CRED – The “GUNDA” of Marketing

Authored by Abhishek Shetty | Club Executive Member

CRED is the Fintech Indian unicorn company launched by serial entrepreneur Kunal Shah, the former creator of Freecharge, in 2018 with a valuation of 2.2 billion USD by April 2021, making it the 7th fastest Indian startup to reach a $1 billion valuation. CRED's prime goal is to make credit card consumers' lives as simple as possible. CRED users spent 52000 crores on credit cards in 2021. Cred has done a fantastic job at grabbing attention through a variety of marketing techniques and media. The primary demographic is Generation Y, primarily persons between the ages of 25 and 40. It was exclusively dedicated to ATL (Above the Line) marketing operations such as television advertisements and event marketing on huge platforms. Lets look at what Marketing Gunda has in store for us.

CRED MARKETING STRATEGIES:

Viral Marketing:

With their hilarious advertisements, Cred has wowed everyone watching. They know how to make advertisements go viral. There have been several instances where they have been effective in becoming viral. The most renowned is INDIRANAGAR KA GUNDA commercial by Rahul Dravid, which was written by youtuber Tanmay Bhat. They have a well-known commercial tagline that reads, "NOT EVERYONE UNDERSTANDS IT". The commercial depicts Rahul Dravid's enraged side, which is unusual for those who know him. They have employed this personality flip theme in numerous advertisings.

Cred understands who his target customers are and how best to get out to them. Cred used TV advertising to target Gen Y, and it was backed by Madhuri Dixit, Anil Kapoor, and Govinda, all of whom are 90s celebs who can relate to Gen Y nostalgically. To connect with the target population, they also featured Indian cricket players from the 1990s.

Event Marketing:

Cred focused on one sponsorship event, the Indian Premier League (IPL), and made the most of it. Cred has agreed to a three-year partnership with IPL, which began in 2020. Cred capitalized on Indians' passion of cricket by focusing its marketing around the IPL. They amalgamated with the IPL by implementing a rewards system during the IPL's powerplay. One fortunate user will receive a full refund for all payments made during powerplay. Most of the users are aware of Cred during IPL itself. Following the launch of their IPL campaign, the firm saw a six to sevenfold rise in daily sign-ups.

Content Marketing:

In addition to making profits, Cred's goal is to make India more financially proficient. In order to make it happen, Cred teaches finance-related information on YouTube named - On the Money Series. The series is led by entrepreneurs and financial experts, addressing issues such as economy, financials of large companies, and start-ups.

Support from other Brands:

Following the viral Rahul Dravid ad, other well-known brands including as Zomato, OYO, and Amul began using the #indiranagarkagunda hashtag to advertise themselves to the current trend, giving CRED additional exposure and brand promotion.

Summing up, the CRED is noted for its engaging marketing methods and how well it captured the attention of its target customers. Other activities, such as sending cake for customer acquisition, social media contests, campaigns, cred missions, and personal branding from Kunal Shah himself, increased value to become an Unicorn. It's the kind of marketing approach that a BRAND fantasizes about.