Branding Tender Coconut & Toddy palm
We’re already used to apples and oranges sporting a small sticker, branding themselves against others. What’s new is that more and more fruits are getting branded this way.
Spotted that some roadside vendors on the outskirts of Pondy have started sticking a sticker on tender coconut and toddy palm that they are selling on ECR (East Coast Road)
The sticker has provision for a brand name, date (of plucking from tree???), weight and price. Following are the thoughts that ran in my mind after seeing this, which I am sharing with you now in this post.
Do you think adding a sticker would fetch additional value? I understand that if we do some kind of processing (cleaning, purification, packaging, preservation etc) on the food item, to some extent we can justify branding them (for example, branding buttermilk such products make sense)…but just because you plucked it from the tree and brought it to market (read roadside) can you justify sticking a sticker on it and calling it “my brand”?
Also, what value will this sticker add? Tender coconut doesn’t come with an expiry date-what date are they planning to mention there? Date of plucking from tree? Or best before date? Anyone familiar with tender coconut will be able to judge it by looking at the visible freshness of the fruit (if there’re lots of wrinkles and dark spots on the surface then it is over ripe) and dates won’t make much sense.
And weight-another irrelevant parameter. For most of the other fruits, measuring by weight makes sense but in case of tender coconut, I don’t think there’s any mathematical relationship between the weight of the unit and quantity of water inside. A visibly huge and heavy coconut can have equally thicker shell and very little quantity of liquid inside while a small sized one can be full of fresh and tasty water. So trying to reach at some conclusion based on weight would again fail.
In fact, it is extremely tough to predict the taste and quantity of tender coconut and coconut gravy. A vendor usually asks if you prefer to have only water or water with gravy (coconut meat). But even seasoned vendor cannot assure you that his pick will 100% be as you asked, though by sheer experience he might manage to pick an appropriate one.
Spotted that some roadside vendors on the outskirts of Pondy have started sticking a sticker on tender coconut and toddy palm that they are selling on ECR (East Coast Road)
The sticker has provision for a brand name, date (of plucking from tree???), weight and price. Following are the thoughts that ran in my mind after seeing this, which I am sharing with you now in this post.Do you think adding a sticker would fetch additional value? I understand that if we do some kind of processing (cleaning, purification, packaging, preservation etc) on the food item, to some extent we can justify branding them (for example, branding buttermilk such products make sense)…but just because you plucked it from the tree and brought it to market (read roadside) can you justify sticking a sticker on it and calling it “my brand”?
Also, what value will this sticker add? Tender coconut doesn’t come with an expiry date-what date are they planning to mention there? Date of plucking from tree? Or best before date? Anyone familiar with tender coconut will be able to judge it by looking at the visible freshness of the fruit (if there’re lots of wrinkles and dark spots on the surface then it is over ripe) and dates won’t make much sense.
And weight-another irrelevant parameter. For most of the other fruits, measuring by weight makes sense but in case of tender coconut, I don’t think there’s any mathematical relationship between the weight of the unit and quantity of water inside. A visibly huge and heavy coconut can have equally thicker shell and very little quantity of liquid inside while a small sized one can be full of fresh and tasty water. So trying to reach at some conclusion based on weight would again fail.
In fact, it is extremely tough to predict the taste and quantity of tender coconut and coconut gravy. A vendor usually asks if you prefer to have only water or water with gravy (coconut meat). But even seasoned vendor cannot assure you that his pick will 100% be as you asked, though by sheer experience he might manage to pick an appropriate one.
Are they using any propreitary methodology to grow these coconuts? Or some signature fertilizers?
The only advantage of branding, if any, is that it might convince certain customers (probably techies and international tourists, provided they are not much familiar with fundamentals of tender coconut) to believe they are going to have something of a better quality.
The only advantage of branding, if any, is that it might convince certain customers (probably techies and international tourists, provided they are not much familiar with fundamentals of tender coconut) to believe they are going to have something of a better quality.
May be these farmers are trying their hand on global marketing and trying jump on the branding bandwagon.. May be I should stop analysing and appreciate their efforts?
Btb the text on the sticker reads "Shehajahan Stores". Similar explanation goes for Toddy Apple...
Btb the text on the sticker reads "Shehajahan Stores". Similar explanation goes for Toddy Apple...
Cross posted on Churumuri.
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