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As Brand Residency 2022 wound down to an end, one thing was clear: the brands of new India are shifting their focus from topline and quick growth to sustainability and the impact that they have on the world.

“As Indians, we are pioneers of sustainability; we need to go back to the basics, we need to go back to the India that we inherited,” said Dia Mirza, actor, investor, and UN Ambassador. 

She was part of a panel on D2C brands dialling up the sustainability quotient at Brand Residency, an initiative of YourStory’s Brands of New India (BONI). The two-day hybrid event has ‘celebrating brands and their builders’ as its theme. 

The event saw established and emerging brands, witnessed exchanges of ideas and tips, and facilitated discussions on critical social, cultural, environmental, and business trends that define today’s retail market.

YourStory kicked off Brand Residency 2022 on September 9 with a keynote address by Shradha Sharma, the Founder and CEO of YourStory. 

The event began with a sense of nostalgia, with Shradha talking about what belonging to Bharat and studying in India made her feel as a young adult, and how she now feels unapologetic and even proud of her beginnings, as must all brands “no matter where they come from”.

“We have all built brands from India. This is the journey we have made as a country. Say it with pride. The aim here is to celebrate these brands and feel good about it,” Shradha Sharma said, launching Brand Residency 2022 in Delhi.

This pride of belonging to Bharat was resonated by chief guest Anil Agrawal, Additional Secretary, Department of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), who talked about Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). 

“What is a brand? A brand is the value you represent. Value is character, and character is what I do when no one is watching. Build a brand on the strength of character,” Anil said.

Dialling up the sustainability quotient

“The planet does not need to be saved, the human species needs to be saved,” Dia reminded the attendees. 

These words were spoken to a room full of corporations that want to focus on building brands that help build sustainable lifestyles, promote healthy living, and want everyone to feel accountable for the impact that their personal consumerisms have on the planet.

“Being natural, clean, healthy, and safe shouldn’t be a choice. It should be the norm,” Dia said. 

The events saw a plethora of upcoming brands set up exhibition booths to talk about their brands and also let their products do the talking for them. They included an organic ghee brand Barosi based out of Pataudi, coffee brands like Something’s Brewing, the “Amul for eggs” Eggoz, and multiple organic, sustainable brands with products ranging from vegan food options to viable toys, bags made out of recycled leather to 100% organic clothing and lifestyle products. 

The event also addressed the biggest issues faced by sustainable brands on their journeys of impact: pricing and scaling.

Panellists Aditya Ruia, Co-founder, Beco; Barkha Bhatnagar Das, Co-founder, Greendigo Organic Clothing, and Meeta Sharma Gupta, Founder, Shumee, who have established and scaled their own green brands offered a creative solution. “Show your customer what is at stake if they do not go sustainable, which is the detrimental impact of using chemical-made products on health of both people and environment.” 

Building affordable brands for Bharat

Soumya Kant, Co-founder, Clovia, which was acquired by Reliance Retail in March 2022, said 60-65% of the company’s sales come from Tier II and Tier III cities. “We see sales from cities like Haridwar, Dehradun, and Moradabad. A girl purchasing lingerie in a Tier I city may spend Rs 1,000, but a girl in a Tier II city spends Rs 1,500.” 

The focus on D2C brands has also shifted from the saturated market of Tier I cities to Tier II and Tier III towns and beyond. 

“As a brand owner, we need to figure out where our consumer is. Even though most people shop online now, omnichannel is still very important,” says Malika Datt Sadani, Founder, The Moms Co, as a part of a panel on decoding the marketing dynamics and the future of D2C landscape with market leaders in this space. 

The words “be where your customer is” were repeated by panellists throughout the event. As the world sets into a new normal, D2C brands have to think more and more about their omnichannel strategy. 

“D2C is not just a distribution channel. It is the DNA of the company. D2C is data and making use of that data is to fill those gaps to build relationships and the brand,” said Bharat Seth, Founder and CEO, Rage Coffee.