POOJA GARMENTS
After coming at home from a tiring job, she was in no mood to open her laptop and start surfing about startups. A hard working and a determined girl in her early 20s was performing astonishingly
at her first job as a Consultant at one of the leading Consulting Company. She was living in a 2-BHK flat with her roommate, rocking at the office on the five working days, and taking the
chills of the city Bangalore on the weekend. A fun loving and a cheerful girl who was living a stable life was not satisfied. The weekend is the only good day in the whole week for her when she can
spend time on shopping, exploring the city more, living the life in her own little ways. She didn’t have to follow orders from her boss and work day and night to meet the deadlines.
Born in 1997, Pooja Aggarwal was a simple yet cheerful girl. She was very shy and introvert since her childhood. Having a great academic background, she didn’t have much friends. As she grew,
she enhanced herself in every little possible way. She started talking to people, liked making friends, hanging out with them, shopping, partying and spend good time. With a full support from her
family, she was never restricted to anything. She was a confident girl with an optimistic nature who was living her life to the fullest. In 2016, she completed her Graduation in Computer Science but before that only she realised, she does not see herself as a coder sitting in front of a computer for long hours in the coming 5 years, rather preferred going for Masters of Business Administration and getting the business exposure. She had a calm nature and a sharp acumen needed for business. The only thing constant in her life since always was her love for fashion. She was a total fashionista and loved exploring on-going trends in clothing, footwears and other accessories. You can call her shopaholic, but she was more than that. During her 2 years of MBA, she also did an online course on Fashion Technology from XYZ University,New York. She also won the Fashion contest “Vogue” organised in her college fest. She always relate herself to “Rachel on FRIENDS: the style icon for everyone”. She was a go-to- person for any of her friends or family whoever needed clothing suggestions. Even during her last semester of college, she chose a Project on Ethnic wear industry and achieved success on it. She always saw herself doing a Fashion related job in future. She didn’t have prior working experience and was skeptical about the environment of such industry, so decided to go for the job she had in her hand and became a Consultant. After switching the jobs in last 3 years, she was now a Brand Manager in one of the top Apparel Company and had acquired good leadership and team skills. But fed up of her 12 hours long job routine, she decided she couldn’t continue her life like this. Every day her dream of starting a Clothing brand disturbed her, every time she went for shopping on weekend she felt the urge of quitting her job and work on her dream project.Two days before Holi, she booked her ticket for Delhi and went home for the festival of Holi. Sh
had very few clothes at home and hardly anything ethnic like a kurti or some ethnic top for such festival, but after making several efforts she somehow managed with a festive long skirt and a plain
black off shoulder western top which went well with the black and golden skirt and made the look perfect for the festival. That made her realize that ethnic isn’t about wearing kurti-legging or salwar
kameez or saree or lehenga on festivals, its more about the feel you get on carrying that attire, thatneeds to be ethnic. It could be a kurti with your daily rugged plain jeans, a kurta with a palazzo, an
off-shoulder or a crop top with a long skirt. That much needed ethnic look can be complemented with jhumkas (earrings). The most ethnic brands these days provides with either full occasional attiresor the college type kurtis, there is nothing more. That lead to her decision of opening a Westo-Indianbrand store, which will provide simple and comfortable clothes to women, girls and even a baby girlthat can make her feel ethnic, hence introducing comfy Westo-Indian look.Before leaving for Bangalore, she met an old college friend who she got to know is also fed up of her
job life and wants to do a startup rather. Her friend, Sanchita used to be the topper of the batch. Six years elder to her, she was an all-rounder in Finance and Operations. So they met at a café in Delhi where Pooja discussed her whole plan about starting the Westo-Indian store with her. Well, Sanchita agreed.
After the meeting, they stayed in touch and continued their planning about the store. TThey talked with many women around them, took their opinions into consideration, conducted surveys and
observed that people believe ethnic wear is only for special occasions like lehengas on marriage or Kurtis or traditional dresses for other family functions, etc whereas western designs like short dresses, jeans, top, etc are for college, office parties, or birthday parties. All the apparel brands provide attires for functions like marriages, festivals (that too either when you are going somewhere or you belong toadult generation), because even these days, children especially young generation feel lazy to go tofamily places and dress up accordingly. They prefer spending the day alone or with their friends wearing normal ,i.e. not-so-expensive clothes. So in the market, there is a need recognised for the general day to day wear, for such a design that can incorporate all of the above requirements.
