Holii rebrands with eye on new categories, younger buyers

Holii Bags and Accessories, the Future Group-Hidesign JV, has unveiled a new logo, created by Umbrella Design.

According to a Holii statement, “The flowing curves symbolise a creative spirit, the classic and simple form lends itself to a logo that is elegant and timeless. The brand symbol, the peacock, has also been rendered in a contemporary style with clean, smooth lines, and incorporated seamlessly into the logo.” The new logo is aimed at giving a new contemporary look and feel to the brand.

Campaign India spoke with Gilles Moutounet, chief executive officer, Holii India, about the timing of the rebranding and what we’ll see from the brand in the coming months.

What was the opportunity you saw for the rebranding of Holii?

The brand is three years old now. In that time, there’s been an evolution of the customer and we have a better understanding of the market. We realised that the brand Holii did not cater just to the bag category and could have acceptance in other categories as well, and that’s why we’re releasing an apparel line early next year. Keeping that in mind, we also realised that the logo wasn’t really standing out; it was a bit too ethnic and we wanted to move away from that. We decided to relaunch the brand (keeping in mind the apparel line that is coming up) and come up with a new logo that is a more refined identity, which looks very international, contemporary, and creative, and brings out the essence of our brand.

Is there any change in the positioning of Holii and the kind of customer it’ll cater to?

No change. We have a very huge base of customers, but we’d like to expand by getting younger customers as well. We realised that our sling bags are very popular among the young crowd, so there’s a huge potential to connect with them. Our Facebook fan base is also primarily in the 22 to 24 years age group. That’s why the new logo is much more younger, sticky and eye-catching as well.

Which category between bags and accessories pulls in the most revenue for Holii at the moment?

It would be leather bags. Apparel will have a small impact on the business, because it’ll be launched after the end of season sales next year, so the impact will only show in year two and three. We’re in the process of meeting our big channel and department store partners, and they like what they’re seeing.

Will you be looking at entering new cities?

Yes. We’ve opened up at Goa domestic airport one month ago, and are in the process of opening a store at Kochi. We’re looking at adding a store in Chandigarh by Diwali or end of this year.

(Holii bags are currently available at 12 stand-alone boutiques across Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, New Delhi and Goa; and also at Central, Lifestyle, Pantaloons and Shoppers Stop.)

Does e-commerce account for a significant part of Holii’s revenue yet?

Right now, e-commerce is a very small part, but growing regularly. We’ve just relaunched our e-commerce portal a month ago. We’re getting regular orders. We’ve also started working with people like Jabong and Flipkart, where we’re targeting repeat orders.

Because Holii does plan to target younger customers, what kind of communication strategy will the brand adopt?

We’re going to release a print campaign, starting next month in magazines like Femina and Grazia. We’ll have a hoarding campaign in Mumbai during the festive season. Other than that, we’ve also started working with Facebook and it’s worked pretty well for us, so we may continue with that as well.