“We weren’t sure we would be able to hold up against the pressure and stick to our strategy."- Gaurav Dublish

In 2007, founders of outdoor gear and adventure equipment brand Wildcraft, Gaurav Dublish, Dinesh KS and Siddharth Sood decided that they needed to stop running their company like a hobby during weekends and from carving “hide” time from their day jobs. With an India that was beginning to travel more, they knew the company had great potential to scale up. When they began the growth expedition though, the trio decided they weren’t going to join the rat race of deep discounts and end-of-season sales that was prevalent across most brands in those days. Their rationale was simple—they believed they had developed a product line of outdoor gear and adventure equipment that was of exceptional quality and had already priced it competitively. They didn’t see the need to offer discounts to lure customers into buying their products. 

Around 2008, the consumer goods market was thriving on a deals-based model, informs Dublish. The 15-day end-of-season sales often extended to two or three months. Deals and discounts were rampant in brick-and-mortar stores. Their approach of strictly no-discounts was counterintuitive to the norms of the market. “We believed our pricing was exceptionally strong and the discounts would have overthrown the core values of affordability and accessibility on which we had built our business,” says Dublish. 

The strategy has clearly delivered. In the past six years, Wildcraft has grown over by 100 per cent. From a limited reach of around 20 point of sales in 2007, the company has expanded to 100+ exclusive stores across 50 cities, 300 shop-in-shops and are present at over 2,000 multi-branded stores spread across 200 cities. 

The approach of strictly no-discounts was counterintuitive to the norms of the market. 

The simplicity of our business model helped this growth trek, asserts Dublish. “Had we adopted the discount strategy, things would’ve become complicated. We didn't want to increase our price by 10 per cent and then give 30 per cent discount three months later to liquidate the stock.”

Offers and deals also create a lot of channel conflict, explains Dublish. Offering discount on one channel and not on another can make a customer question the company's marketing intent and the product's pricing strategy. But, Wildcraft discovered the one-price model wasn’t an easy sell when they set out to explore retail partnerships with channels such as multi-brand sports and travel gear outlets. Each retailer they approached questioned the no-discount policy. 

“Multi-brand organised retailers such as Lifestyle and Shoppers Stop were quite skeptical about partnering with us. They didn't understand our no-discount policy and were heavily in favour of end-of-season sales to prop walk-ins. Because multi-retail outlets have several brands who want to partner with them, it was very difficult for us to set our own terms when there were others happy to accommodate their strategies to the big retailers,” Dublish says. 

“Also, Lifestyle and Shoppers Stop were more focussed on cost management, not just total sales volume. They weren’t very keen to add on new business lines,” adds Dublish. The three co-founders knew they needed Wildcraft to be present in as many channels as possible. Dublish confesses the resistance from retailers led to a lot of brainstorming within. “We weren’t sure we would be able to hold up against the pressure and stick to our strategy.” 

Their own sales team wasn’t supportive of the one-price strategy either. They were very demotivated because they were constantly badgered by retailers and customers in the market about why they were the only brand that couldn’t offer a discount. Despite these odds, the founding team kept up with its uphill trek to being a no-discount brand.  

It was only in early 2009—two and a half years after they began their initiative to expand—that Wildcraft finally got its first shop-in-shop at Centrals, a multi-brand retail chain store in Bangalore. A month later, they were able to partner with a Centrals outlet in Hyderabad. Through the year, they got retail space in Lifestyle at Bangalore and Chennai as well.  

Once they got a leg in the door of the multi-brand retail chains, it was easier to partner with other retailers because they were able to show the healthy sales per square feet of Wildcraft products  (without any deals and offers). Their annual sales have been growing  by 80 per cent since 2008-09. Dublish says with a chuckle, “Today, we are one of the most profitable brands for our partners—both offline as well as e-commerce partnerships such as Flipkart and Jabong—because our one-price policy helps partners shore up their margins.”