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D2C Marketing

Demystifying User Growth for your D2C Website

Shalin Bhatt is the ex-Head of Growth at Zomato. He was a key player in scaling Zomato to being a profitable marketplace and now he is helping other founders to reach their goals faster.

When people think of business growth, they typically think of some of the many initiatives that they are taking and against those initiatives they are planning to scale their business. 

But what they often fail to realize is that growth has two aspects, one is of course the initiatives they are taking and the other is the business leakage that they are incurring today, which they are or are not aware of, or unable to fix. This leakage can be one of the factors holding them back to scale faster and farther. 

As you scale your business, identifying specific patterns that are leading to business decline or growth becomes a very powerful muscle.

As a Founder, if you want to have a clear understanding of your revenue model, you will have to understand every aspect of your business. As D2C brands, the first lever for growth that we think of is Marketing. But you know that you need to be involved equally in other aspects as well, like, product, logistics, customer service, etc.

Being a D2C Founder, it becomes super important for you to decode the “D2C Dictionary” to break down growth problems and speak the language so as to prevent leakage. Listed below are some of the important terms from the dictionary for every founder:

  1. Revenue = Orders * AOV: When your revenue falls, instead of quickly going to breaking down the different aspects of the order part, start thinking around the AOV. 

Try figuring out “is it because my low SKU products are selling more?” or “is my revenue model working all right?”, etc.

If it is not an AOV problem, then move to if or why you are getting fewer orders, if the coupons codes you are providing working properly, etc. 

  1. Orders = Users * Frequency: Understanding the bridge between two branches, namely, no.of users and the repeated purchases they have made is a key factor to getting a proper understanding of the orders.

Which of the branches are breaking and causing a dip in the numbers and how you can fix it, what are the other factors that are leading to the loss of frequency or acquiring new users, are some important questions to find answers to. 

For eg, top of funnel marketing can lead to a drop in users or new users. If you offer poor customer experience, delayed orders, etc, that may lead present customers to order less and less from you in the future, resulting in a decline of frequency. 

  1. Users = New + Retained: If you are noticing a drop in the number of customers, that might be an issue of the last month and not the present one. Figure out which section of the users are leading to the drop in your sales. 

    Is it the retained customers or new users?             

     When you can figure out the source, it becomes easier to set up a plan to rectify the issue. 

  1. Retained Users = Lifetime base * Retention: As a business, your rate of repeat customers should always increase. So, if your repeat users are the same for consecutively 2 months, that is an issue that you should look into first. 
  1. Orders = Traffic * Conversion: If 2500 people are visiting your website and 20% of them made it to the end and made a purchase, then 20% is your conversion rate. This is extremely helpful as it will help you figure out if the low conversion rate is a marketing issue or a product issue. 
  1. Traffic = Organic + Paid: Demystifying which part of the traffic, organic or paid, is getting you more customers would help you plan your next marketing strategy better. 
  1. Paid Traffic = Eyeballs * CTR: Paid traffic depends mainly on your ad budget and how many impressions can you buy with it. The no. of eyeballs you receive may be more or less the same but it is the CTR that will show how many people are actually making it to the website. 
  1. Eyeballs = Budget * CPM: Cost Per Impression basically depends on the channel you are advertising on. If it is Youtube, CPM would be higher and if it is a simple banner ad, it would be much lower. The budget is totally in your control. You can opt for getting half the no.of eyeballs with a particular budget and vice versa.
  1. CAC Payback = GM% * AOV: How to know that the CAC you are getting is good or bad? This can be understood basis the quality of your transactions which is a function of the no. of average orders and GM%. If you want a profitable cohort, say of 100 customers, you need to have at least 200 orders to leverage that. 

Growth FARM: 

In conclusion, whenever you are looking at your business, keep in mind these 4 tabs:

F- Frequency

A – Acquisition

R – Retention

M – Monetary Value

We were thrilled to have Mr. Shalin Bhatt, Ex-Growth Head at Zomato who shared such amazing pointers, walked the cohort through his journey at Zomato and helped them crack and understand their growth models.

Interested in being a part of these sessions?

Join our next cohort: 

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D2C Marketing

The organic way to grow your D2C brand.

