Vahdam sets off on a spice voyage to the west

The Spice Route, several centuries ago, paved the way for the east and the west to trade with each other; a network of sea routes, over 15,000 kilometres in length, stretching from Japan and Indonesia through India and the Middle East to the Mediterranean and finally to Europe.

Spice was the most profitable good and hence the route’s name. Today, history seems to glimpse itself once again.

Vahdam, an eight-year-old wellness brand born on the world wide web, known for its teas, has decided to journey to the west and sell spices. “It is part of our larger vision of taking the best of India to the world,” says Sneha Beriwal, global chief marketing officer, Vahdam.

What is interesting is Vahdam started selling teas first in the United States before doing so in India.

Many Indians became aware of the brand after its Rover Bottle made it to the 2022 Oscar goodie bag and its tea set to the hamper from the chat show Koffee with Karan in the same year.  

As it built its tea business in the States, Vahdam’s consumers confessed to finding the turmeric in the brand’s teas, Beriwal tells us all their teas are infused with herbs, superior to the ones they’ve tasted anywhere else.

“… When customers started asking where we buy it? Can you send it to us? Can we buy it from you? That was the starting point,” says the global CMO.

Vahdam, on 11 March 2023, launched Kitchen Essentials: Box of 9 Single Origin Spices. The bon voyage was two years in the making.

Consumers will, inside the box, find 70g non-transparent tin caddies filled with powders of turmeric, black pepper, clove whole, ginger, cinnamon, garlic, onion, cumin, and Himalayan Pink Salt. 

Beriwal reveals they listened to their consumers and referred to general market data like Amazon “which tells you what are top selling spices in the United States” to decide which spices to include in the set.

The results did throw some surprises but “70% of the list does tally when you look at the two data sets together.”

The Kitchen Essentials box was chosen because of its ability to start conversations on being spotted in the kitchen. 25 single-pack spices were introduced a few days ago and 13 more are in the pipeline.

A challenge, Beriwal, tells us is changing some of the spices as winter gives way to summer and then reveals the brand will soon “get into blends like a vindaloo masala blend, and a biryani masala blend so we're working on those formulations.”

In the United States, “Caucasians” are the biggest consumers of Vahdam. She says they do see about “20-25% Indian names, they can be anyone in the South Asian diaspora, but the majority are Caucasians.”

The United States is the brand's biggest source of business, and Vahdam will take its spices to Canada before the year ends and shortly, venture into Europe which Beriwal confesses is “tricky from a regulations perspective when it comes to spices.”

Vahdam, in the States, is a masstige brand available not only on its website and Amazon but in 2,500 stores including the likes of Sprouts Market.

“We're also launching into a very big pharmacy chain in May, and that will add another 4,000 store points to our count,” remarks Beriwal. The brand, surprisingly, is not available in Patel Brothers, the ubiquitous supermarket for everything Indian.

A masstige brand faces the challenge of being inclusive and yet niche. To do this, Vahdam has relied on organic discovery. For instance, appearances on Oprah and Koffee with Karan helped it with visibility.

The brand is also big on PR and Beriwal says “one of the reasons why we are covered apart from our products is our gift sets.” From the affordable lists to the ones you must check, Vahdam makes sure its gift sets find a spot on every list.

Lastly, it loves partnerships and subscription boxes. “Every subscription box, every yoga event, 100+ gym partners offer our products to their customers. It is a great way to get on the customer's radar without having to spend a lot on mass media,” she remarks.

And while these partnerships worked for teas and gift sets, Vahdam is looking at chefs when it comes to building partnerships for its spices. “Even if they don't buy it from you, getting their testimonial or endorsement... a lot of chefs are also open to doing co-branded boxes.”

The wellness brand does not intend to indulge in ATL activities because they are expensive but it might do a campaign in the future.

“We have started exploring media like digital billboards in key locations, maybe connected TVs. They fall between ATL and BTL so we have started looking at those kinds of mediums just to understand if it fits into our scheme of things.”

What Vahdam makes use of the most are creators. “70-75% of the content pieces we create in the US come from creators. 25% comes from so-called A-list influencers which would be million-plus followers. If you work with a good one and negotiate a good rate, it will be around $7-$8 thousand,” reveals Beriwal.

She explains the brand sees better engagement with the smaller creators because their audience is close-knit, they are genuine. Speaking only about the spices, she says the brand “already has about 15-20 creator content ready and is using the content on social and apps.”

The spice range will travel to the States, Canada, and Europe soon enough. But, will it return to India? The answer is yes, but the time remains unknown.