MAM

Only Vimal

Published

22 years ago

February 3, 2004

Vimal – the name stands out in the annals of Indian advertising as a brand well developed and projected. The credit naturally goes to Mudra, which developed and nurtured the brand when branding as a concept was still in its infancy in India.

Vimal today features amongst its peers in The Economic Times Brand Equity 100 Survey of India’s most trusted brands published on 14 August 2002. In fact, the brand ranked first in the ‘Clothes Call’ – Apparel Ranking section.

Each Vimal ad exemplified the brand’s core promise and ensured that the creative ideation and execution gave it an ‘out-of-the-ordinary’ and ‘icon-ish’ look. One must remember that Reliance decided to adopt different marketing and creative strategies in a time plagued by difficult market conditions. The entire burst of creative excellence was continued over a 15-year period by a team of young creative brains headed by AG Krishnamurthy.

Krishnamurthy attributes the stunning output of work to a ‘nothing-is-impossible’ attitude as defined by Dhirubhai Ambani and an intrinsic motivation to justify the faith and trust that Ambani had reposed in the team.

Vimal sarees :

Vimal began its existence as a saree brand nearly 25 years ago with its memorable tag-line: ‘A woman expresses herself in many languages, Vimal is one of them’. Since then, Vimal has gloriously celebrated the multi-faceted beauty of Indian women. The concept of ‘multi-facetedness’ was the bridge between the product and the consumers. The creative team aspired to improve the earlier benchmarks and pushed the brand further up the creative ladder. Needless to say, Vimal sarees grew to become India’s largest selling fashion fabric.

In the early 1980s, the ad campaign also spawned a series of parallel visual identities that were aimed at addressing the fragmented Indian consumer markets. Filmstars like Sridevi and Jaya Prada figured amongst the early brand endorsers. In the mid 1980s, the ‘Sweet Memories Dress Material’ campaign, celebrated as the ‘Eyes’ campaign, ensured that fabric photography acquired magical quality with its ‘touch-n-feel’ sensuousness.

A distinct element was the fact that uncommon sizes were used like a ‘breath of fresh air’ in those ‘prim-n-propah’ days. Towards the late 1980s, Vimal stepped out of the ‘tight mid and close-up product shots’ which were so characteristic of advertising in those days. India’s culture and heritage provided idyllic settings and backdrops for the shoots.

A first for newspaper advertising was the 16-column Vimal ad featuring several ‘colourfully draped’ women released in 1991. The early 1990s also witnessed an attempt to remain at the cutting edge of advertising by exploring the genre of experimental photography. After a long break, Gautami, a South Indian film star, made her presence felt in the Starlite Collection. Post 1993, Vimal sarees and dress materials were slowly phased out as the company focused on exports of suit fabric. Saree advertising gently and gracefully made its exit. The last few campaigns echo the beauty of its glorious past!

Vimal Suitings :
In 1980, Vimal Suitings made its mark in an intensely competitive scenario marked by venerable longstanding brands. The only advantage Vimal Suitings had was its product superiority premise. The first campaigns carried inserts of the machinery and this path breaking, highly unusual feature. The fact that a textile brand was pioneering the trend of being sold as a consumer durable drew flak from the advertising bigwigs. However, the sincerity of the brand’s courage of conviction won the say.

There were six phases in the campaign;
# the first established the superiority backed by technology endorsements (Deepak Parasher, Kanwaljit and inserts of the Reliance plants);

# the second had achievers endorsing the brand’s caliber (Param Vishisht Seva medal recipient Lt. General JS Arora, world amateur and world open billiards champion Michael Ferreira and editor-publisher RK Karanjia endorsing the premium wool range); the third ensured that the brand achieved enough momentum to dictate fashion (Kabir Bedi campaign where Vimal donned the mantle of dispensing tips on personality grooming);

# the fourth firmly established the brand as the ‘style guru’ (Deepak Malhotra ushering in the slow movement towards heightened aesthetics rather than harping on the calibre);

# the fifth used celebrity cricketers (Ravi Shastri and Allan Border) for the first time ever;

# the brand continued its passion for fashion in the sixth phase (fashion gurus such as Rohit Bal). The partnership of fashion designers, fashion shows and Vimal played its part in paving the way for the current haute couture and pr?t wave.

In the mid 1990s, the brand continued to keep style in the foreground, even through all its product launches in speciality fabrics like angora, mohair and cashmere; innovative products ahead of their times. The late 1990s had models like Milind Soman advocating the ‘looks of a winner’.