You must have heard of Bewakoof.com , right?

Launched by IITians Prabhkiran Singh and Siddharth Munot, Bewakoof’s quirky, funny, out-of-the-box Tshirt, phone covers etc.  with messaging inspired by regional Indian language references saw it establishing an instant connect with the young India.

If anything, its organic following of 5.7 million fans across Facebook and Instagram that it enjoys today is a direct indication of the popularity that the brand enjoys with its target audience.

Bewakoof is aiming to increase its total subscribers, which is currently reported to be 150,000, to 1 million in the next 2 years. Furthermore, it is also looking to achieve sales worth Rs 2,000 crores in the next 4 years.

What is the secret to this growth?!

Their website attracts a huge traffic -around 2.5 million a month- and  around 37 percent  of that comes from direct traffic of the brand and the rest( the majority)  is organic !

What do we mean by this organic traffic?

 It is basically the  number of visitors coming from search engine results (as opposed to a paid source of traffic).

What does this coveted  organic traffic mean for your brand? I mean why bother about it?

If anyone tries to tell you building organic traffic is easy, don’t listen to them. With that being said, it’s also the greatest investment of time and effort you can make.

Basketball Wives Growth GIF by VH1

In the days of Facebook promoted posts and Google AdWords, the instant gratification of shelling out a few bucks for immediate traffic is highly appealing. But it’s not sustainable. You’ll get traffic now, but what happens when you stop paying? Will your content ever be found again?

Organic traffic means the content you put on your website today will drive traffic tomorrow, next month, next year, and probably even several years from now. That’s why it’s worth the effort.

The most obvious benefit of organic search traffic is a cost advantage. Pay-per-click ads are guaranteed to put your company’s links in front of potential site visitors. But over time, the amount of cash you’ll spend on click-throughs can add up. Once you have implemented sound SEO principles, the cost-per-click for organic search traffic is zero, giving your company an edge over competitors who are trapped in a pay-per-click universe.

Organic traffic is also important because it is targeted. Users visiting your website from a search engine’s organic results have a very specific intent and if you can provide them with a solution or answer to their question, they are more likely to convert.

But how do we make organic traffic work for your brand?

Here are a few things to keep in mind-

  1. Build Epic Cornerstone Content
Grow Black Lives Matter GIF by Shalita Grant

When we say quality content, we aren’t talking hastily-written, 100-word blog posts, either. Instead, we’re talking go-to, epic content that stands head and shoulders above your competition.

  1. Scope Out the Competition

Epic content is epic for a reason: it’s the best of the best of the best! But you won’t be able to create the go-to resource for your topic if you aren’t able to answer the following questions:

  • What resources already exist?
  • What do they cover?
  • And most importantly, can you create something better?

The easiest way to answer these questions is to scope out the competition. 

social media followers GIF by The Orchard Films
  1. Use the power of social media-

If you’re relying solely on search engine optimization (SEO) tactics to help you boost organic traffic, you’re missing out on other valuable methods that will help you drive more traffic. Social media marketing provides another great opportunity to drive users to your site by linking to blog posts or article pages.

Bewakoof and many other D2C brands are using the power of organic traffic to scale .

Improving your organic traffic to acquire customers doesn’t have to be A Challenge.

There is of course much more to decode when it comes to organic traffic growth and D2C marketing.

Which is why we have gotten top experts from leading D2C brands – mamaearth,wakefit,man matters and so on – to help you scale at your org!

Apply to be on the waitlist for our next D2C marketing cohort and leverage their insights for boosting your career! 

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D2C Marketing

Perfecting Branding at your D2C Company.

When we meet someone in real life, we ask for their name and ask questions to get to know them better. We listen to their anecdotes, ideas, opinions, and beliefs. We try to unearth their story, and to tell our own.The end goal is to connect. 

In D2C marketing and business, the rules don’t really change. Telling your story is a critical part of building your brand. It helps to shape how people view you and enables consumers to begin forging a connection with you and your company. Do it right, and you’ll put building blocks in place that allow you to develop a thriving brand with an equally thriving future, one that people buy from simply because they love what you do, what you stand for, and the stories you share.

Starting with the basics-

A great brand name is not just something that looks cool on your business card or is fun to say. And it isn’t great because you like it. It’s great because it communicates something to customers.

