Building Brand Identity In Retail

Sustainability marketing and sustainable marketing are often considered the same thing but they are not. As Paul Randle would often say in our workshops 'Sustainability marketing is dead!'. Sustainability marketing is communicating your company's wider sustainability plans. Sustainable marketing is embedding sustainability into every single aspect of your function from branding and strategy to tactics, governance, and most importantly how you define success. Sustainability marketing is very faddy and sits perfectly with marketing's obsessions with trends. It came in, everyone became obsessed with it and now people are saying does it really matter? Well, I can completely see why. Brands are being pulled across the embers left, right and centre for greenwashing, socialwashing, purposewashing, lacking sincerity, lacking authenticity, lacking integrity, and most importantly not being considered trustworthy. And why is this happening? Firstly you have marketing teams who do not understand sustainability and secondly, you have a marketing function that despite communicating sustainability plans, continues to use business-as-usual (BAU) channels, toolkits, branding strategies, and planning, etc which continues to lead to mass overconsumption, inadequacy marketing, funding of misinformation, ad fraud, driving debt up, driving suicide rates up, complete lack of contextual care when targeting customers, enormous operational carbon footprints and waste streams and a detrimental brainprint (to name but a few). These problems won't go away unless we properly embed sustainable marketing thinking. We need to not only communicate sustainability but we need to act, feel, be, do it as well. Taking this approach has its benefits as well, it will enable brands to: - Stay ahead of the legislation ramping up - Help companies hit their Scope 3 emission reduction targets - Offer a long-term competitive edge - Drive efficiencies up and thus saving costs - Deepen connections with customers I know I live and breathe this space but I really see no other option but to take the sustainable marketing route. It just makes business sense plus you will have a team that is fully engaged because they know they are no longer being part of the problem. #marketing #advertising #sustainabilitymarketing #sustainablemarketing

Retail is dead. Foot traffic is down across the board. That’s the narrative we hear over and over being pushed in the media. Yet TALA - Grace Beverley’s brand born online - has opened their first physical store in Carnaby Street this weekend, to queues around Soho & a sell-out ticketed event. So rather than being dead, what if the role of brand retail has simply transformed? My take 👉 The store is no longer solely top of the funnel or entirely about discoverability. It’s the destination. The community hub. The clubhouse. It’s where content becomes tangible. Where brand world becomes real world. Where you walk through the door and it feels like stepping into their Instagram, their TikToks, their values. We’re not just talking racks and rails - there’s a coffee bar, photobooths, events, and experiences. This is community-led commerce. It’s a cultural space disguised as a high street shop. And I believe this is where we see the real revival of the high street - not as a retail destination, but as a brand world brought to life. A place to deepen connection with your community - ultimately strengthening the life time value of that customer. The blueprint is clear: Content captures. Community keeps. IRL deepens. TALA joins the ranks of Gymshark, Odd Muse and Glossier, Inc. - brands that built strong digital tribes before laying a single brick and now use their stores as destinations for the community to connect IRL. And in a world where discovery is unpredictable - spanning podcasts, group chats, TikToks and Substack - trying to funnel people in linearly is a lost cause. The smartest brands aren’t forcing a path. They’re showing up where their community already is & then inviting them in deeper. Retail isn’t dead. It’s reinventing itself & I'm so here for it. Calling it now - your favourite digital brand worlds will manifest in real life in the next 18 months whether through pop ups or permanent stores. Mark my words!

Sustainability experts and interpreters have exactly one skill in common: both spend their days translating between two groups who speak completely different languages. The interpreters translates between english and spanish. The sustainability expert translates between carbon footprints and grocery receipts. Here's what I mean: Your product's LCA shows -2.4 kg CO2e per unit. Congratulations. Your customer is standing in the aisle deciding between you and the competitor that's three dollars cheaper. She does not care about your carbon footprint. She cares that she has $43 left until Friday. You've eliminated PFAS and reduced ecotoxicity by 60%. Your technical report is pristine. Your customer cares that the old detergent gave her daughter a rash. She cares that she had to leave work early for an emergency pediatrician visit that cost $150. You've improved durability metrics and extended product lifespan by 40%. Your customer cares that his last vacuum cleaner died after 10 months and he's still paying it off on his credit card. The best sustainability professionals I know aren't the ones with the most sophisticated models or the deepest LCA expertise. They're the ones who understand that nobody wakes up thinking about Scope 3 emissions. People wake up thinking about mortgage payments, medical bills and whether they can afford the name brand this month. We've spent decades perfecting our metrics while consumers kept choosing plastic-wrapped convenience over our virtuously sustainable alternative that costs 40% more. Circular economy? Your customer hears "I can fix this myself and save $200" Reduced material weight? Your customer hears "my back won't hurt carrying this upstairs" Non-toxic materials? Your customer hears "my toddler can put this in her mouth and I won't panic." The companies winning at sustainability have stopped talking about saving the planet and started talking about saving money, saving time and saving their customers from harm. Tell me I'm wrong

