ASSIGNMENT - 9 MARKS GUIDELINES

Identify and describe relavant buyer personas for a brand .

1. carefully review the following articles on the brand purpose and business fundamentals for Nykaa:

before attempting the questions , please go through these articles

before attempting the questions , please get an idea about concepts like Digital marketing , buyer persona , brand purpose vs buyer persona , customer digital journey

please go through the Nykaa website online store and make a note of , products that Nykaa sell online . and before attempting the below question , please throughly go through the guidelines , instructions , and above mentioned articles

Nykaa reveales its omni- channel content and guided selling strategy For an online retailer like Nykaa, customer experience is a key component of a robust customer retention strategy Nykaa's 360-degree coordinated marketing and content strategy which has been developed over the last seven years, makes it one of the largest omni-channel beauty players in the country, the company said on Monday. For an online retailer like Nykaa, customer experience is a key component of a robust customer retention strategy. Content contributes 2.5% to the GMV of Nykaa, with the average order value of content consumers being 15% higher than non- consumers. "Given that more than half of all shoppers spend 75% of their total shopping time conducting online research, guided selling; education and tight curation have been the hallmark of Nykaa's online content strategy. Educating customers on the USPs of products available online, recommending specific products based on their unique needs and providing adequate information to instill confidence about the selected products have been the key differentiators for Nykaa. Content properties--via Stores and Buying Guides that cherry pick from thousands of products available online-- have been built into the purchase funnel right from discovery to purchase via various tools. The idea is to bring the offline have been built into the purchase funnel right from discovery to purchase via various tools. The idea is to bring the offline shopping experience online and provide a store-like shopping experience to digital customers," the company said. - The latest omni-channel leadership report by Newstore suggests that companies investing in omni-channel strategies have a 91% average higher year-on-year customer retention rate than companies who don't. The Foundation Finder, was the first omni- channel initiative with 14 participating brands and 18 skin shades that was simultaneously rolled out online and in the 45 stores across the country. Thus was followed up by the Lipstick Finder and Eyeliner Finder omni-channel initiatives. As one of Nykaa's six pillars, content has always been the key differentiator between our brand and many others in the e-com space. And that's because we have made a concerted, 360-degree effort to integrate advice in a way that it forms the very DNA of our website, with a content touchpoint no matter where you are in the Nykaa universe. Our content strategy has always rested on education, curation and personalisation, seeking to transform the traditional buying experience through new-age technology and narratives. We curate and customise content in the form of Beauty Book articles, Editor's Choice widgets, IT Lists, Buying Guides, Stores Product reviews and the Routine Finder. Some of these then lead to finely curated listing pages which help narrow down the customer's search, helping them make more informed product choices," Madhavi Irani, chief officer, content, Nykaa.com, said. ) Tools like the monthly buying guides and seasonal/festival specific stores for guided selling like: Summer Store, Monsoon store, Diwali Store, Eyeliner and Kajal store, Foundation Finder, Lipstick Finder, Skincare Another initiative - Nykaa's Routine Finder is a comprehensive skin, hair and wellness tool allows customers to build their perfect beauty regimen with recommended products best suited for their skin, hair and wellness concerns and needs. It helps customers understand what products work together, what their benefits are and the order in which they need to be used for optimal results. On an average the Routine Finder garners close to 15,000 visits per day across all platforms, of which 90% are through the App users and 10% are website. The average AOV is Rs 1400 across platforms. views. Meanwhile, Nykaa's Infomercials reach out to regional audiences from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities just starting out on their beauty journeys with differentiated content offerings and step-by-step product demos. - Inc42 UpNext: Nykaa's Secret Sauce For Building A Brand Synonymous To Beauty In India The beauty ecommerce startup has recently expanded rapidly in the offline market . Nykaa CEO Anchit Nayar said the company has reached the breakeven point with INR 1229 Cr revenue in FY 19 . Will Nykaa manage to fight off the omnichannel competition from Flipkart, Amazon and Reliance? Which beauty brand do fashion designer Masaba Gupta, Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif, and supermodel Gigi Hadid (of Victoria's Secret fame) turn to in India? Forget the big cosmetic brands that are probably shuffling through the mind's eye it's actually Nykaa. Nykaa needs little introduction in the Indian context. Nearly everyone who has shopped online is familiar with the brand. And it's become synonymous with beauty shopping in the country. Claiming a 75% retention rate today and with over 1000 brand collaborations, the seven-year old startup is not only the premier destination for beauty and wellness products in India, but it's also managed to enter the ultra-competitive, long-tail retail space. When Nykaa launched in 2012, the online beauty space had a couple of players such as Urbantouch and Purplle. Urbantouch was shuttered in March 2013 after being acquired by FashionAndYou. And while Purplle is still around Nykaa has a much higher brand recall in the beauty vertical. Speaking to Inc42 in 2017, founder Falguni Nayar said, "The goal was always to start in a sunrise industry, nascent and ready for a market leader. The beauty industry in India has always been fragmented, be it online or offline." While it has made its name online, Nykaa is looking to break through into the coveted ecommerce unicorn club with its strategy for the offline market. But how did the company get there and how is it charting a course for the next level? For CEO (retail) Anchit Nayar, the strong customer trust and brand recall are Nykaa's biggest strengths. Anchit, son of Nykaa founder Falguni Nayar, has been leading the company's omnichannel efforts. He told Inc42 that the Nykaa's inventory- led business model allows it to ensure authenticity of products and