Entrepreneurship isn’t easy, but when was the last time you heard of a brand that spent years bringing about a change in state laws so that they could introduce their product? If that wasn’t impressive enough, this brand also boasts of educating people, supporting local farmers and establishing their reach by selling honey and mead.
Presenting Moonshine Meadery and the Moonshine Project - millennial brands that created space for themselves in a populated yet uncharted Indian market that is expected to reach a valuation ofINR 30.6 billion by 2026.
Founded by Rohan Rehani and Nitin Vishwas, these brands not only brought back the world’s oldest alcohol (meads) but also raised awareness about pure honey.
And they appeared on Shark Tank India!
Curious about this amazing brand and its journey? We’ve got you covered.
We talked to the Moonshine team to learn how they started the Moonshine Honey Project, learned about their unique tours, and their experience on Shark Tank India. Read on to know more.
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A not-for-profit project
Based out of Pune, Moonshine Honey Project was started as a hive-to-table premium honey brand. This passion project was launched to educate people about what pure honey looked and tasted like.
But let’s start from the beginning. After all, we can’t talk about Moonshine Honey without mentioning Moonshine Meadery.
Moonshine started out by creating meads, an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey. While creating mead, Rohan and Nitin realised that commercial honey wouldn’t work as the main raw material for the mead. Mead requires good quality honey because adulterated honey doesn’t ferment.
The founders decided to learn about bee-keeping and set up their own bee boxes to source pure honey from the farmers directly. This resulted in Moonshine getting access to pure, high-quality honey straight from the source.
他们decided to test the waters by selling small batches of honey primarily to show people what real honey is, and they found that people really liked it.
Moonshine Honey Project was started in the 2020 lockdown and continues to encourage local farmers to gain supplementary income by becoming beekeepers. A win-win for all, including the ecosystem!
The brand also prides itself on incorporating sustainable practices while sourcing and producing its products.
If you’re looking to become a sustainable brand too, here are some resources to help you in your quest:
- Social Entrepreneurship: How to Become a Changemaker Through Business
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It was interesting to note that Moonshine offered two products that weren’t necessarily easy to sell. Both honey and mead had stereotypes attached that required the brand to first educate the audience and then think aboutconversions.
Their initial efforts were focused on convincing people that honey isn’t too sweet and mead isn’t beer. With major brands taking up most space in the honey market, it was tough to get noticed, let alone garner a loyal audience.
The brand believes that India doesn’t have a honey supply issue but has a honey demand issue. Most people are unaware that commercial honey is not real honey. Because they are unaware of how pure honey tastes, they assume that it’s not their cup of tea (or mead, should we say), and forgo buying honey altogether.
This made us wonder - how would a brand create awareness and sell its products in a market that lacks both awareness and demand? Well, Moonshine Honey Project did both and grew its online sales by 20x.
Reaching nationwide with Shopify
Moonshine wanted to sell its products across India and opted for Shopify right away. They had entrepreneur friends who already had Shopify stores and recommended trying the platform.
月光不想花很多resources in the beginning to set up a website, and they were able to achieve this objective with Shopify.
The Moonshine team has had a smooth sailing with Shopify because of multiple reasons:
- It was easy to set up their store and get it running
- Shopify’s platform is reliable and doesn’t crash even when they receive large volumes of traffic
- Payment and logistics are a breeze for them because of the integrations
But the part that they love the most about Shopify? It’sShopify analytics!
Shopify reports make it easy to track geographical insights. The geo-analytics allow Moonshine Honey Project to know where they get the most traffic or demand. This has helped the brand make the most of its store and scale its business effectively.
Though the Shopify store was initially set up to sell honey online, the brand thought, why stop there? They started selling tour tickets for their Meadery through Shopify as well.
建立自己的Shopify商店感兴趣?Here are some resources to get you started:
- The Essential Shopify Store Launch Checklist
- Introducing Online Store 2.0: Build a Scalable Website Faster With Shopify
- How to Find the Right Shopify Expert Agency to Set Up Your Online Store
Making the most of the Meadery (and Shopify)
Moonshine started hosting meadery visits by offering tour tickets offline. The guided tour had people visiting the first full-scale meadery in Asia - Moonshine Meadery.
The behind-the-scenes access allowed the brand's audience to learn about Moonshine’s brewing process. It also included honey and mead tasting sessions.
The brand had to rely on third-party tour companies to enlist and acquire the registrations for these tours. The tour frequency was less and they had to promote the tour heavily through social media.
