Dheeraj Gupta

With its very first outlet opening outside Malad railway station in Mumbai in ​August 2001​,
Jumboking is nothing if not a testament to the perseverance and success of its owner and
founder, ​Dheeraj Gupta.
At the age of 25 and with two business degrees in his pocket, he set out with the goal of
establishing a sweets business that made ​mithai ​as accessible and resaleable as chocolate.
​Initially, his decision to set up a vada pav shop was not welcomed by everyone. Only street
vendors sold vada pav and it was unacceptable for many that a well educated person from a
respectable family would venture into this business. But those who scoffed at the idea of an
MBA grad setting up a vada pav shop are now eating humble pie, or rather the humble vada pav.
​He borrowed money from his father and brother (already running a successful sweetshop) to give
a jumpstart to his idea. However, within a mere five months, his first business plummeted.
But Gupta did not wallow in his loss. Instead, he picked himself back up and built Jumboking
from scratch. Jumbo King brand's first outlet and he was joined by his wife Rita Gupta. The
company's framework was motivated by the fast food giant McDonald's and Burger King.
​Learning from the mistakes he made the first time around, this venture was infinitely more
successful than the last, and eventually earned Gupta profits which would libertae him from his
debt.
His first outlet was called Chaat Factory (Snack Factory) and sold the humble vada pav for a
mere Rs. 5 ​regardless of road merchants offering a similar item for ₹2​. ​Being hygienic was their
first differentiation. Soon there were flavours and variety -- cheese vada pav, butter vada pav,
schezwan vada pav -- that they started offering. Sales started picking up and the company
continued to constantly innovate as it chugged along.

The name was later changed to Jumbo King. Gupta confronted restriction from his family, who
thought he was squandering his MBA by offering vada pavs.

Vada pav is a mainstream veggie lover dish local to the Indian province of Maharashtra, in spite
of the fact that it has been losing its notoriety in recent years. The spots where the sustenance is
currently cooked and sold are frequently contaminated, and it is viewed as a "poor man's
food".The general population of Mumbai and Thane devour around 18- lakh (1.8- 2 million)
units of vada pav, with firm rivalry basically from the
unhygienic road merchants in the city. Conversely, Jumbo King cooks and offers the
nourishment in sterile conditions.

Gupta had observed the Burger King business model on a visit to London and had decided that it
would work very well in India, which is what he was trying to emulate at first. Compared with
other vada pav sellers across the city, Jumboking’s vada pavs were produced in hygienic and safe
conditions, which set them apart from all other possible competition in the same price range.
​Jumbo King Foods Pvt. Ltd became a franchisee-based organization that works crosswise over
numerous regions of India. From its beginnings in Malad, a suburb of Mumbai, it has spread
over the entire Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), and additionally Bangalore, Hyderabad,
Aurangabad, and Gujarat.
Growth and expansion

Operations
In the vada pav business, the margins are good but the ticket size is low. To do a daily sale of Rs
10,000 at Jumboking, we need 400 customers. A Subway restaurant needs only 80 customers to
reach that amount. The beauty of franchising business is that from the cost front, the operations
are very tightly held because the franchisor of the business is directly controlling all expenses
happening at the stores. In 2009, they realised that their franchisees were running much tighter
operations than they were doing at their own stores. When they gave their company-owned
stores to franchisees, their sales increased by about 30 per cent and operating costs decreased by
about 40 per cent and the store upkeep also improved. They built their franchise network by
keeping franchise fees at 6 per cent and ensuring that they deliver a 10 percent saving on food
costs. Tight operations, brand building and innovative product development have built their
network.

Franchising
When he had set up his first Jumboking store, the challenge was to see whether only having vada
pav as a product would be able to sustain even a single store? But by the time he reached 10
stores, he chalked out that Mumbai alone could have up to 200 stores in around five-year time.
So the vision kept growing and he started giving franchising outside Mumbai also. The first three
stores were company owned and the fourth store was a franchised store in 2004. However, he
franchised the second and third store within the first two years itself and later he franchised his
first store also. Today, Jumboking is a 100 percent franchised company as he had always thought
it to be.

In order to expand, one needs an advertising budget of over Rs 40-50 crore. For a company with
a franchisee based model that mainly does tactical marketing, it’s a long journey ahead. In fact,
Jumboking recently launched a new billboard campaign in Mumbai with Bollywood actor Pooja
Chopra. Jumboking’s turnover is presently in the range of Rs 75 lakh per store per annum in
Mumbai, with other markets contributing lesser. With modern 200-300 sq ft stores requiring an
investment of about Rs 20 lakh, the franchise model works well for the company. Each city has
one master franchisee — Mumbai being a large city has four master franchisees, while Pune has
one.
Each franchisee gets a 45% margin on sales. But going ahead, the brand aims to compete in the
same turf as global companies. Despite being smaller and the likes of a McDonald’s being
located right opposite it at some high frequency locations like railway stations, Gupta claims
sales have not been affected. In fact, Jumboking has tied up with Swiggy for delivery and
approximately 10-20% of its business comes in from this. It has also tied up with Paytm and has
further plans to develop an app that will house a loyalty programme.

