It’s all about going online and becoming Instagram stars today — or so insist the two young Instagram wizards who are handling the online presence of most luxury brands today. Meghna Pahwa and Roshni Thakur of Studio Click tell us why most luxury brands will move online smoothly in the span of a year. Here’s their story in their own words:
It all started five years back with a hunger to explore, experiment and create something which no one has till now. When we ventured into the digital marketing space and established Studio Click, Instagram was just making a debut in India. We instantly knew it could work as a great social media tool for establishing a brand.
Back then, international brands had started using Instagram for their benefit, but it was very new to the Indian market. The change in Facebook’s approach and the platform taking a commercial route created room for Instagram to boom. Studio Click was the first of the movers in the décor segment to start Instagram marketing. We built Devika Sukhija’s Instagram page in the days when décor brands used to give the utmost importance to a physical experience. This approach of thinking ahead of the curve helped us win many accolades and potential client pitches. Geetanjali Salon is another example of our first-mover advantage. We managed the brand in the years 2017 to 2019 and made it one of the only beauty salons to have a great social media presence.
At the beginning of 2018, Instagram started changing its algorithm and tools and brought about the need to deal with it in a very strategic way. This is where the expertise of a social media professional is needed. Every brand requires a wellresearched plan specific to its product or service, which will help them express their uniqueness in the digital world. Understanding your target audience is the foremost step, as the audience on Instagram is very different from those on Facebook, Google and offline stores.
Instagram is a visual platform and our advice to all our clients and brands out there is to approach it as a ‘store display window’ in a mall and think of Facebook as the warehouse support. Treat it as a retail store that you wished for; dress it well, invest in visual merchandise and hire a salesman who can communicate effectively. If done right, Instagram alone can help a business grow manifold.
The pandemic has forced everyone to pivot his or her strategies to stay relevant in the current situation. Our clients and brands have realised the importance of strategic social media messaging more than ever. Of course, our services have also shifted from very active product selling to engagement with more focus on awareness, education and narrating the brand story.
In the next four to five years, you might not even need an offline presence or even an online presence to run a business. With the consumer shifting to online services, we see a huge bend towards Instagram businesses that allows you to easily communicate with your consumer. It is a great platform for small businesses to flourish, and at the same time, understand their target audience before investing in the logistics of setting up an offline or online store.