presence with 50 exclusive
speciality stores across 30
cities. It offers top-of-the-line
garments under exclusive
labels such as Wills Classic
work wear, Wills Sport
relaxed wear, Wills Clublife
evening wear and Wills
Signature designer wear
for special occasions. To
strengthen the lifestyle
statement, Wills Lifestyle
launched a range of fine
fragrances and grooming
products under the Essenza
Di Wills range and a
collection of bath and
body care products and
complementing accessories
under the Fiama Di Wills
brand.
The growing influence of
Wills Lifestyle has been
acknowledged on several
fronts. In 2007 it was named
amongst the Top Luxury
Brands of India by Time
magazine while at the 2nd
Loyalty Summit and Awards
it was crowned for
Customer and Brand Loyalty
in the Retail Sector – Large
Format Stores. Over the
later it had gained a firm footing. The story of
Wills Lifestyle begins here and parallels this
epochal development.
As the market grew, the demand for highend quality products, too, picked up. For
Wills Lifestyle this was the opportunity to
differentiate itself. It developed unique fabrics
and launched an entire range of innovative
designs that were exquisite in style and detailing
as well as comfortable to wear. To support this
initiative the company expended vast energies
to house this display. The chain of exclusive
stores that evolved represented a unique
shopping experience that matched the world's
best. This was a telling combination; it wasn't,
therefore, long before the brand had earned the
respect of the most critical customer and
carved a niche for itself in India's fashion space.
The enormous success encouraged the
company to nudge customers towards
specialised wear. It was from here that several
brand extensions emerged: Wills Classic in 2002
and Wills Clublife in 2003.
In 2006, Wills Lifestyle became title partner of
the country's most premier fashion event –
Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week. Three years
later, this five-day bi-annual extravaganza has
become part of the social calendar of the rich
and famous.
Product
Today, Wills Lifestyle has four sub brands: Wills
Classic is the new age work wear; trendy,
Market
The high-end lifestyle industry is booming in
India. The effects of this can be seen on the
country's streets, discotheques and bars – even
in shopping malls and multiplexes. In slow
measure these are percolating from metros to
class I cities and migrating from there into
smaller towns.
ITC has been an iconic company in India for
several decades. In 2000, it entered the lifestyle
retailing space with the launch of Wills Lifestyle.
At that time the market for this category was
just beginning to take shape. But remarkably a
number of nationally distributed brands were
already entrenched. Small and disparate as they
were, Wills Lifestyle did become the original
pioneers in popularising the concept of
branded apparel.
In the initial stages the apparel market was
limited to only men's formal wear while the
women's western wear market was virtually
non-existent. Brands were largely categoryfocused with specialisation in either formal shirts
or trousers but no brand offered garments for
both men and women. Wills Lifestyle changed all
that. It was the first brand to offer a complete
wardrobe for both, across all usage occasions.
Wills Lifestyle has never looked back. Indeed,
the brand can take credit for institutionalising a
nascent industry and helping create a greater
appreciation for fashion itself.
years Wills Lifestyle has been honoured with a
number of other prestigious awards, too. The
Most Admired Exclusive Brand Retail Chain of
the Year at the Images Fashion Awards, Retailer
of the Year award at Idea Zee F Awards, The
Most Admired Women's Wear Brand of the Year
Award and has also been featured in the
Business Standard Brand Derby.
Achievements
History
Riding on the strength of a growing market,
Wills Lifestyle has established a nationwide
The fashion-conscious market possibly began to
take shape about the early 1990s. A decade
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innovative, chic and stylish, it reflects the work
ethos of gen next. Wills Classic premium shirts
are made from the finest Egyptian Cotton while
its range of luxurious linen jackets has the
unmistakable touch of European master
craftsmen. Wills Sport, the fashionable relaxed
wear, is designed to complement the lifestyle of
today's consumer. Racy stripes, energetic prints
and trendy dobbies distinguish its shirts while
its cargos, denims, capris and trousers are
recognised for their fine finish and gentle
hand feel.
The range of evening wear,
Wills Clublife, has been
created to complement the
preferences of premium
consumers. Sensuous satin
and sequins embellished
on jacquards and alluring
prints are the flavour of
the evening.
Wills Signature, launched
in 2006, is a tribute to the
evolved consumers' fashion
sensibilities. This exquisite line
of designer wear has been
created by the leading stylists
of the country: Anamika
Khanna, Ashish Soni, Manish
Malhotra, Monisha Jaising,
Rajesh Pratap Singh, Rohit
Bal, Rohit Gandhi-Rahul
Khanna, Varun Bahl, Manish
Arora and Shantanu-Nikhil.
