BoAt

BoAt: A Journey To Become a Market Leader in The Hearable Segment

Originating in India, boAt is a company that specializes in electronic gadgets that are designed with an emphasis on audio. 

Furthermore, their product range includes a variety of wireless speakers, earbuds (known as Airdopes), wired and wireless headphones and earphones, premium rugged cables, home audio equipment, and a selection of other innovative technological accessories.

BoAt is among the most popular brands in the current electronic and lifestyle segment. And is one of the most leading players in the market who disrupted the entire hearable market segment. 

However, its journey to becoming the market leader starts with a smart move by branding itself as a lifestyle brand Which makes them a unique and leading brand in the Indian consumer market. 

In the past 6 years, “BoAt has achieved a strong position in the market. In 2021  boAt’s market share was reported at 35% and in 2022 it declined and reached around 25% in 4Q22.” However, with the increasing market growth and players they have maintained the lead.

Whereas, “if we see the market share of their competitors then Noise stood second with 11.2%, Oneplus stands third with 10.2%, Firebolt stands at fourth place, and Boult Audio stands in fifth place with 7.9% in the wearable market segment at year 2022 as per the reports.” 

As a result, “BoAt reported its revenue to 3000 crores in 2022. annual shipments of BoAt grew by 9.3% y-o-y, at 29.3 million in 2022 as per the report of thehindu.com.”

But here’s the question arises how did BoAt achieved such an extraordinary position in the crowded hearable market in India? 

Well, to know that we need to go back to the days when it all started. So let’s understand from the beginning of the journey where the story of BoAt starts. 

How did it start?: Story behind the scene

The story of starting BoAt starts by taking the step forward into the cable manufacturer and seller, which rapidly expanded and served more than 800000 customers as per the report of startup talk. 

However, the founders of the company Aman Gupta(Co-founder and CMO) and Sameer Mehta(Co-founder and CPO) were the pioneers of the company’s success story that also led to an interesting story about both individuals before starting BoAt. 

About Aman Gupta:  Back in the days before starting BoAt Aman Gupta’s hard-core struggling story. 

After completing his bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Delhi University, Aman Gupta joined The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He then pursued an MBA in Finance and Strategy from the Indian School of Business, as well as an MBA in General Management and Marketing from the Kellogg School of Management as an Exchange student.

He started his career as an Assistant Manager at Citibank before co-founding and serving as CEO of Advanced Telemedia Pvt Ltd. He later worked as a Senior Management Consultant at KPMG and as a Sales Director at HARMAN International. However, Before starting BoAt he shut down 5 companies before starting BoAt. In 2014, he co-founded Imagine Marketing India(the parent company of BoAt)and then he co-founded BoAt with Sameer Mehta in the year 2016.

About Sameer Mehta: Back in the days before starting BoAt Sameer Mehta’s hard-core struggling story. 

Sameer Mehta, co-founder of boAt, holds the position of Chief Product Officer (CPO) at the company. Additionally, he serves as the Executive Director of Kores (India). 

He began his career at Redwood Interactive, which he later owned. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics after completing his schooling at St. Xavier School in Mumbai. Sameer also played a crucial role in co-founding Imagine Marketing Pvt. Ltd, the parent company of boAt.

3 Factors that create a huge market for wireless Airpod in India

Indeed, BoAt has made clever moves in its early stage. And there are 3 major events that helped BoAt enter the hearable segment and with their creative idea, they became the market leader in just 5 years of their start in India. 

Consequently, these market conditions were also available for other existing brands and but they were able to fail to take advantage of these changing climates in the market which eventually become a helping hand for BoAt in emerging as a market leader. 

#1. The sudden boom in the wireless earphones

Back in 2016, if you look closely after Apple introduced its Airpod there was a sudden boom in the fascination of wireless earphones. 

Source: Grandviewresearch.com

This makes a suitable climate for BoAt to enter in the market and make their position as a Brand. 

However, if you see the increasing market size of Wireless earphones was one of the foremost advantages for every player in the market because the flow of that market growth makes it easier for brands to expand their market share. 

#2. Jio wave in India 

The Jio wave was one of the most revolutionary events that took place in India in 2016 and has created a massive growth opportunity in various sectors for several brands. 

As a result, after Jio introduced free internet in 2016 the screen time of Indians increased and that led to the use of earphones as well.

#3. Phone manufacturing stopped shipping earphones in India

Here, after Jio introduced free internet which led to an increase in the use of earphones there was one more change taking place in the meantime. 

The phone company stopped giving earphones along with the new purchase phone. That also creates a huge demand for wireless Airpods. 

As a result, the happening of these 3 major events in India makes the market condition so suitable for BoAt which if not happened then it will take a long time for BoAt to become a leading brand. 

However, It was not just the market condition that led BoAt as a leading brand. Their smart go-to-market strategy was proven successful. 

The Go-to-market strategy of BoAT: 

BoAt GTM strategy helped the company to differentiate itself from the rest of the competitors in the crowded market and also gives BoAt customers a brand experience, which every brand should have in them that includes more reliability, availability, and serviceability. 

