Taneira, the youngest brand from Titan Group, is a brand that promotes India’s great range of handloom sarees, and with the sole objective of reviving the joy of wearing a ‘sari’ in the country today. Taking its first step in January 2017, the brand name comes from - Tan of Tanishq & Titan and Ira - from Goddess Saraswati. With two stores in Bangalore today, Taneira has transformed the way we shop for sarees.

VM&RD caught up Shyamala Ramanan, Business Head for Taneira, on the brand’s philosophy, its store experience and how it plans to stand out in the highly competitive category.

Tell us about the birth of Taneira?

This is a country rich in its heritage and textiles. Through our extensive research interviewing 4000 odd women, we found out that Indian women of any generation preferred to wear a saree for any celebratory moment in life. It starts with a girls’ graduation, engagement, wedding or house warming. So, Taneira is for anyone who wants to revel her femininity through the saree. With Taneira, we bring an extensive variety of handloom sarees under a roof and present the true heritage of this country.

How does Taneira portray the saree differently?

The creatives we have is of the woman enjoying the saree. It’s about her moment in the garment. There is lot of liveliness and candid images. For us, it’s not something you sit dolled in. In a saree you are capable of doing anything. And we would like to instil that confidence in women who still hesitate to embrace this.

How is Taneira’s store experience different from the regular saree showroom?

At our store, sarees are actually displayed in such a way that shoppers can browse through without interference and its not in the mercy of a sales staff who will show you the saree. Nobody judges you for what you choose. Objective of the business now is to understand what the customer wants and how we can service them better.
In April, we opened the Jayanagar store, which has also shown great response. We have consciously gone to two markets, Jayanagar - which is a more traditional market with many saree brands and Indiranagar - which has a different mix of audience. Both are doing very well.

What’s the USP of Taneira?

One of the first things is the authenticity of the product. If we say its a Kanjeevaram Saree, then it’s definitely from Kancheepuram. If its Ajrakh, then it is Ajrakh block print from Gujarat. Our stories are genuine. We believe in transparency right from the price, fabric, material and details of the products. We are approaching our target customers through two ways - one is trunk shows and then the store itself. We completed 4 trunk shows in Bangalore, Indore, Bhopal and Hyderabad. And based on this feedback, we opened our first store. The customers have absolutely loved our offering and responded positively. We are scouting for properties in other parts of the country to set up our stores, Delhi is in the pipeline.

Tell us about Taneira’s store design and visual merchandising strategy.
The space complements the merchandise and has a lot of warmth. The stores have been designed by SJK Architects, while Balaji Natarajan has worked on the store concept and VM. What we have tried to focus with both the stores is zoning, according to the geographical region where the sarees are woven. We have 32 varieties at present. You meander your way through the store. The customer can experience the sarees through touch, feel and read up about each category. You are at your own space, where the team has been trained to only assist shoppers when they seek for help.

Also art curios are part of each zone that connect to the provenance or the crafts of the specific region. Its a sensorial experience in terms of aroma and Indian music, almost a zen like environment which is very pleasurable even for men accompanying women shoppers. They can wonder around or hang out at the cafe outside.
Lux levels in the store is similar to natural sunlight, which is very essential for saree shopping, as many times customers have to step outside to check the actual colour tone of the saree. We also have a trial room with different light levels. As an added service, we also have a section to get the blouses and inner-skirts done, as many customers are from out of town. Our in-house stylist assures great design and fit.