boAt Lifestyle: How boAt Became the No.1 Brand in India
Introduction
Do you hear about those cool start-ups from Shark Tank India? In this post, I would like to tell you about one shark who changed the way I view a business overall. The guy who is seriously next in line is Aman Gupta, who is the co-founder and the Chief Marketing Officer of boAt. It’s an amazing brand that’s into marketing all kinds of products related to the audio business: items like wireless earphones, headphones, and speakers. He co-founded boAt in 2016, along with Sameer Mehta.
Before that, Aman Gupta had the youngest batch of Chartered Accountants in India. First business with dad in tow, having its share of crests and troughs, was hard. It was tough, but he learned a lot from those experiences and made sure he didn’t make the same mistakes twice.
Just like any other entrepreneur, Aman was no exception to the mistakes that one makes in his entrepreneurial venture. Five of them flop, including E-rampage Marketing and Cutie Pie Laid. “One of the goof-ups, he said, was in spending a lot on fancy offices and too many employees before getting the product-market fit right.” That taught him a lesson, which has not slipped from his grip to date: staying focused first on what your customer needs before you try expanding. The early struggles indicate that Aman was taking baby steps towards big victories later on.
Aman Gupta founded the company with Sameer Mehta back in 2016. He had no backers and nothing when he started from scratch with just two people to do a company involved in accounting, and with a leading consumer electronics brand designing top-of-the-line yet budget-friendly audio products in his repertoire.
How come the brand grew so fast?
Founded in 2016 by Aman Gupta & Sameer Mehta, boAt has expanded rapidly to become one of India’s leading consumer electronics brands. Their revenues have risen meteorically from Rs 27 crore in 2017 to Rs 500 crore in just 2020 which is more than 108% year on year growth. They sell over 10,000 units every single day to over 20 million happy consumers across India.
How do they manage to do this? By being just super creative!
boAt is not just all about selling gadgets; rather, they have metamorphosed into a lifestyle brand that resonates with the young demographic. With the help of the branding department, they have reached the extent of naming their followers “boAtheads” in an effort to make them feel that they belong here. And most of their marketing is done where their customers are sure to view their pitches: on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
But what really sets them apart is their products.
boAt saw a gap in the market for affordable, fun pieces of audio gear and filled it: Good stuff at good prices with no compromise on quality. From its simple beginnings with an Apple charger cable that could take a hit but still worked like new, it has since diversified to include headphones, earphones, and speakers. Name them; they got it!
They further expanded the product line by acquiring Snadeal and Dhama and partnered with The Audio Store and Rigel so their cool gadgets could be more accessible offline as well.
boAt has also won many exhibits: from the GQ Men of the Year Award to ET Telecom Awards, the Indian Retail Awards, and the list just goes on! They have also been considered as one of the Great Places to Work, which highlights how boss the work culture is!
In my opinion, this is how boAt grew so fast—by doing things differently. They made this whole genre cool, affordable, and kept it 100, which is why everybody loves them so much to this day.
Financials of boAt
Revenue Growth
The revenue the company clocked in in FY 2022- 23 was nearly ₹ 4,000 crores (~ $500 million). This represents a 39% year-over-year increase in revenues from its audio segment. The journey has been fast for this company, wherein revenues have risen from ₹ 27 crores in FY 2017 to more than ₹ 500 crores in FY 2020.
Market Share
It is for a reason that BoAt has been the strong impetus in the Indian hearables segment alone. And not only this, but on an overall note, it contributed to a share of 30.6% in Q1 2023. As if this wasn’t enough, the company finds itself in the top 5 brands in India related to the wearables market comprising smartwatches as well.
Manufacturing and Sourcing
In FY2023 itself, nearly 15 million boAt products were assembled in India, making up nearly 70 percent of its audio products and 98 percent of its watches. It has a manufacturing JV with Dixon Technologies that credibly scales up output. However, while the boat still relies on Chinese design houses for the design of its products and engineering, it has expressed ambitions to source more components locally in coming years.
Profitability
The company has had positive profits since the first year itself, although it has not disclosed the figures; this is an attribute of the lean, efficient business model adopted by the firm, hence huge margins and double-digit profits.
Future Plans
While guns for close to 25 percent revenue growth in FY2024 from the ₹4,000 crore notched in FY2023, ear-to-the-ground-type products being added would further consolidate the company’s position in the audio segment and build out software-driven offerings in smartwatches. International expansion could be a little distance away with the management intending to consolidate its leadership in the Indian market before looking at any other markets.