Competition

Jumboking’s main national competitor is Goli and international competitor is Burger King.
In its initial days, Jumboking had a competition with Jumbo ​vada pav, a local store. After
fighting case with this very competitor which was trying to duplicate, Jumboking won the case
regarding trade benchmark. But the hygiene and packaging played a crucial role and acted as a
differentiator to the product. Jumboking has always focused on ​STP ​strategy.

● S - Segmentation
● T - Targeting
● P - Positioning

This has made the Jumboking as one of the growing brands in the sector. The reason behind the
success of jumboking is the positioning of the brand. ​Dheeraj Gupta ​has well understood the
part of marketing in the success of any business. He focused on every type of marketing in which
Rita Gupta​, wife of Dheeraj Gupta, was the brand manager of the Jumboking handled the whole
marketing department and the branding.
When comparing their ​social media following, Burger King has 1.5 million followers on Twitter,
whereas Goli has 948. Jumboking has only 1.3k Twitter followers. On Facebook, Goli has 152k
page likes, Burger King has 8 million page likes and Jumboking has 218k page likes. On
Instagram, Jumboking has 616 followers, whereas Burger King has 1.1 million followers. Goli
does not have an Instagram account.
Burger King uses several campaigns to maintain their social media pages, one of which is
#HatersGonnaLove in which they retweet year-old tweets that gave feedback for the Burger
King Crispy Chicken Burger that was … let’s just say, less than glowing. The brand then gave
the tweeters a free and updated Crispy Chicken Burger, stating that it was now ‘dressed to
impress’. This campaign ran only across Twitter in the month of March 2017.
Goli, too, uses several clever strategies in order to up their social media following, like
#GoliAwesomeness, a hashtag used to create hype for their vada pavs. This ran across all social
media platforms on which Goli had a presence and involved showcasing an item from their menu
with the help of a creative and encouraging customers to buy it.
There is no doubt about the fact that Jumboking needs to improve their social media game in
comparison to Burger King, its international competitor. However, with Goli on the home turf, it
quite obviously has a superior digital presence.

Target Audience

Jumboking tries to cater to audiences of all genders who are from a middle-class background and
are between the ages of 15 to 35. Their customers are students and working professionals who
often commute or take the trains and metros. They belong to fast moving, urban cities.

Search Engine Optimisation

Search engine optimisation refers to the usage of particular keywords in order to ensure the
maximum amount of traffic on a brand’s website. These keywords are those that have the highest
search rates on Google from their target customers. If a website is able to optimise itself based on
the search engine’s keywords, then it is certain that they will be able to reach the maximum
amount of relevant people.
Some of the most popular ​keywords for Jumboking are jumboking, jumboking menu and
jumboking vada pav price. This means that whenever someone searches for these terms online,
Jumboking’s results are the first that pop up.
Often, brands bid on certain search terms to ensure that when users search these particular terms
on the internet, the particular brand’s page pops up as one of the first results. This may be useful
for Jumboking in reference to other words that it could really capitalise on if they were able to be
one of the top results.
Some of the suggested bid words for ​Jumboking are vada pav, vada pav in mumbai and on the go
snacks. This ensures that when someone searches for the said terms online, they are bound to
encounter Jumboking’s website as one of the first results. This makes the website more
accessible to the people looking for joints that serve vada pav near them, which is ultimately the
group of people Jumboking wants most to reach out to. Developing an ​SEO Strategy has surely
benefited Jumboking Digital Marketing Strategy
Social media
One of the key factors towards the success of any business these days, especially those in the
food industry, is, of course, social media. And after 17 years in the industry, Jumboking has
certainly learned this.
Jumboking has a presence on Facebook, Instagram, Zomato and Twitter. They have 218k likes
on their Facebook page, 616 followers on Instagram and 1.3k followers on Twitter.
In order to truly make their presence online, Jumboking has adopted a few strategies, like
making use of certain campaigns like #OnTheGoSnacking, in which the brand has posted
creatives of things you can do while eating a vada pav. For example, an edit of two people doing
garba​ while one eats a Jumboking vada pav.
At the same time, #VadaPavDay was a campaign that Jumboking used before their
self-proclaimed Vada Pav Day—celebrated on the date of their anniversary (23rd August)
which intended to get people to eat vada pavs from Jumboking on that day, as well as to
create brand awareness and brand recall.
Another interesting campaign was regarding #ChotiBhok in which Jumboking spread awareness
about vada pavs serving the purpose of a small snack between meals.
A few strategies that Jumboking could further follow in order to fully grow their social media to
its potential could be #JumboChampionship, which would involve a vada pav eating contest at
malls in Mumbai and Pune. A couple of malls where this suggested contest could take place
could be High Street Pheonix in Mumbai and Pheonix Marketcity in Pune. The registration form
should be online so that people may be encouraged to check out Jumboking’s website and social
media before registering. The prize for this contest could be gift vouchers or a Jumboking offer
booklet. There would be two separate competitions, one for males and one for females.

