 All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're nearing the end. But last, and certainly not the least, our final speaker is an entrepreneur who chased his dream and started PEPS Industries in 2006. And in a little over a decade, built a 500 crore company with 30 years of experience in the mattress industry. This gentleman is one of the pioneers who brought in the concept of branded mattresses in India. And PEPS is currently the largest spring mattress company in India. Known as the mattress man of India, managing director PEPS Industries, K. Madhavan. He's going to reminisce his journey and speak on the topic of how Emotional Connect helped build brand PEPS. Please welcome on stage Mr. K. Madhavan. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to extend my heartiest congratulations to Exchange for Media for creating knowledge sharing platform this evening for the industry. I see amalgamation of eminent marketing leaders here who has come and expressed their view on the core subject, distracted customer and emotion. Emotion connects. I'm very sure that all of you have got more or less a large amount of knowledge out of this. And this will certainly help you in your business. This evening, I'm the last speaker. I would like to start my talk with a bit of introduction to myself and then to my industry, my firm PEPS. And then I will conclude my talk with a small anecdote. Ladies and gentlemen, I am from sleep industry. I'm afraid whether I'm going to put you all this evening into sleep. Because you are all here from 2 o'clock afternoon and it's now closer to 9. If you all got into sleep, pardon me. You know the truth that year after year, I put closer to 1.25 million Indians into sleep. I'm a part of 1.2 million people being put into sleep. You may wonder how this guy got this figure, 1.25 billion. It's very simple. Today, the Indian population, as of now, they say it is 1.35 billion. And the mattress industry, as of last year, is closer to 6,500 crore Indian rupees. If I convert that 6,500 crore Indian rupees at the rate of, let me say, 10,000 rupees a mattresses, it works out to 0.65 million mattresses. You may say that 10,000 rupees per mattress is too much. Then let me go down by another 5,000 and say 5,000 rupees per mattress. It works out to around 1.25 million mattresses. Ladies and gentlemen, look at this figure. It sounds very funny. 1.35 billion population and the mattress consumption in the country is 1.25 million. It works out to 0.02 percentage of mattresses. What do you mean by this? Do you mean that rest of the Indians are not sleeping? Do you mean that rest of the Indians are not affordable to have a mattresses? It means that I am working in a segment where the customer's interaction with the product is almost zero. I am working in a segment where the product is not creating an enthusiasm within the customers to buy the product. I am working in a segment which you feel is the toughest segment ever. Anybody could prefer to work. I had no alternative than to work. May I have a glass of water, please? Thank you, sir. Thank you. This is enough. Now let me talk about myself. I have put up closer to about 43 years of working experience in mattress industry. Somewhere I read that they said it is 30 years. Am I right? Doesn't matter much. 30 years I worked as a hired hand. I worked as an employee in a reputed mattress manufacturer of this country. I was a part and parcel of their growth story to be the biggest mattress manufacturer in the country. At the age of 55, something happened to me. Someone came to me and said, why are you so comfortable working somewhere else? Why don't you venture yourself and become an entrepreneur and keep the comfort the other side? So normally at 55, I thought it's worth taking the risk. Because if at all I work, it will be another five years more and I have to retire. So the risk factor is only five years for me. Had I been 30, 35 years old, then I would have not taken the chance. This evening, I will be doing injustice if I don't talk about two of my benevolent friends who created curiosity in me, enthusiasm in me to become an entrepreneur. It's Mr. G Shankaraman and Mr. Manjunath. They are my guiding force behind this business. Now let me talk to you about the brand PEPS. In 2005, V3 stumbled on an opportunity which was in the city of Coimbatore. Three NRAs have started a mattress manufacturing unit, manufacturing metal spring mattresses in the year 1995. In 2005, they met us and said, our company, our organization is near to death and we would like somebody to buy this company, buy this brand. And I, being in the mattress industry, they asked me, why don't the organization where you are working think of buying this brand and this company altogether? Ladies and gentlemen, at the point of time, they were making closer to 1,000 mattresses and in rupee value or revenue works out to somewhere around a crore. We then felt that we should own this company for the simple reason we had a great purpose in us. We didn't add any vision at the point of time. Vision, if I am going to talk, that means it has to be bigger than this hall, you see. And purpose is so simple to talk about it. We had a strong purpose. One of the purposes, this country has ever, never seen a metal spring mattresses. They call it a spring mattresses. This country has seen only the conventional mattresses that's made out of coil, polyurethane foam. So we felt that a new product, when we launch, we get the first-man advantage. That was one of the purpose. Worldwide, 77% of the world population today sleeps on metal spring mattresses, spring mattresses. They don't have coil. They don't have polyurethane foam mattresses. We felt that if that happens, the next destination of an international product will be India. And we should be a part and parcel of this product well in advance. Reason number two, or you can