The Evolution of Shaadi.com | Ft. Harsh Pamnani, Author - Booming Brands

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Debayan: Tell me why you covered Shaadi.com in your book?

Harsh: Shaadi.com is an iconic ‘Made in India’ brand. It is a pioneer and a leader in its space. Hence, I was curious to know about the brand’s inspiring journey and marketing strategies.

Debayan: Tell me a little about how Shaadi.com got started?

Harsh: In the mid-1990s, Anupam Mittal, the founder of Shaadi.com, was working in the USA. This was the period of the internet boom, and many online companies like Amazon, Yahoo, and others were evolving, and companies like Netscape went public with multi-billion-dollar IPOs. Being a part of the ecosystem, he experienced how the internet was transforming businesses and impacting consumers' lives.

In 1997, he came to India for a vacation, and his father introduced him to a traditional matchmaker, who used to travel door to door carrying a briefcase with biodatas of prospective brides and grooms. While speaking with him, Anupam realized that a traditional matchmaker's biodata collection was limited to the size of his briefcase, and thereby limited the choices of a prospective spouse. Anupam figured that this limitation of profiles was not only a problem for him but for every boy and girl looking to get married.

Because of his exposure to online businesses in the USA, he quickly realized that he could solve this problem through the internet by expanding the opportunities to meet potential life partners. To capitalize on this idea, he started a website, Sagai.com, which was later changed to Shaadi.com.

Debayan: Shaadi.com is one of the most popular internet brands in India. How did Anupam Mittal come up with this name?

Harsh: As Anupam was running a niche business of matchmaking, he thought that a brand name synonymous with the category would give more mileage. Shaadi is a Hindi word for matrimony. Every Indian, no matter from which community and from which region, is familiar with this word. Hence, Anupam decided to change the name of his website from Sagai.com to Shaadi.com. Unfortunately, the domain name Shaadi.com was already taken by someone else, who agreed to sell it at $25,000.

Debayan: Can you tell me about the evolution of Shaadi.com in Indian and international markets?

Harsh: During the period of early 2000, internet penetration in India was very low. Additionally, matrimony being a culturally loaded subject, people in India were not convinced to upload their profiles on the website. On the other hand, in the USA, during the dot-com bubble, internet usage accelerated quickly. Moreover, there was a bigger need for a service like Shaadi.com amongst the NRIs in countries like the USA and UK, simply because these people were geographically distant from India yet were looking to get married within their relevant communities.

Anupam targeted the US as the first market segment. To create brand awareness, the company aggressively ran advertisements on Indian TV channels in the USA. It also targeted many local events, conferences, and fairs. After a few years, when the US market was established, Anupam focused on the UK market.

With the advent of global companies like Yahoo followed by Google and Facebook, Indian consumers started becoming internet friendly, and internet penetration in India started picking up. After gaining popularity and building a substantial user base in the USA and UK markets, Shaadi.com started marketing campaigns in India. Later, the emergence of many Indian online ventures like MakeMyTrip and Flipkart contributed immensely to the growth of internet-friendly audience. After 2010, smartphones further accelerated internet penetration, and along with this, the growth of Shaadi.com's customer base also accelerated.

Debayan: Can you tell me about one of the marketing strategies that contributed to the growth of Shaadi.com?

Harsh: Shaadi.com is known for many innovative marketing strategies and campaigns that I have covered in my book. Let me talk about a few of them. In the early 2000s, Yahoo was one of the biggest internet brands and was almost like a gateway to the internet. Shaadi.com saw the opportunity and partnered with Yahoo. This partnership enabled users of the Yahoo India portal to access various products and services on Shaadi.com like a wedding planner, traditions, mahurats, astrology, gifting, and honeymoon travel. Through this partnership, Yahoo got something new to engage its Indian audience, and Shaadi.com got a lot of visibility among Indians who were users of Yahoo.

In the late 2000s, when smartphones and apps were not in trend, Shaadi.com partnered with Vodafone and launched 'Shaadi.com on Vodafone' – a matrimonial service on Vodafone mobile phone. During the same period, Shaadi.com partnered with DishTV and launched a new interactive service on its platform called 'Shaadi Active.' This service made it possible for DishTV subscribers to look for profiles of prospective life partners listed on Shaadi.com on their TV screens. Shaadi.com also partnered with television channel Star Plus for its matrimonial reality show – Star Vivaah. There have been many other interesting partnerships that have helped the company to reach its target audience and create brand awareness.

In 2015, the company launched 'Dowry Calculator' and promoted it with a message on their homepage that this calculator will calculate the amount of dowry a person deserves based on their educational qualifications, salary, etc. Initially, the company received quite a few disgusting responses on social media for openly promoting dowry with its calculator. However, soon enough, people found out the truth behind this initiative. In this calculator, upon entering one's details like educational qualification and income, instead of showing their dowry worth, the calculator shows the stats about dowry deaths in India. This calculator attracted viewers from over 170 countries and created a lot of conversation among the audience on various online platforms. By thinking on behalf of the people and creating these kinds of campaigns to uplift the society, the company has been able to create a lot of brand love and following, which is reflected from the audience engagement on its social media platforms.

Debayan: Can you share one piece of advice that Anupam Mittal shared with you for Booming Brands’ readers?

Harsh: Actually, Anupam has given multiple advice. One of them is, by looking at big brands, entrepreneurs get tempted to get into multiple things quickly. This temptation is both dangerous and costly. Rather than broadening your base quickly, try to become best in your niche first. You should be able to respect yourself more than anyone else in your niche.