competitive pricing. The other factor he said is the company's ability to create a connect with its customers through relatable social media content. "This is different from Kareena Kapoor selling kajal or Aishwarya Rai promoting a shampoo, these are 23-25 years old girls who look and talk like the customer instead of speaking from a pedestal. Nykaa stands out from other ecommerce players because of its inventory model. Products are bought from brands and distributors, and then sold directly to the customers. Unlike a marketplace model, where third party sellers list products, Nykaa has a stronger hold on what it sells, which arrests counterfeit products from making it to the platform. Like Nayar said, content is also one of Nykaa's strengths, and by this he was hinting at the digital content on social media and YouTube. Nykaa runs these channels through an in-house team of around 20 girls called the Nykaa Army. Essentially, these are beauty enthusiasts and help add the relatable, girl-next-door vibe which Nykaa's customers have lapped up Nykaa has a social media following of over 5 Mn users. These factors couple along with the company's 150-strong customer service team and a delivery network across 70K pincodes in India, have built Nykaa's brand reputation, Nayar said. And the next step is to replicate this trust in the offline market. Nykaa: Living In An Omnichannel World This month, Nykaa announced the opening of its 55th offline store in Raipur, Chattisgarh. Since the launch of Nykaa's first offline store in Delhi, the company has expanded its presence to over 20 Indian cities including Bengaluru, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, and Bhubaneswar among others. "We have taken the call to be an omnichannel retailer because beauty is a category where physical trial is critical. We realised that if we want to sell premium products or even affordable products in categories like blush and foundations, colour matching is very important. So we realised that in order to give our customers a really holistic beauty experience, we had to build a physical retail distribution," said Nayar. - Nykaa has stores in three formats Luxe, On Trend and Kiosks. While Nykaa On Trend products are limited to trending and fashionable brands, Nykaa Luxe stores feature more premium and luxury brands such as Estee Lauder, Dior, Huda Beauty, and M.A.C Cosmetics among others. Besides women beauty, Nykaa also has a range of grooming products for men on the Nykaa Man website and app and an online community for beauty enthusiasts Nykaa Network The main difference in the offline retail experience and the ecommerce channel is the products that are stocked. While Nykaa.com can easily list hundreds of thousands of products, the stores get a curated selection of 40-50 brands especially chosen for the location, city and outlet. These also include brands that Nykaa believes customers will want to try before buying. Given this smaller selection and the fact that Nykaa is primarily an online brand, the split between online and offline orders is skewed towards the former. Ecommerce accounts for 85% of the business, but that doesn't tell you the whole story. Nayar said when compared on the basis of brands that are available both online and offline, the revenue share is split down the middle at 50%. That's an encouraging sign for Nykaa as it expands its retail footprint. But offline retail is not just about experiencing products Nayar said the stores help customers discover new brands and also consult the in-store beauty advisors. Another insight that Nykaa drew is that for products that require application training the first time or for brands or SKUs that are new to the market, customers usually make the first purchase offline and later replenish the product via online orders. "We want to move away from the discounted product selling point of ecommerce platforms and instead bring women very fashionable and stylish clothing at a reasonable price. So it's not going to be about filter by price, or filter by discounts but 'filter by style'." Responding to moves such as Reliance's plans to add virtual reality and augmented reality solutions in stores, Nayar said that Nykaa is primarily a tech company and everything it does have to be at the cutting edge of technology. He said customers can expect a few changes to the website and the app in the next couple of months. At the moment, it's working to find the right partner who can add value to customers through such technology. "We are talking to some partners about AR/VR tools. But we are very focussed that it's all about the customer and not about ourselves. Retailer just use it because they want to say 'Look, we are using it.' We have seen a lot of gimmicky AR/VR tools out there which don't really help the customers, it doesn't really add value." Question 1 With the information gathered from (I), (II), and any other secondary research (e.g., industry reports, news articles) build any one buyer persona for Nykaa. Note that the buyer persona should include: - Demographic and psychographic information - - Their goals - Objections and challenges they face General Instructions: You are required to submit one file: Business Report(PDF): In this, you need to submit all the answers to all the questions in a sequential manner. It should include a detailed explanation of the approach used, insights, inferences. You will be evaluated based on the business report Please go through the guidelines thoroughly before attempting the assessment. Criteria Points Understanding the key elements of a buyer persona (e.g., demographics & psychographics, goals, objections, and challenges) 4 Application of these concepts to arrive at the detailed buyer 5 persona Dear learners, please go through the instructions thoroughly before attempting the assessment. 1. Assessment Objective The assessments for the course at hand, have the following objectives: O Identify and describe relevant buyer personas for a brand O o Identify the types of content posted by brands using the 3H framework and their relevance in the content marketing plan o Your answers should be well thought- through, add value to the topic and have originality. o You should refrain from posting any definitions of theories & concepts o Give bibliography with links if any O You are required to submit a PDF file: o In this, you need to submit all the answers to all the questions in a sequential manner. It should include a detailed explanation of the approach used, insights, inferences, all outputs like graphs, tables, etc.(if any). You will be evaluated based on the PDF. o Do mention the assumptions taken into consideration by you in the PDF file if any o Word Limit: 1000 words(excluding the first-group/individual student details and the last -thank you and the words of the question)