They decided that their store (which they named as POOJA GARMENTS then) will cater to the needs of a middle-income family, where girls or women can wear even simple and comfortable clothes
that can make them feel ethnic and give them the stylish ethnic look. It will target all women, girlsand even a baby girl( as the parents nowadays are more excited to buy their new born babies good and comfortable clothes be it for home or for other family functions) at affordable prices, that can beavailable everywhere; in local stores, in multi-brand stores, in malls, along with its online presence. Well, that was not enough. There was something more needed in this market. It started with a unique offering unlike any other brand, to provide one with different ethnic styles, and also giving the customera chance to incorporate their particular design, or a particular colour for a specific look. From the data collected, they analysed that women, as a customer have a habit of asking for more variety; more colours, more styles, hence more options to choose from. Even when some like an item, they wish to see more colour variants, or even the same colour with a little different design like the same ethnic top with bell or frilled or one of their own designed sleeve, or having same skirt with netted flare, or modification in the fabric or some own design specifications. Also one fine day, Pooja went to some ethnic store to gather more knowledge on the fabric of cloth available along with their discounted prices. In one of the store, a customer came asking for “Solid White Low Long Blouse” (as shown in Exhibit I) to match with her dress, but what she could find was a similar dress in other colours (green, black and red) and that too with long normal sleeves. She tried the item and also liked it but still she wasn’t satisfied with it because it didn’t match her requirement, and wouldn’t fit with the skirt she had. Because of that incident, the idea emerged that even if there are enormous products in front of a customer, what one looks for is a slighter different item, to avoid the commonality among people andalso to meet the requirements of a specific event. So then they figured out that a designer should be present in our store who will note the preferences and specifications of customers in the items theyliked and get it done in a week’s time.
POOJA GARMENTS introduced semi-designer work along with the already presented variety. If the customer desires some change in the present item, she gets the opportunity to get it noted to the
present designer and the piece will get delivered to her home by a maximum time period of 1 week. For the customers who need the clothes urgently, they get to choose from the already present fresh arrivals while the ones who need it for some specific occasions and can wait for a week long, get their designed product shipped at home.After 6 months of meeting, the plan was finalised. Next step was arranging investments, After 6 months of meeting, the plan was finalised. Next step was arranging investments, choosing location for the store, hiring staff, dealing with manufacturers, transporting the choosing location for the store, hiring staff, dealing with manufacturers, transporting the items, marketing and selling them. items, marketing and selling them.
Sanchita, from her previous job as a Financial Accountant had experience in accounts and books, soshe prepared the budget plan incorporating all investments needed and expected profit/loss for comingyears. They both had some savings from their jobs, with that amount along with some borrowed amount from family and a small loan, they made investmentsThey rented a small space near the residential area of Bangalore and opened a store over there. Theyhired a bunch of employees through HR Consultancies. They had a common friend Jyoti, from National Institute of Fashion Technology who could work for some limited hours as the designer and note and work on the design specifications and modification choices of customers. She had a varied experience in the field and was currently doing job in evening shift (because of abroad clients). In the very beginning, around 30 designs were kept at the store. The ads were printed in newspaper,social media sites, blogs, fashion websites, and went through word of mouth communication withfamily and friends. Paid ads were also used. Gradually, customers started coming. Not all were verysatisfied with the quantity and variety of products present, but many of them gave order to be shipped to their home.
MARKETING THEORY
According to the Marketing Funnel Theory, the customer goes through a long path from Awareness to Loyalty. It is the journey from creating awareness about your firm and products, creating interest for it in minds of people and developing relationship so as to consider it before purchasing and can count it in their Choice set, to convert the prospect into a loyal customer who attracts more customers. A firm always aims to retain its loyal customers and the ones with high Lifetime Value by offering new exciting offers and discount coupons. This journey of strangers becoming acquaintances to friends to fans is long and changes with many factors like from the experience they get; i.e. the service provided to them, how they connect to your firm rationally or emotionally, reviews or word of mouth communications they receive and spread about the firm. It also depends on the reason for which the customer is entering your firm and the level of trade-off between customisation and standardisation they are provided with.
Factors like Image, Level of involvement, Perceived risk, Advertising, Price and Outlet size and location play major role in the process to decide for whom are you buying the product.
For Market Planning, it is important to figure out the personality traits ,i.e. the ways in which an individual differs from one another. On the basis of this approach, we get a quantitative measure of
how personality traits affect Consumer Behaviour during Purchase Process and also helps to summarise what does a consumer think while choosing a brand. As each brand has a different image in minds of consumer, it could be because of the event where it has sponsored or the advertisements given by that brand or by the brand ambassadors of that particular brand, hence by humanising a brand. It also develops certain values from the social environment or by the personal surroundings of the consumer that creates beliefs, be it positive or negative about the brand. This makes the consumer go from Awareness set to Consideration set to Choice set to Decision set.In a large market of women, it isn’t an easy task to bring a new brand into existence. How should the
market be segmented such that it is
• Measurable for variables like size, value and purchasing power ,
• Substantial and profitable enough to serve,
• Accessible for effective reach to customers,
• Differentiable (homogenous within segments and heterogenous across segments) and
• Actionable
so that programs can be designed and implemented well?
