What Karan Kumar teaches about brand purpose

I think it is that person, the consumer, who is your biggest teacher. So, Karan, Fab India is the biggest brand today in terms of traditional Indian wear. But today you have expanded across several categories, furniture, furnishings. There is also FMC, so I think, what, achars and many other products. Organic foods, right? That is the right word for it. How do you market these products to a young audience which is primarily digital today? So, Fab India, actually if I was to just go back to when we were formed back in the 1960s,

the fabric offering actually came very close to what was initially the home offering. So, the home business for us has actually been one of the older businesses. The fabric offering, the garment offering obviously thereafter became bigger and is today the biggest part of our business. Some of the other businesses which you mentioned, organic food, personal care, are relatively newer businesses that we've added over a period of time.

I think the one thing that beautifully unites all of our products is this entire story of all our products being derived from a certain amount of India's rich cultural heritage, rich cultural history, traditions, recipes, wisdom and knowledge. When that happens, then be that happening for garments or for home products or for personal care products or for food products, I think the task for us is to speak with this audience, telling them stories about who we are, where we've come from.

You know, one question about the digitization of Fab India as a company, you have an e-commerce, you have an omni-channel model as well. Right. A lot of your products are dependent on a touch and feel, right? Yes. I mean, when I buy a cloth, a shirt maybe, even a piece of furniture, for me it's very hard and maybe I belong to an older school, for me it's sort of very hard to buy something without really feeling it. Because, I mean, it's okay, I can buy a pen or a phone. That's going to be the same. Right.

How have you been able to counter that challenge among consumers or maybe do you feel that challenge does not exist among consumers younger than me anymore? It's a fair question but it's also a question that's been around for a while. Right. Quite honestly, you know, back when e-commerce really began for the industry there was always these questions on how do we touch and feel products versus the entire experiential side of shopping.

I think what's happened over a period of time is there is a great deal of awareness and not just awareness, there's a great deal of love for the kind of products that we do, the kind of fabrics that we work with, the kind of designs, prints, textures that we work with.

So everybody has a fairly decent idea of what a Fab India product looks like, feels like, behaves on your body, performs on you and therefore a lot of those kind of issues for us are not as pronounced as they would perhaps for some other brands given the kind of standard DNA and the core that we follow when we go about doing a product development.

That said, yes, there is always a percentage of people who would want to physically touch and feel the products, especially when they are very high value, high purchase products coming from a home and lifestyle businesses. But quite honestly, I think we're very fortunate to be in a position where a there is a great understanding of what the brand stands for and what it will present as a product.

And b, the quality of a product is something which is kind of the quality and the look and feel, the texture of a product is something that's really been established now for a while. So, you know, it's not so much of an unknown when you go around buying a family product. So it's easier when it's one brand rather than an e-commerce platform dealing with several brands. It is. So, I mean, there's a stereotype, right? Fab India is largely for women. Most of your consumers are women. Is that true or would you like to sort of burst the myth?

What do your numbers say? So the numbers would be skewed in favor of women and I think that's a very good thing to happen because a woman today is an extremely important decision maker and makes decisions on various things that go into a home. And I say home and not just on herself, which means that we're not talking only apparels and garments or personal care, but also the food products, also the home and lifestyle products.

That being said, I think the share of business that we are receiving from the male audience, the male segment, the kid segment is also increasing rapidly month on month as we go along. So the woman continues to remain an extremely prized customer of ours, extremely important for our overall scheme of things. But it's also equally true to say that the other audience pieces, the men and the kids are rapidly growing in their contribution. A little bit about Karan Kumar outside of work. What is the reading ground for the next big idea maybe at work?

So reading, lots of reading. I like to follow some authors, I like to follow some influencers and thought leaders. But I think my biggest teacher, my biggest mentor as it were, I have to admit will always be the consumer. So the lessons that I learned spending time with consumers, audiences on the shop floor and off the shop floor is actually what really stimulates the entire thought process of what next, what new, what better and how much better.

Because I truly believe that as a business leader and at the core of it all as a marketer, I think it is that person, the consumer, who is your biggest teacher. You learn your best and your hardest lessons from there. And that's when you realize that what you're doing right and how it's coming across to him or her and what is it that you can do better. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.