When in 2013, we started our company Fit & Glow Healthcare Pvt Ltd it was to work around our passion for health, wellness and nature-inspired beauty products. We wanted to introduce to the consumers a new concept of products which contained the best and the purest forms of bio-actives and without any harsh chemicals and preservatives. We focussed on research and I am proud of the fact that every product is driven by science.

We started with health and wellness products under the brand WOW Life Science and extended the concept of nature-based products to the beauty segment with WOW Skin Science range. So we had a great set of research-backed, natured-based products made without any harmful chemicals and preservatives, but we needed to market our products right.

We thought of taking a different route to sell our products than the usual trend of setting up brick and mortar stores. Since our past experience showed that the digital medium was the best way to reach out to new generation of consumers – those who are willing to try out new products and services.

Foraying into digital space

To promote our products, we leveraged the digital platform – e-commerce portals – to reach out to maximum number of consumers not just in India but in the US as well. We realised that e-commerce was the next big thing in retailing and took advantage of the popularity of this platform.

Going digital also meant that we were able to reach out to customers in smaller cities and towns to sell our products without being physically present there. Today, our products are available on all popular e-commerce portals like Amazon, Flipkart, Nykaa, Myntra and Big Basket.

Making most of social media

As a brand we have a very ‘Customer First’ strategy. We are a very strong feedback-driven company. Our product strategy, conceptualisation, and even development are based on what the customers are saying and asking. At every step we work around the feedback on customer experience. That is one distinct value proposition.

That is why we decided not to take the usual advertising route, instead focussed on social media as that was like promoting the brand via word-of-mouth – the best kind of brand promotion there is. We are well aware that social media plays a key role in promoting a brand today in the age of digital marketing. That is why it is important for us to leverage the social media. And we did that.

Moving away from the traditional branding method, we used the power of YouTube and Instagram to promote the brand’s nature-based, science-backed range of products. The strategy was to spread awareness through product videos. This has had the desired result, as the influencers have noticed the range and are talking about the products in their channels. We are happy about the fact that the influencers have shared positive reviews of our products with their viewers who are our target audience.

We took this path because we wanted our customers to know our brand’s USP and the unique formulations before they made a buying decision. That is why content marketing has played a major role in our brand marketing strategy.

Celebrating success in the market

This digital first marketing and retailing strategy has worked well for the brand. Today we are one of the best-selling brands on Amazon. In fact, we are now hitting the brick and mortar stores with our products. Now that the consumers are aware of our brand and the efficacy of our products, we are giving the customers the option to touch and feel the products before buying. Now you will find us at Health & Glow and other beauty retail stores in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai.

In conclusion

We have been successful because we are able to offer our customers innovative products with unique ingredients at an affordable price. We have focussed as much on the formulations, as on the packaging to ensure maximum efficacy of the products, keeping them contamination free.

To keep pace with the customer buying behaviour we first reached out to them through the digital medium. Only once we leveraged the online space to popularise our products did we think of moving to the brick-and-mortar retail space, and we are ready to make our mark in that channel as well.

(The author is co-founder, Fit & Glow. The views expressed are his own and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)