Stori : Clothes With A Twist

Brand : Stori
Company:Chaya Garments
Agency : Saatchi & Saatchi

Brand Count : 134

Stori is a mischievous brand. Launched in 2000, Stori is a premium casual wear brand from Chaya garments from Bangalore. Stori caught the fancy of the customers from the launch itself through out of box creative advertising campaigns. The brand can be called as an " AXE " of this segment.

Stori is positioned as a Brand with a Twist . The tagline says " Clothes with a Twist" . The basic idea of the campaign is to project this brand as a brand with sex appeal. The initial campaigns features a " Mystery Man" who gets all the girls. These ads ( all print ads) were unique in the sense that there are no models featured. The ads have a humour touch to it and a story to tell.The stories are set in different natural settings like Desert, Rain Forest, Green Meadows, Sunflower fields.These campaigns were well recognised and the creative was done by the agency "1point size".

Stori competes with brands like ColorPlus and Allensolly in the Rs 250 crore Corporate Casualwear market . Stori is very expensive and is targeted at the upwardly mobile executives.The brand claims to have 10% market share in this segment. The segment which Stori targets is a tough market and it really takes lot of marketing muscle to break into the customer's mind. Stori was careful in choosing the medium and the message.The main USP of this brand is that it is made only from natural fibre .The company have tried to create a story for the brand and to a certain extent was successful in doing so. But the major hurdle this brand will face will be to sustain the brand in the market. The availability of resources for brand promotion is found to be the major factor that limits any small brand's growth.

The brand has immense potential to make it to the big league even international because the platform which the brand has taken has enough space for the marketer to experiment. The brand can experiment with different "Stori" ies . I shall go to the extent that Stori , if carefully built can be in the leagues of " United Colors of Benetton".

Source:agencyfaqs, businessline, fibre2fashion,financial express.

Rupa Innerwear : Ye Aaram Ka Mamla Hai

Brand : Rupa
Company: Rupa & Co
Agency: Bates

Brand Count :133

Indian innerwear market is estimated to be around Rs 5160 crore and Rupa is one of the largest innerwear company in India. The company was established in 1987 has a range of brands in the Men's innerwear and lingerie segments.

Rupa is the company's mass market brand. The brand has the distinction of the first innerwear brand to be endorsed by celebrities ( correct me if Iam wrong). Although an unlikely brandname for a men's innerwear, the brand has around 14% share in the segment. The market leader is VIP with a marketshare of 20%.

The innerwear market is dominated by unorganised sector commanding more than 60% of the market. The branded innerwear market is only to the tune of Rs 750 crore. Recent years saw hectic marketing activity in this segment with foreign and national brands launching their products in the market.

Rupa brand has been seriously nurtured and the owners has been using Stars to endorse the brand. The major stars who endorsed Rupa range include

Govinda for Frontline range replaced by Salman

Saif Ali for Bruno

Aishwarya Rai for Softline range

Lisa Ray for Bruno for Her.

This has ensured that the brand receive a mass appeal. The brand is positioned on the platform of comfort and the tagline is the famous " ye Aaran ka mamla hai".

2003 saw the company's foray into the premium segment of men's innerwear with the brand Euro. The premium segment is worth around 120-150 crore and is witnessing lot of competition. Global majors like Sara Lee with Hane's brand and domestic majors like Color Plus, Van Heusen and Peter England has launched its range in this segment.

Euro is positioned as an upmarket brand and is not relying on Stars to promote the brand. The brand is positioned on "sex appeal" and the TVC of the ad features the man being "assaulted" by ladies . Euro also is the brand that came out with the " Bacteria resistant " innerwears. The brand is said to have captured around 20% market share in this segment. Rupa has roped in Alyque Padamsee as a marketing consultant to develop this brand.

With all the major brands eyeing for a share in one of the largest and most potential innerwear market in the world ( just look at the population), Rupa is bracing itself for a tough marketing warfare. Rupa has been careful in communicating and positioning its brand to the masses. But since the brand is relying on Bollywood stars and currently its ads are dubbed in the Southern market, VIP is dominating in the southern market. Rupa may have to think about having some campaign flexibility for tapping the market in the south.The greatest challenge for any innerwear marketer is to fight the unorganised sector which dominates this market coupled with cheap imports.