As branding pro Marty Neuemier says in The Brand Gap, “The need for good brand names originates with customers, and customers will always want convenient ways of identifying, remembering, discussing, and comparing brands. The right name can be a brand’s most valuable asset, driving differentiation and speeding acceptance.”

But choosing the right brand name can be exhausting, infuriating, and thrilling. The D2C Giant Warby Parker’s Cofounder Neil Blumenthal says it took his team six months and 2,000+ options to find the perfect name.

Fist Pump Success GIF

To set your brand up for long-term success, you need the right brand name. 

Follow our simple guide to find yours quickly and easily.While there is no magic formula, there are common traits that make a brand name easier for you to use and easier for other people to remember. 

Here are a few pointers to keep in mind according to experts who have been there, done that –

  1. It should be easy to pronounce,identify and memorize
  • Like Snackible- it’s crisp and catchy !
  1. It should give an idea about the product’s benefits and qualities.
  1. Ensure domain name for the same is available.
  1. It should suggest product/service category.

Nike. Coca Cola. Levis. Disney. AirBnB.

These brand names alone conjure vivid images of who they are and what they stand for—and these brands all have incredibly passionate audiences to boot.

That’s in part because each of these companies has a genuine brand story. A brand story conveys the history, purpose, and values of a business in a narrative that resonates with consumers and makes audiences feel emotionally connected.

John Stamos Wtf GIF by Lifetime

So,naming your brand is just the tip of the iceberg .

Lets stick to the D2C Giant- Warby Parker

The Warby Parker catalog may only include two main categories – eyeglasses and sunglasses – but they’ve become an ecommerce success in the nine years since they debuted because of the stories they tell.

Their self-proclaimed lofty objective? “To offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially-conscious businesses.” That’s practically a story unto itself. And they share plenty of other stories that lay bare exactly how they’re doing it.

Mother Earth World GIF by eyedesyn

Their “How Warby Parker glasses are made” page offers a behind-the-scenes peek at a pair of glasses from design through manufacturing, including background on supplies and suppliers.

The main material? Plant-based cellulose acetate.

The personal touch? Every pair is assembled and polished by hand.

A socially-conscious business? For every pair of Warby Parker glasses sold, they give a pair to someone in need via charitable partners around the globe. To date, they’ve given away more than 5 million pairs.

That’s a story we can all feel good about supporting.

It’s no secret that consumers are looking online for many of their shopping needs. With the click of a mouse, anyone can have a car delivered straight to their home, groceries stocked in their refrigerator shelves, and more. Direct-to-consumer brands are continuing to innovate and evolve to attract and retain loyal customers. Despite the latest trends, one thing remains true: brand storytelling is a constant part of the D2C marketing evolution.

Marketers are aware of the power of branding and storytelling; however, they’re still grasping at straws when it comes to it. 

That’s why at Xpert we have got India’s top growth experts from leading companies to help you learn and decode growth strategies for your D2C brand!

Apply to be on the waitlist for our next D2C Marketing Bootcamp and get to learn from leading experts from successful D2C brands like MyGlamm,WakeFit and so on!

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D2C Marketing

THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP FOR STARTING YOUR D2C JOURNEY!

WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP FOR STARTING YOUR D2C JOURNEY?

FINDING THE RIGHT PRODUCT AND NICHE!

Episode 1 Mind Blown GIF by The Office

This is the very first and, quite obviously, the most important step when starting out on your D2C journey.

No matter how long you’ve been an entrepreneur, launching a business has never been more difficult. Here’s a quick look at the 2020 online landscape:

  • Competition is fierce,
  • Product markets are saturated, and
  • Consumers are demanding convenience more than ever before.

That is where the D2C business model comes to the rescue and helps make the most of this.

 But before you begin to brainstorm the design and experience of your D2C brand, or even your company’s name, you’ll need to choose what products to sell and create your own niche!

This is definitely not the hardest thing to check off on your to-do list compared to the others. One of the bigger lessons the Internet has taught us is that a ‘niche’ is a lot bigger than anyone ever thought.

Heard of the Bombay Shaving Company ?

