‘The more we innovate, the more we penetrate our consumers mind’ Khaleel Khan & Suganya Sundaram of BlueCouch Marketing

This Entrepreneurial Story is about Khaleel Khan & Suganya Sundaram who Founded ‘BlueCouch Marketing Pvt Ltd’ Located in Bangalore India

Founders – 

bluecouch

Khaleel Khan completed his B.E in Information Science from BMS College of Engineering, joined MindTree from campus to start his career as a techie. He soon realized that coding 9 to 9 was not his cup of tea/coffee and proceeded to pursue his MBA in Marketing & Operations from XIME.

Being ‘elected’ by batch mates as the Marketing Head and being ‘selected’ by XIME Management to be an integral part of Placement Committee – he got a unique opportunity to polish and nurture his Marketing and Leadership skills. He later joined Wipro from campus as an Account Manager and worked for a few more years in the field of Business development.

Here at BlueCouch, as a Managing Director, he continues to understand the market needs, identifies innovative Go-To-Market strategies and also heads the Business Development team.

Apart from work, he is fond of Sufi music and plays harmonium to soothe his nerves!

 Suganya Sundaram-  Director, heads the Marketing and Communications department at BlueCouch. She holds background of double major in communication studies and visual arts from Windsor University, Canada.

Holding a previous experience in marketing agency, Momentum Communication, Delhi; she is able to understand the trends and traits of the market and clients. This helps us uncover the market of their needs and requirements. She has over 7 years of work experience in the field of Marketing and Advertising.

Suganya started her career at Rogers Telecommunication as a trainer (V&A) in Canada and moved to Delhi where she held 5 years of experience in the corporate marketing as a Manager, BTL Marketing.

Outside of work she is fond of painting and reading.

When Started: November 2012

What motivated you to start your Business?

Two full-page ads in a leading newspaper, placed by competitors – offering cookers, cameras, bowls as gifts, is what motivated us to start our business.

Looking at it from consumers viewpoint, is when the realization hit us; rather than these physical gifts, which just clutter our lives, we would create loyal customers only by providing them with ‘memorable’ gifts – like a Sunday brunch at a premium restaurant or premium movie passes.

With a clear vision of providing customer delight, we founded BlueCouch to create such unique memorable experiences.

Tell us about your Business

We, at BlueCouch, are a dynamic bunch of people passionate about brands. We provide exciting ‘experiential’ reward and recognition solutions to businesses – to ensure they keep their customers and employees delighted! (Visit: www.bluecouch.co.in)

Recently, we have launched “Indulgence” Card – a membership card with all the required employee perks. This card provides long-term employee benefits to companies of all sizes by partnering with several merchants across 25+ categories and 500+ products, such as fitness, movies, food, holidays, spa, shopping, adventure sports, cafe and many more. Indulgence card is currently available to corporate employees in Bangalore. (Visit: www.indulgence.bluecouch.co.in)

We also have plans to enter the B2C experiential gifting segment at select cities in India.

What is a Day in a life of you like?

It is all about priorities. We start our day by addressing key tasks at hand – be it rolling out our marketing campaigns, reaching out to specific sectors, or adding extra features to our offers.

We love going out & meeting new people and interacting with our clients to take their regular feedback.

One particular skill you got right and gave you best results.

Research and creative thinking – towards providing consumers with unique and memorable experiences – has worked well for us. It is a learning process and fine tuning these skills would provide the best results!

What have been your biggest challenges in running your Business so far?

Humans have a natural tendency to resist any kind of change. Hence, educating prospects about providing experience-based rewards as against regular merchandise to their customers has been our biggest challenge so far.

How did you overcome these challenges?

It is a good challenge to have – as it allows us to put on our thinking hats and create innovative & creative campaigns. It gives us an opportunity to better ourselves. The more we innovate, the more we penetrate our consumers mind.

What have you found the most effective way to get new clients?

For B2B business, the good old sales pitch works the best. Fixing appointments, meeting and presenting your ideas to your prospects have been the most effective way to get clients. Effective use of LinkedIn has worked wonders in reaching out to the decision makers.

What advice do you give to other business owners?

Have immense faith in your product. Give your best and remain patient!

How did you keep motivated through difficult times?

There are days when you are emotionally drained due to internal issues, days when you run out of money, days when prospects treat you like nuisance and so on… But when you believe in your product and have a clear vision for your company – you‘ll pick yourself up, dust yourself off and take the next one at a run!

What are your Marketing, Funding and Team Building Strategy?

Marketing: Our focus has primarily been on having F2F interaction with our clients. Being a young company, it is very important to build credibility and we strive to go that extra mile to enhance customer-service and delight our clients.

We also plan to go heavy on social media engagement to make our campaigns ‘sticky’!

Funding: We are currently bootstrapped

Team-building: People who blend into our company culture, who truly believe in our product, and who can find ways out the crystal maze soon after joining us are going to be our biggest asset!

Your Achievements?

In a short span of time, we have become one of the largest aggregators of experiences in India. We are hungry to add more experience – based rewards to our kitty.

Launched “Indulgence” Card with over 500 brands across 25+ categories for corporate employees in Bangalore. 12 companies have already signed up for annual membership within a month of its launch.

Whats your favorite quote?

“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.” – Steve Jobs

Who inspires you?

From the roadside chaat-wala to Richard Branson – there is something to learn from each one of them!

Do you have a Business Philosophy?

To create exciting, accessible and memorable ‘experience – based’ rewards which enhance brand – consumer connect!

Contact links

Facebook   | Website  | Twitter | LinkedIn

More Info

https://www.startupfreak.com/bluecouch-marketing-pvt-ltd/

Startup Freak wishes Khaleel & Suganya, All the Best!

About StartupFreak

All About Startups Simplified 'What is', 'How to' and 'why to' about Startups.

Check Also

‘The best way to succeed in business is to be in business’ – Trent & Kane of Flowster.app

Entrepreneurial Story of Trent & Kane who founded Flowster.app located in Garden City, Idaho About: …

‘Our Achievement is the trust we made with our wedding vendor and clients’- Prabal & Vinay of shaadiyari.com

Entrepreneurial Story of Prabal & Vinay who founded shaadiyari.com located in Bhopal About: Prabal Singour,CEO,Graduate …