CASE STUDY

IIM-A • FASHION RETAIL • HAPPILY UNMARRIED

 HAPPILY UNMARRIED CASE STUDY

About Happily Unmarried:

Happily Unmarried is a fun lifestyle brand started in 2003. The company is known for its fun and quirky India-centric
products that span categories such as t-shirts, smartphone cases, bar, home & kitchen, bags, stationery and general
gifting.
Happily Unmarried believes that they are in the business of selling fun and would always create products & services that
make people happy. This spirit of the company is seen in everything they do - be it their products or communications. Check
out the annexure for couple of products and mailers that the company sends to its customers.
Happily Unmarried sells its products via 4 channels:
(I) Happily Unmarried stores;
(ii) Its website - http://www.happilyunmarried.com;
(iii) Multi brand retailers; and
(iv) Online marketplaces such as Amazon, Snapdeal, and Flipkart.
Company’s target segment falls between 18-35 years of age primarily in metro and tier I cities. In terms of socio economic
classification, Happily Unmarried’s core TG falls in upper middle class and above segment. As per company’s observation,
these people can easily be categorized as bon vivant…young at heart who enjoy all good things in life.

About Happily Unmarried’s Online Business:

Currently about 20% of company’s revenue comes from its website - www.HappilyUnmarried.com. This channel has been
seeing exponential year-on-year growth for the company. Happily Unmarried expects the contribution of this channel to go
up to 70% of total revenue within next 2 years. Majority of this growth would be fuelled by company’s ability to strengthen its
presence on smartphones. Hence as a first step, Happily Unmarried has developed a mobile specific website with design
suited for usage on smartphones.
Happily Unmarried does not believe in hard selling. The company relies on its content to generate curiosity about the brand.
The humorous content that the company creates gels well with the target segment and generates curiosity about the brand.
As a result people visit the website to explore about the brand. And there they find the unique products which again
reinnforces the fun and quirky spirit of the brand. This approach has worked well for the company and has fuelled
substantial word of mouth for the brand. Happily Unmarried distributes its content via its Facebook page -
www.facebook.com/like.HU. It has over 3 lakhs fans on Facebook. Company also relies on Facebook ads to promote its
products.
In June 2014, Happily Unmarried launched its blog – www.happilyunmarried.com/blog in line with its content strategy. The
objective is to create good quality humorous content that would attract people to the blog and also introduce the brand.
Thereafter, use the usual aspects of online marketing to nurture these leads and convert them into happy customers. After
the blog was launched, daily traffic to the website almost doubled within no time.
Going forward company has identified 3 key aspects (of course apart from designing unique products) to grow its online
business - (a) Strengthen presence on smart phones; (b) Create good quality, interesting content; and (c) Enable social
conversation.

Project Title and Objective:

What should Happily Unmarried's strategy be for its smartphone app?
Specifically, this strategy should answer two key questions:
1. Considering selling as the hygiene factor of this app, what should the key form/nature of the app be so that
customers spend time regularly on it?
2. How does the company ensure that this app gets downloaded by at least 5 lakh people (cumulatively on iOS and
Android) within a year's time after its release?
 HAPPILY UNMARRIED CASE STUDY

Success for Happily Unmarried:

Happily Unmarried is seeing highest revenue growth via online selling channel. Hence, the company wants to - (i)
strengthen its mobile (read smartphone) presence and (ii) grow customer base via all popular mobile platforms and form
factors. The success of this vision would depend on to customers engaged with the brand via these platforms.

Recommended Methodology:
1. Both qualitative and quantitative research: - To glean insights about preferences, motivations/values, social behaviour of
Happily Unmarried's target segment.
2. Use the insights to carve out a specific behaviour portrayed by the segment that can form the backbone of the
smartphone app. Notice that this behaviour should match (or be close enough) with the image of Happily Unmarried.
3. Study other apps that have taken similar approach to emulate a specific social behaviour in a smartphone app that users
regularly spend time on. Let's excuse the obvious ones!

Expected Outcome:
1. What specific sub-segment/s under Happily Unmarried's target segment should the app be targeted at?
2. Determine the key nature of Happily Unmarried's smartphone app. Cleary define all the primary use-cases and
workflows.
3. Present a convincing case why and how would the target segment spend time regularly on the proposed app.
4. Present specific barriers/considerations for an app download and usage.
5. Marketing plan to drive downloads on both iOS and Android. This plan should include overall communication strategy,
promotional tactics, recommended media mix, and success metrics at the minimum.

Useful References for Facts and Industry Insights:

1. India E-commerce insights - March 2014 by Accel partners
2. State of India’s mobile internet - 2013 by Avendus
3. “Does every brand need a mobile app?” Afaqs
4. Mobile Internet Consumer India 2013 report by Mobile Marketing Association
5. Indian App makers struggle for download breakthroughs
6. Internet Trends 2014 by Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers
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Annexure:
1. Couple of products by Happily Unmarried
 HAPPILY UNMARRIED CASE STUDY

2. Example of mailers that Happily Unmarried sends to its customers

Feedback mailer A promotion mailer