Cover Story
Cover Story
‘In future, anything that’s
natural, fluid, fashionable
will be linked to LIVA’
The Aditya Birla Group has broken new grounds with LIVA, the high quality fabric made
using natural cellulosic fibres, delivered through an accredited value chain. The brand
vision of LIVA is to provide consumers the freedom to move effortlessly and confidently
in garments that celebrate natural fluid fashion. Birla Cellulose has a reputation of being
a preferred partner in the entire textile value chain and with the launch of LIVA, it is set
to reach out to new consumer as an ingredient brand.
Connecting consumers with Liva
K K Maheshwari, Managing Director, Grasim Industries
and Group Director-Textiles, Aditya Birla Group, who is
credited with scripting the growth of VSF business towards
a more sustainable model, talks about his vision and
mission in bringing the brand LIVA closer to consumers.
“Till date, marketing of fibres has been the back end of the
value chain whereas brands and retail have been at the
front end. When a fibre gets translated into an end product,
the consumer finds it difficult to distinguish between the
different ingredients in the garment. Keeping this in
mind, we believe it would be good to convey the unique
properties of LIVA directly to the end consumer who is
the decision maker. We have studied consumers with the
actual products. In future, anything that’s fluid, fashionable
and natural will be linked to LIVA,” opines Maheshwari.
Assuring product quality
K K Maheshwari,
Managing Director - Grasim Industries and
Group Director - Textiles
Every product has its own experience and the challenge
is to stand out and define the experience it offers and
make sure it keeps getting elevated. It is all about creating
an association in the customer’s mind. In essence, LIVA
is a promise to consumers that garments with the LIVA
tag will have the most fluid, soft drape, assured by the
quality backing of the value chain accredited by the Aditya
Birla Group. “We believe it is important for customers
to understand what they are getting. These are brand
 LIVA’s brand vision is to provide consumers the freedom to move effortlessly
and confidently in garments that celebrate natural fluid fashion with LIVA fabrics.
 The brand stands for the high quality fabrics made using natural cellulosic
fibres of Aditya Birla Group, delivered through an accredited value chain.
 LIVA promises quality backed by adequate product testing and process
perfection at every stage of manufacturing. In essence, LIVA is a promise to
the consumers since garments with the LIVA tag will have the fluid, soft drape,
backed by the value chain accredited by the Aditya Birla Group.
 Consumers usually had to make a choice between fashionable clothing and
comfortable clothing. The brand makes a statement which encompasses
fashion and comfort experienced as a vital ingredient which forms part of the
merchandise of partnering clothing brands.
 The strategy is to co-market LIVA with leading women’s apparel retailers to
build its availability, traceability and aspiration for consumers, ranging from
tagging of the garments in partner outlets to in-store promotion and in media
 It is one of the most sustainable in terms of raw material, life cycle assessments
(LCA) and eco friendliness of the product. Our key raw material, wood pulp is
sourced through a responsible wood sourcing policy which takes care of high
conservation forest, bio diversity and more is planted than cut.
2 DEALERS FOR YOU INSIDE FASHION
promises for a consumer to appreciate. Today, they are
only looking for one aspect namely ‘fit’, and how it looks on
the body. But this is also about enabling them to experience
the wearing comfort,” he informs.
Spreading brand awareness
Maheshwari points out that branding is essentially a
promise of performance. “It’s nothing but the association
that comes to mind. In essence, LIVA is a promise to
consumers that garments with the LIVA tag will have the
most fluid, soft drape, assured by the quality backing of
the value chain accredited by the Aditya Birla Group . The
comfort of wearing it is going to be greater and LIVA is
just a reinforcement of an offering. It doesn’t take away
from the main brand positioning,” he explains. In fact, the
company has planned specific promotional efforts which
will enable LIVA to reach out to its target audience, so that
they understand what LIVA is all about.
With this launch, the company is extending the reach
on a pan-India basis to create greater awareness and
product availability. In S/S ’15, LIVA tagged garments will
be available through 1,625 stores, spread across 54 cities
within India. Visual Merchandise to enhance the consumer
experience has been focused in more than 500 stores. With
India’s fragmented retail, the company has joined hands
with TRRAIN to educate retail staff across the country into
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finer nuances of consumer experience since their touchpoints are ten times more than the purchase. “These
people are the face of the brand,” avers Maheshwari.
LIVA also comes out with a research trend forecast through
international agencies and fabric designers. “We also
engage with merchandisers of the brands to talk about
what collections would form a complete story for that brand
and collaborate with fabric sourcing team,” he explains.
Keeping in mind the significant potential of Indian market,
the company has planned for a pan India launch with select
brands partners.
As a part of its marketing strategy, the first phase of
launch would focus more towards women’s fashion. The
products are ideally suited for ladies kurtis, nightwear,
skirts, leggings, palazzo’s, western wear and also for
intimate apparels. The company during its research found
out that LIVA has been enriching men’s fashion and home
textiles products. LIVA is profitably blended with polyester
or wool and the resulting fabric has terrific application in
men’s trousers and suitings in addition to women wear and
home textile. Consumer feedback has shown that “It’s is
so comfortable that when you move, it moves with you”.
Consumers have spoken about as: “soft to touch and
makes me look slim.”
Strengthening value chain
Maheshwari believes when a product is launched the
value chain needs to be in place. Once this happens,
more volumes can be expected through the value chain.
With LIVA, the company has been collaborating with major
fashion brands around the world and leading brands in
India like Pantaloons, Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Lifestyle,
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Global Desi, Chemistry and 109°F. It has come out with
seasonal collections portraying trends for the season
leveraging the unique attributes of LIVA. LIVA is a New
Age fabric using natural fibres of Aditya Birla Group which
has been innovatively manufactured by LIVA Accredited
Partner Forum (LAPF) members
The fibre and textile major will also be responsible in initiating
LAPF which is a unique body of value chain members who
offer LIVA fabrics of high quality and innovative designs.
The Accredited Forum has a certification mechanism
with support on marketing, vendor management, design
innovation, product perfection and sustainability. The
Forum members have tremendously improved their product
quality, marketing services and delivery mechanism which
have been appreciated by leading brands who procure
from them.
Birla Cellulose also facilitates order tie up between buyer
and vendor to create an ecosystem of like minded partners
to deliver LIVA assured quality, ensuring brand recognition,
business growth and consumer delight. With time, the
brand plans to add more value chain partners. “We expect
more brands and retailers opting to do this. Natural fluid
fashion has become a statement in all our researches. It’s
distinct” he explains,
Birla Cellulose has once again hit the spotlight with the
launch of its new brand of fabric. Birla Cellulose is keen to
chart a new course in fashion by entering the retail segment
with ‘LIVA’ brand. With this new initiative, Birla Cellulose is
the only company in the world to operate fully integrated
manufacturing facilities extending from fibre to fashion, all
under the umbrella of brand ‘LIVA’.
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