say purpose number two. At the point of time, I was informed that closer to 10 million Indians travel abroad every year. Mind you, 10 million Indians, mostly to United States of America and Europe. And when they land abroad, they have no other mattresses to sleep. They all have to sleep on metal spring mattresses. And I am also informed, double the quantity of people travel to India for various purposes. And they have no other mattresses they need to sleep. They wanted to sleep on metal spring mattresses. We found that if all these things are happening, added to that, Indian economy was opened up for consumer and consumer durable product of international standards and international comforts. We felt it is the right time for us to get into the business. So that's how we three partners entered into manufacturing the brand called Pepsi. All said and done, it was not that easy as we thought. We entered into water. But then we found the water is very hot for us to continue to swim on. It was not that very easy. What is the reason for that? We found the industry, if you talk about mattress industry, it works on a paradigm of leader and followers. You have one leader in the industry. All others follows the leader. That was one. As I told you, the interaction of customer with the product is almost zero. And then to create enthusiasm for them to buy mattresses is also a tough job. So it was looking very nice for us. But when we literally went into the business, we felt it is not that easy to run the business. We had only one alternative. That point of time is to go in an innovative direction, be innovative, and then capture the market. What did we do immediately? The first thing we did was we signed up with an international branch called Rastonic. Rastonic is a world's fourth largest spring mattress manufacturing brand owned by Rastonic Corporation of United States of America. We signed up an licensee agreement with them for not for one year or 10 years. It's for 30 years. They signed up 30 years licensee agreement with us because they knew that the guys who are behind this product will make it really successful because they knew us and our work in the field of mattress. So first thing we did was to sign up an agreement with Rastonic Corporation for 30 years. Then second thing we did was we produced the mattresses, spring mattresses, at an affordable price. At the point of time when I'm talking to you in 2005, our mattresses were almost in line with conventional mattresses, though it was made with international standards. So the second thing we did was made the mattresses highly affordable. Third thing we made was we Indianized the whole mattresses. You see, there is a belief with the Indian customers that mattresses need to be hard if you wanted to, hard if you wanted to protect your spine. We said it's a wrong notion. Mattress should neither be hard nor be soft. It has to be firm. Simple reason is a firm mattress could take the shape of your body comfortably and your body is not straight. Your spine is in the shape of a spoon, teaspoon. So your spine, the mattress should take the shape of your spine so it gives you enough support. So we introduced the thought process in the mind of our customer that you have to use a mattress which is neither hard nor soft. So number one thing we did was signed an agreement with an international branch. Number two, we started producing international standard mattresses. Number three, we modified the mattresses suitable to the taste of Indian customers. Fourth we did was we priced it in such a level that the price was almost comparable with conventional mattresses. Fifth thing we did was we made it easily available to all the consumers. And you know, then the rest was history. I will read out what happened afterwards. First thing happened was, first year of our operation, we made 4,000 mattresses that is in the year 2005 and 6 with an average revenue at that point of time was rupees 4 crores. We scaled up as on today. We are making closer to 350,000 mattresses per year. And our revenue is poised to reach this financial year, 18, 19, somewhere closer to 425 crores. We are growing at a CAGR rate that is cumulative aggregate growth rate of 30% a year. And we are making an EBITDA not less than 13% to 14%. This is the fact that has happened. When we started the company in the initial stage, the facility what we got was just 30,000 square feet. Today, we own closer to 1,76,000 square feet built-in facility. From one factory, we made four factories pan India. At the part of the time, we had 20 workmen. And 20 marketing executives with us. Today, we are operating with closer to 200 marketing executives and over 600 workforce with us. At the point of time, we had six distributors and 24 dealers. Today, we have closer to 218 distributors. And also, we have around 4,400 dealer network. This is the growth which we have recorded. What we actually did, we actually produced a product. We made it a brand, placed the brand at the bottom of the market. Relentlessly, we started pushing it top, up, up, up. And as we did it, we displaced the competitors. And at the point of time, we made ourselves as the brand leader. This is an achievement. And I always say, this is a classical example of an Indian company disrupting an industry. This is a classical example of an Indian company. When we did all these things, we had to face another hard days. That was, as a practice, the industry used to address the customers materialistically. They used to talk only about the product. They used to talk about the benefit of the product. As the beginners, we did that for about one or two years. We started loudly talking about what is spring mattresses and what benefit it has better than the conventional mattress. In the subsequent year, we started speaking about the benefit of the spring mattresses is great sleep. When all our competitors