A start-up that believes in selling dreams-dreams borne within you, within me. Based in Kolkata, Rare Planet founder Ranodeep loved sketching. When he grew up, unlike other youths of his age who are running after better career prospects for their dream job, he coupled dreams with talent by the name of Rare Planet.
Rare Planet aims at making customized products more popular by catering to the love and craze of people- so much that now there is a craze for Rare Planet products in the market. When you see a rare species, as we choose to call the Rare Planet products, you will sense your childhood craze beaming from it. They make super exclusive products everything handcrafted and then sell it through multiple channels which includes their own website, other online Market Places and Off-Stores in India and abroad.
Often heard break-up either makes you or breaks you. Thankfully for Ranodeep it was the former. The date 22nd of June , 2016 gave a new direction to his life. He was sitting after a heart break with those Tea Junction mud cups and paint. It was then when he did his first painted cup and since then the journey never stopped. Their first stall was at Calcutta Boys School at their annual fest concord; when they realized that their products have the potential to take the market by storm. Then there was no looking back. They made their own portal www.rareplanet.in.
Ranodeep says, ”As people say even I believe in the fact that it just takes 1% of intelligence and rest 99% of hard work to succeed.”
Ranodeep never feared about competition. In fact he felt there existed a void in this domain. The USP of their products is each product they make has a story to tell. They have a product line up of Rare Bottles which is one of their best sellers. They have a Unique QR code with each bottle which has a different story to read on each bottle.
“There was no player in this segment and at this segment if expanded could generate a lot of new jobs especially for the artisans of Rural India.”- Our country needs more social entrepreneurs like these with rare ideas for a noble cause.
While many start-ups of today want to hire the best minds, team Rare Planet comprises of a group of artisans who make the heart of Rare Planet beat. Things weren’t always so rosy for Rare Planet, one of the major challenges they faced was to get appropriate people to work with. Recourse management still remains a big problem.
Their main concern for now is not funding but making the rare species and brand name stronger. They have been approached by a number of incubators and investors but they are right now working on strengthening their product and market reach and then they aim to go for their first round of investment. As far as marketing is concerned, Ranodeep believes that if the product is revolutionary and is one in a thousand it is bound to shine.
”We didn’t market much, our Facebook page has worked wonders and we have been associated with all the big fests of the country including Mood Indigo and Spring Fests; but now we are aiming at a nationwide advertising campaign in 2 months with our products entering off stores in almost 6 cities in coming months to attract more sales.”
They have gone international with presence in Singapore recently. They have a strong customer base built over last 10 months both online and offline.
Their future plan is to get into Duty Free Shops all across the world, Rare Planet Products available in all the Major Airports across the globe and be a market leader in what they do in the country.
