Godrej launches premium furniture brand 'Script', earmarks Rs 25-30 crore for marketing

Godrej has entered the premium furniture segment with the brand, Script. The conglomerate will invest Rs 150 crore in the brand, primarily for opening stores.

Script has been pegged as a lifestyle extension from the house of Godrej and the company is eyeing a revenue of Rs 320 crore from the brand in the next three years.

Godrej already has presence in the furniture category with Interio, but Script and Interio will operate as different entities.

The ‘attainable premium’ brand will tap into a market size that is estimated to be over Rs10,000 crore.

“In the furniture industry, most of the organised players are either scattered in the lower mid or the mid segment or they are playing at a very high-niche, luxury segment. Now, customers who are looking at higher design aesthetics or experience, either have to compromise or they have to stretch their means a lot. Either way, they are not able to get the right value proposition. There is a huge gap which we like to term, attainable premium or mass premium and no organised players are in this segment. There is a huge opportunity that exists here which in terms of business is a Rs-10,000 crore opportunity. This, we feel, is the right space for our brand and will offer the right balance and value proposition which is missing in the market,” said Rajat Mathur, Business Head, Script.

The brand has earmarked around Rs 25-30 crore as marketing budget for the next fiscal. With the brand thought ‘Freedom of living’, the marketing activities will kick-start a week before December 19 and will be digital heavy.

“While we will market the brand through both offline and online media, online is going to be our main channel because that is what our target audience consumes most. To give an idea, the frequency of campaigns online v/s offline will be 70-30. We are targeting all media except television in the offline space. We will launch on December 19 and we will start building the brand a week before that,” said Mathur.

While Madison is the media agency till the launch of the brand, Starcom has been handed the media mandate for the entire group. Whyness Worldwide is the creative agency and Isobar is the digital agency.

With millennials as their target, the brand will launch their first 13,000 square feet store in Bangalore and intends to expand to Mumbai and Delhi, with one store each, in three years. The long-term plan also includes the launch of 18 stores across five cities, namely Kolkata and Chandigarh in addition to the three metros.

The furniture market is a Rs 40-50,000-crore strong market in India of which about 80 per cent is unorganised and 20 per cent is organised. While Godrej is looking at an 18 per cent growth in its furniture business, according to Mathur the mass premium segment is likely to grow at a CAGR of 15 per cent.

Godrej is positive that both its brands – Interio and Script – have different positioning.

Anil Mathur, COO Godrej & Boyce, said, “Interio is a mainline brand and is more functionality driven. Script is an experiential brand and focuses on creating experiences. They are two different entities and their stores will be separate and their websites will be separate.”

The brand will have an omni-channel sales model but they are not looking at any other portals as of now and their products will be exclusively available in their stores and on their website.

“Consumer journeys are no longer linear today. People browse online and shop offline. We are still trying to explore servicing cities beyond where we have our stores but not right because we have very good supply chain,” said Mathur.

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