Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business services but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Urshita Nema, Co-Founder and CEO of Uspire Consulting, located in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Uspire is a marketing consulting firm that focuses on improving the ROI (Return on Investment) of business decisions by deriving choices via the lens of consumer insights and proven algorithms. With up-for-patent tools and a team of marketing experts, we translate consumer insights into business objective-led solutions: brand & business strategy, new product development & launch, new market entry, communication development, media planning, investor management & go-to-market strategy. This makes Uspire an exclusive consulting firm capable of extending an end-to-end consumer business marketing chain.
Most of our clients are new age start-ups, established brands going for new product launches, and investors evaluating projects for extending funds. Our expertise lies in the FMCG space for beauty & personal care, food & beverages, nutrition, personal hygiene, and home care.
An arm of Uspire consulting partners with Biz-Tech (Edu, heath, prop-tech) ventures for business modelling and investor-led MVP (Minimal Viable Product) rollouts. Uspire Consulting has been transforming the way brands are built.
Tell us about yourself
In 15 years of my career, I have led brands and businesses (Rs.800 crores & above) across FMCG & telecom sectors. My strong fundamentals of brand management come from Idea Cellular, where I also became part of unforgettable National Campaigns like “No Ullu Banaoing” & “Idea Internet Network.” Contributing towards the success of the brand, I could hold the most revered Gold & Silver Effies at an early age.
Heading Brand Cinthol as General Manager was an unparalleled experience to drive business rigorously, making Go/No-Go decisions & driving profitability. I was recognized by the organization Godrej Consumer Products Limited for driving habit-based consumer marketing for the brand Godrej HIT (CIK), resulting in exceptional business growth.
An array of new product launches has always been part of the portfolio, with Cinthol Awesome Men Range and Deo-shots being the most memorable ones. I have been passionate as a Marketeer right from the days of my MBA program at India’s premium Institute, IMT Ghaziabad, where I excelled with a Gold Medalist performance.
With a passion for deeper consumer understanding, along with a team of experts, rigorous consumer deep dives, psychographic frameworks, and business case studies, I could develop a consumer in-sighting tool (Up-for-patent) - first in the industry to unearth the subconscious. This innovation, called ATOM, also forms the genesis of Uspire Consulting.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
My biggest accomplishment as a business owner has been ongoing recognition and appreciation by my clients and mentors. We take pride in saying that we stand by our clients unconditionally and in a way that they can count on us anytime for any support needed. We work hand in hand with the business and brand owners to re-think the way brands are built to drive higher business returns.
Recently, we worked with a Premium Ayurveda Beauty & Personal Care brand, Blue Nectar. The new brand strategy helped in dialing up a strong consumer connection. The brand’s new avatar and digital campaign resulted in three times (3X) sales growth in just nine months. The campaign received over 7 million views on digital platforms and attracted the attention of Times Brand Equity and equivalent publications.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
Being the first consulting firm to connect the dots across consumer, product, brand, communication & business outcome, our biggest challenge is to make our clients overcome functional compartmentalization.
It would be amazing to have all the teams, including those working on product design & innovation, brand & communication, and investment & strategy to come together to make things happen. We are at the beginning of this transformation, and many clients have experienced the power of consumer insights steering up the entire “consumer business marketing chain” and acknowledged multi-fold returns. We also conduct weekend workshops to onboard the client’s in-house team to the culture of consumer marketing.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Always sign-up for a “win-win” arrangement. Be it with your clients, employees, or allied partners, one can gain only when all are gaining in the process.
- Follow “humanitarianism.” In the end, we all are living beings and need compassion.
- One needs to have zero compromises toward “integrity.” Do what you say and say what you mean.
At Uspire, we define our core values to be “win-win,” “innovation,” “human connect,” & “precision.” The team believes in investing time to accurately define clients’ problem statements, onboard and validate their valued hypotheses, and then curate a solution that gets seamlessly integrated with the organization’s system and values. The differentiated approach is to peg each actionable for the return on investment, profitability, or market share enhancement based on the business priorities.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.uspire.in/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UspireConsulting
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/urshita/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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