Entrepreneurship isn’t straightforward, however when was the final time you heard of a model that spent years bringing a few change in state legal guidelines in order that they might introduce their product? If that wasn’t spectacular sufficient, this model additionally boasts of training individuals, supporting native farmers and establishing their attain by promoting honey and mead.
Presenting Moonshine Meadery and the Moonshine Undertaking – millennial manufacturers that created house for themselves in a populated but uncharted Indian market that’s anticipated to succeed in a valuation of INR 30.6 billion by 2026.
Based by Rohan Rehani and Nitin Vishwas, these manufacturers not solely introduced again the world’s oldest alcohol (meads) but additionally raised consciousness about pure honey.
And so they appeared on Shark Tank India!
Inquisitive about this superb model and its journey? We’ve acquired you lined.
We talked to the Moonshine crew to learn the way they began the Moonshine Honey Undertaking, discovered about their distinctive excursions, and their expertise on Shark Tank India. Learn on to know extra.
A not-for-profit mission
Primarily based out of Pune, Moonshine Honey Undertaking was began as a hive-to-table premium honey model. This ardour mission was launched to coach individuals about what pure honey regarded and tasted like.
However let’s begin from the start. In any case, we will’t speak about Moonshine Honey with out mentioning Moonshine Meadery.
Moonshine began out by creating meads, an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey. Whereas creating mead, Rohan and Nitin realised that business honey wouldn’t work as the principle uncooked materials for the mead. Mead requires good high quality honey as a result of adulterated honey doesn’t ferment.
The founders determined to study bee-keeping and arrange their very own bee bins to supply pure honey from the farmers instantly. This resulted in Moonshine gaining access to pure, high-quality honey straight from the supply.
They determined to check the waters by promoting small batches of honey primarily to point out individuals what actual honey is, and so they discovered that individuals actually favored it.
Moonshine Honey Undertaking was began within the 2020 lockdown and continues to encourage native farmers to realize supplementary earnings by changing into beekeepers. A win-win for all, together with the ecosystem!
The model additionally prides itself on incorporating sustainable practices whereas sourcing and producing its merchandise.
When you’re trying to develop into a sustainable model too, listed here are some sources that can assist you in your quest:
It was fascinating to notice that Moonshine provided two merchandise that weren’t essentially straightforward to promote. Each honey and mead had stereotypes connected that required the model to first educate the viewers after which take into consideration conversions.
Their preliminary efforts have been targeted on convincing folks that honey isn’t too candy and mead isn’t beer. With main manufacturers taking on most house within the honey market, it was powerful to get seen, not to mention garner a loyal viewers.
The model believes that India doesn’t have a honey provide concern however has a honey demand concern. Most individuals are unaware that business honey isn’t actual honey. As a result of they’re unaware of how pure honey tastes, they assume that it’s not their cup of tea (or mead, ought to we are saying), and forgo shopping for honey altogether.
This made us marvel – how would a model create consciousness and promote its merchandise in a market that lacks each consciousness and demand? Properly, Moonshine Honey Undertaking did each and grew its on-line gross sales by 20x.
Reaching nationwide with Shopify
Moonshine needed to promote its merchandise throughout India and opted for Shopify immediately. That they had entrepreneur buddies who already had Shopify shops and really useful attempting the platform.
Moonshine didn’t need to spend so much of sources at first to arrange a web site, and so they have been in a position to obtain this goal with Shopify.
The Moonshine crew has had a easy crusing with Shopify due to a number of causes:
- It was straightforward to arrange their retailer and get it operating
- Shopify’s platform is dependable and doesn’t crash even after they obtain giant volumes of visitors
- Fee and logistics are a breeze for them due to the integrations
However the half that they love probably the most about Shopify? It’s Shopify analytics!
Shopify studies make it straightforward to trace geographical insights. The geo-analytics permit Moonshine Honey Undertaking to know the place they get probably the most visitors or demand. This has helped the model profit from its retailer and scale its enterprise successfully.
Although the Shopify retailer was initially set as much as promote honey on-line, the model thought, why cease there? They began promoting tour tickets for his or her Meadery by Shopify as effectively.
All in favour of organising your individual Shopify retailer? Listed below are some sources to get you began:
Profiting from the Meadery (and Shopify)
Moonshine began internet hosting meadery visits by providing tour tickets offline. The guided tour had individuals visiting the primary full-scale meadery in Asia – Moonshine Meadery.
The behind-the-scenes entry allowed the model’s viewers to study Moonshine’s brewing course of. It additionally included honey and mead tasting periods.
The model needed to depend on third-party tour firms to enlist and purchase the registrations for these excursions. The tour frequency was much less and so they needed to promote the tour closely by social media.
