Why can’t we shop for necessities such as medicine online, if we shop for clothes, food, and electronics? 1Mg, situated in Gurgaon, India, is an online marketplace of medicines. It offers e-pharmacy, diagnostics, online consultation, and health content, among other things. Prashant Tandon, Gaurav Agarwal, and Vikas Chauhan launched it in April 2015.
Medicines are available at a discount if ordered from the website or the mobile app. This makes healthcare a hassle-free experience. Every health-related product and medicine such as allopathic, homeopathic, and vitamin supplements are available.
They also provide lab tests, and online doctor consultations that too 24/7 and collaborate with insurance companies to offer easy and affordable care to its customers, provide diagnostics, and a lot more.
1Mg provides a wide range of healthcare services and allows you to do lab tests at home. 1mg currently has over 2000 tests and over 120 verified labs on its platform, and users can consult with specialists n 0ver 20 specialists.
The Concept Behind 1mg
Marketing Strategy of 1mg
1mg Grandmaster Series Campaign
Franchise Opportunities
Marketing Channel Distribution
Influencer marketing
1Mg Marketing Strategy during Covid-19
Successive Factors of 1mg
The Concept Behind 1mg
If people can buy clothes, shoes, food, groceries, and other products online. Why couldn’t they buy medicines?
People are increasingly turning to the internet for information. The plan was to make all of the drugs available while also dealing with the expense of the medicines. Investors quickly became interested in their concept, and the company raised $6 million to put it into action and improve the technology. In June 2021, Tata Digital Ltd acquired a 55% stake in 1mg to form Tata 1mg.
Marketing Strategy of 1mg
The corporation used its app to disseminate drug information. They use push alerts and emails to spread the word about their presence in their community. Depending on the city, the company also uses offline advertisements. They disseminate information through newspaper advertisements and health camps. However, digital marketing accounts for the majority of their efforts.
1mg, a Gurgaon-based e-commerce healthcare start-up, has launched its first campaign, Grandmaster Series, to honor unsung champions in the field of medicine.
Tanmay Saksena, 1mg’s COO, spoke with exchange4media about the company’s marketing approach, ambitions, and upcoming obstacles – “We believe in ‘word of mouth,’ and want our services to be the focus of our marketing campaign. We do not invest in television commercials like the others, preferring instead to use online means. Because consumers respect our services, the majority of our growth has come from ‘word of mouth,’ and we plan to keep doing so. The Grandmaster Series outlines why we’re moving towards campaigns now. We want the entire world to know what we believe in and what our vision is”.
1mg Grandmaster Series Campaign
1mg came up with their first campaign called ‘Grandmaster Series’, which strives to recognize unsung champions in the field of medicine.
The initiative, planned and managed by Humour me, emphasizes the Grandmasters or veteran medical practitioners from various specialties of medicine who are still practicing medicine and sincerely serving the community.
The first video in this series featured Dr. Anand, a pediatrician who is still practicing in Mumbai at the age of 83. He is well renowned for his book on infant and toddler care, as well as his untiring advocacy for the benefits of breastfeeding. He is a firm believer in a more natural approach to childbirth.
Dr. Anand is a firm believer in giving back to society and voluntarily donates his services to the underprivileged, the armed forces, personnel of the fire department and other emergency services, and teachers.
‘While dealing with healthcare, a consumer nowadays often feels helpless and is losing faith in the healthcare system – the trust deficit has become enormous and is a very unpleasant fact’, stated Mr. Prashant Tandon, founder, HealthKart and 1mg.
1mg seeks to regain people’s trust in medicine and restore faith in the institution. It emphasizes transparency and makes people feel safe and secure when engaging with the healthcare system.
By tying the brand 1mg to the idea that all it takes is 1 milligram of a step in the right direction to start the healing process, 1mg hopes to advance from economic to emotional leadership, and what better way to do so than to pay tribute to the profession’s grandmasters.
Franchise Opportunities
1mg introduced a franchise business opportunity as part of its strategy to make healthcare more accessible and economical. The ‘Sehat ke Sathi’ scheme is a franchising opportunity to get a medicine franchise at low costs in which each ‘Sathi’ is a 1mg lead generation partner and is responsible for empowering people in their communities to have quick and easy access to their best-in-class healthcare services.
This has enabled over a hundred registered lead generation partners across the country to launch a medicine business, as well as incentivizing hundreds of other authorized lead generation partners to aid 1mg to reach advanced care in new territories. As a ‘Sehat ke Sathi’, you can work for a rapidly developing Indian healthcare startup.
