Siddharth Bindra, Managing Director, BIBA provides strategic direction to the brand and under his leadership, BIBA today is present in over 80 exclusive stores in over 40 cities. It is also available in large format stores such as Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Pantaloons and Central, etc. Headquartered in Chattarpur, New Delhi, BIBA currently employs over 800 people. In an exclusive interview with AlooTechie, Siddharth Bindra discusses how BIBA is reaching its TG through digital.

How does the digital medium - both internet and mobile figure in BIBA’s plans to reach out to consumers?

We are taking the digital medium very seriously as it is a great way to have a two way conversation with the consumer. We have a captive fan base of almost 100,000 consumers on Facebook already. Our consumers wanted a medium to reach out to us and Facebook has given us that platform. We are now working on a comprehensive digital strategy for BIBA.  

In your category, visual brand building works the best. With new engagement forms such as videos coming up on internet, what are your thoughts on visual brand building exercises on internet in India?

It is a platform that works in real time. We can capture consumer preferences and comments immediately. It works very well for categories like apparel as it is based on visual seduction.

How important is having an ecommerce presence for BIBA in India?

An ecommerce presence for our brand is very important; we are actively exploring more options. We should have an active ecommerce site by mid 2012. Currently we have partnered with fashion forward sites such as HomeShop18, Star CJ Television, Future Brands etc.

With context of womenswear, both online and offline transactions take place. But there is a perception that people research and compare products online and buy them offline. Why do you think it is like that?

When it comes to garments people like to see, feel and try the stuff before making it a buy. They do research online to save on time, compare products from different brands and check for pricing, but they still prefer to buy the selected piece from the store after getting a feel of it.

How do you see the importance of social media for promoting your brand in India?

Consumers have been waiting to see us on Facebook. We actually received an overwhelming warm welcome onto this platform by our consumers. We see social media as one of the prime drivers of a conversation with our consumers. We take all opinions and feedback very constructively and build it back into the brand to create a far stronger brand than BIBA already is.

Mobile is being held as a great medium for brand communication, but still, very less amount is spent on the particular medium. What is your take on this?

Mobile definitely is a great way of communication with customers, but one has to be very careful while using it since could be intrusive as well. So communication has to be done very sparingly and only with the consumers who want to be kept informed. In our case lot of customers likes to be informed on mobile about the latest collection, mid season sale etc, we generally circulate SMS to them. But we might not continue with it in immediate future.

What answers do you seek from your digital advertising agencies and digital media partners while promoting your brand on internet?

Since it is BIBA’s first step into the digital world, we are guided by our partners. It is a happy coexistence of our consumer knowledge and their expertise of the medium. Digital works very differently than traditional media.

Internet is said to be a measurable medium. What is your take on this? Have we overdone the measurement quotient and made this medium hard to understand for the brand marketers?

Traditional media measurement parameters are limiting to the digital medium. It is an engagement platform and the quality of interaction and engagement is what we measure rather than a rat race for the maximum number of fans. We have a great quality of fans that are very comfortable with expressing themselves on our page. Guess the brand BIBA brings it out in them.

How do you see your marketing objectives aligning with what the online medium offers from two years down the line?

We build our brand through consumer experience at each touch-point. The importance of the digital medium can only grow with time.