MAM
Nikon School helps sales, stickiness
BENGALURU: Camera and camera accessories major Nikon Corporation Tokyo is one of the major players in the world. Nikon School, an initiative by its 100 per cent Indian subsidiary, Nikon India, helps take better photographs with D-SLR or Nikon 1 camera, whatever be the level of experience of the shutterbug.
Nikon School conducts basic and advanced D-SLR workshops and photo-walks in different cities, which have proved to be big hits with camera owners and photography enthusiasts. Generally within a day or two of an online announcement from Nikon India about an event, all the seats are booked. Usually the size of each workshop is limited to about 25 participants and two teachers.
Not only does the company impart knowledge and help improve skill sets, the teachers also carry with them a variety of accessories, spare cameras and lenses which they lend to the participants to try out free of cost, to touch feel and experience a product.
On the same day, last month, Nikon School organised photo-walks at Garden of Five Senses in Delhi, Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Borivali E in Mumbai, The Alipore Zoo in Kolkata and at Nandi Hills in Bangalore. The event welcomed photography enthusiasts from all walks of life irrespective of their professional excellence in photography. These were not just workshops for mere transfer of information but a broader platform to exchange the ideas, gauge the customer insight and carve out an offering in line with the expectation from the brand.
‘Many of the participants of our workshops are first time camera owners who have probably bought a basic D-SLR with a basic VR Lens kit, who are unsure about the kind of photography they want to pursue. Once they attend our events, they find their niche, and then based on our suggestions buy the kind of lenses and accessories that suit their tastes,’ revealed one of the teachers to indiantelevision.com during the photo-walk at Nandi Hills near the Garden City of Bengaluru.
Quite a number of the shutterbugs attend more than one workshop, and consult Nikon teachers for camera upgrades, for better accessories, information about procurement sources, etc.
‘I have attended five workshops by Nikon Bangalore, and this is my second photo-walk,’ revealed an amateur photographer.’Each time I learn something new, there is a lot of fine-tuning of my skills. Photography is a hobby, I don’t earn anything from it, but I want to be good at whatever I do,’ she added.
‘I have seen friends’ waste money buying accessories, lenses and cameras that they don’t really need. These people at Nikon School have been advising me about what I need, and I have found their guidance very useful,’ said another Nandi Hills photo-walk participant.
‘We don’t suggest any particular store or shop from which to buy Nikon cameras and accessories from, we just guide them to our website and ask them to buy whatever they want from the stores of their choice,’ further revealed the teacher. ‘Very often, we find that people have followed our advice and purchased the product that we have suggested,’ he added. Nikon School is planning to gradually expand into many cities and towns in the country.
In a highly competitive business that is growing with the growth of the young Indian middle class, BTL activities such as Nikon’s workshops and photo-walks have been ensuring a small steady stream of sales and stickiness of consumers, which have seen a small, but steadily increasing number of female photographers.
Brands
Dabur buys minority stake in Ras Beauty for Rs 60 crore
Dabur Ventures deal backs fast-growing luxury skincare brand
MUMBAI: Dabur India Limited has dipped into the world of luxury skincare, signing a definitive agreement to acquire a minority stake in Ras Beauty Private Limited for Rs 60 crore. The investment marks the first bet from Dabur Ventures, the FMCG major’s Rs 500 crore platform set up in October 2025 to back high-potential, new-age direct-to-consumer brands.
Founded in Raipur by Shubhika Jain, her sister Suramya Jain and their mother Sangeeta Jain, Ras Beauty has grown from a family-led passion project into a fast-scaling “Farm-to-Face” skincare label. Its range of face elixirs, serums and moisturisers blends essential oils with nature-derived actives, striking a balance between botanical purity and laboratory precision.
The numbers tell their own story. Ras has clocked a three-year Cagr of around 75 per cent and an annual run rate of approximately Rs 100 crore, all while maintaining strong gross margins. That growth has been fuelled by a digital-first approach, in-house R&D and manufacturing, and a sharp focus on clean, sustainable sourcing.
Dabur India executive director and group head corporate strategy Abhinav Dhall, said the company was drawn to Ras’s distinct positioning at the intersection of nature, science and luxury. He added that the premium beauty segment is poised for robust expansion over the coming decade, and that Ras is well placed to capture that opportunity.
For Ras, the partnership is as much about scale as it is about shared philosophy. Co-founder and CEO Shubhika Jain said Dabur’s 141-year legacy of building trusted, purpose-led brands makes it a natural ally. The capital infusion, she noted, will help accelerate the brand’s omnichannel footprint, deepen research capabilities and invest in team and brand building, with an eye on establishing Ras as a leading Indian luxury skincare name both domestically and overseas.
With this move, Dabur is not just investing in a skincare label. It is placing an early wager on India’s growing appetite for premium, conscious beauty, and signalling that heritage FMCG players are ready to play in the new-age D2C arena.
