Brands
Artimas Fashions assigns 12-15% marketing spend for Virat Kohli’s innerwear range one8
MUMBAI: Virat Kohli is not only the number 1 cricket sportsperson in the world but also a dynamic youth icon whose personality allures millions of youngsters across the world. He is known for his determination, rigour, and the undying zest towards achieving success. Embodying the same facets of his personality, the cricketer, in association with Artimas Fashions, recently launched the innerwear collection of his brand one8-conceptualised by Cornerstone.
A subsidiary of Lux Industries Ltd, Artimas Fashions Pvt Ltd is the official licensee for cricketer Kohli’s one8 innerwear collection and is working diligently to place this newest offering from the one8 basket as the preferred choice of the millennial population.
Its positioning as a functional brand offering ‘comfort to the restless’ is going to be the hook holding the interest of the target consumer group who will feel a huge connection with the messaging, Artimas Fashions Pvt Ltd MD Nishchal Puri tells Indiantelevision.com.
Speaking about the brand, he says, “one8 has been conceptualised by Virat (Kohli) and his team. When we were approached for the innerwear collection, we realised, with our experience in the industry, that there is a huge gap in the market. While it is a Rs 15,000 crore market, the premium segment is just Rs 5,200 crore. So, when we were conceptualising and deliberating (on marketing strategies), we found a phenomenal opportunity because with Virat onboard, the brand has great scope to develop connectivity with the right target consumer group.”
He says that the brand is working towards rekindling and rejuvenating the innerwear market. “We have developed a great range and it is targeted at mid to premium price points. We are not a super premium brand because we want the comfort to reach as many consumers as possible.”
The brand has currently been launched on e-commerce platforms and Puri is expecting that they will be able to take it to offline retail stores by the first quarter of the next year. He reveals that his team along with Virat’s team from Cornerstone is planning a lot of activities for the online as well as the offline activation of the brand. They have started with the launch of a high-quality video, featuring Virat Kohli, on digital platforms.
“We initially, intend to use it (the brand video) on digital and then take it to cinemas before launching it on television in the next couple of quarters. The idea is when we launch on television, we should be recognised by as many people as possible. So, we are trying to use a mix of all these three media to reach the maximum of the target consumer base,” he shares.
Shedding light on the marketing budgets that they are working with, Puri reveals that they have started with 8 per cent of the budget initially and will be cumulatively spending 12-15 per cent in terms of marketing engagement. “We have a substantial amount of investment that goes in in-store publicity. Also, we are marketing across multiple platforms. So, including all of this, the ATL-BTL spends combined, we will be spending some 12-15 per cent on the innerwear range.”
He added that they will be taking the brand to the Middle Eastern market as well and are planning some consumer integration activities with Kohli for the same.
With this new product range, Artimas Fashions wants one8, which is in the third year of its inception, to touch the Rs 100 crore revenue mark.
Brands
Estée Lauder to shed 10,000 jobs as new boss bets on digital shift
The cosmetics giant raises its profit outlook but stays silent on a possible merger with Spain’s Puig, as job cuts deepen and a three-year sales slump weighs on the turnaround
NEW YORK: Stéphane de La Faverie is not done cutting. Estée Lauder announced on Friday that it plans to eliminate as many as 3,000 additional jobs, taking its total redundancy programme to as many as 10,000 roles, up from a previous target of 7,000 announced a year ago. The company, which owns La Mer, The Ordinary, Tom Ford, and Aveda, employs roughly 57,000 people worldwide. The mathematics of what is now being contemplated is stark.
The fresh round of cuts is expected to generate a further $200 million in savings, bringing the total annual savings from the programme to as much as $1.2 billion before taxes. That money, De La Faverie has made clear, will be ploughed back into the turnaround.
A CEO in a hurry
De La Faverie, who took the helm in January 2025, inherited a company that had endured three consecutive years of annual sales declines. His response has been to move fast and cut deep. A significant portion of the latest redundancies reflects his push to reduce headcount at US department stores, long a cornerstone of Estée Lauder’s distribution model but now a channel in structural decline. In their place, he is accelerating the shift toward faster-growing online platforms, including Amazon.com and TikTok Shop, a pivot that is reshaping not just where Estée Lauder sells but how it thinks about its customers.
The numbers are moving in the right direction
Despite the pain, there are signs the medicine is working. Estée Lauder raised its profit outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year, guiding for adjusted earnings per share in the range of $2.35 to $2.45, above analyst estimates and a notable step up from the $2.05 to $2.25 range it had guided for in February. Organic net sales growth is expected to come in at 3 per cent, the company said, at the high end of the range it set out in February.
The share price tells a mixed story. After De La Faverie took charge, the stock surged nearly 60 per cent, buoyed by investor optimism that a longtime company insider could finally arrest the decline. But 2026 has been rougher: the shares have fallen 27 per cent this year, weighed down by disappointing February results and the overhang of unresolved merger talks with Spanish beauty giant Puig Brands SA. The company gave no additional details about those discussions on Friday, leaving the market to guess.
Silence on Puig
The proposed tie-up with Puig remains the most consequential unknown hanging over Estée Lauder. A deal with the Barcelona-based group, which owns brands including Carolina Herrera and Rabanne, would reshape the global luxury beauty landscape. But with nothing new to say and a turnaround still very much in progress, De La Faverie is asking investors to trust the process.
Three years of sales declines, 10,000 job cuts, and a merger that may or may not happen. At Estée Lauder, the overhaul has barely started.