were talking about the benefit as normal sleep, we start talking about great sleep. And when we start talking about great sleep, customers started thinking, what's the difference between a normal sleep and a great sleep? As we went on, we found that the competitors were soon talking about the aspect of great sleep in their mattresses. So that was the time. What we did was we changed our communication to the customers. We started talking to our customers about after effect of a great sleep. This we started talking to them by expressing them that if you sleep on a comfortable mattresses, you will wake up with fresh energy. We said wake up and ready for anything. That was the slogan which we started talking. And as we started talking, this slogan, it created curiosity in the customers. But soon we found the competitors are also behind us. You may wonder as to how the competitors then start talking. And what is the connotation they used to have is that they started talking, wake up fresh ideas. Wake up energized. Wake up for tomorrow. Wake up for all out. And wake up and wake up. This was the way they started speaking. This is an industry, as I told you, what leader does others does. Then the story was different. As we proceeded with our industry, we started now talking about what is really happening, how relevant we can make our product, our communication with that of what is happening around. You all appreciate the fact. Today our country is in a mood of doing something different. Today our country is in a mood of excelling themselves. Today our country, each and everyone is dreaming of better than what they are yesterday. Be it be sports, be it be technology, be it be education. Everywhere you see the mood is to excel others. So currently we are talking to our customers that you wake up fresh and be ready to chase the dream. This is the slogan which we are talking. We are also calling ourselves as dream makers. Ladies and gentlemen, emotional connect has to be relevant according to me to what the ecosystem is as on day so that the customer can connect themselves with the content what we are speaking about very easily. And it will be understood by them much better. As of now, we are the brand leaders. I hope that this product has a greater potential in years to come. And this is how we performed ourselves in the market. If you have any questions, I'll be very glad to answer that. Hello, good evening. Good evening. I just want to know why is the brand called Perse? Yeah. You see, when we took over this opportunity from the founders, they founded it in 1995. We took over, as I told you, in 2005. They have named it as PEPS. PEPS stood for the acronym of three partners who have started that company. And when we established ourselves, we felt that Indian mattress industry, you have names which always end with either on or well. The reason is there is a brand, which is brand leader here, which has on. The subsequent brand leader is the one who has well. So you see any brand in the mattress in our country. It is either sit well, stand well, run well, eat well, or sit on, stand on, run on, eat on. Then we thought, why should we have anything on to our name? Why don't we have the name PEPS itself? Because right now, the curiosity you got is, what is PEPS? Is it not? Had I had an on on that, you would have assumed that, yes, it's a mattress. So that's the reason why we retained the name PEPS. And all that we did was, we gave a meaning for PEPS. Instead of it being an acronym of the three partners we started calling it as PEPS means Perfect Explanation to Peaceful Sleep. And also, we gave a wonderful symbol for that. You see, if you see our logo, you see it has a eyelash indicating that you get peaceful sleep coming out of your eye. Say has per. Has per. Time up. No, we won't. Last one, it is not a question. As per Hindu culture, when you get up from the bed, you have to say Hari. When you go out of the house, you have to say Keshava. Before you take any food, you have to say Govinda. Before you get to bed, you have to say Madhava, you are Madhava. Thank you, sir. This is not my slogan. This is as per Hindu culture. Somehow it suits you. That's all. Thank you. I am Chau Kumar for Belanti. You see, I like to add on to your thinking. Most of the time, when I pass through a marriage chowl tree, I see the bride and bride group's name. Most of the time, they are so aligned as if they were named as they were born to get married. This is also accidental. Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen. You see, long back, you know, someone asked me, what is the critical success factor in you to be successful within a span of 12 to 13 years to establish a brand which is closer to 500 crore this year, starting with just 4 crore. What is the critical success factor? Getting a lot of sleep? Getting a lot of sleep? True, that's also one thing. But if I sleep, industry would have not been in this. So they asked me, what is the critical success factor? I told them, look here, gentlemen, the critical success factor with me is I know the fact that all of us cannot do great things. All of us cannot do the great things. They asked me, why? I told him, to do great things, you need to have great power. To do great things, you need to have great infrastructure. To do great things, you need to have great wisdom. To do great things, you need great infrastructure. To do great things, you need great talent. Am I correct? otherwise you cannot do great things. But I told them one thing is true, that all of us can do small, small things in a great way. Why? Because to do small things in a great way, you need great passion, you need great love, you need great involvement, you need great attention, you need great worship, you need a great selfless attitude. This doesn't cost much. I said in my life I always believe that I do small, small thing in great