A soap launched in 1986 with ₹60 crore in its first decade just crossed ₹2,850 crore. 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮'𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗙𝗠𝗖𝗚 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸. Santoor didn't outspend Lifebuoy. They outsmarted it. In a category dominated by legacy giants with decades of brand equity, Santoor chose a different playbook, and it's one every founder building against a bigger competitor needs to study. 𝟬𝟭. 𝗣𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘁𝗵 Instead of spreading thin across India, Santoor went deep into Andhra Pradesh first. Built dominance. Then moved state by state – Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat. By 2009, they were the largest soap brand across South and West India. → Don't try to win everywhere at once. Identify one geography or segment where you can become undeniable. Win it completely. Then expand. Depth builds a moat. Breadth builds exposure. 𝟬𝟮. 𝗕𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 Santoor started as a sandalwood-turmeric soap – an ingredient story. Then they repositioned around one powerful benefit: younger-looking skin. That one shift changed everything. → Ask yourself honestly – are you selling what your product is, or what it does for the customer? Features attract attention. Benefits build loyalty. Repositioning from ingredient to outcome is often the highest-leverage brand move a founder can make. 𝟬𝟯. 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 The "Santoor Mom" campaign ran for decades – same theme, evolving story. No reinvention every year. No chasing trends. Just disciplined consistency until it became cultural memory. → Most founders change their brand positioning too early because they're bored of it. Your customer hasn't seen it 1000 times like you have. Pick a positioning that's true and stay with it long enough to compound. ₹60 crore to ₹2,850 crore. One brand. Four decades. No shortcuts. That's what patient brand building looks like. #santoor #fmcg #brandstrategy #founders #business

H2 is here: time to audit your brand like a cfo would Here's how: the CFO edition. Let’s not sugar-coat it. • If your brand isn’t remembered, it’s not chosen. • If it’s not trusted, it’s not bought. • If it’s not consistent, it’s not credible. • If it’s not tracked, it’s not understood at C-level. And if it’s none of those… you’re burning money. If you’re leading a business (not just a brand team), here’s the brutal truth: Your brand just played H1. Time to check the scoreboard and reset for H2. Ball in the centre. Let’s go. Let’s look how to audit your brand in 4 steps: 1. Identity & Consistency → Ask: • Does your brand look and sound consistent everywhere? • Are you building trust or confusion? → Look at: • Visuals, tone, decks, social, email, signage...does it all feel like one brand? → Metric Check: • Visual consistency rate • Template adoption • Tone alignment across channels 2. Positioning & Differentiation → Ask: • Is your value prop still relevant? • Are you leading with value — or shouting features? → Run: • Messaging audit • 3-word perception survey • Alignment workshop → Metric Check: • Share of Voice (Brand24) • Branded Search (Google Trends) • Consideration tracking (Tracksuit) This is the CFO’s territory: Are you spending to be seen, or to be remembered? 3. Messaging & Resonance → Ask: • Is your story consistent or reinvented every time? • Is everyone telling the same thing? • Are our campaigns sticking? → Look at: • Top/bottom content, sales pitch, internal message match → Metric Check: • Message alignment • Sentiment (Brand24) • Recall (Tracksuit) 4. Internal Branding: External strength starts inside. → Ask: • Does everyone know what we stand for — and why we matter? • Is purpose guiding real decisions? →Look at: • Comms, onboarding, values in action, leadership tone →Metric Check: • Brand clarity pulse • Template use • Training coverage • Leadership alignment Your brand isn’t fluff. It’s a business asset. So TRACK IT. That’s how your CFO sees the value, in margins, shorter sales cycles, reduced churn, stronger pricing, and better talent. The data says: • Strong recall = faster closes (Harvard Business Review) • Consistent brands = 33% higher revenue (Forbes) • Positive sentiment = price advantage (Kantar) • Brands tracked well = outperform peers (Forbes) Sooo the question isn’t: “Do we have a brand?” It’s: Is our brand working as a business tool?