With the launch of Euro, Rupa is testing its marketing acumen in one of the toughest market. After all "Ye Aaram Ka Mamla Hai"

Source: magindia, agencyfaqs,fibre2fashion.com, businessline

Charagh Din : CD Rocks

Brand : Charagh Din
Company: Charagh Din
Agency: Network Advertising

Brand Count : 129

Charagh Din Shirts otherwise popularly known as CD Shirts is a unique brand. CD shirts are known as the only One store readymade brand in India. The brand is available in its showroom in Mumbai and nowhere else. The CD showroom in Mumbai is considered as the largest shirt store in the world.

Charagh Din was originally New Lord & Co came into existence in 1947. Two years later this small tailoring company was bought over by the enterprising Mr Arjan Daswani which converted this shop into a wonderful brand. CD has grown from a 800 sqft shop to 100,000 sqft shop because of the owner's never ending passion for quality and marketing excellence.
The brand's fame began to spread from Mumbai to other parts of the country and CD began to figure in the shopping list of those who travel to Mumbai. I have friends who buys 10 shirts when they visit Mumbai and wears only CD shirts.
CD shirt was built on three basic qualities
a. Sophistication
b. Good Taste
c. Special Identity.
The brand was earlier known as the " Shirt that Fits". The word of mouth spread fast with the increasing list of Who is Who began wearing this brand. More over CD was the first branded party wear shirt in India. The brand never failed to experiment with design and it gave the brand a contemporary look even after 60 years of existence.

For every successful brand the challenge comes when the brand begins to expand. CD does not want its USP of one store brand to be diluted by opening multi-location stores. Hence the brand embraced the net to expand the volume. In 2001, the brand was available online. The owners feel that the net will take care of the reach while the brand could be built through the media.

Recently the company have started aggressive promotion for this brand. The baseline of the brand has been changed to " CD Rocks". The ad features Czech models partying in a typical party locale. The ad is poorly made and does not convey any tangible value of the brand. The aim of the campaign was to project CD as a party shirt to the target segment of urban youth . But the execution and the models was a flop ( my opinion).

*****

Dr Keller's Brand Report Card for Charagh Din

Delivering on Customer's Desires: Positive since the brand has been maintaining its quality and design excellence. The product is put through rigorous quality checks and the company makes sure that the new designs are launched every month.

Relevance: The brand still has relevance in today's market. There is still a need for a brand which is young and vibrant

Value: CD shirts are priced quite reasonably and this makes the deal more attractive

Positioning: The brand has made a change in its positioning which I think is a negative factor. The new campaign have failed to convey any values or strength of the brand.

Integrated Marketing Activities: The brand has not fully integrated its activities on the web. Since this brand has an online store, no aggressive online promotions are seen. I haven't yet received a single e-mail from the company promoting its range.

*****

Charagh Din is a brand that has immense potential. It has the heritage, quality, Share of Mind, brand equity and the uniqueness. But the company seems to have forgotten its strengths. The brand is wise to have retained its uniqueness of one store brand by using web as the alternative channel. But still it has not fully harnessed the power of web as a media for brand building.I hope that in the quest to capture the mind of the urban Yuppie, the brand does not dilute the equity that was built over time.

Source: Charaghdin.com

Live-in Jeans: Can't Live Without

Brand : Live-in
Company: Microtex
Agency: Contract

Brand Count: 111

The Live-in Brand of jeans come from Microtex Ltd which is the part of Maxwell group which is famous for their VIP brand of Innerwear. Live-in is a leading brand in the Rs.1500 crore denim market in India. According to a report on imagesfashion.com, the jeans wear market is growing very fast across various categories.

Live-in jeans is competing in the mid segment of the jeans market. The product was a bold move by the innerwear marketer into a market dominated by unorganised sector. The main target segment for Jeans are of the age group 16-35 ( although we find many 60 yrs old "young at heart" freaking out in jeans).

Live-in was launched with smart clutter-breaking ad campaign. It used the super model Dino Morea which added a touch of class to the brand. The brand was positioned as the ultimate comfortable brand which you will " Keep Them On and On and On". The baseline and the positioning was an instant hit and the brand had a good run ( I don't have the market share numbers).

