Actor and celebrity Rana Daggubati and India’s leading creator-led live entertainment commerce platform Roposo announced the launch of their co-created men’s grooming brand DCRAF.
This launch is the latest in the line of celebrity-led original labels to be launched by Roposo through Glance Collective – a joint venture between Roposo’s parent company Glance and talent management firm Collective Artists Network. In November 2021, they had jointly launched their first co-created brand ‘EK’ with Ekta Kapoor, in the home and wellness category. Roposo is looking at co-creating around 100 such celebrity and creator-led brands across multiple segments, with an aim of fueling the creator economy through multiple entrepreneurial opportunities.
DCRAF is derived from ‘D’ for Daggubati, and ‘craf’ – a colloquial short form of the English expression ‘Hair Craft’ – popularly associated with men’s grooming in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. It will cater to millennial and Gen-Z men in tier-I and tier-II markets. The brand has grooming products for face, beard, and skincare categories. DCRAF believes that grooming and taking care of oneself should not be tedious. By overly complicating grooming rituals, most brands tend to alienate consumers and deter men from experiencing the joy that comes with looking and feeling good. DCRAF aims to simplify grooming through well-designed products and communication that “keep things simple”.
DCRAF prides itself on being an Indian brand with inclusivity as its core philosophy. For instance, it uses fun, creative adaptations of Indian faces from across the country and various regional scripts in its branding as a celebration of India’s diversity. The brand also plans to launch a unique reality show, live and exclusive on Roposo and Glance, to find a user who will be the next face of DCRAF. The winner will be featured on the uber-cool DCRAF packaging and will join Rana in representing the brand.
“I have been conceptualizing a simplified men’s grooming brand for quite some time now. With Roposo enabling the co-creation of celebrity-led brands, it became possible to take this concept to the market at such a large scale, very quickly,” said Rana Daggubati. “I believe that men neglect skincare and grooming because it seems overly complex to them. With DCRAF, my aim is to make ‘looking good’ simple for men through trustworthy, effective products. I’m happy to have found a partner like Roposo to make DCRAF a reality,” he added.
Mansi Jain, Vice President and General Manager, Roposo said, “Our intention has been to partner with celebrities and creators to launch brands that reflect their unique persona and become an extension of who they are.” Jain added, “Rana is one of the most fashionable contemporary male celebrities and is followed by many for his sense of style and grooming. We are delighted to be partnering with him to launch DCRAF. With the live commerce technology and the scale of our platforms, we expect DCRAF to be discovered by millions of users across India.”
The men’s grooming market has been growing rapidly in India and is one of the major focus areas for live commerce on Glance and Roposo. According to market estimates, the industry is expected to reach $1.2 billion by 2024, growing at a CAGR of 11%. Fashion and beauty, which includes men’s grooming, is the top-performing category on Roposo, and 50% of its total live commerce creators belong to it. The platform expects the launch of DCRAF to further accelerate growth in this segment.
Vijay Subramaniam, Founder and Group CEO, Collective Artists Network said, “Co-creating this brand with Rana has been exciting and we can’t wait for this vision to come to life. The brand exemplifies the aura and philosophy of Rana Daggubati in every way. We believe DCRAF’s ethos of simplicity will connect deeply with consumers and create impact.”
