“It will be important to see how we come more closer to the customer.”

Vivek Bali was recently appointed as the CEO of Enrich. In a virtual exclusive interaction with Shriyal Sethumadhavan, he lists the qualities to be a successful marketing strategist, the approach for emerging brands, and his vision for Enrich.

Enrich Salon, India’s largest home-grown salon chain, recently appointed Vivek Bali of Sephorafame as their CEO. The beauty industry leader has been brought on board to transform and scale up the business. With nearly three decades of experience, Vivek has both global and local experience as a marketing and sales strategist. His professional journey entails brand building, business development and retail experience in India, Eastern Europe (CIS), Canada, the Middle East, and North Africa. Prior to his position at Sephora, Vivek has worked in leadership roles at Lakmé, Avon, Reliance Retail and Landmark Group UAE, to name a few.Excerpts from the interview:

With three decades of experience as a marketing and sales strategist in India and across the world, what would you say are the key qualities to be a successful marketing and sales strategist?

The way in which you get inducted into the industry is important. For a beginner, starting with sales is a great idea – you are exposed to your markets, stores, supply chain working model, customer preferences and the kind of issues they face. By working in different stores, you gather the know-how about the replenishment model and its working. Also, as India is a vast country, it is important to not just work in one region. Especially in beauty, all regions are different in terms of consumption. Different complexions have different usages, be it in makeup shades, skin care and hair care. And hence, it is important to be mobile to understand the consumption patterns, as this makes it easier to then venture into the roles of business development and marketing from sales. In marketing, it is also important to look at the combination of product, pricing, and promotions that work, and the distribution required for the particular brand. A clear understanding of all this, with your sales experience, makes you a good marketer.

Tell us about some successful strategies that you have applied to brands in the beauty industry, and what did these result in?

In a Lakmé scenario, I can recall my experience long back in the year 1990-93 in the development of makeup and beauty. The years when I was with Lakmé, we looked at a different distribution model in terms of selling makeup and skincare. We conducted research in North India and discovered the chemists and druggist as a good channel to sell skincare. Once we identified the channel, the question was how we implement it to great success. We primarily segregated makeup and skincare. Right from the distributor to the sales team in our offices, everyone was given clear mandates and responsibilities to do makeup sales through makeup outlets (cosmetic and jewellery outlets), and skincare sales through the chemists and the druggist. This resulted in a phenomenal increase in distribution reach, and also resulted in a phenomenal uplift in sales for both makeup and skincare.

Another recent example would be the success at Sephora. Sixty per cent of the Indian beauty business used to reside in the metro cities, and therefore, Sephora focused on the metro cities first before expanding into the Tier-II cities. That worked well for the brand. One can also have a reverse approach – start from Tier-II cities and then come into the metros. It depends on the product price and how they want it to work.

How would you comment on the difference in approach in the areas of brand building, business development and retail experience in India vis-à-vis the global market?

The global markets are different. In North America, for example, 90 per cent of the business happens through modern trade – supermarkets, hypermarkets, and department stores – and 10 per cent of the business comes from the smaller chains. In India, it is the reverse – 20 per cent of the business comes through modern trade and 80 per cent from smaller chains. With the approach towards building business in both countries being different, there is a completely different marketing and sales network. From the year 1994 to 2000, the business model in Eastern Europe was like India. But today, it has changed with there been more of modern trade. India now is heading in that direction, though the progress has been a little slow. However, the opportunity in India is evident – from 20 per cent modern trade, there is an opportunity to go up to 80 per cent modern trade.

Speaking of brand building, what would your advice be to the emerging brands?

It is not that easy to build a brand. It is important to remember all the four Ps of marketing. What is the product that we want to market as a brand? Which are the products that we are going to focus on? What size, pricing? Which segment do you want to cater to – people with basic needs, the consumer who is a trendsetter, or someone who is evolved in beauty? The target segment is important, then the product, its pricing, planning the distribution. Most importantly, how do you build the brand and what is your communication to the consumer? How to ensure that the consumer understands the brand, its values, DNA, and attitude.

Once that is communicated, the job becomes much easier in terms of guiding them. An emerging brand needs to focus on all these aspects and build the awareness, which is a continuous process.

Also, with Enrich already being an established brand, and in your new role, what are the challenges that you foresee in terms of brand building and business development?

Enrich is a different business. It is a strong brand in the beauty services that they offer to the consumers. The continuous requirement here would be innovation in services. Going forward, the new model will be what we are building on and conceiving. But building Enrich will mean that since currently the brand is focused on the western and southern region of India, there will be a huge geographical play that will happen with expansion across the North, East, South and central Indian states.

These are the opportunities. Enrich has done very well in the Western region – Gujarat and Maharashtra – and in the Southern region – Karnataka. The new concept that we are working on would add more value to the Enrich business. The new concept is work in progress and Enrich is good at moving fast on its plans.

Just as you step into your new role as CEO of Enrich, what is your vision – short term or long term?

Long term vision for Enrich is to build the new concept on the strengths of what we are already doing. To be known as a great destination for beauty, and obviously, how to keep improving and enhancing the shopping experience in my stores. For the short term, the focus will be on coming out of COVID, how do we beat last year and how fast. The first quarter of the new financial year should be important to see how it goes.

Currently with 85 outlets and 2,000 team members, Enrich Salon claims to serve more than 1.8 million customers per year. If you have to share your futuristic vision to these current stats, where would you like to see Enrich Salon five years down the line?

The numbers that you are talking about are primarily coming from the western and southern regions. The southern region is also limited to one state. This spells huge potential for the numbers to shoot up. As Enrich enters North India, Eastern and Central India, these numbers will go up substantially, and the planning is on for that.

How has the backing of West Bridge Capital helped in expanding Enrich’s footprint?

West Bridge Capital and Enrich have a good partnership. Westridge has made the investments and Enrich is executing that. It is a great combination and is working well.

Lastly, while Enrich had earlier brought the online home services start-up, Belita, to compete with the likes of UrbanClap – back in 2018, it was known that the online platform contributed to about 5 per cent of the company’s overall turnover. Considering the past pandemic year and the months to come, has there been an increase or an expected increase in this percentage?

There has been a substantial increase in the online contribution to the business. So, as we move into the new format, the game will change. E-commerce will become strong and that is what we are building on. Also, with an increase in the number of salons, the new concept gets bigger. It will be important to see how we come more closer to the customer in terms of ensuring that they can have the convenience of shopping from home or picking the product up from the store or coming to the store and shopping. Choices will be available.