The name "Live-in" is the most appropriate for a brand for jeans. The name came it being with a consumer insight that the youth these days virtually are living in their jeans for 18 hours a day.(magindia.com)

Later the brand extended into trousers and shirts. The Live-in shirts were using the baseline " Above All Else". The trouser range was using the baseline " Meet Your Lighter Side" . The campaigns of the trouser range was a flop because the company tried to add humour to the brand which failed. The flops eroded lot of equity of Live-in and the brand is back after a restructuring.

The primary reason for the extensions to fail because it deviated from the successful positioning of the Jeans brand. I can vouch that Live-in trousers are one of the best in terms of fit and quality in that price range. It could have given the Peter England Brand a run for its money, but it did not happen.

The latest relaunch of Live-in has done away with the famous " Keep them on" may be because it has been taken by batteries like Amaron. So Live-in is now with the tag " Can't Live Without", which is a smart baseline. The brand is now making lot of noises across the media with some good campaigns.

Pricing is a major factor in this market where the growth is happening most in the sub 500 category where Newport and Ruf N Tuf are the major players. It is said that even Pepe have a brand in this segment.The entry of all major global brands in to India have provided a bonanza for consumers. But for a marketer it is a nightmare to find the right place with the right product with the right price.

Live-in is a brand with good recall and a good product. Most of the Live-in users will agree with me that Live-in have huge potential to be a readymade brand especially in the trouser segment.

Live-in let me hope it will go on and on and on.....

Source: magindia.com, agencyfaqs,indiatodayplus.com, imagefashion.com,magindia .com

Jealous Jeans : Jeans And More

Brand : Jealous Jeans
Company: Indus League

Brand Count : 109

Jealous Jeans is the one and only Indian brand in the women's jeans segment. The brand earlier owned by Jealous Fashionwear was acquired by Indus League in 2005. The brand was not a new brand rather the brand is 15 years old. But it was a niche player. I don't think that the brand had any presence in South India . The brand was not aggressive owing to the factors like Jeans being not popular among ladies in the early 1990's.

Things have changed now. There is a marked change in the demographics and psychographics of Indian women consumer. The younger crowd is not wearing conventional dress opting for modern dresses and also very individualistic in their choice of attires. Thus the Jealous brand once restricting itself to a niche is bracing itself to a larger market. With marketing strength of Indus League, Jealous can cash in on the highly potential market.

Jealous is positioned as an Urban Women brand ( young at heart) , age 16-24. The brand is based on the values like " self esteem", individualistic and fashionable. The brand is edgy, hot and it is new. ( as per their website).

In order to keep the excitement going, the brand comes out with a new design every 3 months. The brand was relaunched last year as a really hot brand with John Abraham endorsing the brand ( unusual for a feminine brand ).The company have priced the brand reasonably and is not restricting it to jeans, the baseline " Jeans and More " is a good one giving lot of room for the
brand to grow. In the promotion front, the brand is not yet aggressive. I think the company is fine tuning its distribution network before spending on promotion.

It is challenging for a marketer to keep up with a feminine brand. It needs to be constantly updated and exciting and fun and many have failed on their way to rule the Indian lady's mind. Jeans for that matter is more challenging. 70% of the market is ruled by the unorganised segment. Hence the organised sector had to compete on the basis of price to survive in this market.

Jealous have a tough task ahead of it but with the advantage of " first mover" and with investments in brand building , it can make other jeans Jealous.

Source: Business line, retailyathra, jealous website, indusleague website, agencyfaqs.com

Monte Carlo : The Way You Make Me Feel

Brand : Monte Carlo
Company: Oswal woolen Mills
Agency: JWT

Brand Count : 100

MonteCarlo is a premium knit wear brand in India. Launched in 1984, this brand is dominating the Mass + Class segment winter cloth market. Oswal has around 50% market share in this segment. With the booming retail sector driving the growth of Readymade clothing in India (estimated to be to the tune of Rs40 bn) no one can resist extending their brand to readymades. That is exactly what MonteCarlo is doing now.

