Former CEO of Myntra and Mensa Brands founder Ananth Narayanan recently revealed that as per an experiment run by the online shopping platform, shoppers tend to click more on products that feature white-skinned models.
Speaking during a podcast with Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath, Narayanan said that the clickthrough rates -- which shows how often people who see an ad or product listing end up clicking it -- were higher for products with a white model.
“I have an interesting anecdote on the colour of the models. I think it is changing but if you go to Myntra, you will find that everybody is fair-skinned. We ran an experiment where you looked at clickthrough rates a long time ago and found that the clickthrough rates are actually different. So purely economically, the click-through rates on performance marketing were higher – that was some 5-7 years ago,” he said as an explanation to why popular companies like Louis Phillipe and Peter England put foreign models on the brand.
While the former Myntra CEO acknowledged that the strategy had worked for them for a long time, he wondered if it would work in the future. Responding to this, Nikhil Kamath said that he is put off by the marketing strategy of ultra-luxury brands like Hermes and Louis Vuitton, which seems to be based upon offending their customers.
The billionaire explained that these brands make their customers “build a relationship” before they sell a product to them. Ultimately, the consumer has to jump through several hoops before they can get their hands on the product they want, a strategy with which these brands increase the perceived value of their products.
“In the last 3-4 years, I have completely stopped buying from ultra-luxury brands like Hermes and Louis Vuitton because I feel they play you. Their entire marketing strategy seems to be to offend and get some kind of a reaction out of you and then buy from them,” Kamath said. “That is the most offensive thing – you go to a shop where they are marking up a product one is to 1,000 times and then say you can't buy this product until you build a relationship with us or get on a list or all of these hoops that you have to jump through."
Read more: Nikhil Kamath is India's youngest billionaire at 37
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