60% Of Our Total Marketing Spends Happen During Festive Season: Jayesh Sali, Reliance Retail

In a time where fashion and lifestyle is all about a blend of glam and comfort, Reliance Retail offers a diverse brand portfolio that caters to varied consumer tastes. From their own lines such as Trends and Azorte to international names like Armani, GAP, Marks & Spencer and more. The retail giant also recently acquired brands like Hamleys and most recently, Shein and with 'Ajio', its online fashion platform, Reliance Retail has bridged the gap between traditional retail and ecommerce.

In an exclusive interview with BW Marketing World, Jayesh Sali, Head of Marketing at Reliance Retail for Fashion & Lifestyle division, offers a masterclass in modern retail marketing, explaining the company's approach to engaging consumers in the fast-paced market.

Bridging Online-offline Divide
"We live in a phygital world. The digital world and the physical world are blurring with time and there is a very thin line left as of today," Sali asserts, highlighting the company's omnichannel approach and revealing that has fully embraced the concept of 'phygital' marketing. The strategy integrates physical and digital experiences, recognising that consumers today move fluidly between online and offline spaces. The small on-ground activations have a strong digital component as well, amplifying reach and fostering real-time engagement with consumers.

While speaking to Sali, he reveals the marketing spend distribution of Reliance Retail's fashion and lifestyle segment. “Our 80-85 per cent of our business comes from offline channels, only around 15 per cent from digital, depending on the brand. We still are very reliant on offline medium in terms of driving awareness and our key brand metrics”, he shares.

"60 to 70 per cent is spent on traditional and 30 to 40 per cent on digital in terms of marketing", he adds. The balance allows them to leverage the strengths of both traditional and new-age media effectively.

Celebrating Festivities
The festive season is a crucial period for all marketers to position their brands effectively. Sali reveals, "60 per cent of our total marketing spends happens during the festive season", reflecting the immense importance of festivals like Durga Puja, Navratri, Diwali and Christmas in driving consumer purchases in India. Adding to it, he states, "Autumn winter season will always be biggest in both in terms of business, marketing spends, competition and in the number of activities we do versus the spring-summer one." 

Moreover, the company's strategy during the festivities is two-fold: long-term brand building through ATL (Above The Line) communications and immediate sales driving through BTL (Below The Line) activities. The dual approach ensures the brand for both immediate revenue generation and sustained brand equity growth.

Connecting With New Gen
With the growing influence of younger consumers, Reliance Retail is also crafting targeted strategies to engage with the youth, particularly Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Sali discusses their recent 'Eco Collection' launch of Lee Cooper, featuring the world's first denim made from cigarette butts - a move that resonates with the sustainability-conscious younger demographic.

The brand's 'So What?' campaign further exemplifies their understanding of Gen Z's mindset, celebrating resilience and acceptance of life's challenges. Talking about the campaign, Sali says, “This entire campaign is bades on an insight that, unlike the earlier generation, even millennials, the Gen Zs are more experimental. They are more bolder, more audacious than millennials. Acknowledging this insight, we created a campaign which will resonate with them and somewhere echo their thoughts”.   

An example from the campaign featured the provocative line - 'Choose adventures over home loans, so what?', challenging societal norms and embracing the Gen Z attitude towards life's ups and downs.

The marketing head conveyed that the campaign's success would translate into a long-term brand relationship. "It drew a lot of good response for us and I'm sure that will eventually all translate into brand love," Sali remarked, highlighting the potential for such bold, culturally resonant campaigns to build lasting connections with younger consumers.

Tech: Marketer's New Tool
The integration of new technologies is another key focus in the company's marketing arsenal. “We have been way ahead every time when it comes to embracing technology, whether it was the digital platforms then or even when 'Threads' was launched, we were one of the very few brands, at least in the space of fashion lifestyle, to experiment with it, but unfortunately didn't turn out to be a success and then we held back on that. But every time there is a new innovation or there is a new trend that we see coming, both in terms of technology or in terms of marketing, we've always been very positive about it”, Sali remarks. 

From AI-led photoshoots to AR filters and the use of CGI for social media interactions, the company is actively exploring how these tools can enhance consumer engagement and streamline operations.

However, while acknowledging the growing importance of influencer marketing in the marketing mix, Sali reveals, "Out of the 35-40 per cent that we spend on social media, influencer marketing would be less than 5 per cent", prioritising ROI and authentic brand representation.

Data & The Balancing Act
For a company where data is in abundance, Reliance as a whole is a goldmine of data, given the scale at which they operate and given the presence that they have across businesses. 

Reliance Retail treads carefully, prioritising consumer privacy while still delivering personalised experiences. Sali emphasises, "Privacy of people is paramount for us", noting that personalisation efforts are conducted to maintain relevance without compromising individual data security.

"We are doing at a cohort level wherein you can gather people's interests, their likability, skewness towards fashion, the fashion choices that they make or the shopping behaviour that they have. And accordingly, at a cohort level, they can personalise our communication or personalise the products that we make and display to them", he explains.

As Reliance Retail operates across diverse formats, creating a unified customer experience is both a challenge and a priority. Sali informs the company's efforts in developing a Customer Data Platform (CDP) to create unified customer identities, enabling more personalised communications and product curation.

The integration of digital tools in physical stores, from smart trial rooms to QR codes providing product information, technology has enhanced the brand's in-store experience. “We are largely an offline brand. Smart trials have a virtual screen which is to aid and enhance their physical in-store experience”, he concludes.

Reema Bhaduri

BW Reporters The author is the Editorial Lead at BW Businessworld. Majorly writes on marketing, advertising, experiential marketing and retail. She closely looks upon the vertical of BW Marketing World and BW Retail World.