Price differentiation: 

BoAt found the market gap in terms of pricing and based on Indian consumers they started selling at an affordable price while other brands were selling at a higher price.

Celebrity endorsement:

BoAt on board celebrities and sportsmen, and signers such as Hardik Pandya, Kiara Advani, Kartik Aryan, Neha Kakkar, Diljit Dosanjh, Rishabh Panth, Shikhar Dhawan, and Jacqueline Fernandez.

Collaboration: 

Recently BoAt collaborate with Netflix which create massive brand awareness of the brand. This also shows BoAt has a premium brand in the eye of consumers.

How do creative marketing efforts help BoAt build brand image?

Recently, one of the marketing campaigns of BoAt got viral where they celebrate manufacturing 1 crore wearables in one year

This was quite an effective marketing campaign because of two reasons. 

The first reason is using newspaper mediums and the second is including social media like instagram, both are large-scale marketing tool mediums because of which their reach increased and the campaign eventually succeeded. However, the creative idea of using newspapers and social media together was also responsible for the success of the campaign. 

How is BoAt expanding its wings to cover the market share? 

Today, BoAt became one of the giant players in the wearable segment in India. As a result, now the company is also looking to expand its operation worldwide. However, BoAt is already 5th largest wearable brand worldwide.

But looking at the growth of the company it can be estimated that BoAt has the potential to become one of the leading players in the global market as well. The brand has already succeeded in the Indian consumer market. As a result, expansion strategies such as… 

Launching new products 

Initially, BoAt started with products such as earphones, headphones stereos, travel chargers, and premium rugged cables but later on when the penetrate the market with these two-three hero products and became a brand in the Indian market. 

They started leveraging the brand’s true potential and started launching different new products such as smart watches, Wireless Speakers, home audio, Mobile Accessories, TRebel, and even though the mask. 

Entering into new segments at the right time

BoAt is now not just operating in one segment, but there are multiple segments where BoAt is seeking to become a brand apart from the wearable market segment. As a result, to some extent, BoAt got succeeded in the different segments as well such as the Smartwatch wearing segment. 

However, this market segment was also filled with lots of leading competitors but then also BoAt easily penetrate the market because they leveraged its brand image to disrupt another segment. 

As a result, consumers easily accept BoAt smartwatches because it was an already successful brand in the wearable segment. 

Targeting right audience

“BoAt has built a community of over 3 million boAt heads online (consumers) who want to be seen listening and wearing their boat accessories to make a lifestyle statement.” 

BoAt is one of the biggest consumer brands in India. But how did they become? Which consumer segment they targeted? And How they are able to build customer loyalty? 

Well, to know the answer to these questions, we need to understand the market size and potential consumers of the industry. 

Today, India is one of the biggest smartphone users in the world with nearly 659.00M users. Now from these users, “79% of are students and adults from age 12-28 in India using smartphones, according to the report.” 

This means 520 million smartphone users can be a potential target audience for all the electronic Brands and BoAt did exactly the same thing by targeting this audience with their fashionable and lifestyle branding that attracts most to this age group. 

Using a vertical integration strategy

In simple words, the vertical integration strategy means to control the whole consumer life cycle, and that includes manufacturing to delivering the product. 

As a result, BoAt has its own manufacturing facilities that reduce its dependence on the supplier and easily manufacture the product at its convenience. In addition, they do have their own service centers, which helps them to build customer loyalty as well. 

Positioning different from competitors

When BoAt entered the wearable market segment they used positioned strategy to differentiate from the rest of the crowd by positioning themself as a lifestyle brand. 

Although, by building a quality product, by choosing a wonderful time to enter the market, by standing out from the rest of the competition through lifestyle marketing, and through strategic collaboration, BoAt Become the market leader in the hearable segment of the Indian market.

What are the consumers saying about BoAt? 

Positive feedback for BoAt often revolves around the following aspects:

1. Design and Style: Many customers appreciate the stylish and trendy designs of BoAt products, which cater to the preferences of the younger demographic.

2. Sound Quality: BoAt products are generally praised for their sound quality, especially in the mid-range and budget segment. Customers often find the audio performance to be satisfactory for their price range.

3. Affordability: BoAt has positioned itself as a budget-friendly brand, offering value-for-money products compared to higher-end competitors.

On the other hand, there have been some negative feedback and concerns reported by customers:

1. Build Quality: Some customers have raised concerns about the durability and build quality of certain BoAt products. Complaints regarding issues like product failures, cable quality, and early wear and tear have been mentioned.

2. Customer Service: A few customers have expressed dissatisfaction with BoAt’s customer service, citing delayed responses, difficulty in reaching support, or issues related to warranty claims and product replacements.

Disclaimer: It’s important to remember that customer experiences can vary, and individual opinions may differ. While this information is based on the reports and reviews given by the website- Pissedconsumer.com

Winding up with Founders’ vision

Here is the vision and mission statement by the company, “sole aim of bringing affordable, durable, and more importantly, ‘fashionable’ audio products and accessories to millennials.

However, both the founders have often said that they were proud to build a brand that makes made-in-India products and is now a successful brand.

2 responses to “BoAt: A Journey To Become a Market Leader in The Hearable Segment

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