Describe Tisva’s journey till date?
Inspired by the concept of Tvisa (light) and Tattva (essence), Tisva was launched in April 2014 as the premium range of lighting products by Usha. While it initially focused on premium home decorative lighting, over a period of time it has grown to evolve into a complete lighting solutions brand. We have found that consumers are not only interested in buying just decorative products, and that the actual journey starts from the architectural lighting. I can confidently say that today, we have the one of the largest ranges in the entire industry in decorative, architectural, and premium utility products.
Tisva as a brand has grown multifold, having serviced more than 10,000 households across India. We have also witnessed a 10X increase in our ticket size in the past five years.
How evolved are the different marketing strategies that have worked for the brand?
The core of our business is ensuring that we offer the right consumer experience, and this has been the strength of our strategy. The decorative lighting and architectural lighting industry is still very unorganised, and there are players who sell products albeit with a limited shelf life of just about 6 months, so over a period of time, this create huge gaps for consumers. That is an issue Tisva, as a brand, aims to resolve and our founding philosophy. Ensuring that our consumers get the right products, we give them a 360* experience – this includes detailed lighting consulting, where the customer just has to give us the 2D drawings, as well as walking them through the entire process from consultation to free installations. We aim to offer end-to-end solutions to our consumers from pre-sales to post-sales. Additionally, we also keep three years of spare parts after two years of warranty, meaning the consumer is protected against any broken parts for five years. This becomes critical for consumers buying chandeliers as one damaged crystal/glass can ruin the entire chandelier.
On the architectural lighting front our marketing strategy has been going to the clients directly and with the help of professional architects, interior designers, and lighting consultants, who understand the technicalities of our products and therefore are able to explain how it works best for their clients. To put it succinctly, it is our pre-sales consumer experience along with experience within the stores and post sales service that’s made our customers our biggest advocates – their word of mouth is the best marketing we have. We currently have 14 stores, and very soon we’ll be opening the 15th store Kolkata. We feel word of mouth has been our marketing strategy.
How do innovations in design and technology help Tisva stay ahead in this niche and competitive market?
The lighting industry is similar to the fashion industry, especially decorative lights. The Tisva team is constantly on its toes to ensure we consistently forecast trends and bring to consumers the latest designs and technology in the lighting space. If I look at it, it was the introduction of LED that has spurred the acceleration of innovation in design as well as efficiency of the luminaire.
In decorative lighting we launch products that are technologically and aesthetically innovative on a regular basis – our latest being products made of Mitsubishi acrylic with microfluidic technology, which transmits more than 90% of the light through the surface, and its malleability allows for innovative and aesthetic designs. What we launched today are designs inspired by gliding birds, and those are inspired by the hat. It’s imperative to ensure that technology and design go hand in hand. Further, dimmability and tunability have been the center of our products, along with the interchangeability of bulbs, which give control to the consumer on how they want to use light and the applications of it.
When you talk about dimmability and tunability, it refers to our lights having the capability of mimicking natural light as it changes through the day, it’s all about human-centric lighting that is conducive to our health and eyes. We give our consumers very easy technology to control the dimmability so they can change colors as the sun moves from morning to evening from warm yellow, to cool white natural light and then again warm yellow as the day ends. This helps maintain a healthy circadian rhythm and protect the eyes as well. We have recently launched a range of anti-glare products, where the output of light is not compromised, but through innovative optics the glare can be reduced – and our products have reduced this by almost 50% and have a glare ratio of less than 10. Our new launches under Tisva’s signature series, are products that reflect the latest innovations in the lighting industry.
What are the future goalposts for Tisva?
Tisva’s long-term objective is to continue expanding and enhancing the customer experience. The result of our work with the consumers is essentially reflected in the numbers. Our relationship with architects, interior designers, and lighting consultants who have valued our offerings over the years, continues to grow stronger and wider. We hope to further our relationship with them by providing them with cutting-edge goods and services.
Further, with the industry evolving from 2D to 3D, consumers can now see how their entire home will look. We are working on AR and VR technology to offer and support both our customers as well as the architects, interior designers, and lighting consultants who work with us.
Is sustainability in the lighting industry the way forward or do you see it as a passing trend?
Over the past decade, significant progress has been made in the lighting industry, demonstrating that sustainability is here to stay. The efficiency of the 100-Watt filament bulb we used to have ten years ago has increased tenfold today. Today, a 10-Watt input produces a 100 Watt output, and efficiency continues to grow every day. As a result, we are now receiving products with efficiency levels that have increased from 10 to 100 to 110 to 120 to 140 and beyond.
LED lights have been a gamechanger and can result in significant cost savings. Along with the introduction of new designs, new innovations are happening in the field of LED lighting. I think there will be a huge shift towards LEDs in terms of sustainability. Also, as there is no mercury involved in their production as compared to old technologies like CFL, the disposal of LEDs is more eco-friendly vis-à-vis the disposal of CFL bulbs that was a huge nightmare.