Selling a shaving kit to men for Rs.3000 was unheard of until the Bombay Shaving Company, a D2C startup, disrupted the market.

They definitely got the finding your niche bit right. The company specializes in men’s grooming, personal care, shaving, beard grooming, skincare, and handmade soaps and mainly cater to men. This D2C startup took a seemingly everyday product and a mundane ritual like shaving and transformed it into a niche that is unique!

But it’s okay if you don’t hit the product jackpot right away. The beauty of D2C is that you can go wrong a few times and experiment till you finally land on your product, target audience, marketing strategy and so on !

And the beauty of the Internet is there’s a niche market for everything, and if you can focus on it, you can build a sustainable and viable business of it.

So how can we approach this crucial decision that every entrepreneur has to make?

  1. Identify or create a product that solves a very specific problem. 

Wakefit is a great example. This D2C startup offers premium mattresses at affordable prices to solve all your sleep issues.

When the founder ,Ankit Garg, experienced the journey of buying a mattress through the traditional business model, he realized that there was no innovation in the product that was being sold; it was highly overpriced and the sales representatives of retail stores had no knowledge of the science of sleep. This sparked the drive to change the way Indians accessed sleep products in the country.

The Daily Show Lol GIF by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

And now they are on track to clock a revenue of Rs 410 crore in FY21!

  1. Fall back on what you are passionate about or have enough knowledge about.

Tip- You can even look at the products you have bought as a consumer in the last 6 months.

This is what happened for Mamaearth, yet another huge D2C success story.When Ghazal Alagh and Varun Alagh, the founders, were expecting their baby, they wanted to ensure that they could do everything to keep their baby safe. Like any other caring parent, the two browsed the internet, searching for do’s and don’ts for the little one and also what products they can buy to pamper their bundle of joy.

But they were shocked to see the results. Not a single product was available in the market that matched the safety standards – driving the duo to create a brand by a parent for a parent: Mamaearth.

  1. Hop on trends, viral product categories and figure out a differentiator in your idea. 

Like mCaffeine- India’s first hair and skin care brand with caffeine-infused products.The founder says that the reason they chose personal care was that there weren’t many new age brands for younger consumers today. And now they are eyeing Rs. 700 Cr in revenue in FY2024!

MCaffeine opts for simplest and basic influencer marketing strategy to  promote new product range

Also think about why should a consumer purchase your product over your competitors ?

Here are a few pointers to keep in mind –

1.Finding a product that solves a problem is not the only hurdle to cross , you also have to make it either exciting or affordable.

2. Add a feature to it that your competitors lack.

3. You can simplify choice –  lower selection may seem counterintuitive but for the initial launch narrow down on the 1-5 key product offerings  & focus on launching that.
It will help you save on manufacturing costs as well as optimize marketing and get focused about your USP to consumers !

Found this interesting?

Then apply to be on the waitlist for our next D2C Marketing Bootcamp and get to learn from leading growth experts at successful D2C brands like MamaEarth, MyGlamm,WakeFit and so on!

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D2C Marketing

Man Matters – India’s first Digital Health Clinic for Men

Man Matters – India’s first Digital Health Clinic for Men

Who do you go to, to talk about your wellness problems? 

Who does a man go to when he starts losing hair?

Losing sleep? Losing confidence?

dog day afternoon sigh GIF

When the men behind Man Matters asked themselves these questions, they found no answer.

And neither did millions of other men. 

This seemed quite unacceptable. Men rarely speak about their health and learn to live with their issues instead of dealing with them. It’s not that they don’t care. But talking about personal health, wellness can be difficult and often embarrassing for many still. And the people at ManMatters get that!

This epiphany led to the creation of a Mumbai based wellness platform for men that has been changing the way men approach health and their own holistic wellness!

& then Man Matters Was Created…

Man Matters - Home | Facebook

The founders took ‘matters’ into their own hands; and created a place for all matters of man. Hair, skin, weight, sleep, sex and much more. A wellness platform focused on men. If it matters to man or it’s matters of man, it matters to this up and coming D2C brand. 

So what is this wellness platform all about ?!

A DOCTOR LED TELEHEALTH PLATFORM FOR MEN?

Now,that’s something India has never heard of!

