Digital Marketing helped Flintobox Create a Successful Business: Case Study

About Flintobox

Flintobox is an India-based company that produces educational activity boxes for children between age of 1.5 years to 8 years. Flintobox was co-founded by Arunprasad Durairaj, along with his two friends, Vijaybabu Gandhi and Shreenidhi,  in September 2013. Based on a theme, the company makes resources for Early Child Development on a monthly basis. The company follows a subscription operational model and delivers the boxes straight to a child’s doorstep every month. Each box is loaded with play-based activities for kids that promote early child development in a fun and exploratory way. With a new theme every month, this research-based box is crafted by montessori experts and child psychologists, and caters to the 12 developmental areas of a child.

Flintobox’s  Business Objectives

Like any business, the real objective was to be profitable on a larger scale.The Indian market is huge and this startup wants to scale up its operations in India first.The main objective of Flintobox was to reach to busy parents who wants to keep their kids engaged and sell their product to them. It was a challenge for Flintobox to sell a product about which people were not even aware that such product exists in market. 

Company is based in Chennai and there are no offline stores. Orders and purchases have to be made through the company’s website and app only. Company was launched in 2013 and its early search marketing efforts proved ineffective because parents weren’t aware that such a product existed, and were more likely to seek out traditional media, such as books, toys or television programs.

Approach adopted by Flintobox

Although Flintobox’s business model was to sell online, but a well defined online marketing strategy helped Flintobox to reach their potential customers. Flintobox promoted its content on top publishers across the web, reaching parents throughout India at a valuable moment when they were consuming content and open to discovering new information. Flintobox incorporated various digital marketing techniques to increase their customer base:

• Since people were not even aware of such product, Flintobox worked on Inbound Marketing. They share videos, articles on child development, nutrition and parenting etc. They share worksheets for kids which help them in mental development. Flintobox published content on their blog, create eBooks and customized landing pages. People would love to read and share such kind of content which creates trust in them to buy a product launched by the company.
• Flintobox launched a mobile application which has stories and activities to engage kids.
• Flintobox created very informative and well designed website that inspires visitors to select right product for their child.
• Flintobox is active on all major social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Google plus and Pinterest etc. Educational and fun videos are posted on these social channels. People are encouraged to participate in contests. They post pictures of kids playing with their Flintobox on Pinterest. They teach kids on various DIY Art and Craft activities. As the idea of Flintobox was developed to keep children away from TV and mobile, Flintobox runs various social media campaigns like MobileFreeChildhood to promote this concept,which is well received by parents of this generation.
• Email Marketing is used to share articles and sales promotions to the subscribers. Most of the emails share useful information related to child development and worksheets.
• Flintobox worked on Social Media Marketing as well as Search Engine Marketing to reach potential customers. Their advertisements are well placed on the platforms where the chances of a visitor turning to a buyer are high. These techniques have worked very well with Flintobox where visitors can immediately turn into buyer as Flintobox is available for  online purchase only.
• Flintobox also has Affiliate Marketing program in which one gets paid for promoting Flintobox on blogs, social media etc.
• In October 2014, they raised USD 300,000 from leading angels GSF Global, Globevestor (USA), AECAL (Germany), and Mauj Mobile. The investment primarily went into scaling online marketing operation.

Results achieved by Flintobox

• Flintobox was able to reach their target audience in very less amount of time. “We were oversubscribed in two months,” said Flintobox’s CEO Arunprasad Durairaj in one of the interviews.
• Flintobox started in September 2013 with an investment of Rs 10  lakh and  its first year itself between October 2013 and September 2014, Flintobox earned Rs 30 lakh .
• Flintobox’s subscription sales are growing by 50 per cent on a month-on-month basis.
• Flintobox closed last operating year at Rs 6 crore subscription sales.
• Flintobox was awarded  the “Coolest Startup of 2014” by Business Today, the “Best Education Startup of 2014” by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), the Wharton India Startup Competition 2015  and also the best subscription boxes of 2014 by kidstoppress.

Learning

Digital Marketing is a powerful tool for product startups to grow their online business in short span of time. Effective online marketing strategy plays an important role in achieving success in online marketing implementation. Understanding audience and sharing useful content to them really helped Flintobox to create its place in Rs 8,000 crore toys market in India.

Image Credits: Flintobox