The customers are segmented into four segments on demographic grounds : The customers are segmented into four segments on demographic grounds :
• First major segment refers to women of age group of 15 to 25 years, that include youngwomen (and teenage girls) who are more style savvy and fashionista. For them, Image , Size
and location of the outlet or the brand from where they are buying are prior factors over the price and Quality of the product, level of involvement is the highest here.
• Next major segment includes women of age group 25 to 45 years who are mostly money saving and prefer Low Pricing and Quality over Image and Outlet conditions. The level of
involvement is high in this age group as in this phase, what you wear, reflects you in the society. As a working girl, the purpose is to be economic and carry a good personality along.
They are more likely to switch the brands, because of the social aspects and the changing moods and priorities. It is important to retain this segment as they make the majority.
When you are buying for someone else, you look for less factors whereas when you are purchasing a product for yourself, you look deep into each and every minute are purchasing a product for yourself, you look deep into each and every minutething. Also it is easy for the store employees to convince the customer when the thing. Also it is easy for the store employees to convince the customer when the customer is buying the clothes for someone else as it acts as a recommendation when the pur the purchaser herself isn’t 100% sur t 100% sure of what is better e of what is better.
• Another segment consists of women above 45 years, who rarely go to buy the clothes for themselves until and unless they are the only one in the family. Rather, their children go and
buy, so the level of involvement is low, hence the physical evidence wouldn’t affect her but it will affect her children, so it is taken care of accordingly. (In most of the cases, parentare the
consumers while their children are the customers)
• And at last is the minor segment of girls below 15 years of age, who aren’t mature and confident enough of their choice. In this segment, girls are the consumers but the customers
are their parents. They choose the best for their children, the product which has good Quality above all (like the fabric of the cloth shouldn’t be uncomfortable to their child’s skin ).
On the basis of Segmentation, POOJA GARMENTS promoted its brand through Fashion Shows (monthly ramp walk shows were organised by beauty brands like LAKME, Loreal, Vogue, LUXE and
many more), Fashion and Clothing Magazines, association with Beauty Salons, retail stores for beauty products, fashion accessories etc.Apart from the traditional ways, it is important to optimise the site using Search Engine Optimisation, so that your website link appears on the top pages when people make a search. Using content strategies on different online platforms, people are made aware of the company and it helps engage with the target audience and create bonds with them. Along with the Search Engine and Content marketing,other ways like Influencer marketing, using Youtube to display ads and videos for the company and Viral marketing are helpful. But do you think demographic variable is enough to make a buying decision?
No, these aren’t enough. The Decision Process can vary according to the following environmental variables:
• Culture Culture
Bangalore is considered as the third most populous city, of which more than 50% are immigrants. This city offers home to Hindu, Telugu, Konkani, Marathi, Tamil etc. It is considered as the fashion
capital of India. As our first store was set up in Bangalore, it is meant to cater the needs of different geographic locations with different culture; northern, eastern , western and southern.
• Personality and Lifestyle ersonality and Lifestyle On the basis of lifestyle of women living at Bangalore, different designs can be targeted to the different segments like; Women working in industries, like Manufacturing, Food & Beverages will look for different items than the one working in Apparel or Fashion industries (dressing in a stylish and attractive manner) than the IT Professionals (preferring more formal outfit) than the ones working at home (preferring anything comfortable and easy going). • If the customer is ne f the customer is new or the r w or the regular buyer.
For women coming to the store, it will be partially-planned purchase. She will try to explore thewhole store before making a purchase. She can buy the dress what she has been looking for, and also
can go for some sudden purchase (Impulse Buying). Whereas for a regular buyer, it is a fully-planned purchase unless she is attracted by some totally different item at the store. She is aware of the variety, store displays as well as the customer service of the store and plays a major role to spread word of mouth communications.
• Consumers Consumers’ Present Mood State
If a customer is happy and excited, he may purchase something he isn’t very sure of, whereas in anunpleasant mood, the customer can even refuse to purchase a perfect and suitable item for her. And same is the case with the time available to the customer at the time of purchase. If one has a lot of time, she might explore all the variety and colours but while buying in a hurry , she may miss theperfect designs. The state of mood and the available purchase time plays a big role in decision makingInfluence of surroundings Influence of surroundings A store with attractive and classy colours, light music, great parking, good location and a spacious ambience is always the first choice of a buyer to shop from.
