 |
A Talk by Mr. Akhil Chaturvedi-CEO Provogue "Our target is the upper class person, under 30-35 years of age, who has an air-conditioned car, travels by air, is a night-clubber and a pubber and generally lives well! I want a share of his wallet!" Akhil Chaturvedi, Director Acme Clothing - Provogue came across very clearly in the mission of Provogue and the strategy followed by the company in reaching its objective. The occasion was a talk at S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research on Brand Management where he was the guest speaker. In the retail industry, and specifically the apparel industry, there is a need to push across the brand such that people identify more with the brand than with the product. "The problem with most companies in the apparel industry", said Mr. Chaturvedi "is their reluctance to merchandising - their unwillingness to look at the broader picture, changing needs and sustainability issues." This industry stood at a staggering Rs. 60,000 crores back in 1996-97 but the major players in the market only held onto a fraction of this. When Provogue entered the market, it defined its objective very clearly. It needed to focus on development of a Brand, using cutting edge distinctive features with lots of emphasis on style and colour to appeal to the 'attitude' of a person. To 'scale up the brand', there is a necessity to consider the economies of 'scope' and not simply the economies of 'scale'. Ordinarily, a company should work towards moving on from being a provider of a label to one which achieves a brand value, and then progress further to becoming a power brand - a leader in an environment, achieving something beyond simple brand loyalty. He compared brand strategizing to going through Staff College preparing for a full-fledged war of a different kind. There is a need to understand the importance of supply lines to keep the forward forces healthy; and similar is the case with trying to build a brand - keep the merchandising active to ensure that what you sell is not a product that has a limited life; rather what you sell is an experience. Like something that Provogue targets via 32 'Studios' across the country, which promise a unique buying experience to the customer. "Further we're enhancing the experience through establishment of customer Lounges, which emphasize our brand value." All this lives up to the claim of being customer centric rather than simply product centric, location centric or content centric! No wonder then that Provogue has, over the last few years, risen swiftly to challenge the market leaders and has established itself comfortably in various segments such as men's, women's-western wear as well as semi-formals. "Let's rise beyond the kind of Marketing we've been taught... because people have been employing their marketing-knowledge like a hammer - treating any problem like a nail. Brand building is a very specialized focus area and needs to be approached with a great deal of insight and innovation. And it is the only thing that ensures that you stay in business a lot longer. In today's environment a lot of very old and respected companies in the retail business have wrapped up operations as they could not build up their brand value." But Provogue, going from strength to strength, epitomizes a success story, doing all that Akhil Chaturvedi talks about. Contributed by - |
 |
|
|