Certainly not surprising to know that Vimal moved into the top slot as the fashion leader in just six years.

Harmony:
In 1986, Harmony furnishing fabrics was born when Reliance installed their first home textiles manufacturing unit. The advertising for the premium and upmarket Harmony collection was sporadic; not as profuse as that of the sarees and suitings. From its initial positioning as ‘premium furnishing fabric’, the ad campaign moved into the ‘interior fashion textiles’ and later as ‘textile art for interiors’! The vintage flair and exuberance was clearly visible in the 1988 creative that shows a rather unusual and dramatic visual of a furnishing fabric flowing out of a champagne bottle. The brand was relaunched in 1994 with a whole new identity and spectacular photographs. The Heritage series campaign was the first for the country to depict the traditional Indian textile art (Bandhani, Jamavar) forms.

The change of positioning from a mere utilitarian furnishing fabric to an aspirational ‘art’ form led to the highly popular annual Harmony event. The Harmony show hosts the largest exhibition of Indian art and is a regular feature of the art-lover’s annual calendar!

The eventful 22 years of ‘Only Vimal’ touched many hearts and souls through its oft-repeated (but seldom practiced) belief of ‘I-have-to-be-the-best-at-any-cost’!

Related Topics:Gautami General JS Arora icon-ish Mudra Vimal

Up Next

News channels- Uncorking the mirth: News channels are increasingly including the political spoof in their programming

Don't Miss

Cartoon Network’s latest brand promotion excercise involves saving Dexter’s brain

Click to comment

Brands

Netflix India names Rekha Rane director of films and series marketing

Streaming giant bets on a seasoned marketer who helped build Amazon and Netflix into household names

Published

4 weeks ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Netflix has put a proven brand builder at the helm of its films and series marketing in India, naming Rekha Rane as director in a move that signals sharper focus on audience growth and cultural cut-through in one of its most hotly contested markets.

Rane steps into the role after seven years at Netflix, where she has quietly shaped how the platform sells stories to India. Her latest promotion, effective February 2026, crowns a run that spans brand, slate and product marketing across originals, licensed content and new verticals such as games.

A strategic marketing and communications professional with roughly 15 years’ experience, Rane has spent much of her career building technology-led consumer businesses and new categories, notably e-commerce and subscription video on demand. She was part of the early push that introduced Amazon.in, Prime Video and Netflix to Indian homes, then helped turn them into everyday brands.

At Netflix, she most recently served as head of brand and slate marketing for India from March 2024 to February 2026, leading teams across media and marketing for global and local content portfolios. Before that, as manager for original films and series marketing, she led IP creation and go-to-market strategy for titles including Guns and Gulaabs, Kaala Paani, The Railway Men* and The Great Indian Kapil Show, spanning both binge and weekly-release formats.

Her earlier Netflix roles covered product discovery and promotion in India and integrated campaign strategy to drive conversations around the content slate, product awareness and brand-equity metrics.

Before Netflix, Rane logged more than three years at Amazon in brand marketing roles in Bengaluru. There she handled national and regional campaigns for Amazon.in, worked on customer assistance programmes in growth geographies and contributed to the go-to-market strategy for the launch of Prime Video India.

Her career began well away from streaming. At Reliance Brands in Mumbai, she worked on retail marketing for Diesel and Superdry. A stint at Leo Burnett saw her work on primary research for P&G Tide, mapping Indian shoppers’ paths to purchase. Earlier still, at Orange in the United Kingdom, she rose from sales assistant to store manager, running a team and owning monthly P&L for a retail outlet.

The arc is telling. As global streamers fight for attention in a crowded Indian market, executives who understand both mass retail behaviour and digital habit-building are prized. Rane’s career sits at that intersection.

For Netflix, the bet is simple: in a market spoilt for choice, sharp marketing can still tilt the screen. And with Rane now leading the charge, the streamer is signalling it wants not just viewers, but fandom.

Brands

Orient Beverages pops the fizz with steady Q3 gains and rising profits

Kolkata-based beverage maker reports stronger revenues and profits for December quarter.

Published

4 weeks ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: A fizzy quarter with a steady aftertaste that’s how Orient Beverages Limited, the company that manufactures and distributes packaged drinking water under the brand name Bisleri closed the December 2025 period, as the Kolkata-based drinks maker reported improved revenues and a healthy rise in profits, signalling operational stability in a competitive beverage market.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2025, Orient Beverages posted standalone revenue from operations of Rs 39.98 crore, up from Rs 36.42 crore in the previous quarter and Rs 33.53 crore in the same quarter last year. Total income for the quarter stood at Rs 42.24 crore, reflecting consistent demand and stable pricing across its beverage portfolio.

