Gaurav Sharda is a director at Sharda Group. The company launched its first alcohol brand—Xing—in 2015 and roped in Sunny Leone as one of the first international brand ambassadors for any Nepali brand. In this interview withthe Post’s Alisha Sijapati, Sharda talks about why brand ambassadors are essential. Excerpts:

What is the importance of having a brand ambassador?

It is critical to have brand ambassadors in a new brand. There are certain attributes a brand ambassador carries, which then becomes an identity for the brand. Many people confuse Xing to be a Chinese brand, but it is a Nepali brand completely made in Nepal. The Xing brand got launched in 2015 with an idea to target the youth—from the bottle shape to the packaging, everything had to be exciting. That is how we came up with the name: X for ‘excite’ and ING for ‘ing’. This vodka is an out-and-out Nepali brand.

Why did you choose Sunny Leone as a brand ambassador for Xing?

When the first package of Xing got in our hands, the first word that came out from our mouths was ‘sexy’. When all of us were brainstorming for the brand ambassador, everyone unanimously went for Sunny Leone. We were skeptical if she would accept the offer and if we could afford her. Fortunately for us, Sunny loves Nepal and she was more than happy to be a part of a Nepali brand. She even offered to do the photoshoot in Nepal itself, but it never materialised due to her busy schedule.

Why an international figure as a brand ambassador for a Nepali product?

Our company, Sharda Group, has had MaHa Jodi and several other popular Nepali celebrities as our brand ambassadors. Xing, as a new brand, needed someone who was larger than our brand to kick off. Sunny Leone is a set example of a sexy persona and fits the bill perfectly. Our brand’s tagline is also #getsexy and there was no one better than Sunny to be our ambassador.

What kind of reviews are you getting?

A year into the launch of Xing and there are still a lot of people who do not believe that it is a Nepali brand. They think it’s a Chinese brand with an international brand ambassador. Many have even accused us of faking Sunny’s pictures, but these are all baseless. Nonetheless, the brand is slowly getting popular in the country and being liked by the targeted group.