Strengthening The HUB’s Position Across Retail and Digital Fashion
The HUB, hailing from Vadodara Gujarat, reintroduced and recreated the concept of traditional men’s ethnic wear that exudes an appearance of tradition and charm. Ethnic wear in India plays a major role for all the traditional festivals and weddings.The way men approach fashion today has evolved a lot since ages and we with The HUB took this as an opportunity.
Big Brand Challenge
The brand had successfully set up a physical store offering a range of casual, contemporary and ethnic clothing yearning with the language of Indian fashion. The challenge faced by us was to position it in the market debarring the perception of being “big-budget” that ran with the brand’s name in the audience’s mind. How could we bring it to be the fashion store that had a global reach with their unique style and identity? How could we transition it from being an offline store to giving it an e-commerce and digital platform? How could we make it easier for the audience in countries like the USA and UK to interact and engage with the fashion label.
Pivotal Groundwork (Research)
The Background
With an aim to re-invent the men’s casual, party and traditional wear segment, The HUB began in the year 2003.The brand began its pivotal journey by establishing a physical store in Vadodara, with brands that dealt in casual wear like Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfigher, United Colors of Benetton, Rare Rabbit, Jack and Jones and Levis. For their ethnic section, they collaborated with Indian designers that are known to create magic in every outfit they make. With their audience spread across the country and overseas, they had to get in line with a way to shift to the digital platform.
We enter.
The Study
After extensive research and workshopping, Trizone positioned the brand on a central idea of ethnic and contemporary clothing. All the various attires and outfits that were being put up by the brand were created with the perception that Indian fashion has gone through a sea of change. We developed a full brand strategy including narrative, experience principles and trends to crystallise who and what the business is.
We wanted to bring the element of premium as their new visual identity. We gave the feel of contemporary grandeur consistently across all touch points.
The Trends
Casual fashion is a fast moving mania. Catching up with these trends is what helped us position brand loyalty in the market. Our audience knew they had to step in the store whenever they needed something in trend. This made the brand stand out from their competitors. With celebrity endorsements for ethnic section and photoshoots that went a long way to build trust, we made sure The HUB was unmissable.
The Approach
We moved straight into acquisition strategy. We developed a comprehensive digital marketing plan to rapidly expand the online customer interaction base. Complementing this with a revamped online portal of The HUB, and building the journey through emails, we had the challenge of converting the audience from a plain base to loyal customers. Working with the SEO & alt keywords, we helped to select the short- & medium-term growth plan for the business, rooted in the long-term strategy defined in the branding. More than just a website, we created an online destination where users could have a full experience of the brand. To drive new traffic along with the existing to the new website, we created a suite of SEO optimized blogs and a targeted social media and OOH marketing campaign.
Stellar Strategy
Establishing a fashion store brand from scratch and marketing them on a traditional as well as a digital platform was entailing. We studied the trends that other media platforms were working upon and were determined to not run the same rat race. We aimed to transfer the leverage of goodwill the brand had earned in the years over to the e-commerce platform for a wider audience. Our research helped us establish the brand on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and LinkedIn helping us gain access to an audience on the global scale.
Groundbreaking Execution
Trizone brought out a number of advertising campaigns across time to bring the brand to life in every touchpoint of their online and offline experience.
Here are some of our best received campaigns:
1 – The HUB of Choices
The HUB of choices was a unique idea that was brought to life with the concept of occasions and situations. It offered the customers an exquisite way of choosing their entire outfits rather than a single piece of clothing that is usually bought. We knew we could outmaneuver the market with this abstract. Individual pieces of clothing were put together by expert designers and made into attires. To name a few, the adventurer, the entrepreneur, the executive and page nine were some of the well received styles by the audience through this concept.
Summer Campaigns as reference
- Set for Summer
- Flaunt Your Summer
- Indian Summer
- Shades of Summer
2 – Know Your Weave
Based on the simple idea of understanding a fabric, this campaign was an ode to artisans and designers of Indian ethnic wear. It focused on the kind of intricacy, embroidery, textile, embellishments, style, colour and fabric used to create an individual piece of clothing. This crusade was taken very well by our audience. With intricate knowledge, our admirers subsequently became our ambassadors.
As The HUB evolved from a trend follower to anticipator, to trendsetter, our media strategy developed from chasing response to driving associations with the power of campaigns beginning from our timeline till the outset. Other campaigns that were very well received were:
- The Groom Story
- The Pastel Saga
- Diwali Ke Andaaz
- The Wedding Diaries
- Modern Maharaja
- Show Stopper
- The Regal Silhouette
- Prasang
- Sehra
Key Takeaways
Being the first one in Vadodara to take a fashion retail store on the digital platform, we had a lot of challenges to overcome. Getting under the skin of the business, we discovered that ethinc and contemporary clothing is a unique craft, steeped in tradition. Each stage of the process requires mastery in a set of skills and processes, and to transfer this legacy as a goodwill, all our teams including copy or design, digital or planning, did their best.
Insights
In just a few months, we experienced the boost in engagement and conversion rates:
