Sipahi ki Jalebi

Unlike the title this post is not at all about a jalebi recipe or Sipahi.

Sipahi ki Jalebi was my first encounter with a branded product. The product being Jalebi and the Brand being Sipahi. As a child it used to be my favorite sweet dish and I dont know why but Jalebi from anywhere else would not taste the same or for that matter tasty... It had to be Sipahi ki Jalebi.
Now Sipahi was not the name of the shop. It was the owner's name. The guy who started his sweet shop at the junction of the Sector 2 market. Thinking of it now.. I dont even remember the shop's name.. hmm did it have one?? Not sure.

Days have gone by.. when I visited Ranchi after 3 years the rickety structure of the sweet shop was replaced by a concrete hall with glass shelves and counters. Sipahi was no longer sitting behind a small table. I bought Jalebis from there and to my disappointment it had lost its taste and I lost my craving for Sipahi ki Jalebi. And by the looks of the shop... even though infrastructurally it had progressed.. there was no increase in customers as there were none when I visited the shop and I would hardly see anyone inside while passing.

When I last visitied Ranchi the sweet shop had become a general store and Sipahi ji was sitting behind the counter catering to grocery lists. 

Sipahi ki Jalebi was a famous product and Sipahi was a famous brand. I am stating brand because people hardly knew Sipahi personally they knew him because of his Jalebis and vice versa. Customer loyalty was high as he was personally involved in customer engagement by making sure that he could strike up a personal conversation with each one of them witout making them realize the time they had to keep waiting for the hot Jalebis.

Analysing the case..

Product - Jalebi
Brand - Sipahi
Brand Recall - Sipahi ji

This is a typical mistake which unknowingly happens in case of start ups especially in partnership and proprietory firms. The company is known for its proprietor or partners and not for the company itself which is also an entity with a separate identity of its own.
The Brand created should be based on the company or the product, independent of its founders. Founders should act as the face of the company....providing amicable features, communication a human interface. Clients should be comfortable working with the company rather than an individual in the company. This enables a long term relationship despite personal and personnel issues in the company.
(For companies having considerable employee strength it is comparitively easy to put forth the company first. But even in such cases it is found that some of the clients stay in the company only for the interaction with a particular personnel.)

The founders should be known for their company and not vice versa. In the intial stages it is difficult as there are very few team members and you tend to do all the work. But a conscious effort should be made to promote the company so that the transition of the client and their trust towards another member of your team becomes easy.

Fallout among the partners is one considered of the major reasons for start ups to collapse rather than lack of business. In such cases the above mentioned point comes to rescue. The goodwill with the clients is maintained and the interested partys can continue operations as usual.
Creating a brand for the company should be more important than creating a brand for yourself. Creating a brand for oneself is important in case of self employement but when you think of business it should always be scalable.. never dependent on a single individual's brand value. The company credibility should be based on its product/ service.

To wrap it up Entreprenuers whould make sure that their baby ( company ) should be able to walk without their support. They should hold its hand and teach them how to walk... and then should be able to let it walk, explore and grow all on its own.