POSITIONING IN A COMPETITIVE MARKET: A DISCOUNT KING - SHANTABIL
Keywords:
Discount, competitive market, apparel industry, marketing strategy, unique selling proposition [USP]Abstract
Apparel industry is highly competitive in nature with many big players like ITC, Raymond, Aditya Birla. The market shares are distributed in uneven manner due to highly competitive market.
Aggressive market, Innovation, Variety & unique selling proposition [USP] of different nature make the apparel industry highly competitive, price sensitive and user friendly. Shantabil Apparel (identity not revealed) is a unique marketing phenomenon of failure, success and rebirth by using innovative marketing strategies. Established a decade ago with a small capital and innovative practices, the company now established its own position with unique brand entity. At the beginning the promoters of Shantabil found it difficult to sustain their readymade garments because of extremely price sensitive market. The initial efforts could not work to offer desired sales and profitability. The primary marketing strategy of the company was to offer quality product but for the want of right positioning and identity by the customers, the product miserably failed.
Survival and rebirth became the primary marketing strategy of the marketing planners. A careful study of Indian market specifically young and urban middle class buyers was made to understand how a positive response can be evoked. This resulted into designing a marketing strategy based on following features:
- Identifying the right customer segment
- Niche marketing strategy
- Developing USP
- Creating product differentiation
The multi prong marketing strategy was thus designed keeping in mind the above four basic elements of marketing strategy. Marketing planners of Shantabil thus found a new marketing mantra that brought heavy selling success. Heavy discounts round the year was made the USP of the company, instead of offering discount on selected item for a season or specific period. This resulted in perfectly impacting the psychology of the Indian customer. Similar efforts were made to offer large varieties of products in the same product range. In a competitive market mere discount can not work as a USP, hence the company also introduced quality and innovation as its two other major strengths. The company established its own R & D department to offer high quality product with creative designing for fashion conscious customers. Today the company has established its brand name on a firm footing and hence the company is coming up with an IPO [Initial Public Offering] for the establishment of new integrated marketing facility and the expansion of exclusive brand outlets.
INSIGHTS
The case promotes following insights
- Working in a competitive environment requires a highly structured marketing strategy
- To establish a brand, a strong USP is required Market positioning is the function of price, innovations and quality as the basic determinants.
Downloads
References
Working in a competitive environment requires a highly structured marketing strategy
To establish a brand, a strong USP is required. In a competitive market, a mix of marketing elements can work in favour of the company. This mix in this particular situation is in-house research and development for creative approach, exclusive outlets for systematic customer relationship management and heavy discounting to influence psychology of the customers.
Market positioning is the function of price, innovations and quality as the basic determinants. The core marketing strength of the company is always customer care, satisfying variety of customer taste and offering innovative products.
