The Challenge

Developing a strategy and design for an upcoming brand is always an exciting opportunity. So, when the From India team met us in 2019 to develop a strategy for their e-commerce business, we eagerly accepted the project to develop and grow their upcoming offshore business.

Together we collaborated to define the brand, design the brand, build the website, and promote the website through various channels.

The Solution

Our first step began with defining Brand From India. Our preliminary research revealed that authenticity of the product was a key aspect that Indians living abroad needed. Several products sold in Indian stores in foreign countries were in fact imported from countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.  We zeroed in on positioning the brand as one that is truly Indian.

The team at FromIndia had finalised Singapore as their first destination to launch the brand. Our research on the Singapore market taught us three important things:

1. Indian products sold in Singapore were considerably expensive.
2. Only certain Indian brands were being sold in the market.
3. Some Indian products were duplicated and not originally manufactured in India.

That exercise birthed the goal for the From India team – to deliver authentic Indian merchandise to Indians living away from home. At that point, three pivotal requirements for the e-commerce business were set – geography, demography, and the kind of product.

Designing the Brand

Our next step was to design FromIndia as a brand that would have wide appeal for a global Indian audience. Since the client had already zeroed in on the brand name, we began working on the logo. Our goal was to attract our audience through nostalgia and to keep it simple. Saffron and green were chosen as the logo colours to let customers know that it was an Indian brand. 

Once the logo, font and brand graphics were confirmed, we began working in earnest with the From India team to create stationery, packaging, t-shirts, and other brand assets.

Building the Website

An e-commerce website was set up to be the primary hub for showcasing and selling authentic Indian products. Our initial goal was to grow the site to provide accurate information to customers, have a varied product portfolio page and set up a dedicated feedback system.

The feedback system enabled customers to share what product they would like to see stocked on the site. The feedback system proved to be successful as we learned what customers truly wanted, fixed gaps in their shopping experience and experienced growth in the first initial months of the business.

Running a business with presence in two countries and two different time zones is a hurdle. But by effectively communicating with customers via social media, email messages and posters about shipping and delays helped remove customer doubt.

Promotion of Products

With a growing product portfolio, the avenues available to market authentic Indian products and grow FromIndia’s business were explored through online as well as offline methods.

Our online methods of marketing involved creating a schedule to market available products in the online store through product of the week, product of the month, new arrivals and express store posts on social media, email marketing and WhatsApp. We also used leaflets to communicate about the brand and market products.