Profit before tax for the quarter came in at Rs 3.47 crore, a sharp improvement from Rs 1.31 crore in the September quarter and Rs 0.39 crore a year ago. After accounting for tax expenses of Rs 0.79 crore, the company reported a net profit of Rs 2.68 crore, nearly three times the Rs 0.99 crore recorded in the preceding quarter.

On a nine-month basis, the momentum remained intact. Revenue from operations for the period ended December 31, 2025 rose to Rs 117.66 crore, compared with Rs 106.95 crore in the corresponding period last year. Net profit for the nine months climbed to Rs 5.51 crore, more than double the Rs 2.18 crore reported in the same period of the previous financial year.

The consolidated numbers told a similar story. For the December quarter, consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 45.06 crore, while profit after tax came in at Rs 2.06 crore. For the nine-month period, consolidated revenue touched Rs 133.57 crore, with net profit of Rs 4.49 crore, underscoring the group’s improving profitability trajectory.

Operating expenses remained largely controlled, with cost of materials, employee benefits and other expenses broadly aligned with revenue growth. The company continued to operate within a single reportable segment beverages simplifying its cost structure and reporting framework.

The unaudited financial results were reviewed by the Audit Committee and approved by the Board of Directors at its meeting held on 7 February 2026. Statutory auditors carried out a limited review and reported no material misstatements in the results.

In a market where margins are often squeezed by input costs and competition, Orient Beverages’ latest numbers suggest the company has found a reliable rhythm not explosive, but steady enough to keep the fizz alive.

MAM

Washington Post CEO exits abruptly after newsroom cuts spark backlash

Leadership change follows layoffs, protests and a bruising battle over trust.

Published

4 weeks ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: When the presses are rolling but patience runs out, even the editor’s chair isn’t safe. The Washington Post announced on Saturday that its chief executive and publisher Will Lewis is stepping down with immediate effect, bringing a sudden end to a turbulent two-year tenure marked by financial strain, newsroom unrest and public backlash.

Lewis’s exit comes just days after the Bezos-owned newspaper announced sweeping job cuts that triggered protests outside its Washington headquarters and a wave of anger from readers and staff. While newspapers across the US are grappling with shrinking revenues and digital disruption, Lewis’s leadership had increasingly come under fire for how those pressures were handled.

The Post confirmed that Jeff D’Onofrio, a former Tumblr CEO who joined the organisation last year as chief financial officer, has taken over as CEO and publisher, effective immediately. In an email to staff, later shared by reporters on social media, Lewis said it was “the right time for me to step aside.”

The leadership change follows the announcement of large-scale redundancies earlier this week. While the Post did not officially confirm numbers, The New York Times reported that around 300 of the paper’s roughly 800 journalists were laid off. Entire teams were dismantled, including the Post’s Middle East bureau and its Kyiv-based correspondent covering the war in Ukraine.

Sports, graphics and local reporting were sharply reduced, and the paper’s daily podcast, Post Reports, was suspended. On Thursday, hundreds of journalists and supporters gathered outside the Post’s downtown office in protest, calling the cuts a blow to public-interest journalism.

Former executive editor Marty Baron described the moment as “among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organisations.”

Lewis defended his record in his farewell note, saying “difficult decisions” were taken to secure the paper’s long-term future and protect its ability to publish “high-quality nonpartisan news”. But his tenure coincided with growing scrutiny of editorial independence at the Post.

Owner Jeff Bezos faced criticism for reining in the paper’s traditionally liberal editorial page and blocking an endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 US election. The move was widely seen as breaking the long-standing firewall between ownership and editorial decision-making.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, around 250,000 digital subscribers cancelled their subscriptions after the paper declined to endorse Harris. The Post reportedly lost about $100 million in 2024 as advertising and subscription revenues slid.

While the wider newspaper industry continues to battle declining print advertising and the pull of social media, some national titles have stabilised. Rivals such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have managed to build sustainable digital businesses, a turnaround that has so far eluded the Post despite its billionaire backing.

As Jeff D’Onofrio steps into the role, the challenge is stark, restore confidence inside the newsroom, win back readers who walked away, and prove that one of America’s most storied newspapers can still find its footing in a brutally competitive media landscape.