To overcome competition, enhance customer base, appeal to an ever-changing demographic and thrive in a topsy-turvy ecosystem, startups are overhauling their business models and re-branding themselves.
Mycity4kids, which started out as a hyper-local listings platform for kids, has recently rebranded itself as Momspresso and modernised to become a multi-lingual content platform for mothers, catering to their lives as a parent and as women.
Rebranding and re-tweaking of a business is regarded as a slippery slope requiring a great deal of support from all stakeholders, besides heavy investment. So what makes a startup undergo the tough exercise?
“Since the target audience changes with time, it’s a smart move to change along with them. When rebranding is done right, it breathes new life into the business. And sets you apart from competitors,” says Vishal Gupta, Co-founder &CEO, Momspresso.
Experts say often, a startup is primarily an idea which the founders conceived and gave life to, but that idea needs to be moulded with the changing market requirements, such that it reaps rich rewards and benefits.
The founding team at Momspresso realised that more than children, mothers form a valuable demographic being primary buyers of products for kids and household products, with an estimated 40 percent of the annual Rs60,000 crore advertising revenues dedicated specifically towards them. That’s why they decided to increase their engagement with mothers.
Likewise, Genext Students, which started out as an online learning platform with digital content, realised that students in the K-12 segment also needed a physical tutor, and pivoted the business into a hybrid home tutoring ecosystem that combines online with offline tutor-assisted learning powered by AI technology.
Ali Asgar Kagzi, Co-founder & Director, Genext Students, says pivoting into an AI powered home tutoring ecosystem has expanded their scope and market. “The entire process is driven by AI powered proprietary system, right from on-boarding and verifying a tutor to ensuring the right tutor is mapped as per parents’ needs and assessing the child’s learning progress.”” Kagzi says that adapting to the changing market is crucial for any business. “It is more so for startups as they are learning a lot of new things. Companies who do not listen to the market demand and are unwilling to adapt, end up facing difficulty in sustaining themselves in the long run.”
Agrees Harsh Shah, co-founder of the online shopping portal Fynd, which was earlier known as Shopsense Retail Technology. “It is important for startups to critically observe their moving points and understand the opportunity in the market. If a pivot is necessary to tap on the opportunity, a startup should not hesitate from redefining its business model.”
Shah says it took the Fynd team five years to reach their current model, with some great learnings in each revamp. From being an in-store solution to help brands increase customer interaction and get additional sales, Fynd helps brands aggregate inventory from each of their stores and host it on its shopping platform.
The experts say the re-tweaking exercises have proven highly beneficial.
According to Kagzi, Genext Students has expanded to six cities and has multiplied its revenues by 20 times. “We’ve more than 6, 000 tutors and have completed 45, 000+ tutoring sessions.”
Fynd has a monthly active user base of 1.5 million (and an overall user base of 8+ million customers ) with a 35 percent repeat purchase in daily orders. “Our focus is towards helping brands grow their business and to get new customers for brands online,” says Shah.
While Momspresso plans to grow its revenues from about Rs15 crore in FY18 to Rs150 crore by FY 21, led by growing online ad spends and by targeting a larger pool of (women-centric) brands. The company is also aiming to grow its user base from 7.5 million monthly visits to 75 million monthly visits in three years’ time.
TIME TO CHANGE
- Rebranding, re-tweaking of a business is regarded as a slippery slope requiring a great deal of support from all stakeholders, besides heavy investment
- Experts say a start-up is an idea conceived by founders, but that idea needs to be moulded with the changing market requirements, such that it reaps rich rewards
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