 Welcome back, now from being a small start-up in Bangalore in the year 2011 to a company that's valued at over 100 million dollars today, Hector Beverages which owns the popular paper board brand has had a pretty successful run so far. In fact, paper board has made a mark in the beverage industry with their line up of traditional Indian flavors. You know that they have Ampanna, they have Jaljeera, even Golgappay Kapani and all of these have been marketed rather innovatively through these nostalgia and using ad campaigns that's happened over a span of time since they launched. In fact, it's most recent campaign, Hum Hongye Kamyam has won it many accolades including the coveted Grand Effie which was something we were talking about just before the last break. Today to talk to us about the brand and how they've gone about marketing themselves is Parvesh Debuka the head of marketing at Hector Beverages. Great to have you with us and many congratulations on winning the Effie this year. We'll come to that in a bit but I want to take a step back first to understand how the idea of paper board came about, what did you take us a little bit back in time? Yeah, so it was one of those hot afternoons in Gurgaon when Neeraj Kakkar, Neeraj Bihani, Suhas and James were having their lunch and Suhas would bring Ampanna from home and everybody would want to take a swig of it and they really loved it which was so yummy. One fine day when they were having their drink James happened to mention that guys this is such a great drink, why is it that, why don't we pack it something like this? All of us love it, all of you guys obviously love it, so why don't we pack it and that's pretty much how it started and thereafter each one of us have a specific drink that we all love and so from Ampanna then the name of Jaljeera came up then the name of Amrits came up and everybody started suggesting the drinks because we have all grown up with these drinks and it used to be made at home when we grew up so it was just something that followed as a train of thought and we kept going in that direction. So when you talk about product strategy are these new flavors likely to continue, the kind of flavors that have already introduced the nostalgia and using the kind that are so reminiscent of the India that we know in the past, is that likely to continue in the near future as well? So we will come out with and we are very excited about it, we will come out with this drink Neelmour, it's spiced buttermilk and that's going to be launched very soon and we are also planning to launch Panakkam which is a drink from Karnataka, it's had on Ram Navami and we have a couple of more that we are thinking about and we are working on. So you've been watching the market very closely, tell us about the kind of response you've had so far to all these offbeat flavors you've introduced, any consumer insights, any trends that you can share with us? Yes, so the response has been great honestly and you know because like I grew up with Ampanna and Amrits and Jaljeera and there are so many of us who have actually grown up with these drinks so everybody is loving them and one of the things that we've seen that if you look at for instance one question that is always asked is some of us have not grown up with some of these drinks and now we are in let's say Bangalore and Bombay, so what happens then? And the good thing is if you look at Bangalore and you look at the Pani Puri guys in Bangalore you know seven years ago when I was in Bangalore in 2007 I think there were far less Pani Puri guys in Bangalore than we see today. Today there's a Pani Puri guy you know everywhere so you know food is basically migrating and you know people carry their food habits with them and we've seen that worldwide as well so that's and that's something that we are also seeing with our drinks so for instance our Kokum does quite well in a market like Delhi because of course people have grown up with Kokum are there and they are having it and we keep getting a lot of you know males from people who've discovered this new drink and with each of these drinks then you discover something about that place something about the people you know you get you get to know about them a little more. Also why have you chosen to package this product in pouches you have so many bottles you have the Tetra packs out there but you've done it very differently is it to really stand out on the shelves? No actually it was something that so James he you know he was he came with a lot of expertise in packaging and it was just one of those things we wanted to you know do something which was and he had this in mind and we said hey why not there isn't something like this that's around and you can actually create something really spectacular with this kind of packaging so why not give it like a really good shot and that's exactly how it happened and when it came out finally I think everybody fell in love with it. Initially I remember Parvesh these were most visible on airlines was that a conscious move to kind of make them popular on flights and then kind of take it from there? Yeah so one we thought was that it's a great place like all the people who are traveling you know how can we they are they are also the right kind of people that they're making these drinks for because a lot of travel happens for work you know in all the metros and we said that what better place to sort of serve them these drinks than on airports and aircrafts because you're always looking out for something to eat you're traveling at odd hours you're tired after a long day of work at work so you know so