Sari Naris: These Women Have Found a Unique Way to Promote Their Brand and We are Loving it | Watch

The group's first dance video that went viral was on the song "kangna re, kangna re" from the 2005 film Paheli starring Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukherjee in the lead roles.

At a time when women are making new records every day, a group of childhood friends are going viral with their dance videos in ethnic and traditional wears. And, if you’re thinking this group of young women are promoting their dance skills, then you’re wrong. These women are actually bringing in a new trend of promoting their ethnic wear brand through their dance videos. The dance group is led by Lekhinee Desai, the co-founder of the company, The Indian Ethnic Co.

Lekhinee along with her childhood friends Apurva Dani, Charvi Budhdeo and sister Twaraa Desai are all trained in classical Odissi dance forms and when Lekhinee decided to take up the dance marketing form to promote their brand, the group of women didn’t have to put much effort, they just came together and put up the show.

Speaking to India.com about collaborating dance with marketing, Lekhinee said, “As a brand we did not want to take any models for promoting our clothing wear, because our brand believes in promoting real women and we want the relativity factor to be there. When we began the business, we were wondering how do we make our mark in the market as there are so many people selling sarees online. And, that is when the idea of mixing our talent of dance and the sarees we sell came up and we just happened to make a small dance video and posted it on Instagram and it got over one million views. From, then onwards the marketing strategy we follow is that whenever we launch any new craft or collection we showcase it through our dance.”

On being asked who came up with the idea of promoting their products through dance videos, Lekhinee said, “The idea was actually my father’s. He has always been pushing us and encouraged us saying that you should use a very interesting way to promote the products because every brand does not have real people working for them. They always hire models, and one cannot expect models to dance like trained dancers. So, he was keen that me and my childhood friends who were modelling for the products then can do the dance videos too and promote it that way.”

“But back then in 2016-2018, we were just a small start-up, we did not have enough space in the house for the dance videos with a proper background. And, it was only during the COVID-19 lockdown, when we got a studio made and it was a good time as that is when Instagram launched their Reels video feature on its platform. Then, the 30-second video really worked well for our brand, because it was not too long, so it didn’t look a dance performance and it was enough time to showcase our products with dance. It all just culminated and worked out perfectly for us during October last year. And, when our reel went viral, our saree sales also went up,” added Lekhinee.

The group’s first dance video that went viral was on the song “kangna re, kangna re” from the 2005 film Paheli starring Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukherjee in the lead roles.

 

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Speaking further about how and when they manage time to practice the dance for promotions, Lekhinee said, “We have been dancing for so many years that it doesn’t take much time for us. We just come together, practice for a couple of hours and shoot 3-4 videos a day. We have been trained together from our childhood and we are inherently coordinated and the syncing comes very naturally.”

Adding about their future promotional ideas now that they are going viral on social media, Lekhinee said, “Our brand’s page had 182 K followers on Instagram in November and now we are near to 350 K followers, so our dance videos have really helped us reach a new set of audience. So we are definitely going to continue the format of showcasing our products through these short dance videos.”

 

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The company was founded in 2016 by an all women army, mostly by Lekhinee’s mother Hetal Desai who is the founder and acts as the Chief Designer while Lekhinee manages the marketing team. The company was founded as a passion project from a bedroom in the family home to having multiple offices, ability to ship worldwide and an annual turnover of close to a million dollars.

The company seeks to bring the timeless culture of the Indian handmade clothing and their main objective is to display and make accessible our rich, vivid and timeless collection of the Indian handicrafts from the hinterlands of India and giving it a contemporary twist. The brand also believes in celebrating real beauty, real women and hence they always showcase their products through real women encompassing all body types.

 

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Hereby, on the occasion of this International Women’s Day, we believe this story of a group of women coming forward to make a mark in this world will inspire many to pursue their passion.