They boast of a premium set of products for each and every problem  under the sun which a man can face ,which are all certified under their respective industries.

But…

The team realized that to make the science behind wellness more accessible to all, they had to have the experts to guide them on this journey. And a genius move was that they joined hands with a set of medical experts and doctors who were passionate about changing male health habits and cared deeply about their craft.

This is the most unique feature that man matters offers – they have expert doctors on board to guide and fix your problems

These doctors provide free consultations to ensure that the products that your purchase off man matters are right for you .

Hair Matters by Man Matters - Home | Facebook

What’s more, the brand also follows up with you over time to check in on your progress monthly and doctors continue to give advice and guide you on what’s the best way to achieve and keep improving on your wellness goals!

Quality has turned into an obsession for this brand.While there are companies that may have the same ingredients, the quality of ingredients can be vastly different. Man Matters sources their ingredients from the regions where they are known to be highly efficacious, which in turn results in the products giving you better results.

The team behind Man Matters consists of consumers of personal care and supplements themselves, and hence they are super particular about the safety and quality of the products they consume and produce. 

With regimen focussed products , Man Matters also believes that solving problems like hair loss or quality of sleep is often not a one product solution but a holistic one. Thus they provide regimens to follow which ensure that the body and mind are getting targeted as a whole.

Right from the premium ,regimen based products delivered to your doorstep to specialised doctors available for problems which men might have otherwise felt uncomfortable to discuss, this startup has mastered the art of customer retention to the T !

MAN MATTERS Products Have Got You Covered With All Men Issues - dealivana  blog

So it makes sense why we have Marmik Mankodi, AVP Marketing @ Man Matters as a part of our D2C marketing Bootcamp!

Apply to be on the waitlist for our next cohort and learn to identify key growth levers, driving repeats & cross-ordering, Identifying payback periods & customer lifetime value…

Also explore building a purchase experience optimized for discovery & trust building for your D2C brand.Leverage insights and experience of industry experts from top companies and understand  how you too can scale delivery, manage returns & logistics successfully to drive customer delight.

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D2C Marketing

How Wakefit earned Rs. 410 crores in 2021.

Well…by helping customers get a good night’s sleep!

A famous British writer once said,“When the going gets tough, the tough take a nap.”

Tired Nap GIF by Wiz Khalifa

And with an aim to provide the best naps and revolutionize the quality of sleep among Indians, while clocking a revenue of Rs 410 crore in FY21, a 2X growth from FY20, is the D2C startup Wakefit.

How did this Bengaluru-based sleep and home solutions startup manage to achieve this in India?

Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to grasp that sound sleep can do wonders for one’s body and mind. It can help you improve immunity, increase concentration, stay in shape, and look younger. Fascinating, isn’t it?

However, not all are lucky enough to fall asleep in a jiffy. A worldwide survey for ranking sleep patterns revealed that Indians fell under the most sleep- deprived segment. Wakefit was established to tackle this very issue and eliminate the menace of sleep deprivation once and for all.

Tough days should end in a comfortable bed. That’s what they aim to provide.

Wakefit is a Bengaluru-based startup which operates with an overall objective of bringing sleep into Indians’ consciousness and helps them take steps to improve their sleep health through effective products.

Founded in 2016 by Chaitanya Ramalingegowda and Ankit Garg, this direct-to-consumer startup started by offering premium mattresses at affordable prices. Eventually, it launched sleep accessories like back pillows, neck support pillows, comforters, etc. 

The Wakefit team believes that quality sleep is a basic need and not a luxury; this mantra motivates the team to focus on innovation in product development, efficiency in processes and cost optimization, and excellence in customer experience. This makes Wakefit’s superior quality products 40%-50% cheaper than those sold by established brands.

The motivation to start-up was born out of Ankit Garg’s personal experience of buying a mattress. He comes from a strong ‘foaming’ background, having worked with a German multinational in the space. 

When he experienced the journey of buying a mattress through the traditional business model, he realized that there was no innovation in the product that was being sold; it was highly overpriced and the sales representatives of retail stores had no knowledge of the science of sleep. This sparked the drive to change the way Indians accessed sleep products in the country.