it's a great place where we can actually serve you something and and that's how we decided that you know and you also end up reaching out to people from everywhere right so people from all the places and and because we have so many different drinks we said let's let's go to the airlines that's a good place all right let's talk about ad campaigns as well because since your launch paperboard has been known for all your innovative advertising the latest Hum Hongye Kamyab campaign that's in sync with the previous ad that you've learned so tell us sir what's the approach you've taken now with the Hum Hongye Kamyab campaign how have you conceptualized it? So Hum Hongye Kamyab is such a good song it's it's such a favorite song of ours and I think everybody in in you know in our company is always ready to sing that song so even in a get-togethers you know at office I think there are very few get-togethers where we haven't sung this song so it's extremely close all of us carried in our hearts and one day you know Neeraj said that hey you know we have Hum Hongye Kamyab you know we all love it why don't we create something with that you know why don't we create some magic with it and that's how it began we went and searched for it on youtube and we realized that there wasn't like a well recorded version of the song you know there are good versions of course there are great renditions of the song but we were trying to look for an original basically you know if you know what I mean and we didn't find that so we said that why don't we create something we love it so much why don't we actually create something which can stay you know which can actually become a a song that stays you know true to how we saw it when we were growing up so that's how the idea came about and and yeah and then the the whole you know the whole point of getting all the startup people into the song because they are such amazing people then they are they are really changing our country for the better so as far as I can see paperboard ads they've been based on themes that are related to childhood to nostalgia even the use of the mulberry theme it takes us back in time on a huge nostalgia trip tell us about why you've chosen this kind of positioning this kind of theme as it were you know again it comes from the fact that you know we all have grown up with these drinks and somehow for instance I am from Jamshepur okay and I'm in Bangalore right now I left home in 2001 and I don't think I've had an Aam Panna I had had an Aam Panna you know away from home in all these years till it got launched by paperboard so you know it's somewhere to me a lot about my childhood and how I spent my time during summer holidays and and and how you know my mom would you know sort of you know tell me not to not to drink too much of Amras or not to have too much of you know kacham keri so so a lot of stories are actually attached you know to our childhood with these drinks so we said that you know why not why not because that's that's exactly where it is from in our hearts so why not and Parvesh are you doing anything spectacular in the digital space to connect better with consumers on social platforms we know about the facebook memories and the instagram campaigns you've had but we haven't really seen anything very disruptive from you which is surprising because you're a young you're a quirky brand so you can carry that off as well so what's the thought process on the social media what's your strategy so obviously every time we do something the intent is to do something which is genuinely good and genuinely genuinely something spectacular that's always the intent and attempt so we haven't done that anywhere actually and anywhere else and and we keep doing right so so look at so basically digital is a lot of social media and you know and and basically your own website so facebook instagram i think we keep doing something there which only happens in that space because those kind of stories can only be told in that fashion in that space so so we keep doing that and we will always we are working towards a couple of more stories and we will see them very soon in the next couple of months and they're only for the digital space well considering as far as you've come right now Parvesh how are you planning to take the brand ahead how are you looking at growing this market over the next few years so we are extremely small right now right and and we have a really long way to go so i think one of the key things is how do we go to more markets how do we go to more number of stores within the same markets so that more number of people can you know discover us and i think that's a long journey so that's that's that's our plan you know going forward you know expand try and reach you know different kind of shops so considering that you're exploring newer markets now are going into tier two tier three cities even rural markets in the future how are you going to change no because i think the you know the whole idea is that we will continue to you know showcase the innocence and i think innocence is the same irrespective of where you are and where you come from so i think it's going to be exactly the same Parvesh i understand that you're looking at going beyond Indian shores as well and the process has already started tell us how you're looking at being able to tap the potential that overseas markets hold right now well i mean we are exploring so we we were exporting actually to the us in between and a couple of more markets but now we are just sort of getting our you know structures in place and exploring some more markets outside that as well