In order to promote Indian talent, fast fashion brand Styched launched a new line called, Styched Life. It offers fashion products with an interesting twist. Myriad of celebrities are being tapped to adopt their trademark dialogues and achievements in the brand’s designs to develop strong ties with the customers.
The brand has also collaborated with the evergreen Indian comic brands like Diamond Comics and Amar Chitra Katha. It has also come up with their first Chacha Chaudhary collection, which has attracted many takers among comic lovers.“Our aim is to enable every Indian talent to create their fan merchandise or fashion merchandise line for free, host with us and earn a major share of the profits,” says Soumajit Bhowmik, CEO Styched.
Excerpts from the interview with the CEO:
Who are the celebrities on board, and what’s the idea behind these collaborations?
We have collaborated with Rohit Roy, Salim-Sulaiman, Rohan Bopanna, and Baba Sehgal till now since they all have a clear connection with the Millenials. We aim to have over 500 associations in the first six months. The merchandise would provide fans in India to have easy access to apparel created by their favorite celebrities with the celebrity persona clearly visible through creative designing, says Soumajit Bhowmik.
What is your target audience? And how has been the response so far?
Our target age group is between 18 to 30, and millennials. The response has been very overwhelming. One of our collaborators, Green Humour, an internationally acclaimed cartoonist, completed 100 sales in the first week of its launch, while another celebrity crossed 500 sales in the first month itself.
What about the tie-ups with Diamond Comics and Amar Chitra Katha?
We started Styched Life with an aim to promote Indian talents, brands, bands, artists, celebrities, and influencers. Although there is a great demand for fan merchandise, most brands in India are still associated with the likes of Marvel, DC, and other Western brands. We decided to support India’s Vocal for a local initiative and become an alternative to fan merchandising on a massive scale. Therefore, we started with Indian comics and cartoon characters like Suppandi, Sambhu, Diamond Comics characters –Shaktimaan, Chacha Choudhary, etc.
What is in the pipeline?
We aspire to make Styched Life as the top Google search for all fan merchandise. We are working on closing around 50 deals in the next couple of weeks, and have more than 500 celebrities in the pipeline. We will soon launch Buried Alive – a Styched TV production initiative to recognize the efforts of an Indian star or celebrity, whose contribution to the country or society has been forgotten with time. Additionally, we will also make short movies on them in order to launch their merchandise and support them. The first on the list is Bula Choudhury.
What should a brand do to keep its audience engaged during this pandemic when not many are on a buying spree?
Adapt, Transform, Disrupt, these are the three key terms that should define a brand’s approach. Understanding the psyche of the customers and changing business strategies while offering new ways of life is the key. When there is no demand, we have to create one. That is how businesses succeed. The current times have created an ideal situation for every brand to put on the creative marketer’s hat and come up with something new.
Did technology help the apparel & fashion brands in India?
Yes, a large number of offline retailers have shifted to online platforms. Technology has enabled brands to get a wider reach and garner sales even when the stores are shut. The use of Social media and other display/search networks has allowed performance-based advertisements, to drive online sales, and to enhance branding and brand visibility.
