The story of a homegrown consumer electronics startup which is creating a revolution in the area of audio devices. Yes, We are talking about boAt- a brand which is bringing affordable, fashionable and durable audio products and accessories for this millennial generation.
Start of A Revolution
boAt started in 2015 as a consumer electronics startup in Delhi founded by Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta. They term themselves as a lifestyle brand which deals in fashionable consumer electronics.
Entering the 4th year of their journey boAt stands tall with a team of 25 members, offices in Delhi and Mumbai, celebrity brand ambassadors and a family of over 800,000 happy customers.
Growth of boAt increased 3 fold from the financial year 2017 to the financial year 2018. According to filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), boAt’s FY2018 revenues grew to Rs 108 crore from only Rs 27 crore in FY2017. Sales for the next five years has been estimated over Rs. 500 crore.
Reasons for growth
One of the reasons behind this is maintaining a happy community of their customers. boAt calls its consumers ‘boAthead’. Now, what are ‘boAtheads’? All the millennial buyers who buy any boAt accessory are termed ‘boAthead’ and made a part of the ever-growing clan and going by the number of sales there are many.
The second reason is portraying themselves not as a brand who just markets or sells consumer electronics rather than that boAt sells lifestyle accessories. These products are sold as they are part of your day to day fashion. Integrating style with affordable price has done wonders for the brand.
The popularity of products of boAt has forced big giants like JBL to lower down the prices of their products to compete in the affordable audio segment.
They have targeted fashion weeks such as Lakme Fashion Week to display their products sported by models.
boAt created its brand awareness by roping in ambassadors from two most followed areas in India- Bollywood, and Cricket. Jacquline Fernandes, KL Rahul, and Hardik Pandya are among the ambassadors. This solves the problem of brand awareness in smaller cities since these celebrities have a huge following in these cities.
Some of the growth strategies used by boAt include a partnership with leading e-commerce stores such as Flipkart, Amazon, etc. Apart from the online partnership, offline partnerships are also a major factor in growth. boAt has partnered with offline retailing stores such as Croma which has helped them reach to the consumers who avoid online shopping.
Last Year in May, Fireside Ventures invested 6 crore in boAt and they are happy with this investment. One of the top officials has pointed out that boAt is one of the strongest brands in their portfolio and they see the right mix of innovation and scalability in the startup.
10 days back Sachin Bansal invested Rs. 20 crore in the entity in terms of venture debt.
According to the company, boAt sells 8,000 units per day and on an average of five units every minute.
The success story of boAt is an inspiration and learning for Indian startups who are looking bring revolution in their respective areas.
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