It all started around 10 years ago when a sore eye met a desi jugaad!
Someone suggested Tarun Sharma putting a brewed lukewarm green tea bag on the sore eye can reduce puffiness.
Voila, it worked!
Curious Tarun dug deeper and realised 3 important things:
✔️ Caffeine was a dominant ingredient for skin care in the Middle Ages, as mentioned in certain books from the 10th century
✔️ There was no personal care brand in India that was infusing caffeine into their products
✔️ The millennial demographic accepts caffeine-based products with open arms
The market opportunity was huge and mCaffeine was born!
The objective was clear – carve a caffeinated niche in personal care!
The First Brew
Team mCaffeine realised the median screen time of millennials is close to 10 hours, which led to dark circles. And, no personal care brand in India was solving this particular problem.
Eureka!
mCaffeine built a caffeine-infused under-eye cream. The product started seeing a crazy reception from youngsters and turned out to be an instant hit.
Seems easy-peasy, right? Well, not really!
This initial traction faded away fast!
They saw a drastic dip in both acquisition metrics and retention rates.
Tarun realised they can’t be disruptors unless they continue to develop products that appeal to youngsters!
Back To The Drawing Board
Little did Tarun know a random conversation will help him deliver the next masterstroke.
While talking to a 22-year old customer, Tarun realised the experience of body scrubs was terrible – time-consuming, and hard to apply and then take-off.
The lightbulb sparked again and a massive opportunity afloat!
mCaffeine took a bold step this time. They changed the form factor of body scrubs! What used to be slimy was now packaged as a powder.
This masterstroke led mCaffeine to 57% market share in the category, and till date, it remains one of their best-selling products!
Customer Feedback – Take a note, we will talk about this again!
Good Times And A Lot Of mCaffeine Ahead!
The quick success of these two products led to Tarun and his co-founders to their second big realisation.
While the products should appeal to youngsters, they should be super convenient to use and deliver an unparalleled product experience.
Listening to and incorporating consumer feedback had worked for them in the past. So, they doubled down on this practice and standardised internal processes where customer feedback is taken very seriously. Till date!
From there on, mCaffeine has gone on to launch caffeine-based body shimmers, hair care products, and several other SKUs – most of which are hits!
4 Pillars Of Success!
New Product Development
NPD at mCaffeine hinges on answers to these 3 questions:
🔹 Will it solve core consumer problems?
🔹 Will it deliver a unique experience?
🔹 Will consumers resonate with the USP?
Green light to these 3 questions means green light to manufacturing!
All Ears To Consumer Feedback
mCaffeine cracked the code to respond to changing market demands – Consumer Feedback! They rely on consumer feedback for signals on what to improve and what to build next.
Tracking Product Moat Strength
mCaffeine gauges 3 metrics to track USP of a product
🔹 Sales through NPI (New Product Interruption)
🔹 Revenue share of disruptors (Innovations)
🔹 Repeat rate
Scaling Non-Disruptive Products
Build the best product in terms of quality, put faith in word of mouth, and wait for the Hallelujah moment – the moment when customers become brand ambassadors.
How Is mCaffeine On A Quest To Rewrite The Personal Care Narrative!
Having clocked INR ₹210.1 Cr in FY24, mCaffeine reported 51% YoY growth. What’s interesting is their offline sales have grown by 300% in the last 6 months.
To keep the momentum going, what’s better than omnichannel expansion?
In the next 15 months, mCaffeine aims to:
💯 Crack 24 micro markets in metros and Tier 1 cities
💯 Establish presence in 30,000 offline stores across pin codes
💯 Take offline sales to 34%
💯 Extend its footprint in Middle East, USA, and Australia
Doing so, mCaffeine will take a larger share in the global coffee beauty products market that will touch INR 6704 Cr by 2031.
How Does mCaffeine Fare Against Competitors?
Imagine leading a category that has the trifecta of startup success stories – minicorns, soonicorns, and unicorns!
Exactly what mCaffeine is doing – it’s leading a category where the likes of The Body Shop, Bliss, MamaEarth, Plum, Wow Skin Science, The Moms Co., Nat Habit, and The Ayurveda Experience are vying for the top spot.
Although, collectively, these brands have raised over $960 Mn, mCaffeine leads in product proposition, formulation, packaging, promotions, and customer experience.
mCaffeine recently partnered with GoKwik to drive 25% revenue growth, improve shopper satisfaction, and reduce cash burn in CRO efforts. If done right, this partnership can give a distinct edge to mCaffeine!
We will be keeping a close watch on mCaffeine. Will you?
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