Sharp positioning is the mantra
Indus League, set up in 1999 by eight ex-Madura Garments executives with just two brands, have grown its portfolio to nine, including Indigo Nation, John Millers and Scullers.
The Rs 1000 crore company’s CEO, 43-year old Rachna Aggarwal says the mantra is simple: sharp positioning for each of the brands and refreshing them at regular intervals.
Aggarwal calls the Rs 120 crore Indigo Nation the “rock star of Gen Y’s fashion brands” . The company kept offering products focusing on the youth such as ‘reversible shirt (shirts which can also be worn inside out), music shirts, bikers shirts and so on. She says Jealous 21 was launched after extensive research with customers. When the company realised normal jeans did not fit on all hips, it launched jeans in three hip sizes which became a big hit with shoppers.
Similarly, under the brand ‘Urbana’, the company launched ‘techno formals’ such as ‘anti-spill’ shirts which would not carry any stains even after wine or coffee is spilled on them. And then there were ‘dura white shirts’ where the company claims the whiteness of shirts remain the same despite 25 washes and so on.
She is obviously listening to customers in all earnestness.
Innovations notwithstanding, she says each of the brands has separate profit & loss accounts, own visual merchandising, brand communication and so on. “They are all different at the front end even though they may be similar at the backend,” she adds.
RACHNA AGARWAL, CEO, Indus League
Keep talking to your customers
Today, there are four such brands—Rs 550 crore value brand Megamart, Rs 400 crore plus formalwear brand Arrow, and casual wear brands USPA and Flying Machine are over Rs 250 crore and Rs 100 crore brands, respectively.
Suresh’s 18-year stint at Hindustan Unilever where he handled a number of iconic brands like Brooke Bond, Lipton and Red Labelmust have helped him to build varied brands such as Megamart to Gant. While Megamart sells shirts at Rs 400, Gant sells them for Rs 5000.
“We have been able to create a portfolio of power brands by creating strongly differentiated marketing communications based on top consumer insights,” says 54-year old Suresh, an alumnus of IIM-Bangalore.
For instance, when the company was entering Tamil Nadu with its value chain Megamart, the company hired South-focused ad agency Dakshin, an unit of Ogilvy, to advertise Megamart exclusively for Tamil Nadu keeping in mind the nuances of people in that state.
Suresh also says that when most brands cut advertising budgets during the slowdown of 2008-09, the company increased its spend for each of the brands by 20-25 per cent. “Hence, the key lesson is that it is important to stay connected with consumers even during a slowdown. They will reward you handsomely,” Suresh says.
SURESH J, CEO, Arvind Lifestyle Brands
Global brands’ equity must be maintained
But it was never easy to launch a new brand which has a distinct personality. So when the company launched Quicksilver, an internationally renowned boarding brand, it romoted the sport first. It brought Tony Hawk, skateboarding icon to Mumbai to introduce the sport to Indian consumer, held workshops at its store on Sunday mornings. Today the company has 500 skateboard enthusiasts.
Yadav also talks about how luck played an important role in his success. When they were launching Italian fashion brand Diesel, he and his team were inspired by a tea vendor who was wearing a fake Diesel T-shirt. They decided to hold a ‘fake party’ where people were asked to have fake smiles, fake attitudes etc, which became an instant hit and drove home the message.
The company is also doing events such as ‘Trunk Shows’ and Home Shopping in tier II and III cities to increase reach. For a ‘Trunk Show’, the company books an art gallery or a banquet hall in a city and sets up a mini-store of a brand for three to four days. In ‘Home shopping’, the company appoints ‘champions’ who take appointments of people in small cities, and visit their homes, display merchandise and take orders. The company is also working on separate e-commerce sites for all its brands to tap consumers from there.
SUMEET YADAV, Business head, Reliance Brands