Vinay Singh on how Fireside Ventures is empowering India’s new-age consumer brands

In the evolving landscape of consumer brands, Fireside Ventures stands as a torchbearer, enabling young startups to transform their ideas into thriving businesses. Since its inception in 2017, the early-stage venture fund has been a trusted partner for emerging consumer brands across categories like food and beverages, personal care, lifestyle, and wellness. Fireside Ventures’ portfolio includes celebrated names like boAt, Mamaearth, Slurrp Farm, and Vahdam India, among others – each a testament to the fund’s commitment to innovation, growth, and strategic mentorship.

At the helm of this dynamic ecosystem is Vinay Singh, a seasoned professional with over 15 years of expertise in FMCG, consumer brands, and digital commerce. He brings unparalleled insights into scaling Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) businesses, omnichannel marketing strategies, and digital transformation.

In conversation with Adgully, Vinay Singh, Partner and Co-founder, Fireside Ventures, shares his perspectives on omnichannel marketing, influencer strategies, and Fireside Ventures’ role in shaping India’s consumer brand revolution. He speaks about how Fireside Ventures is helping portfolio companies navigate market complexities and leverage emerging trends to connect deeply with their audiences.

How are omnichannel marketing strategies transforming brand engagement, especially within your portfolio of consumer brands?

At Fireside Ventures, we’re witnessing a seismic shift in brand engagement driven by omnichannel marketing strategies. New-age consumer brandsare starting life online to test out their thesis as it remains a very efficient channel for experimentation and engaging the first cohort of early adopters and discovering PMF.

As brands scale, they are increasingly going omnichannel earlier in their journeys, even at early revenue levels of Rs 4-5 crore per month. These could be for a plethora of reasons:

If they are in categories where dominant consumer behaviour is to touch & feel before purchase. Omni-channel is a great way to engage the consumer in the category purchase journey and make their decision making simple. Omnichannel is helping these brands exponentially expand their addressable market. We are seeing this playing out across brands like Sleep Co (Mattresses), New Me (Fashion), and 91 Cyles (Cycles and ride-ons)
Some categories require a more one on one consultative approach, especially in Capital Goods, Wellness & Healthcare. The consumer feels the need to talk to an expert before consummating a purchase in an EBO/ Clinic environment. We are seeing this play out in brands like Design Café (Home Interiors), Gynoveda (Womens’ Wellness), and Amaha (Mental Health)
India 2 and consumers living in smaller towns prefer to have offline as a key touch point, especially for first time trials, they are very comfortable with repeat purchases online. MT and GT distribution become pillars of providing consumers with access. At scale brands looking to speak to these audiences. CPG categories, especially, are increasing going offline in a big way at scale. Eg: Pilgrim/ Mamaearth (Beauty), Yogabars/ Slurrp Farm/ Vahdam (Packaged Foods)

Our portfolio brands are leveraging omnichannel strategies to deliver personalized and customized experiences, integrate online and offline channels seamlessly, and enhance customer relationships through data-driven insights. While D2C remains a viable market entry strategy for testing products and building customer relationships, omnichannel strategies enable brands to scale and expand their reach.

As an early-stage investor, we’re committed to supporting our portfolio brands in navigating the evolving omnichannel landscape. Key trends that we’re observing include increased focus on personalization, integration of online and offline channels, data-driven decision-making, and elevated brand experiences. By embracing omnichannel marketing, our portfolio brands are poised to captivate consumers, drive loyalty, and expand their TAM.

In your experience, what role does influencer marketing play in driving brand growth and fostering customer loyalty for D2C brands?

As a new brand in the market, trust building, and consumer intimacy are two things that young brands focus on. Influencer marketing helps brands to tap into the audience bases of these influencers that align with the brands ethos and in turn gives another handle for their followers to try a new brand. In addition, influencers in certain niches are at the cutting edge of adoption of new trends. Brands are fostering close relationships with key influencers in their domain to also help them identify nascent trends and launch new products that align with evolving consumer needs.

It is a powerful tool for D2C brands looking to quickly expand their reach, build credibility and foster strong customer relationships. By selecting influencers whose followers match a brand’s target demographic, D2C brands can ensure their marketing efforts are highly targeted. This precise targeting not only improves the efficiency of marketing spend but also increases the likelihood of attracting high-quality audiences who are genuinely interested in the brand.

