Groupon India rebrands, refocuses and introduces Crazeal

Groupon has renamed its group-buying service in India, SoSasta, and made a raft of new changes including new management and a revised focus on content

The service has been renamed Crazeal following the less than positive reaction to SoSasta – which is derived from ‘cheap’ in Sanskrit. With the Groupon.in domain occupied already, the company has settled on Crazeal.

The rebrand had been a long standing aim, since the acquisition went through in January, according to the company which confirmed that it had “decided very early on to rebrand” after buying SoSasta for its potential rather than its brand.

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Aside from the external-facing shift, changes are also afoot internally with a new leadership team, headed by CEO Ankur Warikoo, brought in to steer the company in India’s highly competitive group-buying market.

In addition to adding new personnel as CEO, COO and Head of Marketing, Crazeal has revamped its sales strategy by introducing a new team of six Sales Directors. This sales team is tasked with building both local and national content in key markets Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata, which make up four of the initial eleven cities where the service will go live.

A statement explains that the company will introduce new partners in India including Claridges, Domino’s, Cafe Coffee Day for national deals and Kainoosh, Olivea, Crowne Plaza and Amoda Spa for local deals.

The rebrand makes a lot of sense for Groupon and will provide a more appropriate brand with which to build relationships with middle- and high-end advertisers and content partners. Success with new content could help differentiate its offering from the many rivals across the increasing cluttered group-buying space in India.

The joint-focus on local and national content follows the Groupon blueprint and should galvanise the Crazeal offering to provide greater appeal to differing demographics within the country.

Then of course, one can take nothing for granted given Groupon’s issues in China and the disruptive nature and low-bar of entry of the group-buying scene.