However in 2021, they experimented with itemizing excursions by their Shopify retailer. And guess what? They began buying the tour bookings with little to no promotions.
Now, they host weekly excursions by only a registration web page on their Shopify retailer that permits individuals to enter their info and ebook a tour.
The tour is a good branding exercise and a direct income supply. What’s extra? It permits the model to attach with its viewers outdoors of a digital house and construct a loyal group.
Carving their very own path
Rohan and Nitin launched Moonshine Meadery in 2018 although they began engaged on the thought in 2014. The delay was brought about because of the lack of legal guidelines concerning manufacturing meads in India
Nonetheless, Moonshine didn’t let this cease them. Rohan and Nitin labored with the exicse division and managed to get some readability on the legal guidelines round mead
However their greatest problem was advertising and marketing, as you can not promote alcohol manufacturers on digital platforms. Moonshine’s success can largely be credited to its distinctive method to advertising and marketing.
Moonshine Honey Undertaking depends on social media training and guerrilla advertising and marketing to succeed in its potential viewers. The model has tried the whole lot – from pop-ups to masterclasses, company tie-ups and tasting periods.You might come throughout their collaboration posts that includes manufacturers like Nomad Meals Undertaking, Subko Espresso and Pack-a-Pav. The model has additionally began the ‘Moonshine Highlight’ mission by which they promote indie artists acting at venues the place their meads are served.
Wish to know extra about guerilla advertising and marketing and promoting on social media? Take a look at these guides, together with suggestions and examples to encourage you:
All these advertising and marketing techniques have been nice, however Moonshine needed one thing to assist them acquire widespread visibility and put the model on the map. Enter – Shark Tank India.
The buzzworthy Shark Tank India look
Moonshine’s televised Shark Tank India look was the discuss of the city – not solely as a result of the model was pitching a uncommon alcoholic beverage but additionally as a result of they have been one of many few manufacturers who rejected the Sharks’ supply.
Moonshine determined to audition for the sequence, seeing that it’s a nice opportinity for constructing consciousness for a brand new class. The model went by a rigorous audition course of – beginning with sharing a pitch deck and video to the shortlisting interview rounds.
Their objective was to realize visibility and get a advertising and marketing push for his or her meads, not essentially gaining funding. And what higher solution to obtain this than to seem on nationwide TV?
The model wowed the Sharks with their meads however sadly left the present with out funding because the Sharks’ counter-offer didn’t align with the model’s valuation.
We requested the founders why they walked away from the funding supply. “We had hoped for negotiation in step with what we sometimes see from personal fairness traders”, they claimed.
However that didn’t imply that Moonshine didn’t profit from their look. They garnered lots of optimistic suggestions and, after all, elevated gross sales. The model noticed 2 lakh guests on its website in a span of two hours after the episode was aired.
Like most entrepreneurs, Rohan and Nitin loved interacting and studying from different founders. “What was notably good was to see that Vineetha, who has apparently been following our model for some time, gave us an enormous thumbs up on the route of our branding.”
The founders additionally had no regrets and didn’t really feel that rejecting the Sharks’ supply brought about any repercussions. “We’ve really acquired lots of optimistic suggestions for holding our floor and never decreasing our firm’s valuation simply to simply accept the Sharks’ supply.”
Listed below are a number of extra enterprise classes D2C manufacturers can study from Shark Tank India.
What’s subsequent for Moonshine
Moonshine Meadery went into growth mode in 2021 and is accessible by retail in states together with Maharashtra, Goa, Bengaluru, Himachal and Uttar Pradesh. Given that every state has totally different legal guidelines and mechanisms for alcoholic merchandise, the model is rising the mead mission slowly however absolutely.
As for Moonshine Honey Undertaking, the model is proud of Shopify’s conversions and isn’t trying to function these merchandise on some other platform.
They’re additionally in talks with Printrove to combine their merchandise into their Shopify retailer. Having their merchandise on the identical platform as their merchandise (honey + tour tickets) would make it straightforward for his or her viewers to search out the whole lot ‘Moonshine’ with much less navigation.
When requested about their subsequent strikes, the model claimed that they’re engaged on one activity at a time. One factor is for certain – Moonshine will proceed to thrive and construct its group with its distinctive launches whereas contributing to the surroundings, one jar/bottle at a time.
And Shopify will proceed to help the model with new options and options.
Like tens of millions of different companies, Moonshine discovered a dependable ecommerce associate with Shopify. Whether or not you want to attain a nationwide viewers or present on-line purchasing ease with versatile integrations, Shopify has all of it.
Arrange your on-line retailer and begin promoting with Shopify’s 14-day free trial!