But in 2021, they experimented with listing tours through their Shopify store. And guess what? They started acquiring the tour bookings with little to no promotions.
Now, they host weekly tours through just aregistration pageon their Shopify store that allows people to enter their information and book a tour.
The tour is a great branding activity and a direct revenue source. What’s more? It allows the brand to connect with its audience outside of a virtual space and build a loyal community.
Carving their own path
Rohan and Nitin launched Moonshine Meadery in 2018 though they started working on the idea in 2014. The delay was caused due to the lack of laws regarding manufacturing meads in India
However, Moonshine didn’t let this stop them. Rohan and Nitin worked with the exicse department and managed to get some clarity on the laws around mead
But their biggest challenge was marketing, as you cannot advertise alcohol brands on digital platforms. Moonshine’s success can mostly be credited to its unique approach to marketing.
Moonshine Honey Project relies on social media education and guerrilla marketing to reach its potential audience. The brand has tried everything - from pop-ups to masterclasses, corporate tie-ups and tasting sessions.You may come across their collaboration posts featuring brands likeNomad Food Project, Subko Coffee and Pack-a-Pav. The brand has also started the ‘Moonshine Spotlight’ project through which they promote indie artists performing at venues where their meads are served.
Want to know more about guerilla marketing and advertising on social media? Check out these guides, including tips and examples to inspire you:
- 5 Low-Cost Guerrilla Marketing Tactics to Grow Your Business Offline
- Driving Growth: 11 Best Marketing Strategies Any Small Business Can Execute
- The Beginner's Guide to Advertising on Instagram
- Sell on Instagram: Optimizing Your Ad Creatives for Maximum Conversions
- The Ultimate Guide to Shopping Ads on Google in 2021
All these marketing tactics were great, but Moonshine wanted something to help them gain widespread visibility and put the brand on the map. Enter - Shark Tank India.
The buzzworthy Shark Tank India appearance
Moonshine’s televised Shark Tank India appearance was the talk of the town - not only because the brand was pitching a rare alcoholic beverage but also because they were one of the few brands who rejected the Sharks’ offer.
Moonshine decided to audition for the series, seeing that it is a great opportinity for building awareness for a new category. The brand went through a rigorous audition process - starting with sharing a pitch deck and video to the shortlisting interview rounds.
Their goal was to gain visibility and get a marketing push for their meads, not necessarily gaining funding. And what better way to achieve this than to appear on national TV?
The brand wowed the Sharks with their meads but unfortunately left the show without investment as the Sharks’ counter-offer didn’t align with the brand’s valuation.
We asked the founders why they walked away from the investment offer. “We had hoped for negotiation in line with what we typically see from private equity investors'', they claimed.
But that didn’t mean that Moonshine didn’t benefit from their appearance. They garnered a lot of positive feedback and, of course, increased sales. The brand saw 2 lakh visitors on its site in a span of 2 hours after the episode was aired.
Like most entrepreneurs, Rohan and Nitin enjoyed interacting and learning from other founders. “What was particularly nice was to see that Vineetha, who has apparently been following our brand for a while, gave us a huge thumbs up on the direction of our branding.”
The founders also had no regrets and didn’t feel that rejecting the Sharks’ offer caused any repercussions. “We’ve actually received a lot of positive feedback for holding our ground and not lowering our company’s valuation just to accept the Sharks’ offer.”
Here are a few morebusiness lessons D2C brands can learn from Shark Tank India.
What’s next for Moonshine
Moonshine Meadery went into expansion mode in 2021 and is available through retail in states including Maharashtra, Goa, Bengaluru, Himachal and Uttar Pradesh. Given that each state has different laws and mechanisms for alcoholic products, the brand is growing the mead project slowly but surely.
As for Moonshine Honey Project, the brand is happy with Shopify’s conversions and isn’t looking to feature these products on any other platform.
他们’re also in talks withPrintroveto integrate their merchandise into their Shopify store. Having their merchandise on the same platform as their products (honey + tour tickets) would make it easy for their audience to find everything 'Moonshine' with less navigation.
When asked about their next moves, the brand claimed that they’re working on one task at a time. One thing is for sure - Moonshine will continue to thrive and build its community with its unique launches while contributing to the environment, one jar/bottle at a time.
And Shopify will continue to support the brand with new features and solutions.
Like millions of other businesses, Moonshine found a reliable ecommerce partner with Shopify. Whether you wish to reach a nationwide audience or provide online shopping ease with versatile integrations, Shopify has it all.
Set up your online store and start selling with Shopify’sfree trial!