Food and Beverage Brand Strategy: High vs Low Investment
Which D2C founders win in 2025? Here's a question that's keeping Indian F&B founders awake at night: when funding has virtually disappeared, should you spend your precious capital on professional branding or take the scrappy route?
SEPT 30, 2025
TEAM RARE
The Market Paradox: Booming Demand, Shrinking Capital
The landscape presents a fascinating paradox. Indian Direct-to-consumer sales are projected to hit INR 22.16 trillion (USD 87.5 billion) by 2030, suggesting we're entering a golden era for D2C brands.
Yet the funding story tells a very different tale—falling sharply from INR 133 million (USD 1.6 billion) in 2022 to just INR 60 billion ($757 million) in 2024, a drop of over 50%.
This gap between booming consumer demand and shrinking investor confidence highlights a structural reset: brands can no longer rely on capital-fueled growth.
The beauty and personal care segment is growing at an impressive 28% CAGR, proving that the D2C model itself remains strong.
Two Distinct Paths Emerge
Invests over ₹10 lakhs in professional systems, partnering with boutique agencies like Rare Ideas that bring strategic depth, consumer insight, and scalable design frameworks.
Long-term asset building
Strategic depth and consumer insights
Scalable design frameworks
Takes the leaner DIY path, spending around ₹50,000 with freelancers or relying on ready-made templates.
Fragmented identities
Inconsistent messaging
Struggles during scale
The stakes have never been higher. The D2C funding landscape has contracted sharply—from INR 16.9 billion across 134 deals in 2023 to just INR 49.38 billion across 115 deals in 2024—signalling fewer opportunities and stiffer competition for every rupee.
Why Branding is Your First Salesperson
Modern branding functions as your most effective salesperson before you ever meet a customer. As Aman Gupta of boAt explains, "a brand today is more than just a logo—it's a personality, a story, and a voice".
Atmosphere Kombucha
Invested over ₹10 lakh in building a comprehensive brand system, resulting in cohesive identity that enables premium pricing and strong retail presence.
GutGlow Kombucha
Opted for ₹50,000 DIY approach and continues to face challenges with fragmented messaging and weaker market positioning despite comparable product quality.
"You can't afford to believe the spike will last, or that your trajectory will stay in a straight line"
The Financial Impact: CAC, AOV, and LTV
Strategic branding directly shapes financial outcomes. Research shows that 75% of online food shoppers in India remain loyal to the first brand they try, making initial brand positioning decisive for long-term retention.
Founder-led storytelling and brand-led content systems can reduce reliance on high-spend influencer marketing
Benchmark for resilience and profitability in sustainable e-commerce
Monsoon Harvest achieved profitability with 40% lower CAC compared to competitors
This contrast highlights a critical truth: brands that invest in a North Star framework, clear positioning, consistent narratives, and scalable identity systems, don't just look stronger, they perform stronger.
Investor Perspective: Brand Strategy Before Product Strategy
The New Investment Reality
Investors now scrutinise branding fundamentals before making funding decisions. Founders who approach investor meetings with clear brand architecture secure funding 2.7x faster than industry averages.
At Rare Ideas, we've seen this shift play out repeatedly. Founders often come to us after failed investor pitches, realising that product quality alone wasn't enough.
The uniformity in brand identity undoes any product innovations you may be launching.
The Investment Breakdown: ₹15L vs ₹50K
Investment covers end-to-end development—defining brand strategy, developing distinctive visual identity, designing packaging, and building messaging frameworks that align across every touchpoint.
Comprehensive brand strategy
Professional visual identity
Scalable packaging systems
Messaging frameworks
Basic visual elements like logos without comprehensive strategy, working with freelancers offering affordable branding packages.
Simple packaging design
Basic website visuals
Template-based solutions
Limited strategic guidance
The philosophy is clear from the outset: branding is not an afterthought, it is the core lever of competitive advantage. High-investment founders prioritise strategy before design, anchoring their brand in clearly defined mission, vision, values, and audience segmentation.
Packaging: Where the Gap Widens Most
Visual presentation creates the most dramatic competitive divide. For food products especially, packaging acts as a silent salesperson on every shelf, shaping first impressions within seconds.
Transforms the first physical interaction into a brand ritual that sets the tone for repeat purchases
Well-engineered packaging signals quality before customers taste the product, justifying premium pricing
Packaging designed for delight naturally finds its way to Instagram feeds and word-of-mouth conversations
Marketing Strategy: Building vs Buying Attention
Content-Led Growth
(High Investment)
High-investment founders allocate 40% to brand building and 60% to performance marketing. They create valuable content addressing genuine customer pain points.
The Whole Truth achieved 200% year-over-year growth through honest blogs and ingredient transparency rather than running ads.
Performance-Only Tactics
(Low Investment)
Low-investment founders allocate 90% to performance marketing and just 5-10% to brand building, focusing on immediate conversion metrics.
Constant discounting communicates "we don't deserve full price" and creates perception of reduced quality.
Successful D2C companies achieve these metrics through brand-building
From just 5% improvement in customer retention rates
Year-over-year rise in India, making brand equity crucial
The Verdict: Who Wins in 2025 and Beyond
The choice you make about branding investment will determine whether you build a category-defining business or struggle to survive in India's increasingly competitive F&B landscape.
Brand equity becomes your strongest competitive moat. During economic uncertainty, customers gravitate toward brands they recognise and trust.
High-investment founders build systematic advantages that compound over time across every business function
Professional branding creates tangible assets that acquirers value beyond mere revenue multiples
Premium-branded companies maintain pricing power while commoditised products compete solely on price
For Indian F&B founders facing this decision today, the question isn't whether you can afford to invest in professional branding—it's whether you can afford not to. Your branding investment decision made today will echo throughout your entire business journey. Choose wisely.
