Brand-building in vogue at the Lakme India Fashion Week

The Lakme India Fashion Week (LIFW) 2005 concluded on April 26 after a hectic week of fashion and fashion-related business activities. At LIFW, leading brands were seen pandering for greater glory. The extravaganza conceptualised by the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) had India’s venerable fashion brand, Lakme, as the title sponsor. Samsung was the associate sponsor along with co-sponsors: DHL, Liberty, Hyundai and liquor brands, Royal Challenge and Foster’s. International event management firm, IMG, handled all the commercial logistics of the event.

LIFW, India’s only B2B fashion event had 61 designers (55 showcasing on ramp and six opting only for stalls) along with make-up artistes, skin experts, fashion choreographers and the media.

The focus on trade and business constituted an integral part of the fashion week with the presence of international buyers like Saks Fifth Avenue, Harrods, Selfridges, and approximately 135 domestic buyers. Incidentally, deals worth Rs 1 billion are expected vis-à-vis last year’s Rs 600 million.

Brands jumped on to the glitz and glamour bandwagon since fashion and lifestyle offer great visibility and help in the brand building exercise. LIFW 2005 saw a huge jump in sponsorship numbers and increasing sponsor-driven activities.

Lakme, the title sponsor of LIFW, launched its new summer range called ‘Peppermint’ and organised various beauty workshops throughout the week. Anil Chopra, Vice President, Lakme Lever, says, “At Lakme, we believe that beauty and fashion are two sides of the same coin. Through Lakme’s association with India’s biggest fashion event for the sixth year in succession, the brand has displayed a strong commitment towards the development of the beauty and fashion industry.”

Samsung India, which has been associated for the second year in a row, had a strong onsite presence at the venue for its mobile phones and other lifestyle products. The company’s association with the LIFW 2005 was built upon the launch of the D-500 mobile phone along with the fashion show featuring Virender Sehwag and other cricketers. Ruchika Batra, GM, Corporate Communi-cations, Samsung, says, “Our sponsorship of LIFW 2005 helped to leverage our mobile phone business with the launch of D-500. The Samsung display stall at the LIFW was aimed at spreading awareness amongst our target consumers and the fashion show with cricketers was basically to get a media build up around the launch.”

Incidentally, Samsung also sponsored the daily LIFW coverage on TV news channels. Batra adds, “Building on last year’s experience, we tried to reach out to technology savvy people at the LIFW, the feedback was great as D-500 became the talking point.”

Another big sponsor at the event was Liberty, which organised ‘Liberty Sapne Hue Apne’ Makeover Contest in association with NDTV wherein, couples could participate by messaging on 6388 and the winning couples would get a dream makeover from the top designers at the show. Anupam Bansal, Director, Liberty Group, while speaking about Liberty’s association with LIFW 2005, offers, “At Liberty, we have been getting associated with LIFW for the past three years. But this year’s activity has been the best in terms of getting exposure. With the makeover contest, we were noticed on all seven days of the fashion week and we got 15,000 responses on the SMS.” He added, “We have always wanted to associate with such fashion and lifestyle events for brand building and its definitely not sales driven.”