Building Lohalive: Branding a Digital Steel Marketplace

Lohalive wasn't trying to build another steel company. It was trying to change how the steel industry buys and sells.

Founded by industry veteran Mr. Chirag Shah, Lohalive set out to modernise iron and steel trading through a technology-first marketplace connecting manufacturers, traders, stockists, suppliers and buyers.

The vision was ambitious: build a digital ecosystem for one of India's most traditional industries.

The challenge was equally significant. How do you get an industry built around relationships, phone calls and offline negotiations to understand, trust and adopt a digital marketplace?

That became the focus of the engagement.

Building Trust in a Traditional Industry

Industrial marketplaces don't grow through creative campaigns alone. They grow when businesses understand the platform, see its value and develop enough confidence to use it.

Lohalive needed to communicate a new way of buying and selling steel to businesses that already had established ways of working.

The work focused on building a connected communication system around the platform, making a complex industrial marketplace easier to understand, engage with and remember.

The objective was not simply to attract attention. It was to build familiarity, explain the product and support digital adoption.

Creating a Unified Digital Brand

Lohalive served multiple audiences across the iron and steel ecosystem, including manufacturers, traders, suppliers, stockists and buyers.

Each audience interacted with the platform differently, but the brand needed to remain consistent across every customer touchpoint.

The work covered:

• Social media communication

• Website banners and promotional campaigns

• App notifications

• WhatsApp marketing

• Digital campaign creatives

• Product messaging

• Landing page communication

• Promotional design assets

• Customer engagement communication

• Brand consistency across digital channels

The focus was not on creating isolated marketing assets.

It was on making every interaction communicate the same business clearly.

Making the Product Easier to Understand

Lohalive wasn't simply promoting steel products. It was introducing a different way of buying and selling them.

The platform brought together capabilities including real-time steel pricing, live product availability, digital ordering, order tracking, quality assurance, assured payment, interactive market analytics, Buy on Credit and bulk trading profiles.

Rather than simply listing features, the communication focused on translating those capabilities into practical value for businesses.

The goal was to make the technology easier to understand and the proposition easier to act on.

Connecting the Customer Journey

A potential customer could discover Lohalive through social media, encounter a campaign on the website, receive a WhatsApp communication, interact with an app notification and eventually place an order through the platform.

Each touchpoint had a role to play.

Social Media → Website → Campaign → WhatsApp → App → Customer

The work focused on creating consistency across these interactions so the brand felt connected regardless of where a customer entered the ecosystem.

Campaigns Built Around Commercial Activity

Brand communication also had to support real commercial activity.

One coordinated seven-day campaign resulted in more than 2,000 tons sold, with order value exceeding ₹15 Cr. The campaign involved more than 100 creative assets and communication across digital channels, WhatsApp and app notifications.

The objective was not to separate branding from performance.

It was to make the brand and the commercial objective work together.

Supporting a Period of Business Growth

During the engagement, Lohalive experienced a significant period of business expansion.

The business reported turnover moving from approximately ₹300 Cr in 2024-25 to ₹585 Cr in H1 2025-26.

Lohalive also publicly communicated:

₹585 Cr

Worth of 1 lakh+ tons of iron & steel products sold

₹85+ Cr

Worth of goods moved across India in October

16,500+ tons

Orders received in October

2,500+ buyers

Buyers publicly communicated by Lohalive

These milestones represent the combined efforts of Lohalive's leadership, sales, operations, technology and marketing teams.

VISIOON8's role was focused on the brand and communication ecosystem supporting the business during this period.

Driving Digital Adoption

The growth was not only commercial. It was also behavioural.

During the documented engagement period, app downloads grew from approximately 500 to 2,000+ in two months.

The increase reflected growing adoption of Lohalive's digital platform among businesses exploring a more modern approach to steel trading.

The Outcome

The engagement helped Lohalive build a stronger and more consistent digital communication ecosystem during a period of significant growth.

The work connected:

Business → Positioning → Digital Brand → Marketing → Customer Engagement

The result was not simply a collection of social media posts, banners and campaigns.

It was a connected communication system designed to help a traditional industry understand, trust and engage with a digital marketplace.

What This Project Taught Me

Lohalive reinforced an important lesson.

Digital transformation isn't only about building better technology. It's about helping people change behaviour.

Traditional industries don't adopt new platforms simply because they look modern.

They adopt them when the value is clear, the experience feels trustworthy and the communication gives them enough confidence to try something different.

In an industrial business, branding isn't decoration.

It is part of how the market understands the business.

Founder Reflection

"Some of the most rewarding branding projects happen in industries where branding is often overlooked. Lohalive showed me that even in B2B industrial markets, trust is built through consistent communication. When every customer touchpoint reinforces the same message, technology becomes easier to understand and businesses become easier to believe in."

Cyrus Mahyavanshi
Founder, VISIOON8

Public Evidence

Selected client-published milestones showing the commercial activity, campaign performance and adoption of the Lohalive platform.

₹585 Cr / 1 lakh+ tons sold

₹85+ Cr worth of goods moved across India

2,500+ buyers

Campaign results / ₹15+ Cr order value