JOURNALISM AND MEDIA STUDIES Report By: Utkarsha Kohli FMC Level 1
Brand Study: FabFurnish.com FabFurnish.com, the leading furniture and home dĂŠcor e-commerce brand based in Gurgaon, India was launched in 2012. Apart from retailing top Indian and global brands, it also has its own label like Fab Home, King Select, Elmwood, Blossoms, Rocca. Furnishings and kitchenware also come under its products. Co-founded by 3 partners: Vaibhav Aggarwal, Vikram Chopra and Mehul Aggarwal, the company is owned by Rocket Internet. Rocket Internet itself runs a lot other ventures in different countries like Dafiti in Brazil, Iconic in Australia and even Jabong in India. The IKEA model is the main inspiration of the company. Vikram Chopra was the one who visited IKEA store in the US. After which he left Wharton Business School to start FabFurnish. Whereas, Vikram Aggarwal believes that Indian home furnishing market has a huge growth potential and because the local Indian markets are so disorganized, their start-up would do well. The concept of online shopping is still new in India; a very percentage of the population prefers buying online. Since online furniture buying is not what the customers would always prefer, the whole start-up was a bit risky. But they have come out to be leaders in their field. They were concerned about the touch-and-feel factor involved in furniture buying but the way the customers are responding has given them a boost. The whole team of FabFurnish was handpicked by the founders. Even the working atmosphere is very much fun. Regular dinners, samosa sessions and also birthdays of every employee is also organized time to time.
Coming to the variety of products available in this e-retail store, it sells over 60, 000 products from more than 500 brands. Brands like Bombay Dyeing, Portico, Welspun, Corelle, Lock & Lock, Prestige, Espirt, Tupperware, American Swan, and Ferns N Petals are sold here. To make sure that their customers get their ordered products on time, it has collaborated with GoJavas, DTDC and First Flight. Not only e-stores, it has also come up with its own physical store in Gurgaon, Bangalore and Faridabad and plans of opening them in Chandigarh in North India and Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Goa is South India. “Furniture buying is a high involvement purchase and a store in Delhi-NCR has worked for us since we are based there. However, more stores are not in the pipeline. Our focus would always be online business,” believes Vaibhav Aggarwal. Some of the interesting features of their website include: 1. Part-payment method where a customer can pay a part of the payment online and the other at the time of the delivery. 2. 360 degree view of the product at the click of the mouse. 3. They introduce such categories of Home Décor or furnishing which are not easily available online. 4. They offer 12 months of guarantee on several products. 5. Videos for the correct usage and assemblage of the products. 6. It even sources products globally, mainly from Malaysia, Brazil and Indonesia.
To promote itself, FabFurnish released its first TV commercial with the tagline ‘Home of Fimagination’. The creative agency behind this commercial, Bang In The Middle, launched two advertisements for its promotion. Moreover, a social media contest was also organized in which people had to look for a word that would express freedom of imagination in one word. When the contest ended, it was seen that the word ‘Fimagination’ had started trending on social media. In such a short span of time, FabFurnish has reached heights. It has already won a few awards: 1. ‘E-Retailer in India’ in home category declared by Indian Home Congress & Awards in 2012 itself. 2. Awarded ‘Home & Lifestyle E-Retailer of the year 2014’ at the Indian E-Retail Awards. 3. Featured on CNBC Young Turks in 2014. 4. Recognized as one of the Red Herring Top 100 Asia Company in 2014. FabFurnish is also participating in the coming Great Online Shopping Festival from 10th to 12th December 2014, offering huge discounts and offers to its customers.
Description of the Magazine The basic things to be followed in the magazine are discussed below: 1. The reason behind starting up this magazine would be to guide the people about their products, how and where they are made, what are the risks involved, some tips to decorate their spaces, theme based interiors and everything else related to home styling and furnishings. 2. All such things would make the customers more interested in buying furniture and home decor online. 3. FabFurnish would become popular through word-of-mouth. 4. It would be a physical magazine comprising of 32 pages. 5. The magazine would be so appealing that the people would want to do the same decor in their homes as well. 5. It would be sent to the customers directly along with their ordered products. 6. The magazine would be published once in 2 months.