Could you share some real-world examples from Fireside Ventures’ portfolio that highlight successful marketing campaigns and collaborations, particularly those involving influencers?

Our portfolio brands such as The Slurrp Farm and Traya have executed successful marketing campaigns and collaborations, particularly with influencers. Slurrp Farm partners with food bloggers and mom influencers to create engaging recipe content, product reviews, and tutorials. Traya actively collaborates with wellness experts and influencers for educational content, workshops, and product promotions. These influencer partnerships have helped build brand awareness, drive sales, and establish credibility.

For instance, The Slurrp Farm’s recipe videos and Traya’s ‘Health and Wellness’ blog have created a loyal customer base and established authority in their respective industries. These campaigns demonstrate the effectiveness of targeted influencer collaborations and content marketing in driving growth and revenue.

Pilgrim has recently collaborated with many influencers to educate consumers on the benefits of international ingredients like Patua, Anagain, White Lotus and Squalene. They have also used macro-influencers like Ranveer Allabadia/ Kinnari Jain to amplify their brand campaigns along with a host of regional influencers to make it more relatable to vernacular speaking audiences.

How are younger and emerging brands in your portfolio leveraging their digital journeys to build strong brand identities, capture market share, and achieve significant growth?

Young brands are starting their journey by focusing on a very tight definition of a target segment and creating products that delight that cohort of users and measure their initial success on repeats, referrals, reviews, etc. They are institutionalizing amazing customer experience and post sales journeys for these consumers to create relationships and a solutioning experience for their consumers rather than just selling product.

Based on the initial exploration of launching new differentiated products and focusing on sub-segments of consumers, they are able to find their “brand core”. They then use influencers and brand campaigns to amplify their “reason to try” and expand their target consumer set. In Parallel, the multitude of channels available to entrepreneurs – Horizontal E-Com, Q-Com, Vertical Marketplaces, ONDC, etc., help them expand access and availability with their consumer set.

Finally, with a great product, excellent consumer experience and a compelling brand narrative, entrepreneurs can take their brand omnichannel for scale in the offline world.

What is the importance of community building for D2C brands, and how are your portfolio brands integrating this into their marketing strategies?

In today’s many-to-many world, brands have to engage deeply with the communities they serve. They not only act as advocates for the brand, but also help the brand to understand their consumer more intimately and help brands leverage these communities for new product ideas, better ways to orchestrate a “wow” consumer experience and inform them on the values that are dear to their consumer. Brands are being built today alongside the consumer in every sense of the word.

Communities help foster loyalty, trust, and advocacy. Our portfolio brands recognize the importance of creating a community that shares their values and passions. By doing so, they can lower marketing costs, increase customer retention, and generate revenue through word-of-mouth marketing.

Brands like boat, with their boAtheads community; Slurrp Farm, with their Yes Moms Community; and Gynoveda, with their Circle of Sisterhood, are leading the way in community building. These communities are more than just a platform for customers to connect – they reflect the brand’s values and mission. boAtheads, for instance, is a community of music lovers and boAt enthusiasts who share their passion for music and lifestyle. Similarly, Circle of Sisterhood is a community of women and girls who are in various stages of their journey of getting to a better menstrual health; they share tips, advice, and their experiences thereby creating an atmosphere of trust and kinship.

All our portfolio brands integrate community building into their marketing strategies by creating exclusive platforms for like-minded individuals to connect, share experiences, and provide feedback.

Influencer marketing has become a key strategy for many brands. How do you see its role evolving, and what trends do you anticipate in the coming years?

Influencer marketing is a key piece of the marketing mix in creating brands. We see it playing a larger role in trust and advocacy building. Influencers with larger communities will also collaborate with brands for exclusive lines/ launches/ co-brands in the future. They will form an essential mix to helping brands identify new trends for product/ campaign launches.

There is currently a lot of noise in the market currently – we are starting to see audiences start to question influencers who flit between too many endorsements in the same category. We see influencers focusing on fewer brands but have deeper more meaningful relationships with brands going forward.

Its 2024 and any conversation without mentioning Gen AI is incomplete, we believe Gen AI will transform this landscape dramatically as it will allow regional influencers to go national/ global with voice and language translation. We are keenly watching the rise of virtual influencers and how that will especially play out with virtual consumption moments and Gen Alpha.