By Bijin Jose
We’re a product-first company, more than a marketing-first company — we’re not a marketing platform,” Boult co-founder Varun Gupta said on the sidelines of his firm’s collaboration with Ford Mustang for audio wearables. At a time when Indian companies in the smart audio market are scrambling to push out premium products, Boult is charting its own course. The brand, which Gupta claims to be the only profitable player in its segment, has been focussing on what he calls “accessible premium.”
“We do not want to be inaccessible by launching extremely heavy price point products,” said Gupta, explaining Boult’s approach to premiumisation. “We’re premiumising by about 30-50% and not by 500%.” This is a stark contrast when compared to competitors who have launched exorbitantly priced products, something which Gupta termed as “vanity partnerships.”
Talking about Boult’s alliance with Ford Mustang, Gupta said that it is a partnership that goes beyond branding. “This time, we designed products which carried the spirit of this thing (Ford Mustang), from the colours, to the stripes, to the iconic trademark, to the LED lights, to the texture on the grill,” he said.
Gupta highlighted the depth of the collaboration between the companies during the development process. “We took our team through a stringent training process to understand the principles of Mustang, the design language, the brand book, the dos and don’ts, and then we started designing,” said Gupta. The co-founder revealed that the process took over a year, with an additional eight months spent perfecting the quality and packaging.
When asked about the push towards premium offerings, Gupta shared that it was happening at a time when the audio market is showing signs of stagnation. “The overall category is stagnating, and whenever any category starts flattening, the companies focus on premiumisation,” Gupta said, adding that while other brands in the category are “de-growing, are funded and are losing money,” Boult has maintained profitability.
On the brand’s outreach strategy, Gupta said a key distinction of Boult has been its approach to manufacturing. “Thanks to our Make in India initiative, we are manufacturing more than 99% products in India by ourselves,” Gupta said, adding that this strategy gives the company greater control over quality and costs. “Initially it was ‘Make in India’, and then it was ‘Make for India,’ and now it is make from India for the world,” he said.
On Boult’s vision for global presence, Gupta said that the company has presence in the United Kingdom and Nepal with plans to enter other Southeast Asian countries, Europe, and the US.
