How Hoovu is building an online community!

For flower lovers, traditions & wellness.

Hello! 👋

I first heard of Hoovu Fresh when the founders (and sister-duo) Yeshoda Karuturi and Rhea Karuturi pitched on Shark Tank India.

Later, I saw them across Big Basket, Swiggy Instamart, and local supermarkets. But what caught my interest is their Instagram communities — an extension of Hoovu Fresh, if you may, even for those who don't buy flowers for festivals or rituals.

An Instagram page (& more) for flower lovers

Hoovu Finds is an online community curated by The Alipore Post for those who love flowers. With 13.3K followers, this community is fresh, shares flower lovers' perspectives, and is flower-powered. Whether you buy flowers or not, it won't stop you from following this page. 

It's art!

But beyond this, Hoovu Finds found its way into our mailboxes through The Floral Dispatch, a Substack newsletter, again curated by The Alipore Post. With the choicest curation of art, updates from Find's community, and conversations with flower lovers — The Floral Dispatch also highlights small businesses and artists crafting something floral.

Through the newsletter, I discovered that Hoovu also publishes zines.

So, is Hoovu publishing more content?

Indeed!

Hoovu Zines collaborates with artists and illustrators to tell stories with flowers as a theme. For instance, check out The Floral Monologue by Rucha Dhayarkar.

Another zine, Thorns & Petals, by Sunny Kumar, explores dealing with a lost friendship while discovering a love for flowers. You know, this makes me think how every art lover will find these stories enjoyable. As someone who follows Finds on Instagram, I don't follow Hoovu’s main page. 

However, a quick search on Instagram alone showed that Hoovu has more Instagram pages. Whaaaaat!

More Pages on Instagram?

Interestingly, Hoovu Fresh (the mothership page with 23.6K followers) has three more Instagram pages: Hoovu Fresh Puja (10.2K followers), Hoovu Fresh Flowers (17.4K followers), and Juhi by Hoovu (217 followers).

From the names themselves, you can gather Hoovu is somewhat trying to attract a different target audience — but only slightly different. While three of those pages still cater to those buying flowers, Juhi talks about wellness.

Talking about community, Hoovu also has a WhatsApp community of nearly 690 members, which apparently is a space to learn about Indian traditions.

I did join the WhatsApp community only to find out it has two more WhatsApp communities. At this point, I was like: why are there so many communities and Instagram pages?

Can you really retain your target users with multiple channels and content properties?

Is too much content really too much?

When you’re a brand, less is more. Too many channels and platforms can be a distraction.

Plus, producing content on one platform alone is tough; imagine producing content for different channels and platforms! Unless you have many creators, content strategists, social media managers, and budget and tools at your disposal.

Hoovu Finds and its newsletter are primarily curation-based; not that curation takes less time, it’s equally challenging because you have to consume and go through hundreds of content pieces to pick what’s relevant and resonates with your target audience.

Hoovu Fresh on Pinterest

But curation also helps you pick from your community's brains. According to Webinar Care, 76 per cent of marketers share curated content on social media. Curated content comes in handy when creating content around trending conversations, too. How many times have we not curated others' opinions and memes? 

Indeed, that takes care of traffic, but can you retain or convert those users into your customers? Don't get me wrong — I'm Hoovu Finds' target audience, but I'm not Hoovu Fresh's target audience. And yet, I noticed they don’t talk much about their USP: long-lasting flowers. That's what they pitched in The Shark Tank India! I barely found content about their sustainability practices or technology that helps them retain the longevity of the flowers. 

Just like Phool, they now offer more varieties of products like dhoop battis, sticks, etc. But I wish they go beyond talking about their offerings, deep dive into how they're making a difference and build their content around it. Content around their launches and new products should supplement their brand philosophy.

I'm sure many consumers would love to see that journey; perhaps that's what will convert their Finds' community into Fresh's consumers.

What do you think about this?