Belief builds brands: Nagessh Pannaswami on why SMEs struggle to scale

After working with a range of owner-managed businesses across sectors, Nagessh Pannaswami, Co-founder of Curry Nation Communications, identified a recurring pattern: many of these enterprises reach a plateau after achieving a turnover of ₹150–200 crore. While product quality and distribution infrastructure are often in place, the transition from commodity-based operations to brand-led growth remains a challenge.

These observations form the basis of his book 'From Commodity to Brand,' which examines how structural limitations and internal mindsets, what he refers to as “limiting beliefs,' can prevent businesses from scaling further.

The analysis draws examples from across categories including plywood, sugar, home fresheners, and FMCG. These include the repositioning of Greenply around product longevity, shifting the narrative of Good Home fresheners from price to usage experience, and citing how brands such as Tata Salt and Madhur Sugar navigated low-involvement categories through branding.

In the following interview, Pannaswami outlines the specific barriers faced by such businesses and reflects on the shift in approach seen among second-generation entrepreneurs.

After three decades in advertising, what recurring challenges among owner-led businesses made you feel this book needed to be written?

When we started Curry Nation, our core philosophy was to make an impact on the SME business segment in India. If you look back at the early 2000s, brands like Balaji Wafers, Nirma, and others were small players trying to step out of the shadows. Many of them were B2B suppliers aspiring to become consumer-facing brands. I recognised this opportunity as early as 2010, and that became the foundation for starting Curry Nation.

A large part of our work has involved owner-managed businesses, brands like Rasna, Nirlep, Wakefield, PN Gadgil Jewellers, Pitara (from Desai Brothers Limited), and many others. At Curry Nation, we’ve worked with more than 25-30 such businesses, most of which operate in commodity categories. One recurring pattern I noticed was that after reaching a turnover of ₹100–150 crore, or even ₹200 crore, many of these businesses would hit a plateau. And this stagnation wasn’t due to a lack of resources, it was driven by a limiting belief.

You’ve said that ‘commodity businesses are not limited by their category, but by their mindset.’ When does that shift in thinking actually begin?

The first impact that most people realise is when the business starts getting stuck while trying to grow. 

It often starts when a business hits a growth plateau. Most entrepreneurs focus on setting up operations, building distribution, securing shelf space, and increasing visibility. But they overlook one key aspect, awareness. Without investing in awareness, people don’t know what the product is, no matter how widely it’s available. That’s where the gap lies.

Many business owners believe that trade relationships alone will drive growth. But trade is primarily driven by margins. If you offer a 10% margin and your competitor offers 15%, the trader will simply shift to the competitor’s product. This sets off a margin war, one side goes to 16%, the other to 18%, then 20%, until profitability erodes entirely.

On the other hand, if you invest even a small amount in brand building and create consumer demand, the dynamic changes. When traders see that customers are asking for your product by name, they no longer push based on margins. They start stocking it because there’s visible pull from the market.

Your book introduces the 'UNLIMIT' framework. Can you explain how that helps businesses translate brand thinking into action?

The UNLIMIT Workshop doesn’t follow the conventional pitch process. We don’t respond to briefs in the typical way. Instead, we ask clients to onboard us as consultative partners. Our approach is rooted in the belief that you must diagnose before you prescribe.

Once the engagement begins, we start with a deep-dive exercise involving 101 strategic questions. We explore the client’s business through multiple lenses, consumer behaviour, category trends, competition, global and Indian market contexts, and even the company’s history. This is followed by consumer research, where we meet actual users of the product to understand motivations, barriers, and perceptions.

What’s one practical step in the book that helps break the cycle of price wars and trade push?

One of the most important steps is simply to have belief in the brand. In the book, I’ve outlined 10 to 15 limiting beliefs that often hold business owners back. For each belief, there’s a case study showing how someone overcame it, how they thought they couldn’t do something, but they went ahead and did it anyway. And in many cases, they achieved significant success just by shifting that mindset.

You write, “The problem isn’t your product. It’s your positioning.” Can even categories like cement or plywood find a distinctive brand story?

It’s important to start by getting to the product truth. Take Greenply, for example. The client described it as “tikao,” meaning sturdy. We asked what that really meant, and the answer was that it lasts a long time. From there, we built a brand code around that quality. The core servicing idea became, “Lasts longer than anybody else.”

 Another example is Good Home, which makes aroma-based room and bathroom fresheners. Instead of competing on price, we reframed the product narrative entirely. We positioned it as something that transforms your bathroom into a “fresh room.” We always try to connect a product insight with a life insight, that’s where the story begins.

Your book is aimed at second-generation leaders. What change do you see in them versus the founders?

When the second generation enters into business, they want to build brands. So that’s an opportunity. They themselves are buying brands. Today’s youngsters don’t want to do all that. They want a business that can run on its own steam. They want the levers of marketing to be in place.

You describe branding as 'the only path to sustainable profitability.' How do you convince owners to invest in that?

The only way we can do this is by showing case studies, proofs of work happening. We can talk to other entrepreneurs who have gone that journey. Our partners have been so kind that they’re willing to talk. Rasna’s Piruz Khambatta talks to clients. He is our advocate. He does that.

Your C2B framework talks about storytelling that creates belief and belonging. How do you uncover that story?

That’s our job, to go deeper. Clients will always say, “My product is the best,” and list technical reasons, “I’ve added this layer,” “I’ve used ZP2,” and so on. But business owners typically don’t think creatively. That’s where agencies, and people like us, come in.

We ask, what is the role of this product in the consumer’s life? and then, what is the actual truth of the product? That truth doesn’t come from the owner. It comes from the customer.

You have to spend time with them, dig deep, dig deeper still, and eventually you arrive at the core: this is the product, this is the real problem, this is the motivator. That’s what you work with, and build the brand story around.

What case studies stood out to you while writing the book?

Tata Salt, for example. Madhur Sugar, too. Internationally, there’s an interesting case study of Who Gives A Crap, a toilet paper brand. Toilet paper is usually considered boring, just a white sheet of paper, with little consumer interest. But this brand took a different approach. They used bright, colourful packaging and printed messages on each roll and wrapper. The product became engaging, visually distinctive, and suddenly, it started moving faster than many others in the category.

What do you ultimately hope this book will spark in business owners?

I can only talk to so many people in my life. But I’m hoping that by publishing this book and making it available at marketplaces, it will reach out to a wider audience and it will motivate, if not one, if not two, if not a hundred, some amount of people to take the first step towards brand building.

If I can even convert 15-20 and get new commodity business out there in the market, then my task is done.