Wakefit Orthopedic Memory Foam 8-inch Queen Size Mattress (78x60x8 Inches,  Medium Firm, White) : Amazon.in: Furniture

One day over a cup of coffee, Ankit and Chaitanya Ramalingegowda decided the time was ripe to revolutionize sleep and make good-quality sleep products accessible to larger masses in the country by bringing in efficiencies in the business model. The growing popularity of D2C brands fuelled the idea to start an online model where products were manufactured at a centrally located plant and shipped directly to customer households.

Before launching Wakefit officially, Ankit bought a few hundred mattresses and sold them on Amazon in 2015 to understand the unit economics. He made a profit of INR 60 lakh in this trial period.

Cut to 2020. In just four years, Wakefit had galloped to become a ₹200-crore brand in revenue. From selling a paltry four mattresses per day during the first few months, the startup now clocks a daily rate of 1,500, and caters to over 5 lakh customers across 19,000 pin codes in India.

When they started Wakefit , Ankit and Chaitanya undertook the deliveries themselves for the first 100 customers to closely understand and learn in terms of customer behavior, attitudes, and pain points.

Ankit shares that those experiences taught them how to improve their product in terms of longevity, aesthetics, packaging, thickness (soft/medium/hard), and helped them understand customer pain points better. The direct feedback received from the customers aided a lot in the development of the core offerings that Wakefit provides today.

Experts opine that the comfort and adaptability to a mattress can only be judged by an individual once he or she sleeps on it and experiences it for at least 14 days. A cursory visit to the store cannot give an indication of the quality. That is why Wakefit provides a 100 day free trial with 100% return policy. This policy also helped build confidence among customers in the online mode of purchase. The insights enabled Wakefit to model its organizational structure such that the customer pain points are adequately addressed right from the product development stage till the post-sale customer experience stage.

Wakefit.co has built a community of over 4 lakh customers and has garnered more than 12,000 positive reviews online that have propelled the business forward. The company never spent heavily on advertisement. Word-of-mouth marketing has been the most potent tool that has helped the Wakefit team build the business in a steady and sustainable manner. The firm also does a lot of online content marketing on the importance of sound sleep and health.

Today, Wakefit mattresses are among the best sellers in the category on Amazon. The company claims that it sells more mattresses than Urban Ladder and Pepperfry put together. 

There is of course much more to the success of Wakefit than the 100-day offer. 

If you want to learn more about the marketing and growth strategies that fuelled the success of this D2C startup , you can do so from the expert driving growth at wakefit himself- Parasar Sarma , VP Growth – Wakefit.

Apply to be on the waitlist for our next D2C marketing cohort!

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D2C Marketing

Rs. 100 Crore in 4 years:

How MamaEarth became India’s fastest growing D2C brand.

MamaEarth case study

Unless you are living under a rock, you must have heard about Mamaearth -Asia’s first personal care brand with MadeSafe certified, toxin-free products for mothers and children

And then you must also be familiar with its rapid growth – according to a report published by the investment bank, Jefferies, the company may cross Rs 500 crore mark in FY21!

Pay Me Kim Kardashian GIF by GQ

But what is the story behind this brand  that is revolutionizing the personal care space…

Let’s dive in a bit!

A personal challenge for Ghazal and Varun Alagh, the founders led this husband-wife duo to launch Gurugram-based baby and mother care startup Mamaearth-the first company in Asia that has been certified by Made Safe – a US-based non-profit organisation that provides a comprehensive human health-focussed certification for making non-toxic products.

Every mother wishes to extend unconditional love and care to her child. She wants to shower all her affection and make sure she can protect her offspring in every way–every day.

When Ghazal Alagh and Varun Alagh were expecting their baby, they wanted to ensure that they could do everything to keep their baby safe. Like any other caring parent, the two browsed the internet, searching for do’s and don’ts for the little one and also what products they can buy to pamper their bundle of joy.

But they were shocked to see the results. Not a single product was available in the market that matched the safety standards. Every product they saw contained chemicals harmful to their newborn – driving the duo to create a brand by a parent for a parent: Mamaearth.

Finally in 2016, the couple launched the brand under the parent company Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd, in Gurugram using the best available ingredients – natural, plant-based or manmade, which are both certified safe as well as effective. The ingredients are procured from the best sources around the world, which are ISO, GMP and Non-GMO compliant.

