How Homegrown Hot Sauce Brand Naagin Elevates Taste Instantly

Naagin, a brand that specializes in hot sauce was founded in 2019 with a rebellious spirit and an objective to offer instant taste upgrades to people passionate about food. The brand brings a modern twist to India’s historic and passionate relationship with spices, creating new and unique flavors, yet solely Indian flavors. 

A homegrown brand, Naagin is also the first Indian hot sauce brand, using premium Indian chilies, real vegetables, and no artificial colors or flavors. The brand's mission is to bring India's rich spice culture to kitchen shelves and dining tables around the world.

Idea Behind Naagin

Since India is the largest consumer and exporter of chilies worldwide, and Indian cuisine is renowned globally for its fiery flavors but there has never been a global hot sauce story to come out of India.

Arjun Rastogi, Co-Founder, Naagin said, “Naagin is imagined and rooted in India, creating a unique range of hot sauces designed for the Indian taste palate and was launched to create this alternative.”

With its widely popular range of internationally award-winning Truly Indian Indian Hot Sauces, new-age Pantry Essentials, and Spice Essentials, the brand aims to create flavors that are innately familiar but have a modern twist being hot, sweet, fresh, and rich in texture. 

In a market flooded with many products but little differentiation, Naagin wanted to create unique instant taste upgrades which are tasty, versatile, and true to its ethos - Good Ingredients Make Great Food.

Market Positioning

Naagin hot sauces and spice essentials being the perfect condiment, cooking sauce, and marinade for every dish focus on championing quality ingredients. 

The brand intends to put Indian chilies on the global map and represent India’s rich spice culture on kitchen shelves and dining tables worldwide. 

“Unlike most sauces, we use fresh, ethically sourced produce, real vegetables, no purees, and premium Indian chilies. We are growing every day right here in India across modern trade stores like Nature’s Basket, Foodhall, e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Swiggy, and Big Basket, and the company’s D2C website,” added Rastogi.

Options Galore

Naagin offers numerous products. The brand’s portfolio currently comprises its range of internationally award-winning Truly Indian Hot Sauces. This range further includes - The Original, Kantha Bomb, Smoky Bhoot, and The 65.

The brand also offers new-age pantry essentials including Crispy Chili Oil, Pizza Sauce, and Pasta Sauce; and Spice Essentials which include Fire Flakes, 65 Spice Mix, and Pumpkin Spice. 

Moreover, Naagin is currently in the process of introducing newer products expanding into newer categories, and upgrading the element of taste. 

Created in order to reimagine Indian spices and to create an alternative, not the way it is but how it could be, Naagin Co-Founder said, “We wanted to explore food because we have never met anyone that said, ‘I don’t like improving my life and I don’t want better tasting food.’ By side-stepping traditional channels, by designing our hot sauces and other spice-based taste upgrades in-house, and by engaging with customers directly – we were able to provide uniquely flavored, higher-quality, better-tasting products designed for one's palate.”

Since the brand believes that improving food should be easy and fun, leaving one happy and satiated, with the thrill of continuously being able to try new combinations, it aims to improve its customers’ lifelong journey with food exploration with its offerings.

Retail and Marketing Strategy

Over the course of time, Naagin has closed 2 rounds of funding and has launched its products in 6 countries apart from India which includes - UAE, the US, the UK, Hong Kong, Australia, and Singapore. 

The brand thus focuses on two basic points when it comes to retail and marketing strategy:

1. Bringing New Flavor to The Indian Table: India is a condiment country, as Indians love to try and incorporate different kinds of condiments into their own meal. Discovering new flavors, and combining the same with the local dishes to explore and re-invent these dishes. Naagin’s strategy is to encourage ‘Innovation’.
2. Efficient Distribution of All Products: With its key objective to focus on its best-performing cities, ie. Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi NCR, Naagin’s customers come from across the board, from impulse purchasers like young couples, and millennials living away from home to larger family households spread across different modern trade stores, e-commerce platforms, and D2C.

“With a well-planned distribution and marketing strategy, we are aiming to capture our potential consumers by improving the visibility with a strong brand presence,” stated Rastogi.

The brand states, with D2C it was able to swim through the customer reviews which then act as the secret sauce in Naagin’s  R&D processes.

“D2C allows us the access to shortest customer feedback loops which helps us create the right taste upgrades, and to ensure we resonate with the market. It gives us the opportunity to innovate even more and create strong brand loyalty,” added Arjun.

Future Plans

The brand believes in being omnichannel, stating that it has to be present everywhere people are with its sole purpose being consistent and unparalleled service across all touchpoints. “With a focus on championing quality ingredients, the creation of new products for the omnichannel world has been a main focus in 2022 which resulted in the launch of 7 new products,” commented Rastogi.

Already available in India, UAE, US, UK, HK, Australia, and Singapore, the brand aims at closing strong new export opportunities in 2023. 

“We want to become a household name that is as ubiquitous as ketchup, so the next time you are looking for a little something extra to spice up the meal, one can reach out for a bottle of Naagin hot sauce to add some Indian flavor,” added Arjun Rastogi. 

Thus, Naagin aims to be the leading hot sauce provider in India, and innovator by creating an even stronger product-market fit and scale on marketplaces. It further aims to be a part of modern and general trade outlets to increase accessibility while aiming to enter new categories while increasing current manufacturing capabilities and going deeper with its online footprint.