Luxury Public Relations / December 7, 2020
Establishing Darveys as an online luxury retail venture offering authentic global luxury brands at discounted rates
Context
Headquartered in New Delhi, Darveys, India’s largest platform for global luxury brands is spearheaded by dynamic Nakul Bajaj. He’s a 28-year-old young and ambitious founder and director who launched the brand in 2014 to make luxury accessible to all. The idea of launching a never heard before platform for Indian customers was to make authentic luxury brands available at discounted rates and prices that one gets abroad. The idea to launch this fabulous brand struck the founder,Nakul Bajaj, during a visit from his mother from India while he was studying at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia USA. A Prada handbag bought by his mother costed her almost double the price of what it is sold at a multi-brand Authorised Boutique in New York and that’s how the idea of Darveys.com came into existence.
Communication’s narrative
Darveys collaborated with Wishbox Studio at a time when the concept of buying online luxury was new. The notion of online luxury shopping was not fully accepted by Indian consumers back in the day as the most preferred choice of buying an expensive luxury product was always post trials and touch-and-feel of the products at the respective brand retail outlets. The idea was to create a terminology relatable to both the consumers and the media. It was important to establish how Darveys was adding a novel way of shopping by offering authentic luxury products at discounted prices at just a click. Not just this, it was also imperative to wipe the clouded Indian notions that Darveys sells fake goods and second copies of original global makes. We focused on how Darveys sells 125+ authentic luxury goods sourced from 800+ authorised boutiques/stores at up to 60% off. The top brands like Ralph Lauren, Hugo Boss, Michael Kors, Versace, Coach, Prada, Tory Burch etc are hosted on Darveys.
The “Solution”
Team Wishbox Studio worked on a communication strategy to bring to light the reality of the brand and started pitching ideas on how Darveys solved the issue of the differential pricing created by brands for different countries across the globe. The team also promoted the fact that how Darveys is providing a platform to Indian consumers who love to shop luxury products from abroad and how they can now shop the same at discounted prices through Darveys’ website from the comfort of their homes.
Team Wishbox Studio also pitched the news of Darveys winning the landmark judgement in Delhi high court against Christian Louboutin. The news got wired by a renowned wire agency Asian News Service (ANI) and the brand further garnered coverage in publications like Business Standard Online, The Hindu to name a few. The activity positioned Darveys as India’s largest online retailer for luxury brands, doing completely ethical business and also built credibility amongst the consumers.
During this phase, Wishbox Studio also took charge of the situation by building on the image of Darveys. Brand building stories highlighting the brand’s vision, product portfolio, stories on the founder as a disruptive entrepreneur were planted vigorously. The team explored media opportunities around industry stories, company/spokesperson profiling, trend stories and, product placements in print, online, and electronic media. All this helped us gather some great coverage in varied publications like YourStory, Business World, Economic Times, ET Panache etc.
To diversify the customer base, Darveys had also waived the one-time membership of INR 2000 in December 2019. Team Wishbox studio pushed the same news through a press release and got it wired by ANI. The brand got limelight through the news wire flash in various online platforms such as Business Standard Digital, UNI, Yahoo News, Daily Hunt to name a few.
Outcome
Darveys managed to carve a niche for the customers in the luxury space. The brand got featured in publications it had intended to be featured in and got covered by senior business journalists. Darveys got featured in top publications like Forbes, The Times of India, TheEconomic Times, ET Panache, Business Standard online, NDTV HOP to name a few. Due to the continuous media outreach, Nakul Bajaj was also invited by the CNBC Awaaz team for an interview regarding their show ‘Awaaz Entrepreneur’ on startups. Nakul’s interview had gained a lot of popularity among the audiences and positioned the brand among the right stakeholders.
