CREATION
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Our Approach
Within the domain of creation of conscious companies, we take a project from ZERO to ONE and ensure that it has the best possible chance for success. We have been building companies for over a decade. We are makers and tellers. Not only do we build, but we have effective communication strategies and messages that will effectively reach the identified market.
In India, we are probably the only ones who have worked across every consumer vertical from consumer products to retail to food to hospitality to real estate. What also sets us apart is that we work with the best design and marketing talent in India. This allows us to create products that have unlimited potential across geographies.
We work in two ways – either by being part of a new venture team or by coming in an advisory role at a defined time of the project. We engage from conception to product development to marketing. Our role ends after the marketing strategy and plan have been established. We can remain involved in an advisory role for ongoing innovation. Ideally, we should come right at the beginning of the project for the best results. However, for select projects, we are willing to engage tactically on well-defined objectives. We can also help with operational strategy for a project that we were involved with conceiving but we are not operators. We are creators and marketers. If there is a conscious product across any vertical that has to be made, there are very few who are capable of delivering it.
VENTURES – Our Companies
As a sector and industry which has been growing steadily for the past two decades in the developed world (even through recessions), there is a constant sense of anticipation related to various innovations that are taking place. New companies are achieving immense success through groundbreaking business models and new products while other more established conscious companies are becoming role models for their larger conventional counterparts. In India, while the movement towards conscious consumption is relatively nascent (five years or less), the growth seems astounding. Hundreds of companies are sprouting every year and some are experiencing phenomenal growth.
Fundamentally, for all our business ventures, we are guided by our proprietary 8P Progress TM Model. In following this, we are assured that we not only have the chance of creating tremendous value and profits but that our businesses can also create a profound positive impact. Hence, while we are rigorous in scrutinizing potential business opportunities, we are also equally concerned that the businesses that we create or empower will be forces for good.
For our businesses, we employ a simple Select/Support/Sell Strategy which means that we do not necessarily want to hold on to business forever. We feel that our strength lies more in the creation and hence once a company has reached a certain maturity, we would rather exit the business and hand it over to a responsible set of investors and managers to run further. This allows us to move on to the next opportunity and maximize our impact on the industry.
While the sustainability industry can be very broad and diverse, we focus only on those industries which have a direct impact on conscious consumer consumption. We leave out sectors which we consider indirect or support as these are much larger and non-specific domains. For example, a television which consumes very little energy is a sustainable product but it has an indirect impact on the consumer as opposed to a product like food or apparel. Similarly, a solar power plant is also part of the sustainability industry but it is a support industry which is largely invisible to the end consumer. Hence we do not participate in businesses which are either in the indirect sector or support sector. This is also in line with our thinking that if the direct industries change, then all supporting industries will also gradually transform.
Hence, we generally operate within the following industries: Consumer Products (especially Food and Beverages/Personal Care), Retail & Wholesale/eCommerce, Hospitality & Travel, and Real Estate. Since we are primarily operating in India currently, we have decided to focus on essential categories such as food/beverages and personal care. These two areas are very safe categories in the growth cycle of our industry since we are still at a nascent stage in India.
Capital, especially in the form of money or investment, is often depicted as a negative force which is responsible for our current state of peril. Yet, we need to realize that money is just a neutral medium. It is a force which can either cause immense destruction if it is only driven by unbridled greed and senseless competition or engender great inclusive progress if it is driven by our compassion and spirit of cooperation. We wish to create immense value through the effective utilization of capital so that it can be reinvested for even greater good.
Though our founder has an American background, he has spent 15 years in India within the wellness area. In many ways, he is a pioneer in the field. Hence, after all this time, and considering the growth that we anticipate in the conscious consumerism industry in India (the world’s most attractive growth market for the coming decade), we are currently in the process of raising our first investment fund. If you wish to participate or would like more information about this fund, please write to our founder directly at nitin@earthwisegroup.com .
ADVISORY – Our Practice
In the transition to a sustainable and progressive world, ‘hand-holding’ is a key driver of success. We have the mammoth task of undoing decades of misaligned and misguided policies and practices and we need individuals and organizations whose task it is to only focus on solving this problem. These specialists and enablers are then a key part of the eco-system to drive the sustainability engine forward. We strive every day to add to our expertise in order to help businesses and institutions make an easier transition to becoming conscious enterprises with profitable bottom lines.
Education + Strategy
We are currently in the process of developing Whole Day Seminars ideally suited for senior management and decision makers. The purpose of the seminar is to educate executives on the emerging conscious consumerism industry so that they can explore opportunities for their own companies to engage with this exciting new market. At the same time, this education process will empower you to understand groundbreaking conscious capitalism and sustainability models (Tomorrow Economy – 8P Progress Model TM ), conscious company management theory (Tomorrow Business TM ) and product development strategies (Tomorrow Product TM ).
