ABOUT PASTEL THERAPY LLP
During 2020 pandemic, I was searching for a summer internship, when I had a sudden idea of starting something of my own. I was really fascinated with the concept of subscription boxes when I was first introduced to them in 2016 during my visit to the States.
Subscribing to receive a box of products monthly is not a popular notion in India and I had the opportunity to tap into a completely new market. Soon after, my brother and I set to do our market research and after almost 8 months of ideating, researching and designing, we finally launched the 1st Subscription Box Company in India for personal care that catered to all genders!
MY ROLE HERE
I managed all end to end strategy and operations, performing nearly all the tasks that one would require to run a company. Through Pastel Therapy, my knowledge extends beyond marketing and includes other aspects of running a business.
Market Research
Before the launch of Pastel Therapy, we conducted a thorough market research, conducting surveys, using hypothesis testing and analysis to help set the framework. We continued market research parallelly during business to stay with the current trends.
Offline & Online Marketing
I worked in various marketing aspects such as content creation, digital and social media marketing, ad campaigns, promotions, offline sales through exhibitions and CRM. We utilized organic marketing at the maximum and invested in paid marketing as well.
Product & Brand Development
For months, we worked on the prototypes addressing each pain point and designed the steps for a perfect unboxing experience. For our brand, we created a brand persona that could resonate with our TG and strategized our branding to cater them.
Procurement & Logistics
For our subscription and gift boxes, I coordinated with local & global businesses, third party vendors and wholesalers to procure the products. We tied up with a logistics company called iThink Logistics to ship over orders across India.
Finance
This was one segment I did not have much experience in. Together, my brother and I worked towards a financial budget for the company and predicted our profits and revenue for each year. We also consulted an accountant company to look over our taxes.
HRM & Production
The entire production of candles was done in house and of course it helped that I loved making candles. We also hired interns to take care of our marketing side so we could pay attention on the more important aspects of the business.
KEY INSIGHTS & PIVOT TO CANDLES
01
Through primary research i.e. surveys of friends, family members and classmates, we gained useful insights about consumer buying behavior and attitude towards Subscription boxes. Using those, we built an STP analysis model which helped to set our primary & secondary target audience. Click here to view it.
02
In 2021, there were only a handful of subscription box companies in India especially in the personal care segment. We identified few indirect competitors along with one direct competitor to conduct our competitor analysis. This helped us to develop a value proposition for our boxes as well as find consumer pain points which we could address through our product. Click here to view it.
03
In our 4th month of subscription boxes, we introduced candles that were manufactured in house. Lavender + Vanilla was our signature scent and was loved by most of our customers. Initially, we only offered a combined purchase to promote our boxes. But after receiving messages to buy candles separately, we took a bold risk and introduced a collection of 5 different scents of candles in 3 different sizes. In 2 years, this small business sold more than 900 candles.
04
After the first 6 months, our web analysis revealed that orders placed were not from recurring customers but new customers each month. We discovered through feedbacks that consumers could not subscribe on a monthly basis because of the contents in the box (new products every month) as they had their preferences for particular brands. We converted the subscription boxes to gift boxes and it turned out to be a huge success. We also tapped into the B2B market
Pastel Therapy was my brainchild!
I have had a lifetime of learnings through this venture and would be grateful to have it all again!
