myTrident is the premium home furnishing brand by Trident Group established in 2014. The flagship brand specializes in luxurious and premium home furnishing and caters to all segments including luxury, premium, and everyday. The company offers a range of exquisite products including bed sheets, towels, luxury rugs, bathrobes and much more.
myTrident is all set to expand in tier 1 and 2 cities across India. Currently, the brand is established in more than 3,000 retail locations throughout India and aims to expand to 4,500 by the end of the next fiscal year. myTrident is also set to open 50 EBOs across the country this year.
In a freewheeling chat with IMAGES Business of Fashion’s Kajal Ahuja, Rajneesh Bhatia, CEO, myTrident, gave his insights into the growth of the brand since its inception in 2014.
Interview
So myTrident as a brand is at a very nascent stage and we're still evolving. The market is huge and the potential for someone to come and build a brand is humongous. Right now, if you go to a home furnishing shop, you would see a customer come in and ask for a bed sheet or a towel saying, “Please give me a bedsheet with a good print.” She is asking for something nice but the brand is missing. So I think all the good organizations which are trying to elude customers with a nice towel or sheet have a potential to actually go the branded way.
We, too, have typically been a B2B company. I think the journey is young, a 6-7 year old journey and COVID gave us a stronger push when people were at home and shopping online. The last two years have been transformational and I think we were flirting with the market before but now we've got married to the market. We feel that we have a potential to reach every household and that's why we say “ghar ghar me Trident” (Trident in every household).
I think there is always a struggle and the struggle for a brand is that everyone wants to be a champagne and come at the price of a beer. I think we have cracked the code to an extent because we are fitting into the affordable luxury zone and that's why we say we are ‘luxury finds home’.
One thing which becomes synonymous with Trident is quality, so people don't have to worry. I think we have cracked the code because we never have to tell or talk about our quality. It is given. We don't have to talk about our designs either. So we have to look at other metrics- What else are we bringing along with the product? Do our products have an aroma finishing? Are they antimicrobial? Do they have any other USP? So I think we have been able to provide quality at a substantially lower price, making our vision of reaching out to every household very true.
Back when I was little, this ad was very prevalent- “hum do humare do.” Whenever we saw this ad, it was always assumed that it meant, wife, husband and their two kids. With myTrident, we have recreated the same ad in the sense that it could also mean, husband, wife, and two towels for hygiene. I think that is the way to go.
So, the first thing, obviously a dream for any brand is, to be easily recognised by the masses. This hurts me a lot when I give somebody my card and I have to explain to people about what myTrident does. So brand evolution is that the day people see this ‘heart’(referring to the logo of myTrident), they will know which brand it is. It means you have trod that journey.
So the first goal for us is brand identity- that people love this brand so much that when someone goes into a shop to buy a bedsheet with a good print, they instead ask if something new has come from myTrident. So that journey is painful and long and that is what we are treading.
So our vision is short, but for the next three years we want to double every year. And this year maybe we did not hit the target, we did not double, but I am happy that we are close to that number.
And as a team, we have doubled. I am hopeful that our journey of doubling every year in terms of revenue in the country will keep on happening. We will keep on doubling the number of outlets. Another dream or vision of mine is that our product should be available online within 48 hours; and if you have to drive out, it should be available within 3 kilometers.
First thing for any brand is passion, and more than that infectious passion. Our team is very passionate about what they do. If I go to a hotel room, the first thing I do is check if they have used myTrident’s towels or not. I think the differentiation is, we feel the market is very big and somebody is going to reach every household. So what is differentiating us, what is bringing all of us together is ONE vision, one aim to actually be passionate and reach out to every home.
And we have an added plus- we have our very strong manufacturing base which is backed by very high end quality. There are many other brands in the market but they struggle with quality, packaging, or talent. The three things that we have sorted are talent from the best colleges of India, very strong quality backed by the best machinery in the world and wonderful packaging and designs. And the fourth thing is that we are humble and ever evolving because we genuinely feel that whatever we are doing right now, we can do so much better than that. So we are ever evolving, ever learning. Our learning continues and that is keeping us taking one step at a time.
We are very, very excited to be associated with Shivan & Narresh. The first time we met the team, our hearts started beating and we were just waiting for this association to happen because there was, we could feel that creative element, that creative side of the curation of the collections.
It is very differentiating. I think what keeps you unique or keeps you different is that you break the clutter and you bring something new. So Shivan & Narresh have that freshness. Usually it was considered that anything which is elite must be pastel, otherwise it won’t be considered sophisticated. Shivan & Narresh have proven that it is not the case with our collaboration on a new capsule collection. That is what differentiates them- that even color can be very sophisticated.
Once we have started reaching homes through multi-brand outlets, now is the time to create exclusive outlets and our plan for the coming year is to again make a humble start and have 50 outlets across India which actually stand out. And now we have a backing, we have Shivan and Narresh. So I think together we will very soon have fascinating stores for people to visit and enjoy a wonderful shopping experience.