While the first half of the day will be utilized for education, the second half will be reserved for high-level strategic application of the concepts discussed earlier. This will allow executives to determine which aspect of the business might be ripe for transformation. This could be a useful exercise in scoping for a specific longer running project as well related to concept creation and positioning, product development or innovation, or even marketing strategy and planning.
For more information about how this day seminar can help you or creating a bespoke format for your team, please write to us at info@earthwisegroup.com .
Brand Infinity – Tomorrow Brand
Perhaps the most important external force which drove demand for unsustainable and unconscious product choices was marketing. The world is full of examples of how people have consumed unnecessarily because they were driven by subtle yet strong marketing messages. We believe that marketing itself is not the culprit, but rather that it is an effective tool that can also stoke our higher interests and positive aspirations. As the business function which is closest to the customer, marketing also has the biggest responsibility to discover, design, develop, and deploy conscious product choices for the next consumer revolution.
Our Brand Infinity Practice takes a holistic approach to addressing all aspects of product development and marketing within our client’s company in order to effectively grow their market for conscious products. Our four-way process is outlined below.
- Plan Tomorrow Business
- Study (Insight Research)
- Make Tomorrow Product
- Tell (Integrated Communications)
Developing conscious consumer markets require a shift in managerial thinking as well as modifications to core business strategy. Any marketing program to address this segment has to start with clear strategy objectives and be reflective of the company’s intent to sincerely develop products and services for this emerging market. We help companies through this process of aligning themselves to these new opportunities.
After clearly outlining the business objectives, we address positioning and branding. Having clarity on how a product will benefit the conscious consumer and how it will be differentiated from others is pivotal to marketing success. We help sort through various intricacies of this process in order to clearly define the positioning and branding of the respective products and services.
Finally, we engage in a planning exercise to see how various aspects of the marketing program should fall into place in order for a product or service to be successful. This may involve customized research, product innovation, as well as various communication interventions. An integrated plan is then made to execute the marketing program.
Research into this relatively new market segment is crucial to the success of any marketing initiative. The conscious consumer, by definition, is an anomaly, an evolved person whose behavior and actions need to not only be understood, but also respected and learned from, in order to unlock the potential of innovative products and services. Success is found only in finding, understanding, and partnering with key members of the target market to build long term relationships.
We pride ourselves in being the innovation engine for our customers. Over the years, we have developed various tools and tactics to help model complex problems and adapt product and service functionality in order to serve new market niches. We use the simple, tried and tested 4D Method of Discover, Design, Develop, and Deploy to take a given product from idea to implementation. We are not an idea generating machine, but we like to creatively help our clients develop realistic and pragmatic product solutions in order to win over the conscious consumer.
We have developed various models to affect this and these are briefly outlined below. For more information on any of these models or innovations, please write to us at info@earthwisegroup.com .
1. Tomorrow Living TM : Another proprietary methodology of ours which is used primarily in product development inspired by the global phenomenon initially described by the LOHAS movement. This process facilitates the creation of products and services which are conscious. Honoring and respecting the sacred balance of individual, social, and environmental responsibility, this process enables the creation of products which have a minimal to zero negative footprint on the planet or people involved in the value chain and maximum possible benefit to the consumer.
2.Tomorrow Experiences TM : A design process to create products and spaces (especially in retail, hospitality, residential, or corporate) which facilitate fulfilling living experiences. Beyond just sensory experiences, this process facilitates the creation of spaces and even consumer products that can induce subtler and sometimes profound feelings. In our Hospitality practice (retail services/food and beverage/hotels & resorts/managed services), we have also developed a module that we simply call Genuine Service that helps associates to develop a more sincere and genuine attitude.
3.Tomorrow Luxury TM : A proprietory and added product development module that facilitates the creation of products and services which have high levels of genuine refinement, exclusivity, quality, workmanship, and material rarity. These products are ideal for individuals who have moved beyond the ‘old luxury’ paradigm, false pretense, and brand consciousness but still desire products with an unparalleled edge. It is here that we are also developing a module called New Bespoke which takes customization and personalization to a new level – beyond just physical attributes.
The most well designed products and services can fail or not reach the desired impact if the right marketing communications strategy is not implemented. From company or product logo design, stationary development, product/service collaterals, and digital media strategy and implementation (including website and social site development) to articulating an effective public relations and media strategy, we work with our clients to ensure that customers are not short-changed in their understanding or excitement of the
product. Our approach is unique in that it is based on an integrated communication strategy which accounts for both subtle and obvious message identification and development.