Edit List Cover Page: Photograph of a girl styling her place. Inside Cover: Advertisement Page 1: Advertisement Page 2 and 3: Contents: Categories: 1. New products and categories: Factory Environment of Bombay Dyeing Risks involved in the collection of raw material New products added on the portal 2. Current trends How to style your home even in low-budget Scope in Interior Decoration Industry Global trends in the market How to make your small space look bigger 3. DIY ideas 8 DIY ideas for your home 4. Customer home interiors Interiors and reviews of the customer’s home 5. Hotel interiors Interiors of the Taj Palace, Mumbai and The Leela Kempinsky Page 4: Editor’s Note Page 5: Review by You Page 6 and 7: Advertisement
Page 8 and 9: New products added on the portal Page 10: Factory environment of Bombay Dyeing Page 11: Risks involved in the collection of raw material Page 12 and 13: Scope in Interior Decoration industry Page 14 and 15: How to style your home even in low budget Page 16 and 17: Global trends in the market Page 18 and 19: How to make your small space look bigger Page 20-27: DIY ideas for your home Page 28 and 29: Interiors and reviews of the customer’s home Page 30 and 31: Interiors of the Taj Palace, Mumbai and The Leela Kempinski Page 32: Advertisement Inside Back: Advertisement Back Page: Advertisement
References 1. Owler.com, (2014). Press Release: FabFurnish : FabFurnish.com Set to Participate in GOSF 2014. [online] Available at: http://www.owler.com/iaApp/ article/54787e78e4b0fbe859ab1735.htm [Accessed 4 Dec. 2014]. 2. Dubey, T. (2014). ‘Keep marketing for later, first focus on product assortment,’ Vikram Chopra of FabFurnish. [online] YourStory.com. Available at: http://yourstory. com/2014/09/vikram-chopra-fabfurnish/ [Accessed 4 Dec. 2014]. 3. The Economic Times, (2014). IKEA-inspired FabFurnish eyes Rs 220 crore revenue in 2014. [online] Available at: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/201404-27/news/49437590_1_products-fabfurnish-200-crore [Accessed 4 Dec. 2014]. 4. Gulati, S. (2014). Rocket Internet-backed FabFurnish goes hybrid, opens franchise store | Techcircle.in - India startups, internet, mobile, e-commerce, software, online businesses, technology, venture capital, angel, seed funding. [online] Techcircle.vccircle. com. Available at: http://techcircle.vccircle.com/2012/11/26/rocket-internet-backedfabfurnish-goes-hybrid-opens-franchise-store/ [Accessed 4 Dec. 2014]. 5. Venturefinance.in, (2012). Interview of Vaibhav Agrawal, MD & Co-founder of fabfurnish.com | Venture Finance. [online] Available at: http://www.venturefinance.in/ interviews/vaibhav-aggarwal-md-co-founder-fabfurnish-com-indian-women-have-juststarted-to-shop-online.html [Accessed 4 Dec. 2014]. 6. The Economic Times, (2014). FabFurnish, Pepperfry & Urban Ladder: How online furniture selling ventures are flourishing - The Economic Times. [online] Available at: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/fabfurnish-pepperfry-urbanladder-how-online-furniture-selling-ventures-are-flourishing/articleshow/42397569.cms [Accessed 4 Dec. 2014]. 7. Fabfurnish.com, (2014). About Us | FabFurnish.com. [online] Available at: http:// www.fabfurnish.com/about_us/ [Accessed 4 Dec. 2014]. 8. Wikipedia, (2014). FabFurnish.com. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/FabFurnish.com [Accessed 4 Dec. 2014]. 9. 2.bp.blogspot.com, (2014). [online] Available at: http://2.bp.blogspot. com/-sR2Uh9QzgRg/UtemFMISl_I/AAAAAAAAWWo/T2N47jSbUCE/s1600/ fabfurnish+bedsheets.jpg [Accessed 6 Dec. 2014]. 10. 3.bp.blogspot.com, (2014). [online] Available at: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/bHmQJokTIRg/Ut2wN-ItPKI/AAAAAAAANmk/dEd8WLRtAOM/s1600/fab1.jpg [Accessed 6 Dec. 2014]. 11. Ehubz.in, (2014). [online] Available at: http://www.ehubz.in/images/accessories/ fabfurnish/screenshot2.jpg [Accessed 6 Dec. 2014]. 12. Fabteam.in, (2014). [online] Available at: http://fabteam.in/newsletter/20130104/ img1.jpg [Accessed 6 Dec. 2014]. 13. Fabteam.in, (2014). [online] Available at: http://fabteam.in/newsletter/20121024/ img2.jpg [Accessed 6 Dec. 2014]. 14. Freekaamaalhai.com, (2014). [online] Available at: http://freekaamaalhai.com/ wp-content/uploads/2013/01/1342.jpg [Accessed 6 Dec. 2014].
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