Britannia to use digital, social, product packs to promote HerStore marketplace, says CMO Amit Doshi
Amit Doshi, Chief Marketing Officer of Britannia Industries Ltd, sheds light on the genesis of the HerStore marketplace for women entrepreneurs, the "acts not ads" approach and how the platform works.
One of the country's biggest advertisers and owner of iconic food brand Britannia Industries Ltd, chose to do more than just an ad for the 2024 Women's Day. Britannia Marie Gold launched HerStore, a digital ecosystem for women entrepreneurs, in keeping with the company's commitment from 2023 to celebrate women everyday.
HerStore is a marketplace which lists both products and services - all owned by women. The platform will also soon offer a suite of training, workshops, and upskilling videos tailored to equip women entrepreneurs with the skills and knowledge to fuel their businesses and entrepreneurial ventures. This will be complemented with a community to enable knowledge sharing and mentoring among womenpreneurs, the company stated.
Britannia said HerStore is built on learning from four chapters of Britannia Marie Gold Mystartup programme, a program the company has been running since 2019. Storyboard18 caught up with Amit Doshi, chief marketing officer, Britannia Industries Ltd, to dig into the genesis of the "acts not ads" approach and how HerStore works.
Read on.
What was the genesis of the HerStore platform and the idea to build a digital ecosystem?
Britannia Marie Gold has been committed to empowering women and has built a strong emotional resonance with its audience. In 2023, we committed to honoring women every single day, as Women’s Day should not be celebrated only on one day. We decided to act on our belief this year, instead of merely releasing an ad with HerStore. HerStore, an initiative by Britannia Marie Gold is an extremely unique digital ecosystem for providing constant support to women entrepreneurs in India. We have launched the HerStore marketplace where already over 2000 products and services, and 50+ women led businesses are listed.
What are the insights driving the platform initiative?
We have been running an annual property by Britannia Marie Gold - MyStartup Contest for the last four years. The programme was initiated in 2019 to enable women to overcome barriers with respect to finance and upskilling required to embark on their entrepreneurial journeys. Thus far, MyStartup Contest has provided seed funding of Rs. 10 lakhs each for over 50 entrepreneurs and equipped over 50,000 women with the skills to start their business.
Last season saw interest from over 2 million women, and the team has been able to help upskill over 80,000 women. More than 25 of the winners now have thriving businesses, and already over 10 winners have been onboarded on HerStore. Based on the learning from four successful chapters of MyStartup contest, we got feedback from the entrepreneurs themselves that there is a need for a platform for constant guidance to prosper, and hence this women’s day - we are proud to take the first step towards that with HerStore.
What are HerStore’s objectives - for the short term and long term?
HerStore is a digital ecosystem aimed at providing constant support to women in their entrepreneurial journeys at all stages. We are working towards evolving the current marketplace of HerStore into a true digital ecosystem with training, mentorship, upskilling, community for knowledge transfer and much more. Our goal is to build a one stop enabling platform for all existing and aspiring women entrepreneurs. Britannia Marie Gold will continue to work towards empowering women and we truly hope HerStore will act as an enabler to truly democratise the ecosystem for women entrepreneurs in India.
How does it work and who is the target seller?
The current marketplace of HerStore’s digital ecosystem is enabled for buyers where already over 2000 products and services by 50+ women led businesses are listed. The beauty of HerStore is in the journey for the sellers, as it allows the women to list their business and services on the marketplace with no cost to them, and 0 percent commission model. The listing is enabled for sellers who do not have websites, where we link the listing on HerStore with their whatsapp order page.
HerStore is for each and every woman out there who has an idea. If they are already running a business for a product or service - we hope for HerStore to give them a platform for further scaling it up. With the community being enabled on HerStore later, we hope the constant knowledge transfer will also lead to the birth of several aspiring womenpreneurs. The platform will also further fuel aspiring womenpreneurs with a seamless access to Britannia Marie Gold Mystartup Contest Season 5.
What are the marketing and media plans for the platform?
Britannia Marie Gold MyStartup contest and HerStore now, are integral to Britannia Marie Gold. HerStore amplification started with the Jio WPL pre-show. Post that, we plan to build awareness for the platform through various channels such as digital, social and even on our packs as well.
