“The D2C market is continually on the rise and also seeing a lot of digital innovation"

Adgully is back with a new edition of its annual feature – TRENDING NOW – where we present the strategies and views of a cross-section of industry leaders as they go about reclaiming lost time and market opportunities and build for a stronger future, armed with the lessons of the pandemic period.

Over the last few weeks, Trending Now has been bringing insights from industry leaders on how their organisations are gearing up to seize the opportunities in 2022, breaking through the Covid disruptions and finding growth and remaining resilient.

In conversation with Adgully, Himanshu Gandhi, CEO & Co-founder, Mother Sparsh, speaks about how digital-first has come to be the foremost trend, changes in the personal care market, the emergence of a more immersive and interactive digital experience, and more.

What are the trends that you expect to dominate in your sector in 2022?

In the new normal, digital is the buzzword and this trend is here to stay in the long run. While earlier it was more about digital versus print, now there’s no versus in the scene, for many things we imbibed in our lifestyle has been possible solely because of digital. The same stands true for brands across personal care or any other segment, and hence, digital-first is the foremost trend. Complementing it is the fact that D2C brands like us are being the real trendsetters in the current times. Regular television watching people today are, for instance, witnessing the D2C market taking an altogether new paradigm shift.

The key, however, lies in product quality. Consumers are more informed than ever in multiple ways, like being aware about what exactly they want to spend on, realising the health benefits of using nature-oriented products, etc. The products need to be developed in accordance with the needs of the consumers, without any compromise on quality. People who include products in their personal care regimen know that they need to look for healing properties along with the outer glitter. Therefore, the underlining trend is need-based natural personal care products.

What are the challenges and new opportunities that you see emerging in the year ahead?

Since our inception, we faced different challenges on different occasions. For instance, when we started, it was zeroing in on the first product that we would come up with. We worked relentlessly and turned it into an opportunity to introduce India’s first 99% Pure Water unscented and biodegradable baby wipes. A couple of years later with the outbreak of pandemic, the biggest challenge was the halted supply chain. Being a digital-first D2C brand with omni-channel presence since the beginning helped us seamlessly establish an even stronger relationship with the end users.

At present, one of the major challenges is that the acquisition cost of new customers is continuously on the rise. The hyper-competitive market is the prime reason behind it, but we plan to stick to our ethos of innovation and establishing a direct rapport with the consumers to turn this into an opportunity.

However, I would add two points here, first being that any brand with higher retention rate will have a longer run and digital penetration is continuously increasing.

How is this year’s turnout expected to be in this sector as compared to the last two years? How strong will this sector’s growth and recovery be compared to the last two years as well as the pre-Covid period?

There has not been much change as such in the sector, but as mentioned earlier, the D2C market is continually on the rise and also seeing a lot of digital innovation. Also, with regard to the turnout, there is no recovery because there was no loss. We have been a digital-first brand since the beginning and that helped us sail against the tide during the pandemic.

When compared to the pre-Covid period, there has been a drastic behaviourial shift in the buying pattern of the customers. As mentioned, they are more informed than ever and even more particular about what they include in their personal care regimen. Also, the digital space is undergoing a sea change at present. For instance, we are living in Web 2.0 and leading to Web 3.0, which includes NFT and Metaverse. The digital experience is going to be more immersive and interactive.

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