 are watching yet another episode of E4M Pride of India brand series and effort to highlight the success stories of some of the most popular and successful homegrown brands in India. Today, we are proud to have with us Ms. Kateja Lokhandwala, who is the head of marketing at Zivami, one of the most popular women intimate wear brands in the country right now. Started in 2011 as a D2C offering, the brand has reshaped how women shop their intimate wear and got immensely popular in no time. Just within a decade of its existence, the brand is commanding over 25% of market share. Today, Kateja will tell us about the brand's journey thus far, the role of marketing in shaping up the success story of Zivami and the future vision. Welcome, Kateja. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mansi. Happy to be a part of this conversation. We are proud to have you here and thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule. Let's just start talking about brand Zivami. Can you tell me about the inception story and how the brand came into being? Essentially, Zivami has already played the role of a catalyst in shifting perceptions and growing the intimate wear category in India. Zivami was actually initially launched as a platform that allowed women to shop for intimate wear products in the comfort and privacy of that space. Post that, we realized that the problem not just lay in the channel of purchase, but also in the availability of right products. So the company then adapted and extended itself into a brand and we kind of launched a range of products that were designed for the Indian body profile. We have an inclusive and exhausting range of products which offers consumers variety in terms of sizes, in terms of styles, pattern, prints, all of that. So today, Zivami, of course, has built an ecosystem where we not only engineer products that are designed keeping the Indian women in mind, but we also allow her or give her rather an experience, a very comfortable, enjoyable shopping experience through various channels that we operate. Quite interesting. But for the Indian market, we are still a very conservative market when it comes to women intimate wear and discussions around that. I'm sure, like more than a decade ago, it would have been even more difficult. So how did you start this conversation and how was the brand perceived in initial days? Could you take me through a journey of how the brand image and even the perception towards shopping women intimate wear has changed over the past 10, 11 years? Like you rightly mentioned, launch day has always been considered an unmentionable category, characterized by a lack of conversations around it. And there were more than a few years back, more than 80% of women did not even know what the right size was. And there was a lot of hesitancy in seeking solutions and finding answers to what is right for you, what is your right fit, what is your right size. And hence, Zivami's mission has always been to remove the taboos that surround this category and really encourage conversations in this space. So initially, in the earlier days, I think that the effort was always to build content which was informational, which was relatable, that simplified the journey of the consumer and helped her navigate in the intimate wear space. At that point in time, it also used social media in a very big way, where it was used as a platform to build conversations between women, right? There were campaigns that were executed, which was Zivami. Women may be featured real consumers who came and spoke about their story through either images or videos or testimonials. We had properties called lingerie confessions. The women came and talked about the challenges and their experience of going and shopping for intimate wear or their struggles with not finding the products or the sizes that they were looking for. Also, what Zivami has always done is very consciously portrayed real, relatable Indian women in advertising as against glamorous, provocative shots. And this was done very consciously to enable conversation on the campaign once it was launched, right? So it's really, the attempt has been to build a safe space at Zivami where women could come, they could share, they could discuss and they're celebrated for being who they are rather than being judged for the choices that they make. Good work on that part because that has been a very important conversation. And I've been following the brand journey quite closely and that always stays with you the way you are being portrayed in media and very few brands get that right. So good work, kudos for that. Moving on, you said that Zivami has always focused on showing real women on screen and talking to real women in a way that they can relate to the subject and they can feel comfortable discussing their sizes or the fabric they are wanting or the designs they are wanting with you. If we talk about marketing, what was your first marketing, big marketing campaign? Like how did you start using TV? Because social media is still relatively a safer space where you can build community but when you are out on television you are even reaching out to people that you might not necessarily be targeting. So how did you go about that? So let me take you back to the first campaign of Zivami that was of course much before my time. This was back in 2014 when the first TVC of Zivami was launched and that TVC showcased a wide range of products and it was the very first time that the word bra was spoken out on national television and it was quickly followed up by a very insightful campaign which was called which became very popular and was called the Salesman Bali Bra. It was built on this very powerful insight that a lot of women, they end up wearing products that the salesman who's standing at that trade store where they're going and shopping buying whatever he's recommending and that campaign kind of encouraged again it was a very simple combination of a woman just standing in her dining room and talking about her experience of shopping in a space which is so uncomfortable and can be really embarrassing and how it encouraged women to go and shop on Zivami in the comfort and privacy of that space. Cut to 2021, our latest campaign was called, see what I did, we launched it back in June of 2021. The campaign was really built to encourage women to truly embrace themselves and indulge in their every dream. It was built on this insight