Tuesday 13 September 2016

Snapdeal splurges on rebranding to catch up with competitors before shopping season

snapdeal logo
Snapdeal is going through a makeover. To this end it has engaged big names like musicians Shankar Ehsaan Loy and celebrated ad maker Prasoon Joshi (chairman, CEO and chief creative officer of McCann Worldgroup India). The company has the following new changes:
  • Logo
  • Tagline – ‘Unbox Zindagi’
  • Colour – vermello
Snapdeal’s refurbished site looks like this:
snapdeal new
CEO Kunal Bahl admitted that the company has spent more than Rs. 200 crores for the exercise,
“I think we have spent Rs 200 crore or north of that in the entire campaign.” Why opt for the big shots in the industry? Snapdeal deserves only the best; says Bahl, “We wanted no regrets on this whole campaign and, hence, we had the best of people work on it for months before we were ready for the launch.”
About the logo Bahl explains,
“The new logo, with two arrows forming a box, conveys Snapdeal’s journey as partners and enablers, indicating progress, onwards and upwards.”
The company has shrewdly placed the relaunch close to India’s biggest shopping season – Diwali.

Aiming for the next 100 million buyers

Bahl says that the transformation is to welcome the next batch of shoppers,
“We have to be ready for the next 100 million ecommerce buyers that are going to come online in next five years”.
The move is not an end but a continuation, he said,
“This is actually the beginning to a very long journey. This is not a destination. Being the preferred destination for enabling the achievement of consumer aspirations is something we will have to achieve over an extended period of time through consistent execution at each touch point.”

Trying to hitch up the slipping popularity

The company stands far behind the top two players in Indian ecommerce: Flipkart and Amazon. Experts feel that the move may or may not help. Satish Meena, forecast analyst at Forrester Research feels,
“They have realised that in order to survive in this cut-throat environment, they have to revamp themselves. The last six months have been difficult for them and they have realised that while they will have to keep spending on discounts, they also have to spend on something that gives them a long-term benefit.”
Rishtee Batra, assistant professor of Marketing at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad opines,
“If Snapdeal’s management is making this change as a result of careful introspection about what it wants to communicate to its customers (and perhaps the current branding is not), this could be a good change.”
The company seems to be worried about its position, which is balancing on the tip of a needle. Whether Snapdeal will be able to take on its major competitors will remain to be seen. The shopping season has high stakes attached to it for all leading ecommerce players.

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