To evolve as a complete
fashion wardrobe, Wills
Lifestyle has also introduced
a vast range of fashion accessories such as ties,
shoes, handbags, wallets and belts. Essenza Di
Wills, an exclusive range of fine fragrances and
bath and body care products for men and
women, was launched in August 2005 to
complete the lifestyle offering.
Wills Lifestyle is able to look back with
satisfaction and see the enormous contribution
it has made – especially to women's fashion.
Not surprisingly, the brand has garnered a
sizeable share of this market. In fact, today, more
than a third of its turnover comes from here.
Its focus on developing the women's wear
segment has resulted in the brand being able to
offer a fashion wardrobe that complements
every occasion in her day: work, leisure,
evenings and glamour parties. For her the Wills
Lifestyle collection presents a seamless weave
of international trends with Indian tastes,
preferences and silhouettes.
To create world-class products for women
and heighten the product equity Wills Lifestyle
has done several things. It has, for instance,
collaborated with international design studio
Ricardo Rami Studio, Italy for exquisite fashion
wear for women and has partnered with leading
Indian designers to create a Hi Fashion Wills
Signature range.
Recent Developments
The rapid development of the Indian market for
fashion wear has attracted the attention of a
number of international brands. Wills Lifestyle
has taken a professional view of this enhanced
competition and has
redoubled efforts at
protecting its equity.
The sponsorship of the
prestigious Wills Lifestyle
India Fashion Week has given
the brand an elite status in
this evolving world. The high
ground it has occupied has
allowed it to direct the
industry and create the
environment where buyers,
retailers and designers are
able to share a common
platform. The enormous
success of this event has
encouraged Wills Lifestyle to
extend it into a bi-annual
feature showcasing the
country's autumn/winter and
spring/summer lines.
The brand has also
developed a carefully crafted
loyalty programme – Club
Wills. Membership to this
guild opens the doors to
several special rewards and
privileges: exclusive in-store
benefits such as priority
garment availability; doorstep
delivery anywhere in India;
fine dining, exotic holidays,
stays at luxurious ITC
Welcomgroup properties
and invitations to Wills
Lifestyle sponsored evenings.
To provide a pleasurable and premium
shopping experience Wills Lifestyle has
collaborated with experts from across the
world.
The company has ramped up its showrooms
by working closely with FRCH, a US-based retail
design firm. The new Wills Lifestyle stores are
intended to international formats and provide a
clearly differentiated and premium shopping
experience.
For its store façade and window displays Wills
Lifestyle has signed up the services of the highly
acclaimed, London-based
visual merchandising
and designing firm of
Elemental Design.
The company
understands well laid out
store- and windowdisplays would be only
cosmetic unless the
customer was made to feel
special. In this pursuit Wills
Lifestyle sought the
expertise of the Friedman
Group. This has led
immediately to superior
customer service and
enhanced productivity.
As part of Retail
Activation, Wills Lifestyle is
exploring synergies with
ITC’s hotel business. It has
recently launched a
boutique store at the ITC
Maurya in New Delhi and
plans to open stores in all
upcoming premium ITC hotels.
Promotion
In 2008, Wills Lifestyle developed a campaign
voicing the thought 'The World Wants to be
You.' The intent has been to take consumer
interest in the brand to a new high. The
campaign cast a good-looking couple and showcased the inspiring effect they had each time
they stepped out in their Wills Lifestyle clothes.
The couple is not just noticed, they are
emulated by a world which wants to be them.
Brand Values
Elegance, sophistication and exclusivity sum up
the core values of Wills Lifestyle. It is from these
values that the brand derives its strength to
provide superior consumer value and to match
global standards of performance. International
premium quality and vitality are imageries that
the brand evokes. All brand communication
exercises, from advertising to the retail
experience are carefully orchestrated to reflect
these values of the brand.
www.willslifestyle.com
Things you didn’t know about
Wills Lifestyle
More than 2 million customers walk into Wills
Lifestyle stores every year
The brand was recognised amongst the top
luxury brands of India by Time magazine in
2007
Consumer research has placed Wills Lifestyle as
the most admired women's wear brand in the
segment
Through the 'ramp to rack' initiative, Wills
Lifestyle has the ten leading designers of India
design the Wills Signature collection
In Wills Lifestyle stores customer associates
walk the proverbial extra mile to create
consumer delight
Club Wills, the privileges programme of Wills
Lifestyle, has over 67, 000 members
Wills Lifestyle prints more than 100,000 copies
of its Season Catalogue
Wills Lifestyle plans to double its presence to
100 stores in the next two years by expanding
in the tier-II and tier-III cities
Wills Lifestyle products are also retailed on the
net through popular shopping portals
SUPERBRANDS
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