We work with the vision of touching 1.6 bn Indian lives with HRX: Afsar Zaidi

HRX, India’s first home-grown fitness brand, which is owned by Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan and Exceed Entertainment, recently forayed into the category of sports and fitness equipment for home workouts. The brand has partnered with Noise for its range of fitness trackers.

Designed to keep one fit and motivated, the fitness equipment range from HRX will feature dumb-bells, kettle-bells, yoga mats and skipping ropes. The brand’s aim is to address the requirement of smooth and functional home workouts important to the consumers and push them to #KeepGoingWithHRX, especially while access to gyms remains sparse.

In an exclusive interaction with Adgully, Afsar Zaidi, CEO (Chief Everything’s Officer), HRX speaks about the partnership with Noise, HRX’s performance in FY2021, creating experiences and engagement in pandemic times and much more. 

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From athleisure to fitness equipment – how has the progression been? What will be the price points for the new fitness equipment range? When will they be available in the market?

It’s all been a part of the big game plan! We are India’s first homegrown fitness brand and it’s only natural for a fitness brand to foray into all things that enable an everyday athlete in his/her journey to becoming their best version. Active wear and fitness equipment – both qualify as core categories for us that way. Hence, there was a lot of focus in developing these and a lot of effort has gone into arriving at a good quality product, which is also priced right and affordable for the majority of India to own.

Our new fitness range, just like apparel, is priced approx 20% lower than the key market players. Actually, there are practically few to no brands in this segment, hence we qualify as one of the few B2C brands in the sports equipment category. Since the categories range from yoga mats to home gym combo, weights, sporting equipment, treadmills and more, it’s hard to mention the exact pricing. But to give a perspective, a pair of HRX vinyl dumbbells and rubber dumbbells are priced Rs 999 onwards up till Rs 6,000; yoga mats are priced between Rs 650 and Rs 750.

This range is already live and available on FlipKart.

Please tell us about the new fitness trackers in partnership with Noise? 

After a year-long effort and research, we are finally poised to launch our HRX fitness trackers. Noise is the trusted partner who brings their product know-how and expertise to this category. We are very confident of this category taking off and winning over the hearts of fitness enthusiasts.

We will be launching a range of products and the launch is expected by the end of August. More information will be available shortly on pricing and product specifications as we inch closer to the launch.
 
Could you tell us about HRX’s performance in FY2021 and the annual growth? What has the COVID-19 effect been on the company? 

The year has been nothing short of overwhelming in ways both good and bad. We have had our challenges like most other businesses working their way around the pandemic, but with the fitness trend being on the rise and people becoming more health and wellness conscious, we have performed decently despite having a complete quarter of inaction.

The growth over last year was difficult to achieve, but with several category additions, we have managed a little over 40% broadly.

COVID-19 has impacted us just the way most businesses got impacted – disruptions in supply chain, manufacturing, vendors, logistics, consumer deliveries and a slowdown in orders. But we hope that the world heals soon and things get ironed out and we come out victorious on the other side of this pandemic.

What is the strategy behind the brand’s consistency?

Staying true to what we do.

We are not a story, we are rooted in reality. The reality of Hrithik’s life and the reality we all believe in – that fitness and discipline are the key to good living and the path to becoming the best version of ourselves. Secondly, we are a fitness brand and we have been so equivocally, that is, neither our choice of product categories nor messaging and communication has ever been ambivalent and suggestive of anything except fitness.

Most importantly, the richness of our ecosystem, our choice of partners and their expertise, our team members and financial have contributed in a major way to the brand’s success.

Our model and company structure are aligned to a vision which spells longevity over short term success.

What is the yearly marketing budgeting for HRX?

It is 3-5% of the overall revenue and changes from category to category and platform to platform. We are an e-commerce only brand.

HRX products have been available on e-commerce platforms. Are there plans to go offline? Is going omnichannel on the cards for HRX?

Omni-channel is the way to go, but the pandemic has made us hold on to that thought.

Offline retail will get re-ignited once the retail sector opens up and we see how people respond to the channel. Currently e-commerce seems to be the go-to channel for shipping for consumers, so we are focusing and concentrating our energies on improving the efficiencies there.

What more are you planning for brand HRX? According to you, where does the brand stand amid other celebrity-led fashion brands?

We work with the vision of touching 1.6 billion Indian lives with HRX.
HRX will be in every possible category which touches or is needed by an everyday athlete in their fitness or sports pursuit. Our choice of categories will involve personal grooming, sports nutrition and supplement and who knows, even e-bikes and insurance.

There is no comparison that can be drawn between any other brand and HRX today. We are undisputedly the most successful in this space.

What has been HRX’s strategy regarding experiential marketing campaigns? How is the brand creating engagement and experiential opportunities during the pandemic times?

We are all about consumer centricism and experience-led marketing. Our campaigns are an amalgamation of our UGC shared by hundreds and thousands of followers on a daily basis. Our communities are physical and we support them in their pursuit for excellence. Our gym, clothing, workout, nutrition all go on to becoming complete fitness experience offered to KOLs and influencers and this forms the kernel for content strategy.

The pandemic also got us activating our Live platforms and interactions with consumers who are constantly in the lookout for information and hand holding coming from authentic and trusted sources.

(Edited and additional inputs by Shanta Saikia.)

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