way. Another thing I'll tell you, I have a bit of time, I'm hurrying like an aircraft, I'll just pass them. Because they are bored from morning to evening, I think two to eight o'clock, sorry. I will give you a small anecdote to support my belief. South India is known as the city of temple. Sir, you spoke about Hindu philosophy. South India is known as the city of temple. And especially Tamil Nadu has highest amount of temple. I am informed that Tamil Nadu has closer to 35,000 temples. And in Tamil Nadu, the tallest temple is the temple of Brihadeshwara, Brihadeshwara temple. And this temple is in Tanjabur. I think most of you must have seen, some of you must have seen this temple. There is a story behind this temple. What is the story behind this temple? It seems this temple was built by Rajaraja Chola I. And he took six years to complete the building of this temple. He had one great ambition in his life that he should build the tallest temple in the world. Those days, world means where Rajaraja Chola lives. Today, when you talk about world, we talk all around. He wanted to build the tallest temple in the world. He took six years to build this temple. It seems that he has used thousands of artisans, thousands of nasons, thousands of sculptors, thousands of carpenters to construct this building. And you know Tanjabur is the hottest place in Tamil Nadu. And afternoons in Tanjabur is terrible. And this construction process went 24 by 7. While the construction was going nearby village, there was a lady, her name is called Alagu. Alagi, you are correct, sir. Alagi means beauty, am I right? And people used to call her as Alagi Aya, Alagi Paati. She used to visit regularly at the site, you know, construction site. While she visits, she carries a large earthen pot with buttermilk laced with spices, coriander leaf, cold buttermilk. And she ensures that each and every person who is working there in the hot sun is served with the buttermilk. This went on for closer to about six years. And the temple was about to be finished. At the point of time, the party had one small desire. She approached the chief architect or chief sculptor and she told that I have small desire. Will you please make my desire, my dreams true? He asked, what is your dream? You have done so much for us. Why it should be a small desire? You tell whatever you want, except that you want the temple I cannot give you. Else than that, you ask anything I am ready to do. She said, you see at the backyard of my house, there is a stone slab, maybe large enough to cover the sanctum sanctorium of your temple. Sanctum sanctorium is said to be covered with a stone slab. She said, why don't you use that stone slab? Because that is lying there from my ancestor's time. Sooner or later, I will not be there. And I am very much afraid that it will be misused. And I would love the stone to be at the top of the sanctum sanctorium. Chief architect said, this is a small desire. Instead of getting a stone slab from somewhere else, we will rather use this stone slab. So they used that stone slab at the top of it. When the temple was about to finish, King was very busy to fix up an inauguration day. And you know, if you have a marriage ceremony at your home and all, that night you cannot sleep. If there is a program like that you wanted to have, you will be tremendously under pressure. And possibly King might have not been using peps mattresses, I think. That is also a reason. So the King couldn't sleep. He was rolling and tossing. And at the moment of time, he could see a small glare of a light that's coming from one corner of the room. He was sure that he's not sleeping. So he watched the light. He found that light appeared closer to him. And he saw Lord Shiva, Bradeshwara in the light. The god appeared in front of him and told him, King, I am happy to dwell in the shelter provided to me by the old lady in your great temple. What did the god say? I am happy to dwell in the shelter provided by the old lady in that great temple. King got shocked. What does he mean by that? I spent large amount of, you know, my fortune. Spent a greater amount of my energy in building it. But here comes the god says it has been provided by the old lady. By the time he could converse with the god, god disappeared. Immediately it appears the next morning, King before the sunrise arrived at the spot where the project is going on. He asked the chief, you know, architect as to who this lady is, was involved in the construction. They said, we don't remember any lady being involved in the construction process. But we know one lady who used to service with buttermilk. King said, I like to meet the lady. He met the lady and he said, you should inaugurate the temple because you have done small thing in a great way. I did only great thing. I was doing great thing in great way. And god prefers your small deed and he is rewarded himself, you know. He has rewarded his heart to you. Look at that emotional connect he got in a distracted ambience, you know. How he got that. And it appears even today as you enter the temple on the right side, you got what is known as a reggae garden. Am I correct sir? The pronunciation, reggae, coulomb. And also the corporation of municipal corporation is also, has put up a office there, I was told. Just where her hut was located. Ladies and gentlemen, I went at a maximum speed so that you all will be relieved from this gathering. Good night. Thank you. I can't think of a better way to end than with the parting notes of the original mattress man of India who we also now know is a wonderful storyteller. So thank you so much for really upping the energy and keeping it right till the end and to present a small memento to you. May I please call upon Mr. Anik Banerjee, Chief Business Creative of Ripple Fragrances and Mr. Arvind Kumar, Executive Director of the Advertising Club of Bangalore. Gentlemen.