THE NUMERO UNO

Bahar has been voted as the greatest brand amongst a list of 130 brands in a recent Brand Survey by Oman Daily Observer. V Sundaresan, director and general manager, The National Detergent Company shares the reason for the brand’s success with Mayank

Bahar has been voted as the No 1 Greatest Brand in Oman. Your first reactions on this honour?
It is a matter of pride, that despite being in a category with products from multinational companies, a local Omani brand has been able to get this singular honour. What is more significant is the fact that it is the people of Oman who have chosen us as the greatest brand.

The business environment has been challenging in the last year. How has your business been during this period?
Businesswise we have seen an improvement due to various factors – during the first half of the last year we had an advantageous material cost. We grew well in our export markets, our product extensions and new packaging gave us enhanced shelf appeal. We have upgraded our product quality and are giving added value to our customers.

One would assume that Bahar does not spend as much on advertising and marketing as some of its competitors, despite this you have been recognised as a leader across categories. How do you explain this?
In various shops in the interiors Bahar’s activities continues to be quite intense. We do not have the same propensity to spend as our multinational counterparts, but where it is relevant we do invest in brand promotion. We design activities to promote our products in relevant markets and have devised cost effective solutions for doing these. We have regular roadshows and promotions, which attracts new customers. All this strengthens our brand loyalty.
 
There is a perception that in a category like detergents there is little brand loyalty. Do you agree with this?
Bahar as a brand has been in existence for the last 27 years and we have our own set of loyal customers who have been extremely supportive of us. Omanis take innate pride in supporting their own products and they are smart enough to know as to which products give them good quality at a reasonable price. Bahar is around five per cent cheaper than detergents from other multinational companies. In addition a national product provides employment for locals and people are aware of this. We were the first detergent company in the Sultanate to get an ISO 9001 certification, and have kept up with customer expectations with technological upgradations. Our reach is much better than other brands as we are present in 98 per cent of retail shops in the Sultanate either directly or through our dealers.

Have brand extensions helped Bahar to gain more customer mindspace?
We have 15 product extensions, which cover the entire cleaning and hygiene needs of a family. So most of our customers tend to use a number of our products. We build upon this by giving added benefits like free samples etc.

How would you describe the average Bahar customer?
The average Bahar customer belongs to the medium to high income household for whom functionality, convenience and affordability is critical. We attach a lot of importance to the ethnic range, for example we use Bukhoor, a popular perfume in our products.

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