This fashion-forward modern man’s brand first burst onto the national scene during the second season of popular reality investment show Shark Tank, raising 1.5 crores for 1.5% equity. With an unusual name for a brand, Snitch (literally meaning tattler), the brand version tells on people to snitch on fashion trends, with this becoming the brand's philosophy.
“Phenomenal” is what Chetan Siyal, CMO and Founding Team Member, Snitch, says when asked how the year gone by fared. “We've achieved our targets and gone beyond the projected numbers. We projected Rs 500 crores and closed at around Rs 530 crores. We've been able to garner attention for the right reasons, and done groundbreaking work right from the tech aspect to community building to our expanded retail footprint.”
Last year, Snitch redesigned its app, which now has more integrations and customisation, giving the brand the ability to scale at a faster pace. The “big game-changer” was Snitch’s foray into brick-and-mortar retail with the launch of its store in July 2023 at Jayanagar, Bangalore. Since then, the brand has expanded to close to 60 stores across India. The offline venture has also led to a change in the company’s revenue mix. Siyal says, “It's a very healthy mix with offline contributing about 45% and the rest 55% from the online business, of which 65% of the revenue share is from our app and the rest is from marketplaces and online channels.”
Masters of virality?
Quirky and viral is what you could call many Snitch’s campaigns. For the launch of its largest store in Bengaluru, at one of the busiest shopping areas Brigade Road, the brand undertook an OOH activation, The "Brigade Road Light Campaign," This initiative saw lights lining the entire street, providing consumers the perfect background to click pictures and selfies, making it the perfect recipe to be Instagramable and viral.
For Women’s Day this year, Snitch’s communication was to make internet a safe place for everyone and tackling online misogyny. The campaign flipped the script and had a man experience the unsolicited and objectifying comments women face daily and confront the emotional impact of digital harassment. Another strategy of Snitch is using parodies of popular Bollywood films - Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Delhi Belly, and Go Goa Gone – in their advertising campaign. The three ads humorously addressed themes of fashion and brand authenticity, while also targeting competition.
Its recent Mother’s Day campaign encouraged people to look beyond the lens of their phones and focus on spending meaningful time with their mothers. For Holi, the brand distributed Snitch T-shirts to people to use when playing with colours, garnering significant attention.
Asked if Snitch has mastered the art of virality he says, “I won't say we have mastered the art because every day there's something new that keeps you on your toes. Every day is about innovation and creative thinking, that's what we keep doing every day, and that is what will always keep you on top of your game, or at least in the game.”
While all the campaigns are different, what’s common is all of the are buzzworthy and creates conversations. Asked what is the thought process when starting out a campaign Siyal says, “One thing that we definitely don't do is focus our energies on conversion, at least when it comes to communication or the campaign aspects. Brand building is a much longer journey than a conversion, it’s the perception that you want to build in the audience. What we hold close to our heart is being disruptive and being out-of-the-box in whatever we do, even if it is use of traditional medium how to use it in your advantage? How can media buying be different? That’s the first thing.” He continues, “The next, whatever you do, is it worth sharing and instagrammable. The next, will the content be relatable to the audience. Does it touch their funny bone, or emotions. These are the three main core factors that we consider. We then think about what the communication will be like, why are we doing it and how will it be perceived by the audience who's consuming it.”
This strategy has worked for Snitch as it has a “healthy repeat rate of about 55% and growing month-on-month.” Siyal explains that brands are focused on selling to audiences, however consumers want to feel emotionally connected and related to the brand as this helps build brand trust. He says, “How can the brand be more transparent and genuine to the audience? This is how you can actually increase your conversion and retention organically instead of putting dollars on it. That's the way to build it.”
Bifurcating the marketing efforts
When it comes to marketing, Snitch has bifurcated its marketing efforts, on the belief that different areas or regions require different methods of communication. For example, if a hoarding works in Bengaluru, it doesn’t mean that the same will work across the South, as adopting a different strategy in Hyderabad with an actor or influencer works better. Siyal says, “We look at it holistically as we are trying to be more vernacular and local rather than replicate the same across India. We are putting in a lot of work to identify which channel or media works, with omni- channel coming into full play.” He explains, “We've turned our stores into powerhouses and warehouses and are trying to deliver products within 60 minutes or om the same day. This communication is also advertising. If you’re in Delhi and we being based in Bengaluru are able to deliver that product to you within 30 or 90 minutes, the amplification of this effort is much higher. Every feature that we launch for the consumer is a marketing effort in itself.”
Looking at the media channels, as a digital-first brand, it is heavy on digital, influencer activation, small mix of OOH in certain regions, mall branding where it has a presence, BTL activations and is looking to experiment with connected TV and OTT platforms in the future. The brand also actively looks at being part of college cultural fests creating brand awareness with the right target audience.
Snitch squad
Snitch’s influencer strategy is betting big on nano-influences and micro-influencers. To tap into this community, Snitch has launched a pilot program called ‘Snitch Squad’, targeting genuine Instagram users with followers as basic as 1,000 followers and investing on this group as the ROI is higher than what has seen when collaborating with mega influencers or A-listers. However, Siyal also iterates that mega influencers and A-listers have their value. He says, “Mega influencers and A-listers are important. We are not neglecting the fact that they have broader reach and wide connectivity. Nano and micro influencers have their niches, and their followers follow them for their niches. If you're into brand and business building for the consumers, it's a good mix to have both.” Snitch also recently launched its own community creative program for any consumer who wants to be an influencer as well as for its influencers who can sign up on the platform and showcase their creativity and are paid for what they have created.
On an expansion drive
Since opening its first store, Snitch launched 50 stores in one year, and this led to the brand garnering insights from people shopping offline. Siyal says, “We've seen stark differences in people shopping online and offline. One, a design heavy product is easily sold online as design can be easily pre-predicted. However, when it comes to premium clothing, then consumers prefer to experience the fabric, finish and fit in the store. There are very different consumers – One, an avid online shopper will not shop offline. The other cohort will not shop online, but would like to experience the store and the ambience.” A concern that the team had when it opened its first store at Jayanagar in Bangalore was whether orders from this particular PIN-code decrease not now that a store had opened in the vicinity. He says, “Nothing happened to our online sales, instead our online orders increased in that particular PIN-code region. What we are also able to do is convert an offline buyer, to an online one because now that he has built that trust, and cannot get a product in-store, he knows his size/fit, he can then order the product online.” The brand has been able to garner first-hand insights from customer interactions on multiple fronts – such as the fit, anything the customer is not satisfied with, how we can make our service better. He adds, “Every weekend we make it a point to be physically present at one of our stores where we interact with our customers about what they like and why they are shopping for Snitch. People happily answer our questions and we try to incorporate the consumer feedback in our products and thinking.”
Looking ahead, Siyal says, “From a revenue aspect, we look to multiply 2x from here on, at least for this financial year itself. We've set ourselves a target of about 100 stores by this year – i,e, another 50 stores in the next six months. That's what we are gunning for and that's where all our energies are going to be. You'll see stores in the north and west because our target audience and brand pull in these regions is very strong. The adoption is very high and we want to be where our consumers are.”
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