In its Best Global Brands 2018 report, Interbrand proclaims “brave brands are trusted brands” and then goes on to show that there is a direct correlation between audiences expressing trust in a brand and purchase intent. It is hard to overstate the importance of achieving customers’ trust for brands in a time when we believe almost in nothing. A series of recent studies show that people are increasingly skeptical of public institutions, companies, and even of religious leaders.
The world brands live today is in constant flux. Our attention is highly fragmented. Customer expectation has changed fundamentally. Today's customers demand more. The power dynamics between the brand and customers have changed. Today’s customers enjoy more power than anytime before - thanks to social media.
This changing reality of the world of business makes it all more important to build a strong brand, have a relationship of trust with customers and so on. The role of brands today is more important than ever. Similarly, building brand has become a herculean job. Creating mere functional and emotional differentiation would do no good to brands. In order to thrive, brands have to fundamentally change the way it operates and build a relationship of trust with customers through consistent delivery of promises. What a brand does has become more important than what it claims.
This reality is even more applicable if your brand operates in a space like kids products. Parents are the most paranoid people in the world when it comes to their infants. It is a divine thing. And it makes complete sense. And when a brand address that needs, magic happens. Kidz Diaper, a fast-growing kids diaper brand in Bangladesh, has managed to activate that magic. Its high-quality diaper brand has helped the company win the hearts of parents and eventually build a winning business in a crowded market.
Diaper is a huge market in Bangladesh. Some estimates say it is over BDT 8bn market annually. The potential of the market also reflects in the number of companies - big and small, local and international - that are in operation in the space. Theoretically, the manufacturing cost of a diaper is not that high. But building a solid distribution network is costly. Moreover, the retailer dependent distribution demands upfront investment. Eventually, it becomes an expensive business.
On the other hand, it is super hard to build a strong brand in the space. There are reasons for that. Many players enter the space with an expectation that there is a huge opportunity and get busy with building the business and prioritize brand building efforts. At the same time, building a brand is costly and takes time. You have to be consistent in your promise and what you deliver. The market is fiercely competitive. Everyone is trying to stay ahead in the game. It is hard to differentiate yourself in a meaningful way from brands like Supermom or Pampers or Molfix. More so if you are a small company and only focusing on diaper. That being said, being small and focused has its advantage. You can do your job better. That’s exactly what Kidz Diaper, one of the fast-growing diaper brand in Bangladesh, has done to find a niche for itself and build a strong brand in the market.
The raw materials that Kidz Diaper uses are expensive and guaranteed the best quality. “Our raw material cost is almost three times higher than a regular diaper,” says Rassel. It uses expensive and high-quality raw materials in manufacturing the diapers. “We never compromised on quality and comfort,” say Rassel. “We are selling the world’s best possible quality diaper. We are offering the best possible products in this category in the world. And Kidz stands to be challenged.”
Although Kidz Diaper started its formal journey in December 2016, founders started working on the idea since the beginning of 2015. The phase one was collecting samples from the best possible sources to have a better understanding of the best quality standard of the world.
“We spent the entire 2015 in collecting samples. That was the only thing we did” says Kidz Diaper founder and CEO Mohammed Rassel. “We did a humongous amount of work in collecting samples from the best of the sources in Europe. We bought almost 100 types of samples from Europe and liked almost all the products. We worked hard to find sourcing in Europe and found some really good ones. But we faced some technical difficulties in importing products from Europe. The tax was higher and it made the product very expensive for our market. But we did not want to compromise on the quality. After much thought, we decided that we would send the samples to one of the Asian Countries and see if they could make us the same quality products. So, we sent some best sample along with raw materials to China and asked them to make us the exact same quality products. When we received our first samples from China, we found products from two factories really good.”
The first product Kidz Diaper launched was wet wipes. It was a runaway success. In mid-2017, it started working on a diaper brand. “It took us about 4 months to put everything together,” says Rassel. To ensure a world-class quality, it paid supreme attention to using the best raw materials in its products. All raw materials for Kidz Diaper were collected from Japan and shipped to China for manufacturing the final products.
The raw materials that Kidz Diaper uses are expensive and guaranteed the best quality. “Our raw material cost is almost three times higher than a regular diaper,” says Rassel. It uses expensive and high-quality raw materials in manufacturing the diapers. “We never compromised on quality and comfort,” says Rassel. “We are selling the world’s best possible quality diaper. We are offering the best possible products in this category in the world. And Kidz stands to be challenged.”
This quality obsession has done magic in the market. Parents who are quality conscious and want to give a better experience to their kids, have found it to their taste. It did not take Kidz Diaper long to win a segment of the market and build a loyal customer base. “Customers could to see that our products are better than other competing brands, they happily pay us extra.”
“We have definitely invested in marketing,” says Rassel. This is not a market where you can do away with marketing.” But marketing would not take you far if you can't make your customers happy in the first few interactions. “Apart from marketing, the single thing that has helped us grow and continues to do so is our product quality. As I told you, Kidz offers the best product in the market.”
Today a growing number of hospitals keep Kidz Diaper in their maternity wards. Doctors and nurses recommend Kidz. Kidz’s products are available in almost all major hospitals.
The strong demand in the market helped Kidz to grow rapidly. It experienced almost 4 times growth in sales since the launch of its diaper business in 2017.
Apart from physical distribution, Kidz also sells a significant number of products through its Facebook page. “We have a good customer base that regularly places their orders through kidz Diaper page. Our customer retention rate is over 70%. If you talk about our business today, our shop coverage is almost 600, meaning you could buy Kidz diapers and wet tissues from almost 600 pharmacies all over the country. Our products are available in over 150 hospitals.”
The strength of Kidz brand lies in its strong relationship with the parents who trust the brand for its quality.
“We have definitely invested in marketing,” says Rassel. This is not a market where you can do away with marketing.” But marketing would not take you far if you can't make your customers happy in the first few interactions. “Apart from marketing, the single thing that has helped us grow and continues to do so is our product quality. As I told you, Kidz offers the best product in the market.”
Today, we live in a world where consumers know everything. In no time in history, consumers have access to so much information and options. The power has also changed. Once brands used to control the medium and channels of communication. The communication was one way. Brands used to speak and consumers used to listen. There was no way consumers could speak back. That dynamic has changed. Today's consumers could speak back. When they like a product and trust a brand, they can tell others about it and they do. If they dislike a brand, they can complain to the world. Consumer trust has become the most important component of brand building.
The brands that people trust, they buy them more and the brands that they don’t trust, they reject. And the only way to build trust is by offering quality products, quality service and delivering on your promise. Once you do so, your business thrives. This is what Kidz has done over the past few years. It has built trust in consumers by ensuring an excellent quality product, superb service and an unwavering commitment to delivering what it promises.
With its success in the diaper, Kidz aims to build an everything Kids company. It plans to get into baby care and baby food business in the next few years. “Our next goal is to launch our baby care products and then finally, we plan to get into baby food. Our operating principle remains the same: we want to ensure the best quality products. Today we are even more paranoid about quality,” says Rassel. “Along with the best product, we have invested to provide the best service to our customers.”
The reward of building a loyal customer base is endless. When you deliver on your promises, customers reward you with repeat business. It seems Kidz Diaper is just getting started.
You can go to Kidz Diaper Facebook Page here and Kidz Diaper website here to learn more as well as to order.
(This story was developed by Storylab, Future Startup’s in-house branded content studio, in collaboration with Kidz Diaper marketing team.)
