Q] After years without a celebrity face, Enamor onboarded Taapsee Pannu as brand ambassador for its ‘Unapologetic As I Am’ campaign. What drove the decision of featuring a celebrity and what early outcomes have you seen?
I’ll go back in time to reference ‘Fabulous, As I Am.’ We wanted to underline that every woman is unique; so we didn’t feel the need for a celebrity. Instead, we featured women with different personalities, body types, quirks and interests who embodied the true spirit of ‘Fabulous, As I Am.’ When we came up with ‘Unapologetic As I Am,’ the positioning became about being bold, the best version of yourself and not remaining constrained by society, culture or family. We needed someone who truly embodied that spirit. Pannu is loved by women, is an inspiration, has made decisions that work for her and has broken norms by choosing to live life on her own terms. She was the perfect choice to communicate what we now stand for under this new positioning.
Since launching our Bamboo Cotton range with Pannu earlier this year, we’ve seen strong sales growth across our stores, D2C and marketplaces. Searches for Bamboo Cotton are up by 400 per cent, and more consumers are asking for the ‘Taapsee’ and Bamboo Cotton bra. We’re yet to measure brand metrics with Nielsen, but media metrics like CTRs are already beating best-in-class benchmarks.
Q] Enamor launched campaigns like ‘BodySync’ & ‘Ban the Dumb Bra’. After spending nearly two decades building the business through product, retail and word of mouth rather than high-decibel campaigns, what changed to spur a bolder communication?
Two things changed. First, the consumer became bolder. She consumes bold content, so we speak to her in a way that feels relevant and inspires her to be herself. That is why our communication is bolder. We are also sharper with media. While earlier we invested across television, radio and cinema, today almost all our investments are digital, making media more focused and optimised. With the innerwear category becoming more competitive, we also need to raise our brand’s decibels and stand out among new-age and online-first brands.
Q] Could you give us a sense of your marketing investment and channel strategy across influencers, e-commerce and quick commerce?
We invest 8-10 per cent of our revenue in marketing. While most of our spends are on digital, we also do impact marketing through outdoor hoardings. Over the last two years, we’ve significantly pivoted towards influencer marketing. We’re rapidly growing across e-commerce and quick commerce, as these are key channels to reach younger consumers in their 20s.
Q] For years, women accepted discomfort as an inevitable part of wearing a bra. Enamor has challenged that through innovations like Bamboo Cotton, cooling technology and adaptive support. How do you translate these science-led features into campaigns without overwhelming consumers with technical jargon?
The lingerie category has evolved a lot. Fifteen years ago, women largely looked at bras as padded or non-padded, wired or non-wired. Today, they understand different styles and, more importantly, they’re much clearer about their needs. They no longer accept discomfort as normal. A couple of years ago, we identified women’s biggest pain points, then developed innovations to solve them. For instance, Bamboo Cotton addresses issues like rashes, discomfort and freshness. While the technology is backed by benefits like being 3x softer, 4x more absorbent, hypoallergenic and antimicrobial, our communication doesn’t use technical terms. Instead of saying ‘hypoallergenic’, we say ‘no rash’. Instead of talking about fabric science, we say ‘no dig, no pinch’. We communicate in the language women use to describe their problems, and that’s why our campaigns resonate.
Q] How do these product innovations come about? What role do consumer insights and R&D play in developing them?
We have dedicated R&D and design teams, but it all starts with the consumer. Through regular fittings and research, we identify evolving needs and build innovations to solve specific pain points. For example, Bamboo Cotton combines bamboo and cotton to deliver softness with the structure a bra needs. We also introduced N9 Finish to reduce the temperature around the bust by 2°C and the Flexi-Free Bra to reduce digging, rashes and discomfort. We don’t innovate for the sake of it. We innovate to solve real consumer problems, and that’s why our innovation range continues to grow.
Q] Consumers in Tier-II and Tier-III cities still have strong affinity for local brands. Does Enamor follow a different communication strategy to reach these markets?
Our experience has been quite the opposite. The Taapsee Pannu Bamboo Cotton campaign saw stronger resonance and more searches from Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets than metros, showing that women there are equally interested in new launches and innovations. We don’t believe the core communication needs to change. The spirit of women is the same across markets. What changes is the execution, through regional languages or local influencers.
Q] How do you balance performance marketing and always-on visibility with long-term brand-building?
We invest in a few big campaigns every year, but brands today can’t move from one campaign to the next and stay silent. Always-on marketing has become equally important. Alongside our larger campaigns, we’re constantly engaging consumers through content and influencers. For Enamor, it’s not just about building brand equity or selling bras. A big part of our communication is consumer education. As lingerie evolves with products like bralettes, plunge and multi-way bras, we also educate women on choosing the right bra, wearing it correctly and caring for it.
Q] Influencer marketing around intimate wear might be polarising. How do you navigate such conversations?
I see it as greater freedom. Influencer marketing allows us to have different conversations with different communities. We don’t give influencers a script. We share what we want to communicate, and they present it in a way that resonates with their audience. It’s about choosing the right communities for the right message. For our Bamboo Cotton campaign, we worked not just with fashion and lifestyle influencers, but also dermatologists to talk about skin health, rashes and bamboo’s hypoallergenic benefits, and wellness influencers to highlight its eco-friendly qualities. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. As marketers, we have to be thoughtful about matching the message with the right audience.
PROFILE
At Modenik Lifestyle, Sandra Daniels is Chief Marketing Officer - Enamor. She is responsible for the creative execution, planning and implementation at Enamor, presenting the brand as a thought leader in the fashion lingerie segment. She spearheaded the brand’s largest repositioning project which led to establishing a new brand identity, ‘Fabulous As I Am.’ Over the years, the brand has become synonymous with being fun, fabulous, futuristic, and now unapologetic under her leadership. Daniels is a creative professional who consistently relies on innovation and emerging brand-building solutions. Even today, she motivates her team by stating, “The whole idea is to be agile and open enough to say, look, I’m learning!”
ABOUT THE BRAND
Enamor is a Modenik Lifestyle Pvt. Ltd.-owned brand. Created in 2001 as a JV with Barbara of Paris, a 70-year-old French heritage lingerie brand, Enamor brought premium fashion lingerie to Indian women. Over the years, it has become synonymous with transforming lingerie from an innerwear to an exquisite fashion garment. The brand operates both online and through a large network of physical stores, including exclusive brand outlets (EBOs), multi-brand outlets (MBOs) and national chain stores (NCS).
FACTS
Media Agency: Havas Media India
Digital Agency: Schbang
BTL & Creative Agency: Tilt Brand Solutions
PR Agency: In-house
