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Tag: product marketing

  • GUEST COLUMN: Can D2C beauty brands of today be the market leaders of tomorrow?

    GUEST COLUMN: Can D2C beauty brands of today be the market leaders of tomorrow?

    Mumbai: A lot is being written and said about direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands in general, and D2C beauty brands in particular. Low entry barriers, relative ease of consumer targeting through online channels, and a burgeoning beauty market overall have led to a veritable explosion of beauty brands that have followed an online-only (or online-first) approach to product marketing. Can these brands eventually replace some of the incumbents today as the market leaders of tomorrow? The answer (the easy one, as always) – it depends. On what? Three key factors:

    Product strength and innovation capabilities

    Marketing gets the customer; the product keeps her. Any amount of smart & shiny marketing (made all the easier through creator apps) will not substitute for the moment of truth when the consumer applies the product on face, lips, hair or body. And for the compliments, she gets from friends or family or colleagues, which is a key factor in driving overall delight with the product.

    Being able to consistently deliver on interesting promises, while keeping up with rapidly evolving tastes and trends, is the top critical success factor for new-age brands looking to become market leaders. This takes a motley combination of agility, patience, long-term commitment, and the right innovation approach to get the marketing mix right – again and again.

    Omnichannel expansion

    Despite explosive growth, the online channel still accounts for 10 per cent or less of the overall beauty market in India. It is believed that the online share in China and the US is closer to 50 per cent, even with the post-Covid acceleration. It’s clear, therefore, that in the medium term, any brand with scale ambitions has to be able to succeed in both online as well as brick-and-mortar distribution environment. The two could not be more different from each other and need diverse sets of skills and capabilities to be developed. The arrival and maturing of distribution aggregator apps might make this a little easier for newer brands, though.

    Scalable systems and processes

    Most of the (well-funded) emerging brands today are solving for speed and agility (defined as flexibility and speed of response). Sustainability of the approach, margin stability and resilience in the face of extreme market swings (on both supply- or demand-side) are yet being developed. Several brands are expected to reach a somewhat mature stage over the next 2-5 years, and those that are able to put in place scalable systems and processes across functions (marketing, distribution, supply chain etc) would be the ones poised to make the leap into the big league.

    The landscape in 2026

    The inherent strength of the incumbent brands in terms of brand, distribution and product capabilities notwithstanding, it can be safely said that the dynamics of the industry have changed forever. Consumers are open to (and in fact, hungry for) fresh ideas and delightful new experiences, and a lesser-known brand is no longer a barrier. The market is likely to be no longer dominated by a handful of brands but would indeed have a ‘fat middle’ of similar-sized brands, best known for a few categories each. To get there, and stay there, new-age brands have their work cut out along the above three dimensions.

    (About Author: Shankar Prasad is the founder and CEO of Plum)

  • Bolo Live onboards Abhay Singh as vice president, marketing

    Bolo Live onboards Abhay Singh as vice president, marketing

    Mumbai: Homegrown social live-streaming platform Bolo Live has brought Abhay Singh Kumpawat on board as its vice president of marketing to drive the next level of growth for the company.

    In this new role, Singh will lead the entire gamut of digital, product, and brand marketing initiatives for Bolo Live and will play an important role in scaling the company’s growth in new and existing markets as well as broadening its global reach, it said in a statement on Monday.

    An IIT Roorkee alumnus, Singh is a growth specialist for over seven years and has played an instrumental role in driving early-stage growth and scale for startup brands like Mitron TV and YourQuote. While his specialty includes product marketing, brand building, and the development of transformational strategies for startup brands, Singh has also co-founded IndiaMeets and E-Vogue.

    “Driving business value through real-time, relevant conversations between the content creators and their fans has never been more challenging yet exciting with the complexity and volume of marketing channels in today’s era,” said Singh on his new role. “An exciting market opportunity at the amalgamation of live streaming, microtransactions, and gamification coupled with addressable market size, a profitable business model, the founders’ vision, and the quality of young talent within the team is a great combination at Bolo Live.”

    Bolo Live has over one lakh monthly live streamers on the platform spending close to 120 min daily on the platform, with 18 live streamers already making over a lakh rupee monthly from the platform already; all driven by microtransactions of captive audience base and not fixed payouts from the platform, said the company.

    “As we chase bigger ambitions, it is key to ensure that the growth and marketing strategies of the company keep pace with the evolving business. It is exciting to have Abhay on board as he brings in stellar expertise in the field of growth and marketing,” stated Bolo Live co-founder and CEO Varun Saxena. “He has a clear vision for the future of marketing and innovation and can build a strategic team to execute the vision at Bolo Live. Abhay is an all-rounder who also has an entrepreneurial bent and we do foresee that the team and the brand will flourish under his guidance.”

    “We are currently ramping up the team aggressively and in the next few weeks will see announcements of prominent hiring across Technology, Product and Marketing roles,” he further added.

    Singh is also a Limca World Record holder, International Children’s Excellence Fund scholar, MMCF scholar, and has won an award for Republic Day Honor for academic excellence.

    “Abhay’s appointment is another validation of our commitment and leadership in the industry. As we continue our transformational journey, we are poised for unparalleled growth and innovation,” said Bolo Live co-founder and CPO Tanmai Paul. “We are confident that Abhay’s vision and in-depth understanding of the consumer internet marketing landscape will translate into the exponential growth of the percentage of power users on the platform.”

  • Wellbeing Nutrition collaborates with TING for launch of new product

    Mumbai: TING, a fully integrated creative and digital advertising agency, has conceptualised and executed the end-to-end branding and packaging duties of Melts Oral Thin Strips, a newly launched product by Wellbeing Nutrition. The agency was responsible for the entire branding activity which included, visualization, packaging, branding, positioning, creatives, website designing to the social media launch.

    The branding and messaging of the newly launched Melts focus on how there’s a need in today’s day and age to rethink the intake of nutrition supplements.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Speaking on the launch, Wellbeing Nutrition’s founder Avnish Chhabria said, “To build a brand targeting the young audience of today, the digital-savvy youth, we wanted to work with someone who truly understands that generation. As a brand that offers nutrition solutions, with Melts® we wanted to go all out and reach out to as many people as possible. We are very happy with the way TING has handled and executed our entire brand identity. All our suggestions and our company vision were kept in mind while executing, and we look forward to escalating the brand presence to higher levels with them.”

    TING co-founder & creative director Shruti Dhadda said, “While we have been associated with Wellbeing Nutrition for a while, it gives us immense pleasure to work with the core team in building the entire brand for Melts®. Creativity and packaging play a very vital role in attracting customers and our team ensured the correct messaging was conveyed. As an agency, we always consider inputs and suggestions shared by clients and accordingly formulate the best results, with our potions of creativity and strategic planning. We are thankful that Wellbeing Nutrition believed in us and gave us this opportunity to work alongside.”