Aditya Birla hires fashion advisors to educate consumers on new-age Liva fabric

Liva, the new age fabric brand from the Aditya Birla Group’s Birla Cellulose, has come out with a one-of-its-kind approach for spreading awareness about the fabric and it attributes. This season, Birla Cellulose will depute Liva Fashion Advisors (LFA) in the country’s top four large format stores namely Pantaloons, Shoppers Stop, Central and Reliance Trends. The fashion advisor will help generate awareness on brand Liva and induce trials.
The move, is in line with the government’s ‘Skill India’ programme, that intends to train about 300-400, 12th standard girls aged 17 to 20. Pantaloons, Shoppers Stop, Central and Reliance Trends will absorb these girls after the training.
Liva, which was launched in March 2015, is now being used by over 30 women apparel brands including W, Biba and Auerlia. As per a consumer survey, around 97 per cent women are believed to like the bio-degradable cellulose fabric.
According to Manohar Samuel, President – Marketing, Birla Cellulose, “Market research conducted by Liva stated that 92 per cent women buyers choose garments made of Liva fabric over other fabrics once they have experienced the fabric. This gave us the idea of placing Liva Fashion Advisor at stores. We are confident of the high quality of Liva fabric as it is manufactured through the value chain partners accredited by the Aditya Birla Group. We want the customers to experience the fabric and Liva Fashion Advisors will help us achieve this.”
We spoke to Shardah Uniyal, Global Head – Branding and Communications, Birla Cellulose (Aditya Birla Group), who explained to us why the brand decided on hiring fashion advisors, the benefits of doing the same and lots more…
What was the need of introducing fashion advisors?
Liva is a high-quality fabric which is manufactured through value chain partners accredited by the Aditya Birla Group. Market research has shown that 92 per cent women buyers chose garments made of Liva fabric over other fabrics once they experience Liva fabric. We want the customers to experience the fabric. This gave us the idea of Liva Fashion Advisor at stores to induce trials and generate awareness.
In which stores will these fashion advisors be placed?
Liva Fashion Advisors will be based out of four large format stores – Pantaloons, Reliance Trends, Central and Shoppers Stop – as they carry multiple brands and private labels which have Liva tagged garments.
How many cities are associated with this concept?
Currently Liva Fashion Advisors are operating out of 30 cities in the country.
How will the concept of Fashion Advisors bring more consumers into stores? How is this move of hiring fashion advisors expected to contribute to revenue?
The objective of Liva Fashion Advisor is to generate awareness on brand Liva and induce trails of garments made of Liva fabric. We have carefully selected the large format stores based on the footfalls they receive. We expect maximum customers to get benefitted from this initiative. To increase footfalls in stores we use different means like window displays and mall drop-downs. Our new innovative mall drop-down is getting lot of attention and helping brands to generate footfalls.
The entire Liva strategy is offering high quality fluid fabric to consumers and generating awareness about the same. We are confident about the fabric as a lot of research has validated that consumers like Liva fabric once they take trial. The Liva Fashion Advisor’s objective is to generate awareness and induce trials. This will generate demand for Liva fabric and eventually generate revenues for the organisation.
What benefits does the brand expect from this personnel innovation?
Liva is a high-quality fabric which is manufactured through the value chain partners accredited by the Aditya Birla Group. Market research has shown that 92 per cent women customers prefer buying a garment made of Liva fabric once they take trial. 91 per cent customers intent to purchase a Liva tagged garment during their next purchase. It is also observed that 94 per cent customers would want to recommend a garment made of Liva fabric to their friends and acquaintances. The objective of Liva Fashion Advisors is to spread awareness about the brand and induce trials. This will eventually lead to sale of the garments made of Liva fabric and hence increase in demand for Liva fabric.
Do you think other companies will adopt this innovative idea?
While each organisation has its own strategy, and depending on their strategy adopt different means of promotion, we are confident this idea will catch on.
Tell us about other new innovations at Birla Cellulose?
We have initiated a very unique mall drop down campaign where a life size mannequin of Liva’s brand ambassador Kangana Ranaut drops-down from the atrium. The campaign stands out uniquely apart in the cluttered mall spaces where every brand is trying to get attention of the consumer. This innovative concept not only catches attention but also delivers high footfalls for the partner brands present in that mall.
Do you have any future plans to enhance your marketing campaigns? How do you plan for them?
Our future campaigns are planned based on our learning from the current season’s campaigns. To understand the effectiveness of the actives we do we conduct audits with the help of a renowned research agency. Based on our learnings we plan for our future campaigns. We hope to target eight cities with new campaigns.
Elaborate on the objective behind the campaign?
Liva is a new age fabric brand. Brands like W, Pantaloons, Biba, Solly, Van Huesen, Shoppers Stop, among others use Liva fabric in their collections. Almost all the brands have their presence in leading malls. Our objective was to deliver high footfalls for our partner brands by being visible as a reminder in the last leg of consumer journey.