‘Only rich in-store experience pulls consumers’

In an exclusive chat with Retail4Growth, Ramesh Kaushik, VP - Brand Experience, Blackberrys, talks about the company’s journey post rebranding, growth plans and much more.

One of India's leading formal menswear brands, Blackberrys, has come a long way in its journey spanning 28 years. The brand from Gurgaon-based Mohan Clothing Co Pvt Ltd, has been quite active on the retail front too – from opening new exclusive outlets to redesigning stores based on its new brand identity. In an exclusive chat with Ret, Ramesh Kaushik, VP - Brand Experience, Blackberrys, talks about the company’s journey post rebranding, growth plans and much more. Given below are excerpts from the conversation.

Post Blackberrys’ rebranding exercise, how has the format of stores changed?

We underwent a brand transition in the year 2018 when we changed the brand narrative, positioning and evolved the brand’s promise. All new stores are based on our new identity, which is largely inspired by our smart business attire i.e. minimal, light on eyes and not so overpowering. The idea is to navigate consumers, with the appropriate ambience in terms of flooring, fixtures, lighting, etc., which resonate with our customers. We are also renovating some of our old stores to implement the new identity.

How do you engage customer with the help of retail design?

Blackberrys is one of India's leading formalwear brands in the menswear category market with the maximum number of stores in the country. The store has to reflect this. Once the consumer enters our outlet, our staff is not only trained on the hardware or product placements, but also tuned to the software aspect and know how to engage the consumer. It is as simple as understanding the need of the consumer and guiding them by understanding the fit, print, etc. We always try to improve the in-store experience of the consumer, which is largely driven around the look and style part. The shopper behavior has shown that our consumer comes back for the fit and rich in-store experiences.

Read the full interview in the August 2019 edition of VM&RD.

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