Everyone thought we were crazy because we spent ₹50 crore annually opening stores across 50 cities in just 3 years. Here's the research that changed my perspective: By 2028, 72% of shopping will still happen in physical stores. Not because people can't buy online. Because they want to see and feel what they're buying. When we were purely digital, customers loved our products. But they had questions that our analytics couldn't answer. They wanted to know:  → Does this actually feel as good as it looks?  → Will this work for my back pain?  → How does grid technology really work? Those conversations became gold for us. Physical stores aren't just sales channels anymore. They're shoppable billboards that build trust faster than any ad campaign. Look at what the best brands are doing: 📌 Apple designed stores as experience hubs. People don't just buy, they explore and connect. Today, they have a total of 536 stores globally. 📌 Just 2 weeks back at the iPhone 17 launch, 400-500 people queued up outside their Mumbai store. In Delhi, the crowd was 600 strong by 8 am. That's why we applied the same pattern in our experience stores. 📍We started with 1 store in 2022, currently we're at 170+ stores. 📍Our in-store customers converted faster. Acquisition costs dropped. More than 80% of our revenue comes from our experience stores. 📍By having physical stores, our brand trust grew stronger with customers than any metric could measure. The future of retail isn't choosing between online and offline. It's understanding where each channel adds value and making them work together. What's one product you'd never buy without experiencing it first?

Walking into a beauty store today is closer to entering a curated world than stepping into a point of sale. The space is designed to slow you down, invite exploration and spark emotion before a single product is touched. Experiential retail in beauty is about how a brand is lived, not just how it is displayed. Every element, from the rhythm of the space to the way products are revealed, is intentional. Instead of guiding consumers directly to a shelf, the environment encourages wandering, discovery and moments of pause. >>The store becomes a place where curiosity leads the journey.<< Beauty retail thrives when it appeals to the senses in subtle, intelligent ways. The temperature of materials, the softness of a tester, the way light enhances skin tones or highlights textures. These details don’t shout; they whisper. And that quiet sophistication is what builds trust. Consumers feel comfortable taking their time, trying, learning and engaging at their own pace. In this context, the physical space acts as a translator. It transforms abstract brand values into something tangible. Minimalism becomes calm. Innovation becomes interaction. Care becomes ritual. The layout doesn’t just organize products; it shapes behavior and emotion. Technology, when used well, blends seamlessly into the experience. It supports personalization and guidance without becoming the focus. The human element remains central, with tools enhancing dialogue rather than replacing it. The most successful spaces feel intuitive, not instructional. What truly differentiates experiential retail is its ability to create lasting impressions. Products can be forgotten, but feelings are stored in memory. When a consumer associates a brand with a pleasant, inspiring or reassuring moment, that emotion travels with them beyond the store and into daily use. Beauty retail, at its best, is not about urgency or pressure. It’s about presence. About giving consumers a reason to stay, to explore, and to return. In an era where convenience is everywhere, experience is what gives physical spaces their meaning. Featured brands: Yves Saint Laurent Dewy ball Miin Clinique Guisou #RetailAsExperience #ExperientialDesign #BeautySpaces #BrandJourney

India’s digital-first fashion brand journey - from Clicks to Bricks India’s homegrown D2C fashion landscape has entered its next chapter in the last decade or so Cava Athleisure recently launched its first offline store in Bengaluru Orion Mall And not just Cava, after years of building strong digital communities, brands like Freakins, Blissclub, Snitch, The Bear House etc are stepping confidently into the offline world, opening physical stores after initial few years of operating digitally 🔶 Why - the shift 🔸Brand-Building & Community Physical stores offer experiential branding, events & community-led engagement including consumers & influencers, something digital can’t fully replicate The store facade & window, be it in a mall or high-street also works as an impactful billboard in the consumers mind amidst the digital clutter - announcing the brand has arrived 🔸Consumer Trust & Tangibility Fashion is tactile. As brands scale, offline stores become powerful trust signals, letting consumers to see, touch, feel & try before buy Also enables brands to do visual product storytelling and store team engaging with consumers in a much better way 🔸Higher AOV & Better Conversions Stores often deliver higher average order values and far stronger conversion rates than digital channels Customers walking in these stores are mostly brand loyalist with real purchase intent, and more often than not asking - naya kya hai? 🔸CAC Optimization With rising acquisition costs online, offline retail becomes a strategic lever to reduce dependence on paid performance marketing While for customers, they get the flexibility to explore amongst the considered set of brands before zeroing down to their final purchase ◼️Opportunities Ahead Omnichannel flywheel: Unified single view of inventory, possibly endless isles + data + loyalty + flexibility of click-collect or buy-return → seamless journeys and a happy customer Experiential retail: Stores doubling as multiple touchpoints from content studios, event spaces to even micro-warehouses ◼️Challenges to Navigate High real-estate rentals & operational costs Supply-chain discipline needed for consistent in-store experience Balancing product assortment and price parity across channels Maintaining brand freshness in an offline setting ◼️The Way Forward The future belongs to digitally-built, omnichannel-scaled brands While online gives speed & reach, offline gives depth & loyalty The most successful D2C labels are those that treat physical stores not as an afterthought or fomo, but as a strategic extension of their brand ecosystem Interesting fact: The D2C brands who started over a decade ago took slightly longer for online to offline shift (~7 years), vis-a-vis within the last decade (~5 years), and the more recent ones much lesser than that Clicks create the brand, Bricks will only compound it. Your thoughts! #Indian #Fashion #Retail #D2C #Online #Brand #Offline #Expansion

