Project At Work

(MPAW)

boAt Lifestyle

Varun Kulkarni
ED20ONL022
The Beginning

• Boat Lifestyle or boAt started as a consumer electronics brand in 2016

• Started with personal audio devices & then diversifying to the other personal
electronics categories
• Boat was started by Sameer Mehta & Aman Gupta who are Chief Product Officer and
Chief Marketing Officer Respectively
• Aman Gupta comes with a consumer electronics background with previous
organizations such as Harman, JBL
The Growth

• Boat started with initial capital from founders of INR 30 Lakhs

• After initial traction, Fireside ventures invested close to $900K in the company
• Recently, the company raised $100M from esteemed Warburg Pincus
• Boat became 5th largest wearable brand in the world accounting for 2.8% of total volume
• Boat shares the rank with Google owned Fitbit
• Boat aims to go public in India in 2022
Product Line

• Boat started with personal audio

devices & charging cables
• The company has now diversified &
caters to other categories such as
wireless, wearables & personal care
devices
Market Scenario

• Prior to boAt, the market was dominated by mostly foreign brands

• These were well established brands viz. JBL, Sennheiser, Sony, Phillips etc.
• Better distribution & higher penetration gave them an upper hand
• Products were priced at a premium
• There was a blue ocean opportunity for affordable, quality consumer electronic offering
Business Strategy Overview

• Boat cracked the market with a unique business strategy

• It involved lot of industry as well as the country first initiatives
• Some of the strategies that stood out were -
• Online Only to Hybrid Model
• Influencer Marketing
• Unique Positioning
• User Community
Online Only to Hybrid Model

• Boast started as an online only brand selling on marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart &
Own Website
• Online Marketplace presence helped the brand reach to masses
• Once the brand was known online and in high internet penetration areas, the company
moved to offline model
• Thus, company has a beautifully integrated Online & Offline Hybrid model
• This has helped the company reach across TGs
Influencer Marketing

• Boat never resorted to the traditional marketing strategies

• They event hadn’t done the mainstream digital marketing strategies such as Search or
Display until recently
• Boat had always built its marketing strategy with Influencer Marketing being at the
center
• It identified celebs across the genres such as Music, Cinema, Sports etc
• Each of these celebs were upcoming stars that had real connect to the audience
Unique Positioning

• As Boat entered the market that had big brands with deep pockets, it had to make itself
stand out
• Boat famously calls itself the ZARA of the consumer electronics
• Staying true to it’s words, Boat has positioned itself as an aspirational yet affordable
brand
• This has helped it capture large market segment that was quality and price conscious
User Community

• Boat addresses its users as Boatheads

• It not only makes users feel special but also makes them feel a sense of community
• This indirectly increases the affinity towards the brand making it a natural choice for
next purchase
• The community also helps spread word of mouth which has been proven the best
marketing across industries
Business Acumen Analysis

• High growth prospects demanded Boat to be innovative and agile in terms of strategy
• Boat applied multiple strategies to rise up to and retain the top spot
• Some of the Frameworks that Boat used are as follows –
• Blue Ocean Strategy
• Power Curve
• Unique Brand Building
Blue Ocean Strategy

• As observed earlier, Indian market was dominated by either expensive established

brands or cheaper Chinese brands
• Boat identified this blue ocean and went after it
• Boat specifically targeted that segment who aspired brand value & demanded quality
• With the right mix of quality & pricing Boat managed to capture ~37% market share in
4 years
Power Curve

• Boat started the journey with personal audio devices and cables
• Gradually it scaled the core offering and diversified into other devices
• Apart from the Audio Devices & Cables, Boat now offers Home Audio, Wireless Audio
& Personal grooming Solutions
• Most recently, Boat has ventured into the wearables leveraging IoT
• These moves have helped it move up the power curve
Unique Brand Building

• Boat relied on the Indianness of the brand

• Starting from the brand Brand Ambassadors, Model names till the tagline
• This not only helped people relate with the brand better but also helped in ongoing
geopolitical scenarios
• The influencer marketing approach resonated with the TG and signified the brand ethos
Conclusion

• Boat has grown impressively over the period of 5 years

• It currently commands 37% market share with revenues upwards of INR100Cr
• It’s present across the India and is exploring international expansion soon
• It aims to go public by 2021
• Boat has made all good bets so far which seem to have paid of
• While it struggled initially with distribution, the catch up was quick and turnaround was
impressive
Recommendation

• Focus more on the self owned distribution channels

• Evolve the community in a true sense
• Create a razor & blades model