'For D2C brands, it is key for celebs to share the core values'

D2C space has grown phenomenally in the last five years and has been fuelled further by the startup economy. Many brands of this category are finding their voice in the cluttered space. While there are several channels to reach consumers, brands have been associating with celebrities too. 

At the e4m D2C Revolution, brands came together to discuss celebrity endorsements in the D2C space. The session was moderated by Sarvesh Bagla, CEO, Techmagnate. The others on the panel were Bharat Bhalla, Founder, Yu Foodlabs; Varun Kapur, Founder, Yu Foodlabs; Pashmi Shah, Co-Founder & CMO, GetAWay; Anshita Mehrotra, Founder, Fix My Curls;  Anant Tanted, Founder & CEO, The Indian Garage Co. and  Jash T Shah, Founder & CEO, GetAWay

Asked about the celebrity associations and the thought behind onboarding them, Bhalla of Yu Foodlabs said, “We operate in the food section and it is infamous for a lot of things, the quality of ingredients being one of them. There is a certain amount of trust deficit that exists in the consumer. The customer has been misled in this industry and we are seeing videos where people are calling out brands, so for a brand like us, we are trying to make a mark. For us we wanted to go with somebody who is a challenger himself. Hardik Pandya who came on board earlier this year. He really symbolises the challenger approach that we have catering towards a large market segment.”

As for Kapur of Yu Foodlabs said, “Before selecting Hardik, there was a lot of discussion about where our brand fit in terms of population and we were very clear that we want to eventually create a mass product and then it was to co-relate who can appeal to that mass.”

Similarly, Shah of GetAWay shared that, “The celebrity that is going to endorse your brand legitimately needs to deliver the messaging and that person needs to embody the brand values so for us it was a natural fitment and we got Malaika Arora on board and in fact when we approached her as a brand ambassador, she said no and wanted to be an investor in the brand because she truly believes in following a lifestyle, a healthy diet and also indulging in food while not having to compromise on taste and we thought this is a perfect marriage. For D2C brands, I think it is important to have the person and the brand share the core values.”

Mehrotra of Fix My Curls, said, “We found Palak Muchchal and wanted her for her hair which is naturally curly. And we wanted someone to be who they are and Palak is a great example of that.”

Tanted, who comes from a cluttered space of fashion, said, “So we have signed Suryakumar Yadav, we wanted somebody who has his own style, who is very unconventional because the fashion that we were making was also very unconventional. We wanted to get somebody who resonates with the brand, we are a d2c company and that means there is no filtration. We wanted to give our consumers fast fashion. He is a very unconventional player.”

Asked about what having a celebrity brings to the table, the founders said it helped them to get discovered and build credibility quickly amongst the consumers. However, Mehrotra had a different take on this. She said that she would have waited a little before getting associated with someone. She said, “There is a lot of work that goes into endorsement. I think you should do it when it is comfortable for you to take a leap.”