Intraction with Ms. Komal Agarwal – Marketing Director, Pebble India

Pebble Mobile Accessories is a smart accessories brand in India. Pebble delivers mobile technology; offering a diverse portfolio (Power Banks, Speakers and Mobile Accessories) of value-packed thoughtfully designed products equipped with the technology people want most.

Lately, we have an email interaction with Ms Komal Agarwal, Co-Founder & Marketing Director of Pebble and we got to know some business insights, her vision and upcoming road map for Pebble…

Ms Komal Agarwal is driving force behind the brand. She has played a key role in building opportunities from the challenging Indian markets. Her innovative marketing strategies and business acumen have helped establish the building blocks to a strong foundation for the organization. Komal strongly focuses mainly on product development, seeking to introduce global technology & innovation to the Indian market. She is passionate about driving her team to design products that take the end user into consideration and address their needs in order to ensure they have an enhanced user experience.

With streamlined efforts on  Technology, Pebble aims to restructure the way business operates in India to carve a niche for the brand over the price points The young entrepreneur, is a fitness enthusiast, a binge-watcher and a devoted reader.

 

What did inspire you to start a mobile accessories venture?

This was far back as 2013 when smartphones had just taken the market by storm and I stepped out graduating from IIM Calcutta. Post my education, I was very sure that I did not want to join our family business, but rather create a niche business for myself and build my own identity.

During the same time period, the Smartphone was the buzzing word in the Indian Markets and with that came another business ‘Power Banks’. The Smartphones promised everything except the longer battery life, which eventually opened the doors to Power bank market in India. When I researched around the Industry I discovered, that there were Brands which catered to the demand, however largely unbranded and unreliable products that could only be used a couple of times and did not have any warranty. Though the Market was cluttered with options the needs of this generation was not understood.

Pebble was born to fill the vacuum for a brand who understood 3 key problems of the Industry – Aesthetics, bulkiness and inbuilt USB Cables. Each of our product was tailored addressing the needs of the on the go lifestyle with no compromise in looks or build.  Today, Pebble has established a strong foothold in the Indian Markets & is renowned for its product excellence and being customer-centric.

Lots of Mobile accessories brand already influx the Indian market; what’s special about Pebble?

Like I mentioned earlier, we did not have early entry to Indian Markets. Rather we learnt the needs and loopholes, to build what the consumer really needs. Pebble focusses primarily on Smart Mobile Accessories, which blends the new age technology with Quality. Our Quality and aesthetics match the International standards and sets a new benchmark for the Indian Brands. Unlike other brands, we are not price conscious rather we work Quality conscious.

Our focus as a brand has always been on user-friendly design and premium functionally which sets us apart from other brands and unbranded products in the market. Not to miss, Pebble is the only brand to be present across all possible channels including offline retail stores, Modern-Retail Chains, Airports and In-flight, Online Platforms and Corporates. 

As a brand how long have you been in the electronics market?

We have been one of the fastest growing Mobile Accessories Brand in India. Founded in 2013, we have challenged the traditional industry norms, to set new yardstick to quality and functionality, for India’s mobile accessories market, which is otherwise cluttered with many unbranded and low-quality products. Having said that, our parent company has been in the electronics market since 2000 with our state-of-the-art manufacturing plant, design, R&D and QC departments in China, where we have been designing and manufacturing UPS systems and supplying to the customers under our own brand name and also supplying to other OEM brands as an ODM.

Talk about the biggest challenge at the moment in the accessories segment?

The biggest challenge for us at the moment in the accessories segment is the competition from the fake/ unbranded products in both offline and online channels. These fake products falsely claim to have state-of-the-art features such as high mAh capacity of power banks, high output of speakers, etc. Thankfully, categories like power banks have been declared under BIS which has substantially helped in eliminating fake brands and products from the market. Apart from this, we face stiff competition from a number of global giants, who have become sought after players in India with deeper pockets.

The key concern is that the majority of this market is highly unorganized and cluttered at the moment, with plenty of small private labels and unbranded sellers offering low-quality products without any clear warranties. Fortunately, the consumer mindset is now shifting from being only price sensitive to quality consciousness and reliability. The consumer has started to realise the benefit of purchasing a long-lasting product in one go instead of getting into the hassle of purchasing a cheaper product multiple times due to the limited life of the product. Another constant challenge is to ensure the freshness of products in terms of design and innovation as the tech industry is going through constant upgrades due to which an overall life-cycle of a product is reducing constantly.

Are you Focus on affordability?

Pebble is known in the market for Quality power banks and mobile accessories. Like mentioned before, we are not Price conscious Brand rather Quality conscious.

Your vision for the company?

The key philosophy for Pebble remains ‘Convenience with Quality’ which is well reflected across our product range that includes power banks, chargers, cables, charging cases, Bluetooth speakers, headphones, headsets, earphones, OTG pen drives and wearables. The vision of the company is to be the leading brand and a household name for smart electronic accessories in the country. We aspire to be the one-stop solution and a go-to brand for every smartphone user for their accessory needs.

Where do you see yourself five years down the road?

Our company is planning to establish an extensive footing at Pan India Level. With the current portfolio and upcoming innovations, we are looking to expand in Asia as well as western markets in the next five years. By 2023, we see ourselves as one of the leading and reliable smart accessories brands in the world.