Cover Story
Cover Story
‘In future, anything that’s natural, fluid, fashionable will be linked to LIVA’
The Aditya Birla Group has broken new grounds with LIVA, the high quality fabric made using natural cellulosic fibres, delivered through an accredited value chain. The brand vision of LIVA is to provide consumers the freedom to move effortlessly and confidently in garments that celebrate natural fluid fashion. Birla Cellulose has a reputation of being a preferred partner in the entire textile value chain and with the launch of LIVA, it is set to reach out to new consumer as an ingredient brand. Connecting consumers with Liva
K K Maheshwari, Managing Director, Grasim Industries and Group Director-Textiles, Aditya Birla Group, who is credited with scripting the growth of VSF business towards a more sustainable model, talks about his vision and mission in bringing the brand LIVA closer to consumers. “Till date, marketing of fibres has been the back end of the value chain whereas brands and retail have been at the front end. When a fibre gets translated into an end product, the consumer finds it difficult to distinguish between the different ingredients in the garment. Keeping this in mind, we believe it would be good to convey the unique properties of LIVA directly to the end consumer who is the decision maker. We have studied consumers with the actual products. In future, anything that’s fluid, fashionable and natural will be linked to LIVA,” opines Maheshwari.
Assuring product quality
K K Maheshwari,
Managing Director - Grasim Industries and Group Director - Textiles
Every product has its own experience and the challenge is to stand out and define the experience it offers and make sure it keeps getting elevated. It is all about creating an association in the customer’s mind. In essence, LIVA is a promise to consumers that garments with the LIVA tag will have the most fluid, soft drape, assured by the quality backing of the value chain accredited by the Aditya Birla Group. “We believe it is important for customers to understand what they are getting. These are brand
LIVA’s brand vision is to provide consumers the freedom to move effortlessly
and confidently in garments that celebrate natural fluid fashion with LIVA fabrics.
The brand stands for the high quality fabrics made using natural cellulosic fibres of Aditya Birla Group, delivered through an accredited value chain.
LIVA promises quality backed by adequate product testing and process perfection at every stage of manufacturing. In essence, LIVA is a promise to the consumers since garments with the LIVA tag will have the fluid, soft drape, backed by the value chain accredited by the Aditya Birla Group.
Consumers usually had to make a choice between fashionable clothing and comfortable clothing. The brand makes a statement which encompasses fashion and comfort experienced as a vital ingredient which forms part of the merchandise of partnering clothing brands.
The strategy is to co-market LIVA with leading women’s apparel retailers to
build its availability, traceability and aspiration for consumers, ranging from tagging of the garments in partner outlets to in-store promotion and in media
It is one of the most sustainable in terms of raw material, life cycle assessments
(LCA) and eco friendliness of the product. Our key raw material, wood pulp is sourced through a responsible wood sourcing policy which takes care of high conservation forest, bio diversity and more is planted than cut.
2 DEALERS FOR YOU INSIDE FASHION
promises for a consumer to appreciate. Today, they are only looking for one aspect namely ‘fit’, and how it looks on the body. But this is also about enabling them to experience the wearing comfort,” he informs.
Spreading brand awareness
Maheshwari points out that branding is essentially a promise of performance. “It’s nothing but the association that comes to mind. In essence, LIVA is a promise to consumers that garments with the LIVA tag will have the most fluid, soft drape, assured by the quality backing of the value chain accredited by the Aditya Birla Group . The comfort of wearing it is going to be greater and LIVA is just a reinforcement of an offering. It doesn’t take away from the main brand positioning,” he explains. In fact, the company has planned specific promotional efforts which will enable LIVA to reach out to its target audience, so that they understand what LIVA is all about. With this launch, the company is extending the reach on a pan-India basis to create greater awareness and product availability. In S/S ’15, LIVA tagged garments will be available through 1,625 stores, spread across 54 cities within India. Visual Merchandise to enhance the consumer experience has been focused in more than 500 stores. With India’s fragmented retail, the company has joined hands with TRRAIN to educate retail staff across the country into
Cover Story finer nuances of consumer experience since their touchpoints are ten times more than the purchase. “These people are the face of the brand,” avers Maheshwari. LIVA also comes out with a research trend forecast through international agencies and fabric designers. “We also engage with merchandisers of the brands to talk about what collections would form a complete story for that brand and collaborate with fabric sourcing team,” he explains. Keeping in mind the significant potential of Indian market, the company has planned for a pan India launch with select brands partners. As a part of its marketing strategy, the first phase of launch would focus more towards women’s fashion. The products are ideally suited for ladies kurtis, nightwear, skirts, leggings, palazzo’s, western wear and also for intimate apparels. The company during its research found out that LIVA has been enriching men’s fashion and home textiles products. LIVA is profitably blended with polyester or wool and the resulting fabric has terrific application in men’s trousers and suitings in addition to women wear and home textile. Consumer feedback has shown that “It’s is so comfortable that when you move, it moves with you”. Consumers have spoken about as: “soft to touch and makes me look slim.”
Strengthening value chain
Maheshwari believes when a product is launched the value chain needs to be in place. Once this happens, more volumes can be expected through the value chain. With LIVA, the company has been collaborating with major fashion brands around the world and leading brands in India like Pantaloons, Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Lifestyle,
Cover Story
Global Desi, Chemistry and 109°F. It has come out with seasonal collections portraying trends for the season leveraging the unique attributes of LIVA. LIVA is a New Age fabric using natural fibres of Aditya Birla Group which has been innovatively manufactured by LIVA Accredited Partner Forum (LAPF) members The fibre and textile major will also be responsible in initiating LAPF which is a unique body of value chain members who offer LIVA fabrics of high quality and innovative designs. The Accredited Forum has a certification mechanism with support on marketing, vendor management, design innovation, product perfection and sustainability. The Forum members have tremendously improved their product quality, marketing services and delivery mechanism which have been appreciated by leading brands who procure from them. Birla Cellulose also facilitates order tie up between buyer and vendor to create an ecosystem of like minded partners to deliver LIVA assured quality, ensuring brand recognition, business growth and consumer delight. With time, the brand plans to add more value chain partners. “We expect more brands and retailers opting to do this. Natural fluid fashion has become a statement in all our researches. It’s distinct” he explains, Birla Cellulose has once again hit the spotlight with the launch of its new brand of fabric. Birla Cellulose is keen to chart a new course in fashion by entering the retail segment with ‘LIVA’ brand. With this new initiative, Birla Cellulose is the only company in the world to operate fully integrated manufacturing facilities extending from fibre to fashion, all under the umbrella of brand ‘LIVA’.
DEALERS FOR YOU INSIDE FASHION 3