MonteCarlo ( which is a super brand) has similarity with Color Plus (discussed in previous blog) in that it created a market for itself in a category that was dominated by lesser known brands. Monte Carlo was careful in brand building and the ads were catchy and theme oriented. Since I am in South India where there is little market for woolen clothes, still the ads shown in national channels used to excite me. The ads were full of "feel good" factors with great models and excellent imagery. All the ads had Romance and two people discovering a relationship. The print ads were like that of " ColorPlus" gave a premium touch to the brand. It is said that most of the earlier models of this brand are now superstars including Mallika Sherawat, Arjun Rampal to name a few. Monte Carlo is promoted with the baseline " The Way You Make Me Feel". The catchy point of the TVC s is the music which always set the tone for the message. The brand

is still communicated along the same themes since two decades.

The company spent lot of effort in making sure that the premiumness is not lost in campaigns. This is going to pay rich dividend when the brand is getting into the competitive world of every day wear.

The brand was extended to T shirts in 1999 with the brand Summerz. In 2001, the brand forayed into everday wear market under the sub brands Wonderhugs and Trouserz and introduced ladies wear in 2003. This year saw the national launch of cotton wears from Monte Carlo. The company was carefully ramping up the distribution and retail strategies to ensure that this brand succeed. The price range of readymades is in line with the premium brands like Van Heusan and Louis Philippe. So Monte Carlo can expect some serious competition.

With the kind of success this brand had in the winter wear market, it is reasonable to believe that Monte Carlo has the potential to be a " Color Plus". Hope that the brand will be built along the same themes that made it successful.

Zodiac : Finest Quality Shirt Makers

Brand : Zodiac
Company: Zodiac clothing
Agency: FCB Ulka

Zodiac is India's premium and one of the oldest brands in the readymade menswear category. The company started off as an exporting firm launched Zodiac in the domestic market in late 80's. In the Indian readymade menswear category which is estimated to be around 6000 crore, Zodiac have a market share of 17 % in the branded premium category.

Zodiac as a brand is promoted very subtly. You seldom see the campaigns in mass media. But if you read magazines, you are not going to miss the ads either in the back cover or inside cover. The ads are crafted in similar format and without any celebrities or fantasies, it is shirt all the way.

Zodiac is positioned as shirts from " Finest Quality Shirt Makers". The core qualities of the product are the unmatched quality and the designing. Zodiac follows the design and retail focus. The shirts which is available across the globe take fashion cues from the west and the designers back in India puts it into the shirts.

From the eighties, the readymade menswear have undergone drastic changes. We saw the emergence of categories like Smart casuals from Color Plus, Friday dressing from Allensolly, Premium range from Loius Philippe which changed the way Indians dress to work.

Zodiac targets at the upwardly mobile executives and is still sticking to the traditional concept of formal wear. Not wanting to lag behind the emergence of new breakaway categories, Zodiac launched its club wear brand ZOD! in 2002. Zodiac have also an impressive range of Ties where it have captured a commanding position in that category.

Zodiac have maintained its positioning through these years as World's finest shirt makers.But with the competition taking the categories and discovering new categories, Zodiac cannot afford to be silent. The brand needs larger doses of promotion to survive in the Indian market.

Reid & Taylor : Bond With The Best

Brand : Reid & Taylor
Company: S Kumars
Agency: In House agency

To build a premium Indian brand, start globally and ride locally. Reid&Taylor did just that. This brand had revitalized the India suiting market. Launched in 1998, this brand ranks no.2 in the 2000 crore worsted suit market.

Indian suit market was lying idle for a long time because of the onslaught of ready to wear garments and the lack of any excitement in the category as such which was dominated by established players like Raymonds, Grasim etc.
Reid and Taylor is a Scottish brand created by Alexander Reid along with financier Joseph Taylor. This brand has a rich heritage dating back to 1830.

Reid&Taylor had a dream opening. The strategy was accurate and the icon was non other than Bond... James Bond. The brand was launched just before World cup 1999. The campaign was executed in a military like fashion.There was lot of firsts in their product launch. The brand was the first one to use TV as the primary medium with Print playing the second fiddle.

The positioning was purely as a " Luxury Suiting". The brand owners knew that the brand launch should live upto the expectation of the Indian consumers roped in none other than Pierce Brosnan as its brand ambassador. With the high profile launch and the charisma of Bond worked wonders with the brand . The brand had second best recall during the world cup series.