People buy identities, not products. (5 ways to build brand loyalty with identity marketing) People don’t just buy products. They buy into who they want to be. This is the essence of Identity Marketing. It doesn’t just change behavior—it shapes self-perception. Want proof? You’re not someone who “goes running”—you’re a runner. You don’t just “buy organic”—you’re an eco-conscious consumer. You’re not someone who “invests”—you’re an investor. See the difference? When you shift from selling a product to reinforcing an identity, you create loyalty, advocacy, and premium pricing power. 𝟱 𝗪𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆: 1️⃣ Make It About “Who They Are” Instead of: “Earn points when you buy coffee.” Say: “Become an Elite Coffee Club member and coffee connoisseur.” People crave belonging. Give them a title. 2️⃣ Leverage Social Identity Apple doesn’t just sell iPhones. It sells the identity of a creator, innovator, and nonconformist. Ask: What tribe does my customer want to belong to? 3️⃣ Turn Actions into Labels When Airbnb called its hosts Superhosts, retention skyrocketed. Why? Labels create psychological commitment—people don’t want to lose their status. 4️⃣ Use “You Are” Instead of “You Do” “You’re a smart investor” sounds better than “You invest smartly.” Subtle shift. Big impact. 5️⃣ Gamify the Transformation Nike doesn’t just track runs. It turns you into an athlete by rewarding milestones. Help customers see their progress. 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁: People don’t change because of logic. They change when it aligns with who they believe they are. Want real brand loyalty? Stop selling products. Start shaping identities. 𝗣.𝗦. Follow me as I build a personal brand live. I’ll keep sharing takeaways, and together, we can build brands that truly stand out. Join my newsletter for more content like this.

Cleaner Take On The Dirty Work. Green messaging has become standard. Proving it without drifting into low‑budget tree‑hugger territory is very much a balancing act. Building a sustainable brand is not only about materials, carbon footprints or ethics. The real task is making honesty feel like value, especially when the product is as ordinary and unglamorous as loo roll. In theory, sustainable branding sounds straightforward. Use better materials, be transparent, keep things grounded. In reality, the moment a brand steps away from familiar category cues, it has to earn attention in a more exposed way. This is why Naked Paper stands out. They built their identity around the one thing the category hides. The natural colour of the product. The thing every competitor bleaches out of existence. Instead of treating brown as compromise, they turned it into the brand's strongest asset. Most loo roll brands still cling to the idea that white signals softness, cleanliness and quality. Yet white is the most artificial part of the whole experience. It comes from processing, chemicals and habit rather than logic or need. Naked Paper breaks that illusion. Brown because it's unprocessed, recycled or made from bamboo. Brown because it reflects the material exactly as it is, not what the market has trained people to expect. The honesty lands immediately because nothing is disguised. From a design point of view, less does more. Once the pressure to match category cues drops away, the material becomes the hero. "It is brown because it is greener" works for that reason. It is simple, direct and grounded in the product itself. But this only holds if everything stays aligned. Sustainable brands often drift when the identity tries to work harder than the product. Challenging a category only works if every element reinforces the same idea. When the material carries the story, the graphics cannot fight it. When the product is genuinely unprocessed, the tone has to stay just as clear. Naked Paper shows what happens when a brand commits to one idea and lets the material lead. The identity holds because there is no attempt to pull the product back toward predictable category codes. The material sets the tone and everything else follows. The strength comes from resisting the urge to "correct" the brown. Keeping it honest gives it presence. That clarity is what makes the pack stand out on a shelf full of artificial purity. 📷OTHERWAY