Future Style Lab, the design studio arm of Kishore Biyani’s Future Group has launched the first store of its contemporary Indian lifestyle brand, Ancestry, at Ambience Mall, Gurugram. The brand has on offer, apparel for both men and women, home, gifting and beauty products along with food options, bound to appeal to a Millennial audience.
A touch of the rustic blends with modern luxury at exclusive store, which is spread across 1,200 sq. ft.
Manjula Tiwari, CEO at Future Style Lab says, “Ancestry as a brand excited us and the launch of the first store has been extremely thrilling. The brand offers Indian apparel and lifestyle products which have been re-imagined based on key international trends. The idea is to provide complete wardrobe and lifestyle solutions for modern Indian consumers.”
Future Style Lab, which is known to continuously innovate and reinvent, has so positioned Ancestry after conducting an extensive market research and receiving insights into the current, contemporary Indian lifestyle and fashion markets.
Analytics Drive Ancestry Collection
A Future Style Lab team travelled across India covering metros and Tier II cities over a period of many months to deep-dive into consumer behaviour and buying patterns including:
– Market Visits and Focus Groups
– Wardrobe Audits
– Personal Interviews
The company also took into account, the findings of a Technopak study which found:
– The ethnic wear market is estimated to grow robustly to Rs 126,506 crore by 2019.
– Women dominate the category as 83 percent of the ethnic wear market is women’s wear.
– 8 percent of the ethnic wear market is men’s wear and is largely driven by occasion wear.
– The balance 9 percent includes kidswear and is totally driven by occasion wear.
Brand Opportunity: It was concluded that there are very few organised pan India brands like fabindia, Biba, W and Global Desi that have dominated this space. It also found that there is only one player in the lifestyle space currently and that is fabindia.
The intense on ground study gave strength to the idea that an opportunity exists to create a brand can curate goods to the taste of the contemporary Indian albeit with traditional roots, become a strong challenger to existing brands in drawing the fashionable young Indian consumer.
Brand Inspiration: Ancestry has been inspired by the evolving face of the modern-day Indian consumer.
Brand Vision: Ancestry aspires to be a complete wardrobe and lifestyle solution for the modern Indian consumer.
Brand Collection: At Ancestry, Indian lifestyle and clothes are re-imagined based on key international trends. Indian textile details are revisited and refreshed. The collection comprises of exquisite Indo-western outfits for both men and women. It is an amalgamation of the Indian heritage with a modern twist, using sustainable materials and ease cotton. Along with its clothing line, the brand focuses on organic, ethical, and handcrafted beauty and home décor products. The price range of the collection ranges from Rs 3,000-7,000.
Brand Audience: Ancestry targets men and women who are self-assured, professionally competent and curious to discover. They represent the evolving face of contemporary India but are innately Indian and driven by their cultural capital to appreciate design and aesthetics.
Brand Positioning: Ancestry is a premium retail experience at affordable prices.
“The brand caters to that sweet spot between extremely commercial brands that are more Indo-western and niche brands, which while feature great products, also come at very high prices,” says Tiwari.
“Currently we are focusing on opening stores only in malls, but we believe the space is such that a brand like Ancestry would work just as well on a high street environment, so that is something we may explore soon,” she adds.
Strategies to Boost the Brand
Talking about the marketing and promotion strategies of Ancestry, Tiwari says, “Since we are rolling out stores in a mall environment, a large part of our awareness will be tied with activities we do with the malls. Separately, we are also keen to talk about our brand within media and via influencers.”
“This brand embodies international trends and we hope to showcase that through our curated events within stores for bespoke customers. One such event will one-on-one time with our designers to get a better understanding of the new trends in contemporary Indian fashion,” she explains.
“Later on, we hope to fortify Ancestry as a platform for young talent to feature their collections, collaborations with the new age designers who also believe in keeping traditions alive. You will soon see capsule collections from various designers showcased at Ancestry.”
Store Design Concept & Innovations
Ancestry has a modern contemporary aesthetic weaving in traditional elements. “Our Arch is a big part of the brand and comes across in the design concept of the store, bridging the gap between the old and the new. And our touch of copper as a colour within the store marries the old with the new,” says Tiwari, adding, “Our stores will feature a video screen whereby we are able to retell the stories of our collections. We also believe customer service is a top priority in the retail environment and will be integrating tablets into the store soon, to capture customer feedback for us to serve them better.”
The Way Forward
The brand plans to extend its presence by rolling exclusive brand outlets apart from building strong alternate channels of sale.
“Our website is under construction, and we should be ready to roll online soon enough. Apart from this, the potential for taking Ancestry across the country and also abroad, is huge – something that our e-commerce arm should be able to make easy. We are very active on social media and stay engaged with our consumers via Instagram,” says Tiwari.
“Although our roll out will be contained to Delhi in 2018, there is huge potential for a brand like Ancestry. Within the next couple of years, our presence in Mumbai will be fortified,” she concludes.
