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Theos Adventure Capitalists in India

Tommy Aurea
Mayo 2016

Escuela Superior Politcnica del Litoral

Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Humansticas
International Marketing

Theos Adventure Capitalists analysis

India which is now considered a fast-growing economy represents a truly attractive
business opportunity for entrepreneurs round the globe. This time three UK companies take
the risk to introduce their products into the Indian market, under the supervision of Theo
Paphitis, the host and advisor of the TV show.
India reaches a population of 1.3 billion. Its Gross-Domestic Product is $7.4 trillion
and $5.855 per capita. The unemployment rate is 3.6% and the Foreign Direct Investment is
approximately $34.4 billion. This country has had important advances in terms of trade
freedom, despite of its particular culture many foreign firms are investing on new businesses
there. (The Heritage Foundation, 2016)
Taking a look the three UK companies: Bremont, Regenatec and Marmite; all of them
pursue a similar goal: make a profit in this highly populated market. The enthusiasm of each
entrepreneur is easily perceptible but when comes to businesses, more than excitement is
needed. These companies are really good examples of the importance to not just research the
market but really understand and get closer to it.
Bremont is a luxury watches company which targeted millionaire Indian segment. The
companys entrepreneurs visited watch-specialized shops and found that the products on sale
in there were really different to what they had on mind. They also found out the tariffs
reached almost 58% and there were additional taxes they had to deal with. Not enough with
all of this, they were told Indians always expected discounts in watch purchases. It was more
than evident that this business would never work in this market, it was almost impossible to
get a profit of it.

Meanwhile the guys from Regnatec faced a real challenge as their product needed
repurposed vegetable oil to work, and this couldnt be found anywhere in India. This
company business consisted on reprocess the diesel to turn it into a green combustible but
what they didnt consider to start up the business in this market is the lack of raw materials
around the country. Another missed consideration was the 20% add the customers would have
to pay just to go green. The business idea was fantastic indeed from the ecofriendly point of
view but these entrepreneurs mustve realized the country characteristics and idiosyncrasy
wouldnt allow them to succeed in this market, at least no now.
Then Marmite was the other brand trying to introduce a particular product whose
slogan is love it or hate it into Indian market. The head of the Marmite project first started
giving away the product in sandwiches so the people in the street could give their feedback
about it, soon the researchers realized the best method to understand customer preferences
was not in the streets but in mothers. Thus they performed a focus group with Indian mothers
and the results were encouraging as they thought of Marmite as a product very healthy for
their children.
Of all three businesses, only Marmite could make it into the Indian market despite of
people at the beginning was reluctant towards the product. In these cases Theo gives
important lessons about understanding markets and one of them is to research properly the
countrys idiosyncrasy before start investing on it. (BBC, 2010)

References
BBC (Direccin). (2010). Theo's Adventure Capitalists in India [Pelcula].
The Heritage Foundation. (2016). 2016 Index Economic Freedom. Recuperado el 18 de May
de 2016, de http://www.heritage.org/index/country/india