Blog Ideas

Another way to engage your customers and ensure that they stay on your brand’s website for a
longer duration of time is to provide them with interesting ​blogs​ to browse through.
Jeb pe sasta, dil pe hasta—why Jumboking is Mumbaikars’ favourite choice and Are you a
hygiene freak? Jumboking is the right place for you! are examples of articles that the brand could
create to ensure that website visitors spend more time with Jumboking online!
Email Marketing

An email marketing system that strategically targets Jumboking’s prime customers is the need of
the hour. Our student has come up with a strategy he feels would be of benefit. He has devised
an email marketing system that includes:

● Intro for the championship competition

● Rules for event/reminder for the event
● Post event winner mail/variety of combos at Jumboking
● Jumboking offer of the day/variety of offers Jumboking has
● Membership mail

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing refers to collaborating with social media influencers to promote your brand.
As influencers have a large following on social media, they are an excellent method of reaching
your target audience and maximising your brand’s reach.
Jumboking could conduct influencer campaigns in which it approaches influencers to attend
Jumboking’s event, review Jumboking on Zomato and write a post about the Jumboking vada
pav of the day. For example, thehungrymumbaikar on Instagram (70k followers),
#thebigbhukkad on Instagram (25k followers) or Mumbai Foodie (240k followers on Instagram).

Online Reputation Management

A few online platforms that could be of use to Jumboking’s ORM could be Zomato, Burrp,
Quora and Mouthshut. These ​online reputation management platforms help the customers share
their reviews of Jumboking’s food and therefore spread the word!
Platforms like Quora and Yahoo Answers often include questions like ‘Where can I get the best
vada pav in Mumbai?’ and other similar queries. It has to be made sure that Jumboking is
mentioned in such answers! This increases the likelihood that, when someone searches stumbles
across such questions, they have a positive impression of Jumboking.
Creative Strategy - Making the Difference
Identifying the right advertising objectives before embarking on a creative strategy is crucial to
the success of the entire marketing plan. This aspect becomes even more critical when one is
dealing with a repositioning due to previously entrenched perceptions of the brand. An essential
feature of the product (vada pav) which should be considered is that it doesn't need a person to
ask the question again and again - "Should I buy it or not?". People buy vada pavs whenever they
feel hungry and don't think twice about it. Hence to make something unusual out of the ordinary,
the strategies of advertising should include highlighting the benefits of the product in creative
ways, running an awareness drive to attract new customers and projecting vada pav as a snack
which can change people's lifestyles.
In Jumbo King's case the advertising objectives are mainly twofold - building the category need
for snacks as an alternative for proper food and building brand equity for Jumbo King. The
'Indian fast food' category needs to be popularized among the target audience as a convenient
way of having a hygienic snack when in a hurry. In what is largely an unbranded market as of
now, Jumbo King has a unique opportunity to create a brand identity for itself similar to that of
McDonald's in the US. Creating such an identity would entail associating the brand with local
flavor, fast service, convenience and travel.
As an example of a brand identity creation strategy, one can consider suitable modifications to
the company's logo to make it look more stylish and convey the impression of speed, while
retaining a number of elements manifest in the old logo. Another exercise can involve
developing brand taglines to be delivered in regional languages (Marathi is the obvious choice in
the present case). Catching the attention of commuters, most of who are in a hurry, is not an easy
task and therefore identifying bottlenecks (which require commuters to wait e.g. elevators) where
the message can be effectively delivered is crucial. Even in modes of delivery both traditional
and nontraditional modes of advertising should be employed.

Media Planning - Showing the World

Both the traditional as well as non-traditional strategies for advertising offer great opportunities
for creative marketers to show off their skills in convincing people to buy their products.
Preparing a catchy and innovative advertising campaign is no easy task and a well prepared
creative plan can work wonders for the company and its products. But that is just one side of the
story. A marketer may have done an excellent job in identifying the target audience and
preparing an excellent commercial for them, but what use is all that if it doesn't reach them? That
is where an effective media strategy comes into the picture. One needs not just be creative and
different in terms of preparing ads, but should also be adept at executing those well prepared ads
to perfection.

