“Archies’ legacy is about helping our customers express themselves through gifting”

Archies Ltd today is India’s market leader in the social expression industry, with over 60% market share in the organised sector. It has grown from a cards-only company to a complete social expressions company. Archies Limited operates a chain of stores that sell greeting cards and gifts. The brand operates a chain of stores that sell greeting cards and gifts along with retail photo albums, baby books, jewellery and accessories, gift hampers, perfume, stuffed toys, and other gifts.

In conversation with Adgully, Varun Moolchandani, Executive Director, Archies Ltd, speaks about his long-term journey with the brand, challenges and opportunities in the market, impact of the pandemic and more.

How has the pandemic impacted the social expression industry in India? What have the last two years been like for Archies Ltd?

The pandemic has been a very tough time for all of us in terms of business. It had a huge outbreak for players across the industry. Mainly being a brick and mortar model, for the longest time, we were working on an offline channel. Right from the outbreak of COVID-19 our revenues drastically fell which resulted in many company owned store closures, mainly due to lack of footfall. Majorly, we had to shut stores in the malls because of non-negotiated rentals and understandings. Handling the entire pandemic situation led us to start we started our e-commerce business through archiesonline.com and started selling our products on 20+ online marketplaces.

How do you maintain brand equity in the country?

Brand recognition and brand awareness are a big part of a brand’s influence on the society. We are a 43-year old public limited company, a market leader in gifts and social expression industry with a strong brand image from the start, and modeled our business accordingly. Archies is known for its offline store which are more than 300 (175 company stores and 135 franchisee) and 1000+ retailers in pan India to keep our brand image popular and to increase its reachability. Now we are promoting our products online through our ecommerce business archiesonline.com from which customers can buy our products easily.

Looking back, how has the journey been for the brand?
This goes back to the year 1979, when Archies was founded with a product range of songbooks and posters. Our first of the purchase orders came via mail order. Later in 1981, we started selling greeting cards, and in 1987, we opened our first gallery. Through company-owned retail shops, we aimed to be in the "pole position" in the Indian social expression industry. We continued to add sub-brands to our portfolio and launched a variety of new products, including social stationery, beauty products, handicraft items, and toys. In the year 1996, we evolved as a company and were listed on the stock exchange. We're also ISO 14001-2004 accredited for our Environmental Management System, which applies to the manufacturing and distribution of greeting cards, stationery, photo frames, albums, and gift products using manufacturing process sheets.

How was the brand’s legacy built and what is the way forward?
Through its retail network, Archies Ltd seeks to deliver complete social expression solutions to its clients and promote customer happiness and loyalty through ongoing innovation, product extension, and quality upgradation. We pioneered the concept of gifting keepsakes in India. We began with mail orders and have since expanded into retail stores, manufacturing, e-commerce, and exports. In India, we've paved the way for international holidays such as Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day, and others. Along with incorporating international holidays, we established Friendship Day on the 1st Sunday of August in 1995 and Daughter's Day on the 4th Sunday of September in 2007. The celebration of Daughter's Day began with a focus on giving back to the community. We intended to raise public awareness about female infanticide and encourage our clients to begin enjoying the female child.

Our legacy is about helping our customers express themselves through gifting. We have given meaning to the art of gifting. We have brought reasons to celebrate each relationship and cherish the bond through interesting and heartfelt greeting cards or keepsakes.

What are the key strategies to promote and highlight what Archies offer?

Archies is a well-known established brand which is delivering products to customers for more than 43 years. We always try to adapt the dynamic market environment and make innovation, changes and adding new lines of products as per customers demand. We also try to bring awareness for our products through social media and digital marketing. We are also increasing our offline channels to create our presence in each and every corner of India and providing the luxury ambience to attract the customers in the stores. To give freshness to our product lines we have added cakes, flowers, home decors, chocolates, luxury candles, etc.

What are the challenges that older brands are facing in this age of start-ups? What are you doing to cope up with them?

In this age of start-ups, we don’t see anyone working in the gifts and social expression industry yet. We are working to increase our company’s horizons both online and offline by creating exclusive products which the market has not seen. In order to reach out to the new age customer and this generation of quick deliveries, we have started campaigning digitally and adding collections to each category which is relevant to every day and each occasion. To sustain in the market, what we have observed closely, is that one needs to keep upgrading and updating.

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