We Hired Celebrities As We Are New To Many Markets: Kartikeya Bhandari

How do you outline Livspace? Is it a companies or merchandise model?

It’s a options model. There’s a product part and a service part to it. We join owners with distributors and inside designers, and supply them with a platform to do an end-to-end job for residence interiors and renovation. We’re current on-line, however we even have expertise centres in all of the cities we function in. We now have about 4 million SKUs (inventory retaining items) and 5,000-plus manufacturers on the platform. It’s large, however there’s nonetheless lots of stuff that we shouldn’t have as a result of it’s such an extended tail on the subject of this class.

How troublesome has it been to construct a model on this area?

Earlier than going into model constructing, I feel it is very important perceive the class—a high-ticket worth, unorganized, low frequency, and unstructured class, which suggests persons are nonetheless largely reliant on conventional carpenters or contractors for lots of stuff, pondering they’ve their greatest pursuits in thoughts which can not at all times be so. However you don’t have any means of realizing because it’s (the service) not standardized. After we got here in, the very first thing we did was to ensure folks can perceive this entire course of higher. We now have made investments within the content material website. We weren’t doing lots of model advertising. A part of the rationale I got here in three years in the past was to attempt to work out what the technique can be. It was in all probability the fitting time for us to start out constructing a model that extends past the highest, let’s say, six cities of India, which was what it was at that time limit.

Now, we’re in near 40 cities and likewise current in Singapore for greater than two years. We now have a strategic partnership with IKEA in Malaysia the place we have now began operations, and in Saudi Arabia the place we are going to launch quickly.

Livspace adverts have been quirky. Have they labored?

We work with Tilt Model Options and it’s been a fruitful partnership. We began by understanding the patron higher. We realized that the attributes they take a look at earlier than making a call are high quality and design. By high quality, I imply high quality of workmanship, supplies used and fittings. By design, I imply each type and performance because it mustn’t solely look good, nevertheless it must also do the job that it’s supposed to do. In the event you take a look at the earlier marketing campaign, we’re simply making an attempt to ascertain that narrative.

You’ve got Virat and Anushka as a result of you’ve money to burn or do they serve a objective?

I feel they serve a objective. The choice on utilizing them was made means earlier than we had been within the unicorn membership. We did this for 2 causes. We’re driving extra enlargement into tier-2, tier-3 markets quickly. It’s a brand new model and folks haven’t actually seen us or heard from us as we have now by no means actually used broadcast media in lots of these geographies. Numerous them might be seeing us for the primary time. That was one. Second, we wished to create adverts that is a little more memorable, has extra stickiness. I feel celebrities have performed that effectively. Final, we wished to get celebrities who’re consultant of our core goal group, who’re identified for his or her dependability and professionalism and are on the prime of their recreation. That’s the affiliation we wished to construct.

Is there sufficient demand from smaller cities?

One of many good issues about having a enterprise which is digital is you sort of see the place visitors is coming from. Once I say small cities, it’s actually tier-two and tier-three cities…like Ahmedabad, Indore and Lucknow. And the rationale for that’s we’re downstream from the true property market, as in, wherever there’s a actual property growth, and as and when persons are shopping for houses, is the place they’ll really feel the necessity to get the interiors performed. Which is why you’ve your typical suspects make up the highest of the listing for us in addition to the highest 15-20 markets that do lots of enterprise. The highest 15 markets in India might be an addressable market of about $10 billion a yr for outdated residence renovation and new residence interiors.