where today's women are looking to expand their boundaries. They want or rather they are imagining themselves in new and exciting ways but there is this question that pulls a lot of us back and the question is can I pull it off? Whether it is wearing a different kind of outfit, whether it is trying to do a new activity or indulging in an experience, there's this lack of confidence that pulls us back and we kind of not do what our heart really desires. So the campaign really showcased how the right intimate wear which is designed for your body type can give you the freedom and the confidence to really indulge in every dream and desire that you may have. That was the campaign that just went live last year. That's quite interesting. As you mentioned that when you started social media was primary channel of communication. It was back in 2014 that you came out with your first TVC. So over the years, how has your media pie really shaped up in terms of share of digital and mainline and apart from TV and obviously social media, what are the media are you using right now to communicate with your target? So before I get to the point about the whole media pie, I'm just going to spend a little more time on talking about this mission that I spoke about, about Zivame wanting to encourage conversations category and removing the societal taboos that are attached to it, making the category more mainstream and real. So very recently at the initiative that we've just launched in fact that helps us further this mission is a show called Zivame Unhooked. This show is essentially a makeover show that kind of talks about a transformation which is both internal as well as external. It is an eight episode long show. Each episode is about six to eight minutes and each of the episodes is going to be featuring women across different age groups, different body types, different life stages, different geographies and they're going to come on to the show and they're going to share their experiences, talk about some of the insecurities and focus on some of the challenges that they face when it comes to intimate wear. The show is of course hosted by Sarah Jane Diaz and Sejal Kumar and we also have a very an expert section in the show which is hosted by our laundry designer Lakshmi and the three hosts are basically taking these women on a transformative journey of rediscovering themselves and completely enabling them to do an inside out transformation which is championed by the power of well-fitting intimate wear. We just went live with the show actually a couple of weeks back on the 19th of March and every week there's going to be one episode that goes live and I'm very happy to tell you again the intent behind this was to encourage congregations and tell people or tell the women that we're talking to that it's okay to discuss the issues that you face and seek solutions for some of your challenges. Got a lot of love for that show. Two episodes have gone live and the third one will of course release this Saturday so yes because I think the content is authentic it's genuine it's relatable when you look at some of the things that the women are talking about you can see yourself in that conversation and therefore again it really helps us in you know driving this mission of ours to encourage congregations in this category because it is a piece that's gone live on our social media. Coming to the whole you know the media mix of it given that we are a digital first brand we of course lead with digital marketing but we do follow the principle of accessibility and personalization to our entire marketing approach. We are media agnostic and depending on the objective of every campaign you know we choose the right channel for it so it's not that we only advertise on digital or only offline I think we chose the right mix depending on who we want to reach who we want to talk to and what the objective of the campaign is. Makes sense and who have been your creative and media agency partners till now. So a lot of the work that we actually do on Zivami is built internally we've got our own set of creative designers our own set of content team I'm branding that kind of pulls together a lot of the content that you see there on some of the larger pieces for example Dekho Mene Kya Kya campaign we did that in collaboration with Lola and Tis Bangalore and the one that I just spoke about which is Zivami Unhooked we've done that in collaboration with the voice authority we are based out of Mumbai. And voice authority would be the production house for the show? They're not just the production house they're also you know the creative partner on the show along with the production as well. Okay and how are you promoting the show currently? What channels are you using for that? So right now the show is primarily focused and being driven on the digital platforms so it is live on all of our social channels and of course there's a promotion specifically on YouTube it's an eight minute long you know the each episode is about eight minutes long so it's long form content and given the nature and the length of the content right now we're focusing on driving it through digital. Great we have discussed like how past 10 11 years have been for brands of army how have you seen the consumer evolve are there still only urban consumers coming to a platform or are you seeing more of tier 2 tier 3 women coming and shopping from your at least indulging in conversation on social media how does that space look like? To be honest I think launch day in today's day and age is no longer a hushed topic of conversation right I think honestly Zivami has led the charge in making sure that you know these conversations are encouraged. Women today not just in tier 1 markets but even in tier 2 tier 3 are no longer shy about expressing their opinion and their thoughts you know on the category that forms a very essential part of their wardrobe there's an intention to discover to explore to experiment with intimate wear there's a very tangible shift away from boring mundane you know intimate wear to experimenting with you know colors styles patterns new trends also as a brand we've made a very conscious effort in educating and telling consumers how their intimate wear has to evolve with their outer wear so today a lot of the women are you know are very conscious that you know whatever outer wear that they choose to wear there is a particular intimate wear that is right for