Meet The Woman Behind Brand Wrogn, A Virat Kohli Endorsed Fashion Brand
While pursuing an MBA from the USA, she ignored a great corporate job and a family media business to start her own merchandise company.
Most of us would have heard about the Wrogn brand through Virat Kohli’s ads or through the e-commerce platforms, but do you know about the hustler behind the brand? It’s Arjuna Reddy
In 2011, after finishing her post-graduation in the US, she had three options. One is joining her family’s media business, the second is taking up a secured corporate job in the US, and the final option is to start her own business.
Yes, she chose the third option. She started a company called Collectabillia in her final year in college with the objective of sourcing sports products and equipment owned by superstars and selling them online.
Anjana backed this idea around sports memorabilia with the help of a family-owned cricket franchise team called Deccan Chargers at that time and also proven the fact that the USA is a big business market for branded sports merchandise.
Collectabillia has received likes from Sachin Tendulkar and footballers playing in the English Premier League. It also raised funding from Sachin and Accel partners as a youngster and things are moving pretty fast and successful.
Despite this, the business didn’t grow. Having burned close to a million dollars, Anjana shifted its focus to branded apparel supported by celebrities and hired designers. Two brands were launched quickly — Imara and Wrogn.
It hasn’t worked yet, despite all the resistance from factories that want huge guarantees and refuse to supply small quantities.
At the financial stage of USPL, she took a daring step by signing Virat Kohli for advertising. Virat became a bigger star after his exploits in Australia in late 2014, making the brand a runaway success. Everyone started associating Wrogn with a Virat-owned brand.
There was no stop and WROGN managed to scale up to multiply its revenue year after year since its beginning in 2014, adopting a 70:30 online-to-offline strategy.
The brand grew to widespread popularity thanks to endorsements from celebrities like Shraddha Kapoor in addition to Virat Kohli. It managed to scale up and multiply its revenue year after year by adopting a 70:30 online-to-offline strategy.
But the game lasted only till covid, just like other e-commerce brands even USPL(Wrogn, Imara) faced problems as the Pandemic pushed people indoors.
With the help of data collected to date, USPL has changed the strategy and managed to pivot to an online model accurately with quick data-backed product turnarounds.
By tracking up to 17 attributes per style and location, they were able to manufacture their products. This minimized their risk of holding on to inventory and also helped them with sales and efficient capital management.
With these turnarounds, coupled with their endorsements and marketing, they emerged as the #1 brand on Myntra at a premium price point due to their brand value.
Currently, besides e-commerce websites and its native platform, USPL’s brands have a presence in over 750 retail outlets in over 100 cities in India and the company is growing at 40–50% year on year.
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.”
— Henry David Thoreau
And let’s appreciate the brains behind the brand and learn from their stories. Comment on the names of entrepreneurs who Inspired you
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