Fastrack as a brand, over the years has been innovating in the styling for youth segment by introducing trendy and smart products in the watch and accessories category. The brand has seen some successful brand extensions too.
Recently, Fastrack launched its new collection ‘Fastrack Ruffles’, which is also co-created by Ananya Pandey. This collection is exclusively for girls, bags sport pleats and folds elegantly fanning across the designs, taking inspiration from the diva-like side of Gen Z’s personality.
Ayushman Chiranewala, Marketing Head, Fastrack spoke exclusively to Medianews4u about the campaign that announced the launch of Fastrack Ruffles, the brand’s journey through the lockdown and the way forward.
Read on
Fastrack has been an iconic brand in the youth segment… Tell us about the brand’s journey, achievements, vision, and mission?
The youth are changing and evolving with time and the definition of fashion is changing with them. GenZs are more fluid in their fashion choices, keen on minimalism and look up to tech products in a new light as a coveted fashion accessory.
Fastrack always stays on the move, keeping up with the newer trends and rolls out with unconventional styles. Establishing it as the FashTech brand. The journey for us has already begun by entering into new categories like perfumes. Making the smart game stronger with Reflex with something even more exciting on the way. All the collections that we have launched in the recent times like Fit Outs and Ruffles, in collaboration with Ananya Panday are in sync with the newer, evolving trends.
You have been with the brand since the last 4 years and have spent a total of over 12 years wearing various hats in the Titan Company… how has your journey been?
I am a proud Titanian for sure, my journey at Titan has been outstanding to say the least, I joined as a Management Trainee back in 2008 and since then there’s been no looking back with exciting opportunities and challenges that have been presented at each step of the way.
How has the brand performed in recent times, especially in times of Covid-19?
Like any non-essential category, for us, the path to recovery has been gradual during the lockdown. From the time the market has started opening up, the signs have been encouraging with the consumer sentiment coming back amongst the youth. And our sales figures are currently aligned with that sentiment.
After a restrictive lockdown, the festive season is in itself a green shoot for the retailers across. Consumers want to feel the festive vibe to come out of the lockdown blues. A reason for them to come out of their pyjamas and dress up again after a long time.
Tell us about the new Fastrack only girls collection, Ruffles? What were the insights that went behind creating this collection?
Today, girls believe in owing a range of styles and creating a look for every moment. From casual to sporty for everyday looks, bling for a party and a minimal yet elegant look for that sophisticated diva demeanour. Our idea was to create something for every girl out there.
The first all-girls signature collection, Fit Outs was for the girl who likes to have fun and add a quirk to her look. While the second, Ruffles collection is for a diva who follows a very unconventional approach. For someone who believes in making a bold statement elegantly.
The collections under this umbrella will build a new. unique story in their minds for Fastrack and act as another building block for us in the fashion world.
On a product level, how different and unique is Fastrack Ruffles from the competition that exists?
The designs are quite quirky in their own way, taking the outfit game to whole new level.
The inspiration here is pleats and folds and we have tried to bring the same alive with a 3D dial. Ranging from metal designs to trendy pastel coloured leather straps with various functions from day, date and multifunction at a sweet price. The collection has just hit the market have already managed to turn some heads.
Why the name Ruffles? Any specific insight/reason?
The design inspiration for the products were the trending pleats & ruffles,The rapid pleats and flow highlights the evolving and agile structure of the watches, The core target group starting from GEN Z, who love FAD’s and obsessions on various aspects of lifestyle. This collection allows them to reflect their fluid, Multitudinous & Evolving self.
Coming to the campaign with Ananya Panday… it’s a very unusual campaign… what was the thought/idea behind the campaign?
The thought here was to bring the unique product design alive along with the persona who it is meant for.
A diva who likes to ruffle it up, who is always on the roll and believes in making a bold statement with elegance. From dealing with fans that number in millions, to dealing with haters among them. From creating unique cliques to spending money on keeping up that persona. We wanted to show what makes a diva tick and how many feathers she ruffles. All this paired with keeping it youthful, contemporary and high on fashion.
Why Ananya Panday? What made you sign her for the campaign?
Ananya Panday today is known for being the style icon with an amazing sense of fashion. Now becoming a popular youth icon. An aspirational personality for all the girls out there. And considering our task in hand of building Fastrack’s fashion credentials, she was the perfect match.
How have your marketing plans and strategies evolved in the new normal?
The need of the hour is to be relevant and reconnecting with our audience in such times. A brand that is considerate of the new reality and the changing times, who believes in customizing the offerings for its audience. Captured below are some of the recent brand conversations that we’d like to highlight here –
Taking a note of our audience’s new ways and styles of working out, we rolled out a marketing communication paired with Fastrack Reflex, our fitness band. A #Reflexing challenge – talking about how fitness is best enjoyed in pairs and working out with your buddy who is now your virtual workout partner. Here, we challenged our users to share a video with us of them exercising together, virtually – with an objective to keep them engaged and to add a twist to their regular work out regime.
To reconnect with them and to capture what they have been up to during this gloomy lockdown, we released an exciting video portraying their true-selves and how they have made staying indoors fun and happening. Encouraging them to continue doing what they are passionate about and to heart it.
For some gaming was another realm they created for themselves, a very popular hobby during the lockdown. Keeping this thought in mind we marketed our new Tees Arcade collection – gaming as an inspiration here.
As a youth brand, we have always made it our business in tracking their every move. When they transitioned through different mediums on digital, from Facebook to Snapchat to Instagram – we leveraged our conversations on relevant platforms to stay in tune with them. Now with a much stronger and sharper focus on ecomm as a channel, given the shift in consumer shopping behaviour.
With markets opening up, we are focusing on ensuring consumers feel safe to shop and encouraging appointment based shopping, video calls, etc.
