Background: - Nirdosh is a unique non-tobacco smoking device developed in 1982 by Maans Products, Ahmedabad. Maans products, Ahmedabad was a family owned proprietary organization, run by Mr. Natvarlal Bhavsar. Maans products had been a biri manufacturing and marketing enterprise which Mr. Bhavsar had inherited and had been running for the last two decades. Total sales volume of this business was about Rs. 10 lakhs a year.
Product description: - The product Nirdosh is a unique non-tobacco smoking device made using 14 herbs (chosen after extensive research and experimentation by Mr. Bhavsar). Initially the herbs were rolled into tendu leaves in biri form and sold. However, later on Mr. Bhavsar decided to roll it in a cylindrical form in the manner of traditional cigarettes and to this effect came up with a special colored medicinal paper to wrap around the herbs (in collaboration with the Gandhi ashram, Ahmedabad).Initially, when rolled in biri form, it had no filter and the person smoking would inhale a little powder while taking a puff (material entering into mouth). But, when the product was released in the cylindrical form of cigarettes a filter was added to the end as well.
Manufacturing issues: - The various issues faced by Mr. Bhavsar for the manufacturing of Nirdosh cigarettes are: - i. Seasonal availability of the herbs which are used to make the cigarettes. ii. No manufacturing equipment present and the entire process of converting the raw material (herbs) by grinding into rollable form to rolling the cigarettes is manual. iii. The workers used were skilled in rolling biris not cigarettes.
Marketing issues: - The major marketing issues faced by Mr. Bhavsar were: - i. Advertisement in newspapers or radio was too costly. Business-wise it was not sustainable. ii. The distribution network of Mr. Bhavsar was not very strong.
Positives for the product: - The positives for the product were: - i. It was a unique, one