Hello 👋 !

D2C Companies obsess over building a brand, but what is a Brand? No, seriously what is it? …

A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. If the consumer doesn’t pay a premium, make a selection or spread the word, then no brand value exists for that consumer. by Seth Godin

Speaking of brand building, Gucci is now delivering Spinach and Louis Vuitton, eggs? Amidst the strict lockdown in China, brands like Gucci, Bulgari, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Porsche are delivering goodie bags to their well-heeled customers. What do you think? Is this Cringe or In-Synch with brand building?

Let’s jump to the D2C updates back in India.

What’s in the news? 🗞️

🧼 Loofah dat Moolah

mCaffeine, a 4 yr. old skincare brand with coffee as its hero ingredient, raised INR 240 cr. The funding was led by Paragon Partners at a valuation of INR 1000 cr. The news comes soon after mCaffeine signed up Superstar Alia Bhatt as ambassador.

mCaffeine plans to utilise the funds to expand its international presence from besides selling in India, UAE, Nepal & Maldives. It also plans to up its offline presence to 25,000 outlets from the existing 5000. mCaffeine recorded a revenue of INR 66.51 crore in FY 2021 with INR 74.88 crore as expenses.

BPC Market Size & Competitors: USD 26.8 bn; Plum, Juicy Chemistry, Wow Skin, MamaEarth, Sugar, MyGlamm. 

A company in growth phase, can’t always keep revenue/profitability as its North Star Metric (NSM), right? What do you suggest could be NSM for a D2C company aiming to grow aggressively?

🏋️ Step Set GO-Qii

GOQii, a fitness wearable brand, raised INR 75 cr. from Animoca Brands to launch its health metaverse. The funding announcement comes close on the heels of GOQii raising INR 380 mn recently.

Started by the founder of Indiagames (acquired by Disney in 2011), GOQii also has a health-tech platform providing services like coaching, health plans, and D2C products. The startup plans to bring a virtual token program i.e. users using virtual tokens to unlock products, services, participation in special events etc.

Healthtech market size & Competiors: USD 21 Bn by 2025; HealthifyMe, CureFit.

After, Nike, Adidas, JP Morgon, and many more, Heineken is making its products available in Metaverse. Understand how can brands capture consumers in Metaverse.

🤑 Fin-tech and Groc-tech are on the rise

India’s UPI has now crossed the USD 1 trillion mark in transaction value in FY22. In other UPI news:

• Google Pay is launching Tap To Pay feature in India

• Apple is trying to bring more financial services in-house, Apple BNPL soon!

Dairy brand Country Delight has raised around USD 65 mn and Reliance is intensifying the instant grocery delivery war with Jio Mart’s entry into the game.

⏲️ D2C Quickies

• Live online shopping marketplace for independent retailers, Grabbit Live raises funds from Entrepreneur First.

• Citymall, a community commerce platform, has bagged USD 75 mn in a funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners.

Brands that caught our eye! 🧿

Today’s picks are from this really cool D2C brand discovery platform Stumble:

🍎 Eat fruits with ease

Per Frugease, even the richest Indian households do not consume an adequate amount of fruit and vegetables. Frugease helps you to meet your daily servings with its super-smoothie mix powder, not meant for snorting but drinking.

Frugease uses Spray Drying Technology to take the moisture out of fruits and retain their vitamins & minerals. Their flavors include a) Mango, Cantaloupe, Banana & Carrot with Oats & Probiotics; b) Watermelon, Strawberry, & Pomegranate with Bengal Gram, Chia Seeds & Probiotics, and more!

🏋️ Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who's the fittest of them all?

Portl is an AI-powered Smart Interactive Mirror that provides personalized and holistic healthcare and real-time fitness with form feedback, telemedicine, and embedded health monitoring capabilities. (whew! that was a mouthful)

Portl is more than a mirror and puts your treadmill to shame with its ultimate home gym with features like a face-off, choosing a workout, etc. That said, this type of home gym is great for people who love the community aspect of fitness and want high-energy instruction.

Trend of the week: April Fool’s 😂

April Fool Day’s origins date back to the 1500s and refer to people who didn’t realize the new year had been moved from spring to Jan 1. Well, at present, the day is famous for moment marketing by consumer brands - launching fake products, expose, etc., some are funny, some cringy and some fail at both! Here are a few examples that caught our eye this April Fool’s:

Emirates Airline @emirates

What if you could enjoy authentic cuisine from anywhere in the world, without stepping on a plane? Now you can! Introducing Emireats. Delivering soon. Maybe.

April 1st 2022

137 Retweets699 Likes

• Ixigo’s smart running shoe with in-built camera and more! Ixigo has tried smart seat and smart spectacles in the past!

• andMe’s pill to induce periods in men !!

• ESportsXO’s anti rage drinks for aggressive video gamers.

• Mattressman’s world’s first ‘wine-bed’, filled with wine of your choice.

• Manforce’s menthol flavoured condoms.

• 7UP’s loved mascot Fido Dido leaving the brand.

• Actual Chilly found in Lays’ sizzling hot flavour.

• Razorpay’s Buy Now Pay Never.

Reads & Recommendations 🤓

1. Curation of best articles for beginners in Marketing by Morning Brew.

2. How to build a strong foundation for your brand.

3. 5 Though-Provoking Articles by The Indian Dream.

4. Ferrari has been killing it at F1 this time, here are quick interesting facts about Ferrari.

That’s all for this week!

PS: Today we complete a half-century with this 50th issue of D2C Pulse! Our obsession with consumer brands made us start this newsletter and your love & support made us reach the 50th and we know it will keep us going till we hit a century and many more! Thanks, y’all for being an awesome audience!

Stay tuned for more insights about the D2C ecosystem in India.

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