Brand Godrej Locks History in Amar Chitra Katha For Youth Outreach

The eminent Godrej family has chosen to build and increase brand recall with the youth segment by sharing their history through Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) – the publishing king of comics and graphic novels, which has inspired millions of children to get familiar with Indian history and mythology through crispy, well-illustrated comics.

73-year-old Jamshyd N Godrej, Chairman and MD of Godrej & Boyce, shares that the challenge was to reach a younger audience and children who might have had very little association with the Godrej brand. “We were looking at how we could reach children and young adults so that we could share the Godrej story, because they have not been associated so much with the brand… A comic book, where you can use narrative writing and tell a story with illustrations, was a great way to go. We thought it is a very effective way to reach a new generation,” said Godrej.

ACK has earlier published comic books of other industrial luminaries like Jamsetji Tata, JRD Tata and Ghanshyam Das Birla. In the case of the Godrej family, the comic book is all about its founders – brothers Ardeshir and Pirojsha, who were instrumental in establishing the Godrej empire. It traces the Godrej history through the family’s migration from Bharuch in Gujarat to the bustling city of Mumbai.

t shares how a small news item in the Bombay Gazette about a gang of burglars breaking locks in the city led Ardeshir Godrej to enter the business of making sturdy locks. With financial help from his benefactor and family friend, Merwanji Cama — whose nephew, Boyce, after whom the company’s name was changed to Godrej & Boyce, joined Ardeshir but did not work long — and a loan of Rs 80,000, he rented out a shed in Lalbaug, hired a dozen workers from Gujarat and Malabar, bought a small steam engine and started producing locks in 1897.

ACK is initially starting with a small print run of 500 copies but expects bigger numbers to come from its digital version.