How Brand-designer Collaborations Are Elevating Customer Experiences

Designers such as Manish Malhotra, Sabyasachi and more have been collaborating with several brands across categories to release their line of product offerings, as well as for various events and experiential marketing tactics to create immersive and memorable experiences that engage audiences on a deeper level. By combining creative vision with strategic branding, these partnerships craft unique environments that captivate and inspire. Designers bring a fresh perspective, innovative concepts, and an artistic touch, enhancing the brand’s message and identity.

Everything Experiential talks to industry experts who shed more light on this phenomenon.

The overhaul of designer-brand collabs

Experiential marketing in India has seen an overhaul of brand and designer collabs over time – it has seen an upsurge.

Adrit Mishra, COO, Tata Starbucks understands that there has been an increasing demand for personalised and customised experiences, which stems from the changing preferences and demands of the ever-evolving millennial and GenZ audiences. 

“Innovation is at the cornerstone of our business at Tata Starbucks, and we have always focused on bringing newer offerings to our consumers that provide a distinct and engaging experience,” he emphasises.

Needless to say, experiential marketing is a unique arm of marketing that focuses on engaging consumers through immersive experiences to create memorable interactions, that evoke emotions and build lasting connections between brands and consumers. This approach allows consumers to participate in the overall brand story. 

When it comes to experiential marketing in interior design, brands such as Bonito Designs need to nudge the customers sensorially and artistically and engage them through interactive events and installations, involving them in the design process for high involvement and lasting satisfaction; very much on the lines of what the brand is trying to achieve currently at each of its excellence centres across Mumbai and Bengaluru. 

Jugjot Singh Wasson, Chief Marketing Officer, Bonito Designs elaborates, “Our collaboration with Gauri Khan and Manish Malhotra as celebrity designers, and not just brand ambassadors set us apart from the rest of the ID industry. Marrying celebrity home designs with tailored consumer needs is what creates the experiential difference.”

The overall consumer experience

Brand collaborations with celebrity designers can significantly enhance the overall consumer experience by bringing together expertise and creativity. These collaborations offer uniquely curated products that can't be found elsewhere, coupled with enhanced design aesthetics and compelling storytelling opportunities for each of its consumers. 

Mishra outlines, “Through the collaborations we have brought forward, our aim is to tap into newer audiences, bringing them exactly what they are looking for. Right from leveraging pop culture moments to tapping into glamour and lifestyle, we have always looked at bringing forth offerings that cater to relevant consumer segments.”

At Bonito Designs, the collaboration with Gauri Khan and Manish Malhotra has been instrumental in building a stronger emotional connection with the audience by associating the brand with the creativity and prestige of these high-profile celebrity designers. 

“Here, customers can visualise and interact with celebrity-inspired spaces, and work around with handpicked signature materials and textures, thereby enhancing the overall consumer journey. 

At Bonito Designs, we value this form of experiential marketing as a key differentiator for our brand. This shift is truly in line with the evolving expectations of consumers which underscores the growing importance of delivering personalized and high-engagement experiences that go beyond traditional marketing methods,” brings out Wasson.

Making brand-designer collabs fruitful

By keeping some points in mind, brand-designer collaborations can create impactful and memorable experiences that drive engagement and build long-term brand salience. 

Over the years, Tata Starbucks has collaborated with many global brands to bring forth a line of collectables to make more accessible the realms of international style and fashion. Through its collaborations, the brand has built relevance in pop culture, may it be Disney or Black Pink. Last year for International Coffee Week it also launched the Master Brewer Program to help coffee enthusiasts perfect their coffee skills offering a hands-on, sensory experience behind the art of coffee. It is an experiential coffee experience in the Tata Starbucks stores for aspiring baristas, coffee connoisseurs, or anyone who loves coffee.

In India, Tata Starbucks brought its first designer merchandise collaboration with Sabyasachi in 2022 intending to introduce a range of limited-edition merchandise that would provide an at-home/on-the-go Starbucks coffee experience. The collaboration supported ‘Educate Girls’—a non-profit organisation that mobilises communities to promote education for girls in India’s rural areas. More recently, its collaboration with Manish Malhotra was rooted in elevating everyday moments of the coffee-drinking experience, tailored to consumers through the lens of the ace couturier’s signature craftsmanship. 