Later the consumer survey revealed that even though the brand was aspirational, customers perceived it to be expensive because of its international icon. This prompted the company to look for an Indian icon. They did not have to search harder, the choice was our very own Amitabh Bachchan. Big B fitted perfectly to the brand persona. He was the style icon and commanded immense equity with the customers. Amitabh lifted the brand to a much higher level in connecting with Indian consumer. The positioning was not changed but the message was to create an image of affordability. The baseline was " Bond with the Best" was in line with the positioning.

S kumars plan to take this brand to ready to wear segment also where it will be competing with Louis Philippe , Van Heusen, etc. It is where this brand will prove its mettle. With the current positioning and the careful marketing campaigns, this brand will make an impact in ready to wear segment .

Peter England : Honestly Impressive

Brand : Peter England
Company: Madura Garments
Agency: Mudra

Can you sell a product without any marketing gimmick, no film actors telling you that the brand is his secret of success, no hypes or hoopla or in other words can you sell a product honestly?

Peter England is a brand that tries to do just that and that too successfully. Launched in the year 1997, this brand has captured the Indian middle class mind. That too honestly.
Peter England as a brand has a rich heritage. It began in the year 1885 when foundation was struck for 5 storied building in Ireland. In 1888 Peter England factory came in to being. It was during 1889-1902 that the company expanded when it got the order for outfits for British soldiers for the Boer war. The order was large and it demanded quality merchandise at Honest –to- goodness price.

The brand came to India in 1997. During that period there was a huge potential for a mid segment shirts in the 60mn pieces Indian shirt market. The industry was dominated by in store brands and the consumers have to painstakingly check for the right shirt. The then owners of Peter England (Indian Rayon) wanted to tap this segment. Thus evolved the idea of a brand that aims to shorten the buying process of the consumer.

Research also revealed that the consumers perceived premium shirts as overpriced and there was a need for such a national brand. Also another insight was that the market had a perception that good things happen to people who wear good clothes.

Peter England was initially positioned as an “Honest Shirt”. It was a very precise campaign that categorically told the TG that the brand is of good quality and honest- to – goodness price. The strategy clicked and has to click because the product was very good and the price was excellent. It just fit in to ones budget. The TG for the brand was the 24-28 ambitious and career oriented youth.
In order to make sure that the excitement remains, Peter England came out with various ranges and varieties of shirts. The brand also extended to trousers with the same positioning. Although some of the variants like English Cottons compromised on quality , the brand still enjoys a good equity in the TG’s mind.

In 2002 the brand made a slight makeover. The positioning changed to “Honestly Impressive”. The aim is to make the brand more than just value for money proposition but also as a lifestyle brand. It has maintained its value proposition unchanged.

Peter England is a brand that clearly shows a marketer that it is possible to sell... Honestly.

Vimal suitings : Where art Thou ?

Brand : Vimal Suitings
Company : Reliance Industries Ltd
Agency : Mudra


One of the oldest and most respected iconic textile brand of India is languishing some where in the attic of the mega corporation Reliance. The brand which started of as a Saree brand developed itself into a mega textile brand for women , men and even for furniture ( Vimal Harmony is one of the largest furnishing brand).

Vimal suitings was launched in 1980 after the successful Vimal range of sarees. At that point of time Reliance was a predominantly a textile company. This brand was carefully positioned as a premium men's suitings brand. The brand which was handled by Mudra, was promoted heavily by Reliance. At that time the major competitors being Bombay Dyeing and Raymonds.

According to the case study of Vimal available in Mudra Website, the Vimal Suitings brand was developed in 4 stages . The first stage involved convincing the customer about the quality of the brand explaining the technology behind the making of Vimal in advertisements. The second stage involved creating a personality of the brand using living legends. In the ads, living legends like army veterans, experts in various fields were used as models to build the character of the brand as a credible brand. The third stage involved promoting the brand as a fashion brand or Style guru. The ads showed Kabir Bedi and the likes catched the imagination of the TG. The 4 stage used cricketer as models to appeal to larger crowd. May be Vimal was one of the first brands that used cricketer as models ( correct me if I'm wrong).

I would add the fifth stage as letting the brand die without giving it any marketing support.