“The brand’s proposition and the dire need for toxin-free products in the baby care segment made us reach where we are today. ‘Jahan chah hai wahan raha hai’ (where there is a will, there is a way). We believed that we will be able to fill the vacuum in the industry and with love and luck we made it happen.”-the founders shared in an interview. 

The Mamaearth team believes in mum-power and decided to directly target mothers. The founders were confident that once the customers used Mamaearth products, word of mouth publicity would work wonders for the company.The primary strategy was to resonate with like-minded parents who wanted nothing but the best for their babies.

In just four years, Mamaearth became Asia’s first brand to get the MadeSafe certification for its toxin-free products. The company is aiming at reducing parental stress and is continually improving and innovating to make the world a safer place for both the babies and their parents.

Started with six products in the baby care range, Mamaearth has now diversified into skin and hair care products for men and women across 80 SKUs as well as products designed specially for pregnant women. The natural and toxin-free products are used by over 1.5 million Indian consumers across 500 cities.

Mamaearth witnessed a growth in its operating revenue, which jumped to Rs 110 crores in FY20 from Rs 16.8 crores at the end of FY19. And according to a report published by the investment bank, Jefferies, the company may cross Rs 500 crore mark in FY21!

When a brand does something that helps them achieve what they are looking for,like in this case, then the mind behind this is their marketing team.

Here are a few things which the founders think set their marketing game plan apart from the rest-

  1. Brand Message -According to the founders,Ghazal and Varun Alagh ,having a purpose led brand really helped them scale the company from scratch. Being part of the target audience themselves , they understood and heard  the consumers’ needs and innovated accordingly to give solutions through their products! They also made sure to keep the message precise, clear, and engaging as it presents your brand in a nutshell. The brand’s mission and slogan are “Goodness Inside.”-ensuring that the brand should not jeopardize the consumers’ wellbeing.
Social Media Marketing GIF by Trazoz
  1. Enhancing Customer Base – It is critical to learn that by the time you have to enhance your customer base you can’t be limited, the world is your oyster. If we follow the pattern Apple started from the CPU then personal computer then iPhones, iPods, and much more. All this time they tried to grow. The same goes with Mamaearth, initially, they started out to be the company of mothers and babies, however, it gradually began to grow its client base. The company has now branched out into skincare. It offers bathing ingredients, skincare serums and ointments, face wash, moisturizers, hair oils, and a variety of other items. The greatest thing is that none of these items contain any chemicals which was and is their brand’s original and sole purpose !
  1. Concentrating on Digital Platforms first – This helped them to reach a  wider base of customers in a short time all over India. All brands and companies know the value of digital platforms. We are in the digitalization era so we can’t overlook this factor, Mamaearth knows it very well.
  1. Word of Mouth – Now this technique might seem vague, odd, old school and sham to some of you but it was the game plan for these parent turned founders! You might have heard that the words spread faster than air and it is actually true. When you hear something from someone you know, you believe what they say with zero doubts and this is exactly what Mamaearth planned. They start approaching the Mom bloggers and the customers who have a huge fan base and asked them to write their experience about the product.  Since the company trusts its products, they took the risk of channeling the  influence of mothers. It opted for a word-of-mouth approach in which mothers can inform people about the company and how it provides the best product for their children.

There are obviously heaps of more such strategies that helped MamaEarth reach where it stands today. And here at Xpert we think that the best way to learn is from the experts who have actually engineered those results. 

Want to explore growth strategies with Abhishek , the VP of Growth at MamaEarth?

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D2C Marketing

Conquering Branding: Redefining Shaving at the Bombay Shaving Company.

Selling a shaving kit to men for Rs.3000 was unheard of until the Bombay Shaving Company, a D2C startup, disrupted the market.

Bombay Shaving Company is a D2C startup that specializes in men’s grooming, personal care, shaving, beard grooming, skincare, and handmade soaps and mainly caters to men. With thousands of customers and a unique perspective of branding, that is progressive and projects masculinity peculiarly to a new market, the Bombay Shaving Company has mastered the art of branding and positioning and is here to stay .