Marketing Channel Distribution
| Mode | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Direct | 20.89% |
| Referrals | 0.55% |
| Search | 76.21% |
| 1.31% | |
| Display | 0.46% |
| Social | 0.58% |
Influencer marketing
To fully utilize the power and potential of influencer marketing, VURoll and 1Mg collaborated on a campaign that was a big success, with 1Mg’s audience awareness skyrocketing.
The vision of 1Mg is to tap into a market, where the public is unaware of the brand’s health benefits. VURoll met its requirement of generating ROI by implementing influencer marketing on well-known social media networks such as Facebook and Instagram.
Facebook and Instagram were used as communication channels since they are the most effective platforms for product reviews and feedback.
Influencers highlighted the health benefits of items by using the 1mg product. VuRoll selected the most suitable influencers for the company from its extensive database, and the influencers were then divided into groups based on the number of specialty audiences and channel preferences.
As soon as the influencers were on board, the 1mg team of specialists devised a campaign flow that would include a subtle mention of the brand and product, triggering interest on social media networks. The chosen influencers wrote thought-provoking posts and stories promoting the product while also sharing their personal experiences with the audience in a relevant way.
Approach to Online Medicine
On its mobile app and website, the company offers a discount on all kinds of medicines. The website, which was previously known as HealthkartPlus, was launched to provide consumers with all of the information they need regarding medicines and their prescriptions.
The platform drew a lot of attention from the public and grew in popularity. Users asked the firm to begin delivering the medications, therefore 1mg was launched.
Anamika Mahapatra
1Mg Marketing Strategy during Covid-19
During COVID-19, the public’s desire for trustworthy, up-to-date information necessitated a content management system capable of both generation and dissemination.
For 1mg, this entails a 24-hour effort from a team of medical specialists, doctors, designers, and brand and marketing professionals. Expert-driven, research-based, and non-manipulative information was delivered. 1mg then appointed a group of medical professionals, including doctors, and they were told that they would have to delve into COVID-19 for two months or more and report back with all pertinent and authentic material.
To establish their own knowledge in areas such as diagnostics, treatment, and trials, the 1mg team collaborated with healthcare specialists working in the field of COVID-19.
All research was gathered with input from trusted medical bodies such as the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as apex government organizations such as the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Indian Council of Medical Research, to ensure the content’s credibility and authenticity.
The content’s reliability was praised by a large number of people, and in a few cases, it was widely disseminated. 1Mg’s first piece was read over a million times, and others have been shared by Cabinet ministers, journalists, and even Bollywood stars. Swiggy, an online food delivery service, teamed up with 1mg to generate content about the dos and don’ts of online food ordering.
Successive Factors of 1mg
- Since its establishment, 1mg has provided outstanding service at the most affordable price to its consumers. They’ve also received a number of well-deserved awards over the years. 1mg got the mBillionth Award for m-health in South Asia in 2014, just one year after its launch.
- In the Smart CEO-Startup 50 India 2017 program, 1Mg was named one of the top top 50 businesses. In terms of app success and user engagement, it has increased by 600 percent by the year 2017. They expanded their product line to include Ayurvedic and homeopathic remedies.
- The startup raised 37 million dollars in five rounds of fundraising between 2016 and 2017.
- The BML Award for ‘Business Excellence through Learning and Development’ was also given to 1mg in 2018.
- They were named ‘Best Content in a Healthcare/ FitnessApp’ at the 2018 content leadership awards. At the India Mobile Congress, 1Mg was also named the “Best Mobile Innovation for Health Award.”
Pratyusha Srivastava
Conclusion
Pharmaceuticals are extremely delicate and must be carefully handled and tracked, and there must be a system in place to assure the quality of the drugs on an online marketplace like this. Because the market is so large, there is a lot of rivalries. \
1mg has a system in place that allows them to onboard vendors if they match certain criteria, such as computerized inventory and invoking, making end-to-end tracking easy for clients.
The brand is also able to generate business even after the strict government complications which banned online pharmacies by making a prescription mandatory to make a purchase.
1mg is India’s leading digital healthcare system and has grown 600% in the terms of app downloads and user engagement.
FAQ
What are the marketing strategies employed by 1mg?
Influencer marketing, Video campaigns, and website offers are some of the strategies employed by 1mg.
What is the business model of 1mg?
1mg generates revenue by selling its online diagnostics and lab testing services, delivering medicines, and subscription-based care plans.
Who is the owner of 1mg?
Prashant Tandon, Gaurav Agarwal, and Vikas Chauhan founded 1mg in 2015.