“We wanted to offer an unparalleled experience for coffee, art, design and fashion enthusiasts that would bring together the uniqueness of both brands,” Mishra underscores.

Wasson understands that this is about factors such as authentic alignment, innovative experiences, customer-benefit analysis, and transparency and communication.

It needs to be ensured that the brand and designer share a common vision and aligned values – wherein the collaboration should feel natural and authentic to resonate with the target audience.

“At Bonito Designs, our excellence centres exemplify experiences by allowing customers to step into fully manifested design spaces; like our actual material mood boards with curated items on display like signature wallpapers, limited-edition laminates, or the fact that we boast of India’s Biggest Material Libraries with thousands of products to choose from. All of these bring in the uniqueness that consumers of today demand from brands,” he says.

Understanding that each consumer brings in his/her own needs and expectations, the celeb designs of Bonito Designs cater to the variety which modern-day consumers require for their aesthetic needs. At the same time, personalised interactions, and collaborative design solutions with our in-house celebrity design expert team enhance consumer satisfaction and loyalty. 

“We aim to maintain clear communication between the brand, designer, and customers in terms of scope of work, budgets, timelines, executions, etc. Systemic journey mapping through technology allows for two-way communication, ensuring ease of doing interior designs with us,” Wasson adds.

Consumer expectations – keeping them glued

Consumers of today are more conscious about what they choose. They prefer personality-driven choices over commoditised ones and hence gravitate towards branded products and services. While fashion, lifestyle, food, retail and other industries have seen consumer preferences shifting towards brands in the past few decades, India has seen a revolution in branded real estate post-Covid wherein we see that the top branded players enjoying the lion’s share, top-of-the-mind recall and ubiquitous brand loyalty and trust.

Mishra states, “While collaborating with designers or brands, our consistent efforts are to bring forth merchandise that is true to the values of both brands. Every detail on each of our merchandise is curated with utmost attention, ensuring that every touchpoint enhances the overall customer experience. Through our future partnerships, we aim to continue bringing elevated moments for our consumers.”

Being one of India’s leading branded interior design services for branded homes, for Bonito Designs it means that all the modern-day wants of the brand-conscious consumers are met with equal aplomb.

Banking on exclusivity, customisation and personalisation, and with an array of 12,000+ products, Bonito Designs brings in millions of customisations, while its 300+ in-house designers work immaculately with the customers to bring in personalisation in every space. 

Consumers focus on quality and performance and want assurance that their investments are worthwhile, hence the brand follows a no-compromise policy, manifested through Bonito Designs’ 400+ checks and 7 Quality Tests on every product it engineers. 

With its immersive excellence centres, Bonito Designs creates engaging experiences, giving a 360-tour to the consumer before he or she chooses to be associated with the brand. Through its proprietary design software, what consumers see in terms of design is what they get in terms of a home. 

Consumers prefer brands where technology solves the biggest service and experiential challenges. For this reason, the Bonito app integrates the customer journey into one place and is a one-stop tech-service solution.

Wasson highlights, “Consumers today, unlike 10 years back, seek an emotional connection with both the brand and the designer, which we have fostered through storytelling, brand authenticity, and consistent engagement that we harness as an organisation.”

Stating the obvious, consumers are looking for a personal, customised and premium touch to the brands that they associate with and also with the experiential activities that in turn follow. Whether it's brand-designer collabs on the international front or in India. With associations such as Manish Malhotra tying up with The Good Glamm Group, Tata Starbucks and Bonito Designs (to name a few), Sabyasachi tying up with Tata Starbucks and Asian Paints, Tarun Tahiliani coming together with Tanishq for their jewellery collection Rivaah, and many more of such partnerships, it is clear that this trend is not seeming to fade away and will only intensify, further.

Neha Kalra

BW Reporters She is the Senior Editorial Lead at Businessworld and majorly covers pieces on advertising, marketing, branding and experiential marketing. She writes closely for BW Marketing World and Everything Experiential.