Now, Branding and Positioning are undeniable cornerstones of D2C marketing. They create a unique image of the company’s product and help in acquiring a space in the customer’s mind among competitor brands.

Let’s see how this budding D2C startup conquered them.

Beginnings-

When four friends from Bombay saw that men’s grooming and beard care was becoming a prevalent topic in many conversations, they recognized an opportunity and a problem to solve and decided to capture this untapped market. 

Grooming for men was always looked at as a trivial task, something “for the sake of it.” Even with India’s beauty and personal care market projected to reach $32.7 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 8.1 percent,grooming products were traditionally targeted at the female gender.

However, with changing times and perceptions, the Bombay Shaving Company has redefined men’s grooming and their shaving experience. Through effective positioning they have transformed men’s grooming from a mundane to-do task to an experience to look forward to and they have created their space in the market.

They did so by bringing in their signature razor and what the marketing head at BSC calls the “Rolls Royce of razors” -India’s first and only precision razor, that was titanium plated,single blade and could even have your name engraved on it!

Their sole agenda was to make the shaving experience for men more enjoyable and practical in India !

The Bombay Shaving Company has always been consistent with its purpose of offering shaving as a joyful and premium experience , with the help of the strategies discussed in the end. 

 And we all know how important purpose is, 64% of global consumers are attracted towards brands that constantly convey their purpose.

Even the brand name has a reason behind it . ‘Bombay’ not only reflects the origin if the founders but has a certain rustic yet modern India vibe to it along with a spirit of coolness.

The words ‘Shaving Company’ demonstrate their commitment and sincerity towards making the shaving experience more joyful and give the feeling that there is a big force behind this operation, helping build the trust in the mind of the consumers.

But selling a shaving kit for Rs.3000 was not easy in a value-driven market. Changing shaving habits that have been ingrained for decades, at scale, was a challenging task.

Since their inception in 2015, a lot of competitors have also cropped up in the arena of men’s grooming but they still remain an unique brand.

Because they believe in mentoring the right way to groom. They do not cut corners and spend an ample amount of time in thoughtfully designing every part of the grooming experience to provide complete and uncompromising care. As a brand, they are also more progressive in how one thinks about and projects masculinity. They stay away from the brotherhood, macho and ‘men will be men’ codes often used by men’s brands.

Given these efforts, they have successfully curated an image of their products that is elite, niche, necessary, yet one of a kind .

So what were the key strategies behind their storytelling that registered their brand in their target audience’s mind?

  1. From the very beginning, they made it clear how they are different from Gillette and Dollar Shave Club. Their signature 6-Part Shaving System provided a complete, uncompromising shaving experience, the polar opposite to the ‘sat-a-sat’ and convenient norm set by the category. But since they did not have the big budgets to spend on marketing, they did a few more interesting things.
  1. For the first 6 months,  they only sold the complete 6-part kit  so as to enforce the shaving philosophy into the minds of the consumer.
  1. Premium Experience:They  packaged the complete kit in a really premium way to evoke a sense of luxury
  1. Personalization- They offered users to get their names engraved on the metal razor at no additional cost. This gave users a sense of pride to hold the heavy razor, and also served as a great trigger for personalised gifting.
  1. Emotional Marketing: To quote Dale Carnegie, “When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion.”  Bombay Shaving Company rode on occasions like Father’s Day and Rakshabandhan to position its offerings as the perfect gift for fathers and brothers. They released a series of short videos in the #DadLogic series urging consumers to gift their dad a razor that is sharper than his wit.

In 2020 the brand also weaved a narrative around the festival of Rakshabandhan, through the campaign #SurakhshaBandhan. The users were encouraged to share their sibling stories with the campaign hashtags and social media influencers were roped in to promote the campaign. A call-to-action of discounts and offers was provided with every post to drive sales.

  1. User-Generated Content: The concept of premium packaging worked wonders when users posted their unboxing experiences on social media. This gave the brand a lot of positive word-of-mouth.

Clearly, the Bombay Shaving Club has an incredible marketing and positioning strategy in place and this is obviously  just a fraction of what went into their phenomenal success.

If you want to learn more , you can do so from the man behind it all – the marketing head at the Bombay Shaving Club, Samriddh Dasgupta himself.

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