SUPPLY CHAIN IN APPAREL INDUSTRY :
Next, obstacle was dealing with manufacturers and transporting the material from manufacturer to the store. Manufacturers were given the order on-demand, for the designed modifications set up bythe designer according to customer’s need and preferences. For the common variety, selected items were collected from different retail stores with optimal quality and price.
Exhibit III Exhibit III
Prepared by author from https:/www.apparelbusiness.com/the-life-of-a-garment-from-seed-to-sale-6-steps-in-thefashion-supply-chain/
SHIPPING
INSPECTING
and
PACKING
CLOTH
MANUFACTURING
(Stiching, Finishing
etc.)
PROCESSING of
Raw Material
(Weaving,
Spinning in mills)
PROCUREMENT of
Raw Material
(Yarn, Cotton etc.)
As shown in Exhibit III, the time taken for a designed order to reach to customer involved many stages:
• Time taken to Procure the raw material and process it into cloth using several cutting, spinning, weaving machines on a mill.
• Time taken to manufacture the dress as per the designer’s specifications.
• Time taken for shipment ( depends on communication and distribution channels )
• From manufacturers to warehouses
• Then warehouses to storefronts.
Along with the time taken for a product to reach to customer, there are so many costs asssociated in
this industry like :
• Garment Manufacturing Costs,• Labour Costs,• Import Taxes, • Packaging Costs• Promotional Materials,• Shipping Costs,• Marketing Costs
All these costs were considered in budget.
Apart from Time and Cost, other factors that come into consideration are Durability, Performance,Aesthetics, Quality and Innovation. It is a trade-off of all these factors while setting up the industry.
DISTRIBUTION
The process of how POOJA GARMENTS contact their customers; how it started its distribution from Local buyers to the retailers and how it aims to expand and progress to the Multi-brand stores
and its own outlets along with establishing its online platforms is stated below in Exhibit IV.
Exhibit IV
Prepared by the author
MULTI-BRAND STORES
like BigBazaar, Ritu Wears, Chunmun,
V-Mart
E-COMMERCE SITES
like Myntra, Amazon, Flipkart, Jabong
OWN OUTLET
OWN WEBSITE
LOCAL
RETAILERS
LOCAL BUYERS
Friends
Family
Neighbours
COMPETITORS
For women wear, there are many Clothing brands in the market. For western wear there is Zara, HnM, GAP, Forever New, Madame, Mango, AND, ONLY etc, while for ethnic wear there is FabIndia,
Global Desi, Sabhyata, Melange, Biba, Aurelia, W for women, etc. But for such a Westo-Indian look, W for Women, Global Desi, Biba, FabIndia are the top competitors. Some of these brands have some issues like they provide limited variety; specific items all over and now at a little expensive prices. Suppose you meet a friend wearing a very famous piece from W, you can very easily estimate the price of the clothes she is wearing, also you won’t buy the same piece from the store because no two women will prefer wearing the same item together, or even later as it gives that borrowed feeling to the latter one.** Multi-brand stores include local (Chunmun, Ritu Wears etc) as well as the gloA short analysis of its Competitors is described in the Exhibit V:
Exhibit V
Introduction in
India
International International
Presence
About Brand Competitors
W for
Women
Started in 2001 2016 • Started the concept of
Indo-western fusion
wear
• Gained large market in less span of time.
Craft, Biba, Global
Desi, FashionAndYou,
LimeRoad
Global
Desi (by
Anita
Dogre)
Started in 2015
(Navi Mumbai)
Started in 2007,first
store in 2013
(Mauritius)
• Known for making
Environment friendly
clothing
• Sells at reasonable
prices
Vikram Phadnis and
Sabyasachi designer
wear, Biba, FabIndia
Biba Started in 1982
(New Delhi), first
store in 2004
(Mumbai)
In 2010 decade • Collaborated with top
designers
• Pioneered Bollywood merchandising for costumes
• Expensive and less
nnovative designs
FabIndia, W for
women
FabIndia Started its first store
in 1976 (GK, Delhi)
Started in 1960 as
company exporting
home furnishings
• Women Intrapreneurs
and empowerment
• Expensive ethnic brand
with strong identity
Biba, Manyavar, Craft
.
The growth of POOJA GARMENTS had been slow in last few years, because of rivalry among competitors. All the established brands already had a large market share in the market and were growing
revenues. The store needed to influence more on retaining customers than gaining more.With this in mind, the dilemma POOJA GARMENTS go through is how it should form its Marketing Strategy to overcome its competitors who already have a large market share and are making high revenues? It looks forward to progress with the purpose of making easy choices for its customer and
stay in their Choice sets at the minimum.
Also, using the Porter’s Five forces framework, analyse how it should enter into the perfectly competitive market, with a long term vision to convert it into monopoly, the biggest global brand of ethnic wear