Brand love is built over time with trust as key differentiator: Murugavel Janakiraman

Building a strong brand remains critical even as marketers increasingly lean on performance advertising, according to Murugavel Janakiraman, Founder, Chairman, Managing Director and CEO, Matrimony.com Limited.

Speaking at a session on “The Business of Building Brand Love”, Janakiraman said brand building takes time and effort, but is critical for differentiation, premiumisation and long-term sustenance. While performance marketing has its place, he argued that brands need to pursue both.

“Because what differentiates between you and the other person is the brand. If you don't build a brand, you are putting the economy in a cluster of so many other brands, you won't get the premium. Then sustenance also becomes a challenge,” Janakiraman said.

Pointing to Matrimony.com’s own experience, he said almost 80% of the company’s traffic is organic. He added that marketers should not take brand building away simply because performance marketing is important.

Trust as the foundation

Janakiraman traced the company’s brand-building approach back to its early days. He said the business started as a community site in 1997 and Bharat Matrimony was officially launched in 2000. The transcript subsequently contains a contradictory reference to a 2007 launch, but his earlier statement explicitly identifies 2000 as the official launch year.

From the outset, he said, the company wanted to build the most trustworthy platform, given the amount of personal information people share when looking for a life partner.

Profile and photo validation, keeping the platform focused on marriage rather than friendship or dating, horoscope generation and matching, and allowing parents to create profiles were among the ways Matrimony.com brought elements of offline matchmaking into the online world.

The company now gets close to 8 million sign-ups annually, while around 80% of its traffic is organic, according to Janakiraman.

Janakiraman also has a personal connection to the proposition, having met his wife through Bharat Matrimony. He said close to 1 million people find a life partner through the platform every year. He described the company’s purpose as building a “better Bharat” through happy marriages.

Segmenting the market

Rather than treating the matrimonial market as one homogeneous category, Janakiraman said Matrimony.com has built multiple offerings around different consumer segments.

He said the company operates almost 300-plus matrimony sites, spanning different communities and other audience segments. Its portfolio also includes offerings such as Elite Matrimony, Jodi and Rainbow Love.

According to Janakiraman, Elite Matrimony caters to affluent consumers seeking personalised and confidential matchmaking, with charges ranging from around ₹1 lakh to ₹8 lakh. Jodi, meanwhile, was launched for non-degree holders as a simple, low-cost product.

Rainbow Love caters to LGBTQ consumers, while the broader strategy is based on the belief that one product cannot address every consumer segment.

“Basically when you look at the market, look at the consumer segment, you can come up with a product for that consumer segment which is differentiated and compelling. So, when you try to add one product to all the consumer segments, then that's where the thing is,” he said.

He described the approach as horizontal and vertical segmentation, with community forming one dimension and socioeconomic status another.

Tech plus touch

On personalisation, Janakiraman said Matrimony.com combines technology with human intervention through its Assisted Matchmaking service.

The company has close to 500-plus relationship managers across India. Technology and algorithms help shortlist profiles based on a member’s preferences, while relationship managers speak to customers, understand their preferences and review the shortlisted profiles before sharing them.

Janakiraman said the company believes this “tech plus touch” approach is a better combination than technology alone, bringing a human element into the matchmaking process.

When losing customers is a good thing

For a matchmaking platform, customer churn can carry an unusual meaning. Janakiraman said Matrimony.com feels good about losing customers when they leave because they have found a life partner.

Janakiraman said, “We are the one company, we feel very good losing customers. Because the customers are getting married. In fact, if the customer stays on the platform a long time, then you are not doing a good job. So we rapidly lose the customer. When we are losing customers, we are building their lifelong affinity.” 

Taking on Big Tech

The conversation also touched on Matrimony.com’s dispute with Google over app-store billing practices. The moderator referred to Google delisting matrimonial apps from the Play Store and Janakiraman’s role in representing the sector before the Competition Commission of India.

Janakiraman criticised what he described as the dominance of Google and Apple in digital services. He said companies were being required to use their billing systems and pay commissions, contrasting this with the lower transaction costs associated with UPI.