New Delhi: The most admired people are those who become successful when no one expects them to succeed. A desire to make it in life after experiencing the worst kind of suffering gives people the motivation to rise, fight, negotiate, collaborate and dominate their niche.
One such success story has been that of Mohammad Adil Malkani, better known as Aadil Qadri, the founder and face of the Aadil Qadri attar and perfume brand. No one knew about this small-town school dropout before his pitch aired on Shark Tank India in January this year.
Aadil’s father worked in a perfume shop all his life, allowing him to understand how the business works. Aadil had to drop out of school due to asthma, but that didn’t prevent him from learning practical business skills. He started by working in a computer and mobile repair shop as a teenager.
After being introduced to the nascent world of digital marketing, he launched his perfume e-commerce site, aadilqadri.com, in 2018. This was the time when e-commerce started to gain ground in India. Smartphones, cheap internet, and the rise of e-commerce helped Aadil get a head start over his peers. Even though he sells attars, which has always been seen as a Muslim-centric fragrance category, he still managed to gain a headstart as no other brand offered a pan-India appeal.
His father’s experience as a shop hand worked well here. The fact that the perfume market was highly fragmented and that no one before him had the idea of creating a standout attar brand helped. Even though older and highly reputed brands in the market like Ajmal perfumes and Oud Arabia were present in the market, Aadil’s stubborn ambition to beat them made him look toward unconventional ways to capture market share.
Aadil knew that the only way to market his brand was through Instagram, and he did everything he could to nail it. He regularly shares his views as a startup founder, helping him showcase his journey and experiences as a founder.
Then came the turning point in his career, when he applied to and was featured on Shark Tank India. Even though the sharks recognized his hard work and success in marketing his brand, they pointed out serious concerns about the way his company has taken on debt and their concerns about its sustainability. Even though most of the sharks backed out, Vineeta Singh did offer him a conditional investment that eventually skyrocketed his brand.
They noted, and he agreed that his brand was more about marketing and publicity than the actual product itself. Aadil himself admitted that he spends 40% of the brand’s revenue on paid ads that help him broaden his reach.
After all, that’s how a consumer brand works. If your target audience follows you, relates with your struggles, interacts with your content, half your battle is won there and then. This is exactly how politicians, celebrities and random Instagram accounts go viral. Once you are viral, you have a far greater potential and opportunity to sell practically anything that relates to your brand.
Do you think Aadil could’ve grown his brand had Vineeta not believed in him? Could he have managed to sustain his revenue had he not got this crucial investment and mentorship deal from Shark Tank? Well, without this opportunity, he would’ve remained a small fish in the bowl, who no one takes seriously. Such is the power of publicity, those who use it well can expect their brand to succeed. Those who don’t, won’t even be remembered by history.
