How would you sell that?

After two decades in the IT industry, Mallesh Tigali was ready for change. Newspaper reports on crop failure and farmer suicides prompted him to dig deeper into the issue. He came up with organic farming as the solution—both as a business idea for himself, and a way to attack malpractices in the vegetable and fruit supply chain. Tigali invested 10 lakh to start Purna Organics with a single aim—to help city slickers grow organic produce on their empty terraces, using drip irrigation, companion planting, neem sprays and bio-fertilisers for the highest yields. Four years on, his 15-member team has four schools, a few corporations and over 130 individuals as clients. Tigali has pitched organic terrace farming as a fun, early school environmental activity to schools and a novel team-bonding exercise to corporations. But, he needs more institutional clients to really grow. Here’s some nurturing marketing advice.

Pitch no. 1: Position it well

Sunitha Ravi, human resource, consultant, Bengaluru

By helping corporate employees appreciate nature, Purna Organics has the potential to catch up as a novel concept. Organic farming has become an integral part of corporate social responsibility the world over. Organisations have used it to improve their public image. Purna should advocate employee benefits from this experience—considerable reduction in stress levels, better fitness, team bonding through understanding and appreciating cross cultural nuances at work, and appreciating the real value of natural resources. Companies benefit, too, by helping employees enjoy work. It can be a win-win situation.

Pitch no. 2: Take it to schools

Schools would have to see the benefit in organic terrace farming before they adopt it. When it comes to children, it’s not about “what” activity is proposed but “how” it is done that matters. Children will gain from a hands-on experience with both soil and toil, rather than giving them just gyaan. Still, most schools resist anything new. Also, schools are running multiple activities. So, the concept needs to be put forward in a way that already overloaded schools don’t see it as an additional burden.

Pitch no. 3: Focus on communities

Suma Krishnaswamy, President, Cambium Biotechnologies, dealing with plant tissue culture, herbs and plant extracts

Purna Organics should tap into markets in one area of the city and focus on gated residential colonies. Taking on clients dotted across the city (Bengaluru) could prove a logistical nightmare because of heavy traffic and not offer gainful returns. The “plants business” is not as easy as it may sound—clients take time to be convinced about the benefits and need a lot of hand-holding. That’s why growth also depends on having a competent team in place. Otherwise, the owner would spread himself too thin.

Pitch no. 4: Reach out to firms  

Praveen Rao, Lead, direct marketing,  Bertelsmann Marketing Services

The idea is original and the pilot makes sense. Involving companies and the public is the right way to go. It could also reach out to firms in the food processing, consumer goods, agricultural products, chemicals and services domain, asking them to take on this programme as a CSR initiative. Reputed agricultural universities could also be asked to lend support by driving similar pilots in their institute and monitor the programme for any deviations.

Feedback on the Feedback

Some of the suggestions concur with the way we’ve been thinking about our business as well, hence reinforces our belief in what we are doing. For instance, in schools we are making sure that we focus on how the children are introduced to the subject. We don’t want to reduce the engagement to just any outdoor activity. We want the students to actually get involved in farming and connect with the plants at their own level. We realise that there is huge scope to involve more corporations. Making the right connections is one of our greatest challenges.