It’s a boon for those fond of dining outside and generally, having fun living life king-size. What will you do if you can get discount coupons, 900 in all, that could be redeemed at over 300 locations in the city? Some would surely jump at the idea. This very thought prompted 23-year-old Varun Kumar Akula to come up with his Blue Book. With the motto, “save as you spend and spend as you save”, the Blue Book gives one exclusive privileged discounts on food, wellness and leisure, that can be redeemed at more than 300 best outlets in Hyderabad in one year.
Within the first two weeks of its launch, the book has garnered 2045 likes on Facebook and quite a few orders. Though the idea was conceived in May 2012, the final product took about nine months to shape up. “We started working on this project last May. What followed from then on was six months of market research, two months of field research and two more months on designing, developing content, proof reading and other stuff,” explains founder and managing director Varun.
Every page of the book has a small description of one particular place and three coupons with different offers or discounts you can avail at that place.
The book is divided into four colour coded sections; the first, yellow section is for five star, four star and three star hotels, the pink section includes cafes, food courts, night clubs and coffee shops, the orange section is exclusively for spas and saloons from every corner of the city and the blue section has discounts for gym membership, music classes, dance academies and sports clubs. The Blue Book also boasts of the highest number of tie-ups compared to any other discount voucher website or company.
The makers of the book have not invested a lot on the publicity of the book. “Though the book was launched on February 8, we started the sales from February 15. We have not done any publicity or outdoor marketing and neither did we advertise through media,” Varun says. The main source of revenue is however from the book sales.
Born and brought up in Hyderabad, Varun is a BITS Pilani Dubai graduate, who did his last two years of graduation at the State University of New York. “I went back to Dubai after I graduated from New York and started two new firms there. During the course of which, I saw a vacuum in India and then planned to work here as well,” he recalls.
Explaining more on the need for something like a Blue Book for Hyderabadi citizens, Varun says, “Not many people in India experiment often with different restaurants or coffee shops. With the number of new food joints that are opening in the city, awareness in the city about these new places is very less. I felt that there was a need to document these places and let people know about them. This book will not just help them try new places, it will also give them a discount for trying,” explains Varun Akula.
While the book is priced at `999, the coupons will make up for more than the amount one invests on buying the book. You can call 04030007777 to order your book or visit www.thebluebook.in