The lifestyle brand Baggit has been omnipresent across India for the last 26 years. What started out as a one-woman army, is today a Rs 100 crore plus brand with a significant present both offline and online. Nina Lekhi, managing director and chief design curator of Baggit, speaks to Priyanka Golikeri about how the brand's campaigns have re-shaped their identity.

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How has #PlayTheLifeGame campaign helped Baggit in its rebranding and in promoting newer collections?

The campaign captured the ethos and attitude of contemporary Indian women who live life on their own terms and make choices for themselves. Our idea was to put forth the campaign's true essence and connect with millennials. We celebrated the moods of Indian women through multiple contests where we interacted with our consumers through various touch points and made them part of the brand conversations. The campaign helped Baggit in its re-branding and in promoting our trendiest collections. The idea was clear, to engage and target maximum brand lovers and create a full-fledged promotion for the brand. This campaign has helped to increase our top of the mind recall, which has fuelled online retail growth.

How is Baggit planning on leveraging the essence of brand campaigns to grow the brand?

The best way to provide a strong brand message to the wider audience is through outdoor advertising.

What about the positioning of the Baggit brand? How has it helped in attracting consumers across demographics?

Indian women are well-travelled and have a global outlook; they are aware of current fashions and desire to stay up-to-date. Besides being highly fashionable, we also make sure our bags are high on functionality and made from cruelty-free and recyclable materials.

How important is the online presence for Baggit?

We use all our social media handles to do regular new collection launches and make it interactive by running programs with our fan base. Baggit's presence online has increased multi-fold in the past few years and we are continuously working towards creating a seamless experience across platforms. In the e-commerce space, we are growing in double digits. Even though online has grown faster than offline, majority of the business still comes from brick and mortar formats. But this will change in the future.

What are your offline expansion plans?

We currently have 48 exclusive Baggit stores and we retail through 1000+ large format and multi-brand outlets across 90+ cities. My plan is to open 20 new stores by this year end, especially in tier II cities.

What other products for the contemporary woman would Baggit introduce in the near future?

Entering the accessories category (through belts, caps, wallets, etc.) was a natural transition that happened over a period of time. Baggit is in the business of catering to the lifestyle needs of women and accessories are a part and parcel of their daily fashion need. Our in-house design team is constantly working on new product portfolios. This year, I will be launching my next range, 'Nina Lekhi for Baggit' that is trendy and premium, after the well-appreciated response for my previous range, 'Rusted Revolution'.