Jaideep Mahajan, who quit his career in advertising last year, was about to set to fly for Toronto Canada to join his wife and son but due to Covid 19 and the resulted lockdown in march his journey was hindered and it resulted in a new turn in his life.
For the past 2 decades, Mahajan had worked in advertising and his last allotted position was as national creative head at rediffusion. Leo Burnett, McCann, world group, Lintar, JWT contract advertising were some of the many companies he has worked with.When he looks back at his career he tells that it provided him with a lot of opportunities and understandings.
When he was forced to stay in India during the lockdown days he thought about starting his venture Svish, which focused on producing antibacterial and sanitizing products. Talking about the startup he says that his friend and svish founder Ishan Grover was an early businessman to dabble in craft brewing beers in India but was hit by the covid pandemic and the induced lockdown which led them to establish Swish.
Even though the lockdown was the best period to start such a business, but they didn’t want to do just that. They wanted to make things that could be of good impact to the consumers rather than just using the opportunity for making money.
He further added that majority of the products to sanitize and disinfect in the market had their share of pitfalls and defects. Sometimes the product makes the skin sticky, sometimes makes it feel dry, sometimes the product smells clinical, and other times, the packaging and style were too unappealing. He wanted to deal with issues like these.
So far, Svish’s product lineup includes surface disinfectant sprays, alcohol-free anti-bacterial gadget wipes, and hand sanitizer sprays.
Mahajan mentions that he doesn’t just want to focus on ‘protection’ for users at home and Svish’s TG is for those who are moving outdoors after India has ‘unlocked’. They want to focus on audiences within the 18-30-year-old category.
He says that his advertising experience has enormously helped him in understanding how to conceptualize and market his products, though it was a challenge to design a product from scratch. He mentions during the conversation that he has always been curious about art, design, painting, and so on, but didn’t find the time to pursue these interests while working in advertising.
He further added that sanitizer is a new category in India – one that used to be wheeled by companies like Dettol and HUL’s Lifebuoy. Svish has products like sanitizing face wash and mask disinfectants in the pipelines. The company has been listed on Flipkart and Amazon. In the future, Svish wishes to collaborate with restaurants and cab companies to help in providing support in sanitizing spaces and surfaces.
