The Pahadi Story: naming, packaging design and D2C brand building for a Himalayan wellness brand

The Pahadi Story · 

We did not win this brand. We started it.

(Scroll)

The one brand in this portfolio with no client on the other side of the table.

TypeBrand creation & custodianship
MomentIgnite
CategoryConsumer wellness, D2C
ScopeName to repeat purchase
RunningSince 2020

The Pahadi Story is a Himalayan wellness brand built on provenance. Chai, herbal infusions and honey, sourced from the hills and told in the voice of the people who live there. It has been trading since 2020, direct to consumer, across marketplaces and into corporate gifting.

It is also ours. BBT's founder started it, which meant nobody to blame for a thin brief and nowhere to hide when a product did not move. Every decision here was settled by a P&L rather than a presentation.

Disciplines
  • Naming
  • Identity system
  • Packaging system
  • Bespoke typeface
  • Illustration
  • Range architecture
  • D2C website
  • Marketplace content
  • Retention
  • Gifting
The idea
The hills, in the voice of the women who live there  · 
Four years, four completely different jobs

What owning the risk taught us.

01

Start where the habit already is

Nobody adopts a new ritual to try a new brand. Chai was already in the house, twice a day. The job was to be the version worth reaching for, not to invent an occasion.

02

Make the pack do the selling

No advertising, no distribution, no recall. On a contested shelf the pack is not a wrapper for the argument. It is the argument, and it has about three seconds to make it.

03

Build a range, not a hit

One product that sells is a result. A range that holds together is a business. The system had to let new products join without being redrawn each time.

04

Replace claims with evidence

Wellness is a category of adjectives. We took the opposite route: name the valley, name the producer, show the test. Proof travels further than a promise.

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Client testimonial
From name to packaging, from website to gifting, BBT has been our brand custodian. They have not just built The Pahadi Story, they have lived it with us.
Shweta ShahCo-Founder · The Pahadi Story
Read the full testimonial →
(08) What changed

What four years of owning the risk produced.

Two million cupsThe masala chai went from a market stall that sold out on day one to the brand's fastest moving product.
India's Best Design ProjectRecognised in 2022, in a category where most packaging still competes on discount rather than craft.
A customer base that answersTwo thousand unique customers and more than five hundred written reviews, which is the feedback loop a young brand needs most.

Build note · Figures date from 2022 to 2023 and must be refreshed before publishing. Current cups sold, active customers, review count, repeat purchase rate, exact award title and awarding body

More transformations.

See all 31 →
SustainThe Pahadi Story Honey, Himalayan honeydew launch by BigBrandTheory
The Pahadi Story Honey · Consumer wellness

Proof, before the first spoon.

AccelerateSFC Environmental Technologies brand transformation by BigBrandTheory
SFC Environmental · Environmental technology

Twenty years of quiet engineering, given a voice.

We tested this thinking with our own money first. Ask us what it cost.

Start a conversation →See the engagement model