Straight from her parent’s house to being the co-founder of a 5 CR startup, Neha Dhingra recalls how the initial years of being in the marketing field caught her off guard, personally and professionally.
The woman entrepreneur in her 20s is in for a penny and in for a pound when it comes to business. With her energy bouncing off the walls on mentioning her startup, Trending Alive, Neha talks about how she embarked upon bringing up the company with her husband by her side.
Getting Started
“Life happened after marriage.”
On an adorable note, Neha talks about how she got married young and how her In-laws nurtured her in every way to let her stretch her wings wide. She values their support to have her thrive in an unlikely situation, especially in a country where a woman’s professional life usually gets shut down after tying the knot.
Neha and her husband took their togetherness to turn over a new leaf and create a ‘one-of-its-kind’ marketing firm from scratch.
“I take pride in saying that Trending Alive is in a class by itself.”
It won’t be too much to say Neha’s startup, Trending Alive, instigated the idea of Influencer marketing in India, where retail business models change their dynamics now and then.
“We sweep in and go that extra mile for brands to rope in the right influencer.”
Finding the Gap
During her initial years as a content creator with digital media tycoons like She-the people, Femina, and Pink villa, Neha observed an inordinate yet incessant loop of brands coveting celebrities to market their brands. She happened to notice how taxing the backstage life was for these influencers to collaborate with the right brands. And brands, for that matter, lose their marbles in search of a worthy fit.
“All a brand needs is the right influencer to market them,” she adds. She took it to her hands to make it happen. Trending Alive steers celebrities and brands to go the right way and find their ideal collaborations.
“We help brands up their game in dire straits.”
The Competition
Looking at it, Neha talks about how hard it can get for brands to set up and market themselves in a new city.
“Competitors, local market, and social support drag them to the end of their wits,” Neha adds. Brands generally get muddled in a new city where their customary marketing strategies don’t work well. “Setting up a retail store is not the crux of the matter, but the marketing of it is.”
Trending Alive has helped a number of brands establish and market their presence in a new city with the right influencers by their side. They help brands start and run their retail stores with the right strategy, which according to Neha, works like a charm for many of their clients.
Adding refinements to every aspect of it, the company helps brands set up their retail stores and market themselves with the right strategy in less than 48 hours. In a saturated market, managing to set up and run a new brand in a tier-2 or tier-3 city is commendable on all levels. Furthermore, Trending Alive takes charge of backend management in every way possible to make new beginnings easy for them.
Navigating Challenges
“Limitations made us grow out of them.”
As a 21-year-old, Neha had no idea how much her startup would mean to her and her husband in the formative years. With a coercive market around, it would have been hard for a company like Trending Alive to get so far with no initial funds.
“What would you expect from a couple of under-30 people? We had no investors. Everything we have now is what we built from scratch.”
A bootstrap company, as Neha says, Trending Alive is now in ties with some of the major business magnates like pantaloons and Reliance retail.
Seven years down the lane, the company will be focusing on giving brands an experience with engagement marketing a cut above the other marketing firms.
“A woman in business is still looked down upon by many.”
According to her, being a woman entrepreneur and moving to the back burner every time misogyny hits hard is still prevalent. And to break through the hurdles, one has to let go of constraints or better overcome them.
Neha believes in the epiphany of ideas and how they magically turn the game around. She suggests people in their 20s work on their ideas and hold back their self-doubts. To her, thriving and hustling is the art of playing it by ear.
“The biggest skill for today is building up on ideas. You never know if that one idea can change your life.”
They can be reached at http://Trendingalive.co.in.
