the trials of such an extended process, the sweet doesn't command a premium and gets sold at Rs. 400 per kg in this price-sensitive market, the same as a kilogram of laddoo.
The annachi claimed he can roll six laddoos while making one Chandrakala! The unit economics should justify the efforts for a winning proposition.
On the contrary, during the last Holi in Uttar Pradesh, the news of a certain Gauri sweet shop in Gonda selling "Golden Gujiya" with a 24-carat edible golden layer for Rs. 50,000 a Kg (a single piece was priced Rs. 1300) went viral. Perhaps, that's a different, premium market with idiosyncrasies where an aspirational positioning with storytelling transforms the value perception, or it could be just a PR stunt. Neelkanth Sweets of Lucknow offers 24-carat Gold Queen Gujiya in an aesthetically designed jewel-box-like packaging, holding two pieces priced at Rs. 1100.
Not to sell Chandrakala demonstrated a grounded understanding of the local market preferences, as it is an unviable product for the local geography. Product push vs customer-centric demand-driven approach.
The need for ornamentation consumes much labour and lacks automation potential. It will not be sustainable without an aesthetic or emotional premium, and annachi understood that.
Made a lot of business sense. With no intention of disturbing him with MBA gyan of ansoff matrix or strategic growth orientation, I wished him good luck and quietly left the outlet with the pack of sweets. Some MSME business experiences are sweeter than the sweets!
sweets productmarketfit businesssense marketing gujiya chandrakala strategy PMF
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