A Couple Of Things– Timeless Trust Built Through Turmeric and Bricks

From Vicco’s ayurvedic legacy to LEGO’s cultural reinvention, two brands show how to cultivate and nurture trust across generations.

‘A Couple Of Things’ is a short write-up of literally a couple of things that catch my attention and get me into a reflective mode. It could be a well-written essay, deep research into something outside the routine, a music discovery, a podcast finds, a page-turner, or for that matter any evolving thought formats that show up on my digital scroll.

For this piece, I dive into building brands and cultivating trust.

Legacy and customer behaviour have different evolution curves, and they differ by industries and product categories. The former is wrapped in perception and emotion, and the latter drifts with the rolling tide. Both together build generational trust. I’m reflecting on two iconic brands, from completely different and unrelated industries - Vicco Laboratories from Nagpur and Mumbai, India, and the LEGO Group from Billund, Denmark. I’m not looking to pen a summary to their Wikipedia pages but rather reflect on how both the organizations have evolved by keeping the customer at the centre of their vision and growth plans alongside holding on to their core ethos. Read on!

Natural Ingredients, a Yellow Cream and a Timeless Jingle

A few months ago, I chanced upon this LinkedIn post by Sanjeev Pendharkar, CEO, Vicco Laboratories, and it stopped my scroll. The Vishnu Industrial Chemicals Company, Vicco, was set up in 1952 by Mr. Keshav V. Pendharkar. For the past 7+ decades of its existence, the company has grown, not only across the length and breadth of India, but also continues to rest on shelves in 40+ countries. In the LinkedIn post, Sanjeev, citing Vicco’s example, touches upon how one should think about levers of growth and relevance, which are unique to every organization, instead of modernizing for the sake of doing it to fit in with an ongoing trend. I find Sanjeev’s lines to be a good note to self: 'Adapt when it’s wise. Innovate when it’s actually needed. But above all — protect the one truth your brand will never abandon. Because if you keep changing just to be seen, you’ll eventually forget what you truly stand for.’

Vicco has thrived with its core product built with natural ingredients—taking the benefits of ayurveda to the world, and promoting a holistic and healthy living. It began its operations by launching a tooth powder made from 18 natural ingredients in the 1950s, followed by a yellow turmeric skin scream. Starting with oral care and skin care products in the 1950s, Vicco has branched out into many categories like body care, hair care and personal care over time. And along the way, it gave us something simple, something nostalgic, something that said it all—the famous jingle and ad Vicco Turmeric Nahi Cosmetic. It had everything, from making the product front and centre, saying what it contains, and delivering the promise of what it can do. The levers of virality today are at the mercy of the algorithms, but the rules of recall are still tied to the human brain, and how humans retain information. This other post by Sanjeev jabs another axiom for life—‘Virality is loud. But real success? It’s often silent’.

Racing the LEGO Bricks

Did you ever imagine Formula One race car drivers driving a car made out of 400,000 LEGO Bricks and weighing 1,000kg on a real racetrack? Well, why imagine, when one can see it for real! My scroll wheels screeched to a stop on the sight of this video of Formula One drivers parading the track in LEGO-built cars at the Miami Grand Prix race weekend in May, 2025. These cars are going to be taken to different racetracks through the rest of the 2025 season, lighting up the possibilities when creativity meets innovation. From a simple work shed in Billund, Denmark in 1932 to big retail outlets, educational institutions, households, theme parks, big movie screens, and now to racetracks across the world; The LEGO Group has built itself into a cultural phenomenon over the past 9 decades of its existence. What started off as a playtime apparatus, has evolved into an inclusive teaching aid, a piece of entertainment and experience, a team building activity, and an agent of family bonding time. I had never heard of LEGO till as recently as a few years ago, when we had a team activity to build something using LEGO Bricks. Possibly because LEGO wasn’t available in India till 2014, or it was too expensive, or in my head I had outgrown the age to play with bricks and puzzles. Little did I know that LEGO has offerings specifically targeting adults as a customer category.

Keeping durability and quality at the core with every new innovation, the LEGO Group continues to transform with changing consumer preference for recreation and outdoor experiences, thereby evolving the perception of ‘toys’ as a category itself. This is reflective in the LEGOLAND theme parks, The LEGO Movie and the LEGO sets inspired by Harry Potter, Star Wars, and themes of space exploration in collaboration with NASA. Especially in today’s times where toys as a category is vying for consumer mindshare alongside social media and OTT content, LEGO’s pivots in the cultural zeitgeist continues to be integral and critical to their relevance as an organization.

P.S.
It’s not just me who found the irony in the fact that Vicco Laboratories has ‘chemicals’ in the name of the organization, but not in their products. The Indian Excise department found it amusing as well. You can read more about the fascinating saga that ran on for 4 decades, and one of the reasons behind the ‘Vicco Turmeric Nahi Cosmetic’ jingle, here.

Listen In

‘Never Tear Us Apart’ by INXS, part of their 1987 album, Kick. A powerful ballad with a dreamy and ambient keyboard work to start with, lifted by Michael Hutchence’s vocals, and a climatic close with Kirk Pengilly’s work on the saxophone.

I’m forever on the lookout for tunes old and new, You can check out my expanding Trove Of Tunes that I’m curating in a Spotify playlist.

Cheers,

Shri