Thread by @stockifi_Invest

A Mega-Thread on the Indian billionaire entrepreneur and the chairman of Pidilite industries: Madhukar Parekh (son of The Fevicol Man) @PidiliteInd

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1) Madhukar Parekh was Born in 1949, in a Gujarati Baniya family of Balvantray Kalyanji Parekh.

2) Balvantray Kalyanji Parekh popularly known as the Fevicol man of India had succeeded in establishing their adhesive businesses @PidiliteInd based on creativity and innovation.

3) Being inspired by his father’s work, Madhukar earned a Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical Technology from the University of Mumbai's Department of Chemical Technology and a Masters in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin in the United States in 1969.

4) Mr. Parekh joined Pedilite in 1971 after having a few years of experience in Abbott USA.

5) There was no straightforward way to sell synthetic glue in 1954 when the late Balvant Parekh founded Pidilite; the business relied on natural glues composed of animal waste or starch.

6) Synthetic adhesives were not widely known, and only a few carpenters, majorly the key target groups, were aware of their existence.

7) To understand the market and the situation of the carpenters, Madhukar was sent on a market tour.

8) He realized the hardship of the carpenters, struggling extensively to convince the customers about the designs they created.

9) Realizing the needs of the carpenters, Madhukar came up with something extra that could woo the carpenters.

10) Madhukar then offered them a book with Fevicol Design Ideas and Furniture Designs.

11) In the year 1971-72, he began to give it away for free, for which carpenters were drawn massive in numbers.

12) Even today, the book's print runs in millions, now with a digital version.

13) Around the same time, Fevicol sales surpassed Rs 1 crore, marking a watershed moment in the company's history.

14) But the restless Madhukar was constantly thinking of ways to make the business grow faster. One way was through a brand-building process.

15) This was when Pidilite began to take its first tentative steps in the world of advertising.

16) In the 1970s, when few knew of Fevicol as a brand, they started talking to Ogilvy & Mather, the global advertising giant, to understand what could be done with its synthetic glue.

17) Ranjan Kapur—now chairman of WPP India, but then a copywriter at O&M—came up with the first idea for Fevicol.

18)According to him, few carpenters could read in their native language, let alone in English.

19) As Fevicol was a name written in English, and most carpenters often mispronounced it. The brand needed a clear, strong, and identifiable symbol.

20) O&M worked on creating the two elephants that are Fevicol's logo even today.

21) In 1971-72, Pidilite made Fevicol available in a small tube; earlier, it had only been sold in large volumes. According to Madhukar, this made it easier for them to connect with the consumer.

22)After the economic reforms of 1984, Pidilite found its growth rates improving.

23) The 1980s was also the time when the firm charted its most ambitious plan: It aimed to become a consumer-oriented company, which would rely on the brand to sell as much as it would on the product.

24) This time too, O&M was the preferred choice. It worked on a few campaigns, but none had much impact. This was when Piyush Pandey, executive chairman of O&M India and then a young copywriter in the agency, changed the medium of the message.

25)During the 1980s, most agencies were dominated by English-speaking employees, and most advertising was also in the same language.

26)Pandey realized that if the message had to find an appeal among a broader audience, it had to be in Hindi.

27)Then memorable Fevicol tagline "Dum laga ke haisha" was born.
Which was initially meant to be used for a new product, Fevitite epoxy, but the Parekhs used it for Fevicol.

28)Like the bouquet of brands offered by the company increased, so did the role of advertising.

29) He brought in a stronger management team to help him. 13 out of 15 departments now have professional managers recruited from blue-chip firms such as Hindustan Unilever and Asian Paints.

30)Then, he started to focus on innovation. "Every large company gets into a certain kind of inertia, but if you don't keep looking out for new opportunities and innovating, growth will fade out in the long run," he used to say.

31) One such idea was Fevikwik. There was a long-standing market demand for a super-strong adhesive. The pack was priced at Rs 20, but the problem was that once it was opened, the rest of the adhesive would harden and become impossible to use again.

32)That was when, in the early 2000s, Pidilite went back to the drawing board and re-engineered the packaging of Fevikwik.

33)They made plastic packaging material that did not absorb ambient moisture (which made the adhesive hard) and it could hold small quantities.

34) Fevikwik was then sold in 0.5-gram packs costing Rs 5 which became the market leader in its category.

35) A car polish brand that came with a US acquisition, Cyclo, could potentially grow into a large business in a decade for Pidilite.

36) Their construction chemicals business is also a major driver of growth: The Dr. Fixit brand has consistently grown in market share since Pidilite acquired it from the Mahindras in 2000.

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