King of Spice Malaysia’s Premier Curry Powder!

By Gopal Nair
Baba’s is confident that the current global economic crisis will have not greater effect on it then the global weather has had the past few years. Malaysia’s No. 1 curry talks to MARKETING of its humble beginnings, its passionate vision and the weather!

Baba’s today, is not just synonymous with premium quality spices and curry mixes but also for its sponsorship of Hindi and Tamil movies through the annual Baba’s & U campaigns, the culinary hits through its 1001 RASA series of TV culinary contests, some may even remember them as sponsors of the 1998 KL SEA Games or for bringing the stars, glitz and glamour of the Zee Cine Awards to our homes last year.

Our mothers however may remember the small van that used to frequent Klang Valley neighborhoods packed with this masala mix that was just too good to be true! The product was developed directly from the early feedback and perfected over the years due to the constant pursuit for higher standards of its founder. He is a story in himself, but few have had the privilege of writing of him as he is a staunch believer the brand should be the focus, not the individual. Over the years, Baba’s has grown from a simple outfit; which produced is magical formula four days a week and sold it for the remaining three, to one of Malaysia’s premier homegrown brands! Its small mill has since become a showroom.

Four factories today; manned by a workforce of about 500, have taken over those duties. A team of food technologist, quality control experts and halal officers, use the facilities of their R &D laboratory to continuously perfect the production standards, ensuring that Baba’s always maintains its reputation for the highest quality. The founder has swapped the worn-out seat of the van of old for a more comfortable chair at the HQ, leaving the distribution of the products these days to a fleet of 6 trailers and 80 trucks, that take it cross-country. In its pursuit for premier quality, Baba’s today imports about 90% of their ingredients directly from farms overseas. Its state-of-the-art production facilities retain the highest level of potency of the ingredients, giving of its range of products – which total 32 at the moment, a richer aroma and taste. According to Claudian Navin Stanislaus, Head of Advertising and Promotions at Baba’s, the creation of the brand and its development into a household name through a simple logical application of awareness, differentiation and customer satisfaction. Baba’s took bold steps into advertising at its very infancy with such innovations as being the first to place slides within rental videos. This later developed into a medium in its own right, until video rentals were outlawed! “That got the numbers in,” said Navin, “and it’s been the broadcast medium ever since.”

After nearly 20 years of radio and TV sponsorships, the company felt that it needed further innovation to reposition Baba’s as a Malaysian brand with global reach. An in-house full-service agency was set up, with one precondition – “We don’t compete with others, only improve ourselves,” was the brief Navin received. “It was odd hearing it the first time from the owner that we had no competitors, but it felt even more unusual when I realised what he meant by it,” said Navin. “Here I was coming from a dog-eat-dog industry; where friendships were kept for after hours and all too often not long, and he was telling me that I didn’t have to spend any time trying to take out the competition.” Navin admits that the idea was a bit idealistic, surreal even and though he initially doubted it was doable, he has been happily proven wrong.

Baba’s is a brand nurtured on the true Malaysian spirit of togetherness and while most marketing gurus may scoff “What a load of #@*%!”, it sees this as a footstall for greater global success of as a Malaysian brand. “So, we do our own thing for our customers,” he said. The successful Baba’s & U campaigns; developed five years ago, is one such example. Not only did it clobber its way through the clutter of segmented programming on TV, but has become a household name and a brand in its own right.

Their bigger success story however, is the unique series of TV culinary contests under its 1001 RASA brand. Cabaran 1001 Rasa Baba’s unique format of five-minute recipe capsules aired five times daily for the 30 days of Ramadhan in 2004, pushed sales up from the previous highs by 20%. In its second and third year, increases of as much as 60% year-on-year were seen. “It’s unfortunate the Effie’s just came to town, cause as an ad agency we don’t really get to work on award winning ads… we have to deal with results”, quipped Navin with a smile. These efforts may not fall within the domain of what is deemed mainstream advertising, but it is a back-to-basics ad agency that is accountable for sales impact, not a commonality since probably those early days of elixir sellers and their shows. After all, not unlike its products, Baba’s advertising and promotions activities are very customer centric. “We give them what they want… it’s often more expensive,” says Navin, “but, they’re worth it!” This year they have broke out of the box yet again, producing two new culinary shows.

The latest evolution of the 1001 RASA series; Akademi 1001 RASA, features 128 kitchen virgins vying for a RM10,000 Grand Prize. It is hosted by Malaysia’s latest TV culinary guru Chef Kamarul; who first found fame on the Cabaran 1001 RASA series, assisted by 13 past finalists and semi-finalists of the Cabaran 1001 RASA series as trainers. Also on air is a joint production with ASTRO, called Baba’s & U: Neenggalum Samaikalam featuring award-winning Chef Siva; another finalist of the Cabaran 1001 RASA series, cooking up some mouth-watering dishes in Baba’s first Tamil language cooking show. Loyalty is obviously is a big thing with Baba’s. Not only do they open the doors for loyal customers to become celebrity chefs, but they also have a long history of supporting customers in their endeavours into the food industry.

On the global front, Baba’s has been on the shelves throughout Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany for over 20 years, but expansion was hindered by a problem that they had until three years ago – not being able to meet local demand! So what is their take on the global economic crisis? Navin explained that while Baba’s is probably more affected by climatic changes than the share market; having already been hit in the past few months by the erratic weather, a global crisis would likely have a domino effect on everything. “Past experiences have shown, however, that we get a surge in new customers during trying times – so there’s a silver lining, I suppose,” he added, “and the more often they cook at home, the fussier they become on how their food tastes. Some of the best recipes are cooked up under such conditions.” Of the global appeal of spices, Navin noted, “The West has come to terms with the importance of the spices for its natural health giving properties, and have shown a shift towards a preference for its use either in its traditional form or fused into their menus.”

On what he see for the future, Navin stated, “It would be nice to see one of our local Malaysian dishes becoming a favourite in some foreign land ala the crossover success of Chicken Tikka Masala in the UK, and it would be sweeter if more than one of our ingredients is used in it!” That may not be very farfetched considering that Baba’s can probably claim to have had a hand in at least one of the three meals you will have today!

Claudian Navin Stanislaus, Head of Advertising & Promotions, Baba’s Products (M) Sdn Bhd

…Our mothers however may remember the small van that used to frequent Klang Valley neighborhoods packed with this masala mix that was just too good to be true!…