that and it can actually lead to you know your outer wear appearance completely changing and transforming if you just pay your outer wear with the right intimate wear so there is a very conscious effort that women are putting in today to understanding what goes with their outer wear and making efforts and ensuring that their wardrobe has that right intimate wear also today women are no longer okay with being uncomfortable in their laundry again this whole conversation we've driven that you don't have to be always adjusting your strap or you know fidgeting with your band because you're uncomfortable and just wait to come home and remove your bra right I think women now understand that your laundry can really be comfortable it's something that you wear for you know about 18 20 hours some some for some even 24 hours a day right so it's important that you have a fit which is comfortable and right for your body and therefore women are seeking you know solutions and identifying what their right fit is what their right size is and what is the right intimate for their body profile for their breast profile we have this tool called fit code that we know that that basically helps you understand whether you're wearing your right size or not as you identify what your breast profile is and then also recommend the right products for you and you've seen you know great adoption of fit code where women against sitting in their house on their device can you know quickly identify whether they're wearing the right size or wrong size so you know yeah the the the consumers the consumer is changing is evolving and they're really understanding that intimate wear does not have to be uncomfortable does not have to be boring boring and they're exploring intimate wear and and they're expanding their wardrobe just as their outerwear or wardrobe is expanding that's great that's very good to hear but as you know more consumer awareness happens as more and more people get aware about such topics the competition also increases and you already have certain number of players competing directly with you in the market what are the key challenges and opportunities you see in the space right now and what helps you stand out from rest of your competitors? To be honest Zewabi is you know is is really rightly poised to lead the space given that we are one of the only brands in the market that has products which are designed keeping the Indian body profile in mind right you know all of the products that we have you know that we have in our portfolio are keeping in mind you know the Indian physique the needs of the Indian women you know understanding what are the gaps that are existing the category and therefore trying to build products that fit in that you know that's solved for that particular problem or that need so I don't believe that we you know we very clearly differentiate from everybody else in the market given that we are one of the only brands that you know has products you know and rather the products have been designed to fit the Indian body and not the body being you know forced to fit into the product so I think we're very well poised to that we have a wide variety of products that you know kind of meets the you know meets the intimate where needs of you know the consumers across moods across occasions across life stages so I think yeah we've got that competitive advantage going for us great and do you also have an offline strategy yes how is it planning out and I'm sure there would have been some pandemic induced challenges in that space as well could you just take me through how the offline part of the business is going right now So Zivami you know believes in serving the consumer through her channel of choice right and we want to be where she wants to shop and which is why the brand had actually even forwarded into the retail space as of today we have about 100 plus stores across the country and you know the store of course gave us an opportunity to enable consumers to touch feel and you know also helps us to serve the consumers in the moment so I think retail is expanding expanding quite fast I think one of the challenges that we had immediately after the lockdown of course and that would be true for a lot of players was the safety that the consumers would have in their minds when they're visiting a store right so all of the measures that we had taken was to ensure that you know we provide a safe very free you know shopping experience for consumers so from you know patient thermal screening the merchandise was divided into trial merchandise and display merchandise so that only a certain set of products you know would be tried by the consumer and every piece that was used as a trial along with a trial room you know was immediately sanitized after the consumer as used it social distancing of course you know digitalized payments you know contactless payments so all of that kind of help us build a very safe shopping space for consumers and I think we bounced back fairly quickly after the initial lockdown I was saying that my last question to you would be how do you envision the future for brands of army but are you short term and long term goals right now and long term I don't mean 10 years because no one can see that bar so however you want to define long term I think one of the key things that is both for us for both short term and long term that they couldn't to continue pursue is to really ensure that this mission that we are on that we remove this taboo that every woman is going to be comfortable saying the word bra in her own circle as well as you know outside where you know we basically I want to encourage her build a space for the woman to come discuss seek solutions for the problem that she's facing and ensure that we've got a range of products that are there to meet her every need I think this is both short term and you know long term for us and we're going to continue you know on that goal great thank you so much for your time today and all the best for the future hoping to seeing more interesting campaigns and more interesting products from your kitty coming soon thanks maan see do go watch the show Zivami I hope I'm sure you like it I'm sure there will be an episode that you will relate to and do let us know how do you how you liked it definitely we'll stay in touch with you for that we'll give immediate feedback as soon as I go through the episodes thank you so much thank you so much maan see