Between MS Dhoni (7), Hrithik Roshan (HRX) and Katrina Kaif (Kay Beauty), Indians had their lifestyle, skincare and wellness routine entirely curated by the most-recognised celebrities. Now, social media influencers are the big D2C brands and their followers on Facebook, YouTube and Twitch have transformed into their customers. For example, fashion influencer Juhi Godambe has her own apparel brand Arabella, while beauty blogger Debasree Banerjee launched her eponymous (with an extra ‘e’) line of make-up targeted at young Indian women. More recently, Kabita Singh, food blogger and YouTuber, introduced her own range of spice mixes and masalas under the Kabita’s Kitchen brand.
While none of these brands are big enough yet to take on the might of established players in their respective categories, becoming a brand owner from being just an influencer seems like a natural progression, says Sudhish Balan, co-founder and chief creative officer, Tonic Worldwide. “We have now reached a point where the influencers themselves have become a brand. Creating a new business is a logical move because it offers influencers new business avenues. One of their biggest plus points is that they understand their communities and audiences well, and can leverage that to sell their own line of apparel or merchandise,” he says.
Most content creators either sell their new products through the D2C route (one’s own website) or through a marketplace like Amazon, MerchGarage or Merchbay.
As recently as two years ago, the average social media user never perceived influencers as creators of entertainment or informative content. The pandemic changed that, which is why Balan believes that influencer-led businesses have the potential to grow and succeed.
According to a report by INCA, the influencer marketing unit at GroupM, this partiular industry is currently valued at `1,275 crore, and will grow at a CAGR of 25% over the next five years. Categories like personal care, food and beverage, fashion, jewellery and electronics together contribute 70% of the volume of influencer marketing.
An early mover in this direction was YouTube personality Bhuvan Bam, who along with his business partner Rohit Raj, launched merchandising platform Youthiapa around five years ago, offering apparel, footwear and accessories. According to Bam, the brand’s value has already crossed `50 crore, encouraging him to consider expanding offline too.
Mukesh Vij, founder of digital marketing company Hashtag Orange, observes that the success of a content creator’s business is not always directly tied to their popularity. Building a successful business requires knowledge in functions such as logistics, packaging and operations, which could be challenging for content creators. “Content creators who are able to leverage their existing audience and personal brand to build a successful business can potentially see significant profitability, but it’s important to approach the business with a realistic and strategic mindset,” he says.
Kabita Singh of Kabita’s Kitchen says that India Food Network manages most of the masala brand’s business operations so that she can stay focussed on creating content and developing new spice blends. “At the moment, we have launched a limited range of masalas and they are available for sale on just a few e-commerce platforms. We have positive feedback from customers so far and plan to make our products available on more platforms,” Singh says.
Considering she has over 12.5 million YouTube subscribers, her new business is expected to perform well if she even receives one order annually from 5-10% of her followers.
There is always of course the concern about existing brand partnerships, which are the primary revenue source for most content creators. According to Sonali Banerji, creative director at BC Web Wise, influencers should be mindful not to hamper the brand that they have already created and nurtured, which is themselves. The digital universe can be a bit tricky and considering that they will continue to collaborate with existing brands, she recommends that creators maintain healthy business relationships and keep an inclusive approach in their communication.
When influencers launch their own brand, the question they should ask is whether their followers are going to buy into it, points out Kunal Sawant, business head at INCA, GroupM. The next hurdle is scaling up. “One of the key challenges lies in sustaining the brand and scaling up because offline retail is expensive. At the end of the day, growth can happen only once you widen your sales touch points because how much traffic can you possibly drive to a D2C website?” asks Sawant, noting that in the short term, content creation and brand collaborations will remain the main revenue driver for influencers.