Tata Steel Aashiyana

Building More Than Homes: A Tata Aashiyana Case Study

Founded in 1907, Tata Steel has played a tremendous role in the nation’s development as a whole. They’ve championed the brand on the pillars of trust, a founding trait that Tata has taken to all its ventures.

Be it technology, automotive, consumer goods, or the energy sector, Tata has always sought to build the nation by creating value for all, equally. This was the exact sentiment that Tata Steel wanted to bring within the home-building solutions industry when they recognised the opportunity to unify their extensive presence and drive cross-selling across its 12 brands under a single roof, and calling it Aashiyana.

Understanding The Landscape

However, the landscape that Tata Steel wanted to innovate in had its own challenges. 

• With over 1.5 lac stores, the industry was dominated by ‘mom & pop’ stores. And since their clientele was primarily contractors, they had a predominantly transactional relationship.
• Most of the outlets were MBOs, with their size varying between 200-3000 sq.ft.
• Company-owned experience centres were popular in adjacent industries like furniture, tiles, sanitary, and furnishing, but not so much within the home-building sector
• The consistency of elements across stores, coupled with variance in identity, names and elements, led to a subpar brand recall.

Thus, Tata Steel tasked D’Art Design to navigate through the above-mentioned challenges and develop Aashiyana’s retail identity that speaks to both of its target consumers - A homeowner/consumer who is excited to create their own space, and the contractor.

Principle Of Identity

Keeping ‘Thinking Constructive And Beautiful’ as the basis of their design, D’Art wanted to position Aashiyana as an overarching solution to every stage that the consumer might find themselves in their home-building journey, and divided the store into 2 distinct sections, namely Home Building and Home Furnishing, signifying the actual transition of the journey.

Crafting A Cohesive Journey

The design had to do the heavy lifting of connecting the two distinct stages, and D’Art did so by incorporating the essence of ‘rough’ and ‘construction’, and marrying it with ‘finish’ and ‘home’.

As a capital ‘A’ could also be creatively shown as a home’s sloping roof, we took it as the basis of the store’s facade motifs and used it in a repeating pattern to develop a distinct corporate identity. This motif was also carried to other elements of the store, like the door handles, to further strengthen Aashiyana’s identity.

Right behind the glass doors, D’Art built the ‘Home Building’ section by showcasing an under-construction model, with all the materials and tools used in its construction, to attract the customer lingering outside the store, while also informing them about the tools and materials required in the process.

As curious customers enter the store, they’re greeted by an exploded view of a house with a detailed explanation of all the materials used as inspiration, with a material display area designed with TMT rods. This boosted sales as customers were given the ability to touch-and-feel, before committing to a purchase.

As the customers walk beyond the ‘Home Building’, they enter the ‘Home Furnishing’ section, which was clearly segmented by using elevated wooden flooring. We used the same ‘Inspire-first’ philosophy by having a VM of a fully furnished room with an attached balcony, all referring to Aashiyana’s range of decor.