Media planning is all about determining the media habits of consumers in the target group and
formulating how this knowledge can be exploited to reach the target group effectively. For a
budget conscious brand like Jumbo King, it becomes even more important to have a judicious
mix of media since targeting all media channels (TV, print, radio etc) can be prohibitively
expensive. Different media channels can have different impact on customers at different costs.

Print Media
This can be a very effective medium for the franchise since it has the maximum reach among the
target audience. Since Jumbo King is a budget-constrained and predominantly regional brand,
local language newspapers and magazines can be cost effective sources of advertising.

Television Media
Television is a very popular source of entertainment amongst students and professionals and this
popularity can be tapped by Jumbo King for reaching these people who form a substantial
portion of its target audience. Again regional channels will hold the key for Jumbo King since
they are cheaper and not averse to advertising 'insignificant' products like vada pav.

Radio Media
Jumbo King can also make use of FM radio channels to send across their message, cheaply and
effectively. FM radio is a very popular entertainment source for commuters and professionals
and hence the message can spread across far and wide at minimal cost.

Internet Media
Since Jumbo King aims to target students and professionals, the internet can be a very important
medium for advertising in the future. Strategies such as blogs, banners, websites etc can provide
good publicity to Jumbo King with minimum cost incurred and also create an interactive
environment for customers to provide their views about the company and the product.

Another important part of the media stratagem is to evaluate expenditure by competitive brands.
This provides an idea of the relative performance of brands corresponding to the spending done.
In the present case, Jumbo King's competitors like McDonald's, which have large budgets, can
afford to go for Continuous/Pulsing strategies (advertising regularly or with very short breaks)
on TV. But for smaller players like Jumbo King, it is necessary to carefully choose the
advertising media and formulate a proper timing strategy, also taking factors like future growth
and expansion into consideration.

Current Status

Now, Jumboking serves numerous variations of the vada pav. It has grown to own ​more than
300 outlets in the country , with 30 outlets in Mumbai alone. Jumboking has risen above its
humble beginnings. ​Jumbo King goes up against Goli Vada Pav, another Mumbai based vada
pav nibble establishment that also has more than 300 stores.
One of the earliest things Jumboking did was to open franchise stores in Tier 1 -2 cities, in areas
where there were high footfalls – like outside a railway station. 200-300 sq. ft. stores that fit well
with the locations, and the customer base was the crowd rushing to catch that 5.45 local back
home, or take the 9.15 train to rush for that meeting.
For someone who grew up in a large joint family in Mumbai, with siblings and cousins to play
with at home, Dheeraj, now 42, took the difficult path to strike it out on his own instead of
joining the family business.
Earlier, he had fallen in love with college topper, Reeta, a South Indian from Palakkad, Kerala,
while doing his MBA at Symbiosis. He married her after launching Shagun, his short-lived first
venture. Reeta stuck with him through thick and thin. She runs her own company now. She used
to do marketing and PR for him. A voracious reader, he was greatly inspired by the stories of
Walmart founder Sam Walton, Ray Kroc of Macdonald’s, Sony founder Akio Morito, and our
own JRD Tata – which have driven him as an entrepreneur.
Jumboking has grown to such a level that for franchize, it is picking up people according to their
capability of acquiring the franchize. Dheeraj Gupta, the owner of Jumboking is focused towards
the branding and take care of its reputation.
Gupta's key to success of Jumboking

● Never feared of failure, not of quitting

○ Dheeraj Gupta says a successful entrepreneur must possess characteristics of

never giving up.

● Innovations

○ Jumboking has always innovated new items like chole jumboking, schezwan
jumboking and dal makhani jumboking. These innovations has proven itself as a
great differentiator and has added great value to the franchize.

● Outlets at crowded location

● Ideas from staff

○ Dheeraj Gupta has always taken advice and ideas from the working staff. Many of
the variety of jumboking came from ideas of their employees of jumboking like
crispy jumboking.

● Strived in difficult environment

○ During the nurturing, it as a franchize and growing it as a brand, It was very

difficult for the jumboking to survive and sustain in the market as a local
competitor.

● Advantages

○ It has a lot of underdog advantages as it has launched a new business model

similar to Burgerking and McDonald in Indian market.

Conclusion and Learnings:-

As Dheeraj Gupta has built the brand and franchise from the scrap, he has become the inspiration
for today’s generation. Youths want to follow him and learn from him.
According to Gupta, an entrepreneur must have some skills and characteristics to be successful.
These are:-

● To be an entrepreneur, you should never give up.

● A successful entrepreneur should learn by being the part of the system
● He/she should inculcate the qualities like Risk management, patience, innovation etc.
● An entrepreneur should be hardworking, responsible towards his duties and employees.
● You should always be ready to grab the opportunity and learn from your competitors and
others.
● Always learn from your mistakes and never be afraid of committing mistakes.