What’s in a name?
For this super offbeat company, Happily Unmarried, everything starts with their brand ‘name’.
How did they come up with the idea of the ‘most non-Indian’ name, you wonder?
Being one of India’s very own youth destinations for quirky products, for ‘Happily Unmarried’ inspiration emits from the energy and vitality of the youth.
Rajat Tuli and Rahul Anand, alumni of MICA and founders of ‘Happily Unmarried’, started with the unique venture “when we were single, nothing was working for us” – Mr. Anand – and thus came up with Happily Unmarried, with the aim to provide everything to the youth, from accommodation to furniture.
Marketing, Promotion and Branding
With over 5.5 Lakh fans on Facebook and more than 4000 followers on Twitter, Happily Unmarried is all about hitting the right spot with its TG. From product posts to quirky blogs, and seasonal posts, they do it all! Their blogs and shareable posts are created in the meme-style, while their product posts are classy – with high-resolution images and minimal visualization. Their content plan plays well with the TG, generating curiosity towards the brand. This results in leads on the website, leading to sales. Majority of this growth would be fueled by the company’s ability to strengthen its presence on smartphones.
The logo itself is quite interesting – the brand name in the shape of a crushed can. The appearance of the entire brand and its products raise the benchmark for other brands in this category.
Indian kitsch art design has really picked up pace over the past 5-7 years with brands like Happily Unmarried. The primary aim is to identify objects of mass consumption and make them fun, and quirky. In other words, they have taken everyday humour and married it with utility products to create a range that people want to own. Their design policy with Indian kitsch art is to get the products to make one smile, or better, laugh out loud.
Using pull marketing tactics, Happily Unmarried aim at creating a buzz about their out of the box products. Not believing in hard selling, the company relies on its content to generate curiosity about the brand.
They promote themselves on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and have acquired quite the number of followers, specifically on Facebook, followed by Instagram. While they founded the company in the early 2000s, they started promoting themselves online since 2014, quite late, but, mind you, none of it in the traditional marketing ways. We deduce that the brand’s success has come mostly through ‘Word of Mouth’. In fact, when they first opened up a shop – in Goa, 2005 – it was WOM publicity that brought them the confidence to go Pan-India. There weren’t too many options for online sales or malls to showcase their products back then, but, today the company gets its highest sales from their e-commerce portal.
The online shopping experience is completely mesmerizing. You get to shop by category or shop for the occasion. Gifting was now a lot of fun with Happily Unmarried. Their challenge was to emerge as a “desi-cool brand”. So, how did they do it? Their mode of research was listening to popular terms that people used, what attracts the youth – “from popular and emerging trends to desi pop-art”. Their language usage is Hinglish – which is very youth-oriented and caters to most of the regions of the diverse country.
Raman Raghav 2.0, Delhi Daredevils, Bacardi, Dil Dhadakne Do, Bombay Velvet, Airlift, Shaandaar, NH10
They’re not just names – these associations have resulted in Happily Unmarried upping their game in the market. They were on point in reaching out to their TG via these brand associations. They successfully connected with the audience, shared some fun, made them smile. Once again, their products acted as the great ambassadors of the brand.
Happily, Unmarried has also been offering design services now – with Bombay Velvet – and have ‘Music in the Hills’ as a property. MiH – a fun music festival with no agenda – helps Happily Unmarried in meet like-minded people. It therefore leads to a lot of intangible gains. With these associations, Happily Unmarried does come across as a totally fun brand that is here to stay in the heart – err, homes – of the youth, or rather, the Happily Unmarried.
They have created a simple equation for the success of their products:
Creativity + Simplicity + Attractiveness = Quirky Product
As long as the equation remains and the creativity is explored, we see a super successful brand in the making.
The Ustraa-way!
In order to stay relevant, as they grow bigger, increase scale and scope, they have expanded into new domains. Read: Ustraa – HAPPILY UNMARRIED’s Grooming Brand for Men. This brand extension had taken the millennials of the nation by storm upon its arrival. It got all the curious minds thinking about this new quirky entrance into the market for Men’s Grooming specifically.
When Ustraa came into the market, it had been referred to as a “bro-saviour”. The product nomenclature was smart. ‘Usraa’ is a Hindi slang – technically a razor blade used for a clean shaved face, thus it was quite apt and idiosyncratic thinking when associated with the men’s grooming.
Product Range:
- Shaving Cream
- After Shave
- Facewash
- Body Wash
- Mooch & Beard Tonic
- Beard Wash
- Hair Wax
- Travel Kit
At long last, a brand that looked after men’s grooming, and with such swag!
“Personal care was a challenge. But we used the brand of ‘Happily Unmarried’ itself as a platform. We were already everywhere the young tend to be. When we went for carving a niche for ourselves, we discovered that almost all cosmetic companies use industry level chemicals that aren’t safe for the skin. We wanted to make Ustraa safe and hygienic, without that being the key selling point.”
And that is how Ustraa came up with an oh-so-cool, macho and rugged image with the tagline “Not tested on animals, only on rascals.” What mostly worked for this new extension was the unconventional names of products, innovative products – the beard wash for instance – with innovative packaging of an Old School shaving kit. The designing is minimalist which draws the attention of the audience where they want to – to the quirk factor.
This brand extension has been heavily marketing on the Social Media platforms. In fact, Ustraa has seen a vigorous Social Media Marketing exercise – specifically on Facebook – as compared to its parent brand ‘HAPPILY UNMARRIED’. Having a separate identity on Social Media, (read: a verified Facebook Page), Ustraa has reached out to its audience faster with relatable content, only quirky in manner.
India has one of the largest youth populations in the world. What has helped them succeed with the youth is the fact that they are quick to think on how to fill the need gap with their off-beat products.