The brand was targeted at the young ambitious who are challengers to the CEO's . The brand personality was stylish, and aspirational. Vimal was promoted using the famous tagline " OnlyVimal " created by Late Frank Simoes. The tagline is said to be personally approved by Dhirubai himself. The brand was a premium brand and the ads were catchy. Reliance also opened exclusive Vimal showrooms as a part of promoting the brand.

Later in the 1990's the Reliance business model changed. The company changed from textiles to petrochemicals and Vimal was not fitting into reliance business plans. It was the only retail brand of Reliance ( now we have RIM) and company never focused on Vimal.

As far as a marketer is concerned, Vimal was a great brand with huge potential ( whether it fits into Reliance plan is another issue). 90's also saw the shift in the consumer's preference towards readymades. Although reliance had a readymade brand "Reance" it was a half hearted move which resulted in a flop.

Vimal was known for its quality and style. Still people remembers its simple baseline " Only Vimal". Lack of marketing support had virtually killed the brand. Now the position that Vimal occupied is now owned by Raymonds and Reid & Taylor.

News reports suggest that Reliance may revive the Vimal brand owing to their retail foray and the opening of the textile sector to the global markets. Vimal have already being messed itself up with the launch of V2 brand which is cheap and available even in grocery stores. What a way to mess up a brand ! Vimal have stopped marketing sarees and is said to be concentrating on suitings. Suitings are becoming more popular because of the increasing globetrotters and professionals.

Reviving Vimal will be very difficult since this brand has lost its touch with the new Indian consumer.

Oh Vimal!

Colorplus : Underwear ? ... a rejoinder

In my earlier blogs I have praised Colorplus owners ( Raymonds) for their careful brand strategy and execution. I have in that blog wished that Raymonds will not mess up that brand. Seeing today's newspaper, I got the shock of my life , an ad of Colorplus Underwear. One of the best Brand Extensions I have ever seen in my life !!!

Let us see the rationale behind this wonderful extension. Colorplus is a respected brand in the premium menswear category. Men wear underwear. So men in the premium segment wear Premium Underwear. So why not launch a Premium Underwear ?. And since Colorplus is a premium brand, why not launch a Colorplus underwear?

Will it dilute the mother brand? No yaar, it is premium isn't it? Underwear always add value to the premium image of the brand. Oops !!!

Can it be called a backward integration ? May be a better word will be "undergration".

Well! enough of criticism! I thought I will do some research to find out why such a drastic move from Colorplus.

Hold your breath !

The Indian men's Innerwear market is worth around Rs 2500 crore ( I am also surprised!). The market is dominated by local and regional players. The organized branded innerwear market is estimated to be around Rs 750 crores. The premium innerwear market is worth Rs 120-150 crore.More interestingly this is a market which is witnessing a double digit growth.

No wonder ColorPlus is caught "Pants down"

The men's innerwear market is dominated by VIP with over 20% market share. The brand has been there for long and has established itself across the segments. Recently there has been lot of activity in the premium segment of the market.

2004 saw the launch of Hanes innerwear in the Indian market.Hanes is a 105 years old global brand which is worth around $2.2 Billion. The brand is launched in India by Sara Lee India Ltd. Hanes has targeted itself with "original Tagless Comfort". The emphasis on "Tagless " comes from the global research which showed that 2 out of 3 men are irritated by the tags in the innerwear. The brand is launched in India with some smart advertising from Mccann.

Another major player is the 125 years old global brand Jockey which has around 25% share in the premium segment of the market. This year also saw the Vanheusen brand from Madura Garments "Undergrating "to Underwears

But should you launch such innerwear through an extension?. This is a big market with a potential for a new brand. 2500 crore is a huge market. Why not a new brand exclusively for innerwear like VIP? Why should a Brand like Colorplus be diluted by a half hearted move in a new segment?

See the distribution dilemma that the brand will face .

To have a large market share , the ColorPlus innerwear has to be in all the shops that sell innerwears, that include small textile shops. If the company decides on an intensive distribution, then this premium brand will be visible to the customer in non premium outlets thus diluting the premium image and the exclusivity.

Again if the brand is restricted to select outlets, then the volume will not justify the brand extension, because convenience of purchase is an important criterion in this segment since the value of the product is low.Customers may not travel to a large textile shop to make such a purchase.

Well , If Colorplus is a brand that has been nurtured through careful advertising , this is an extension that could have been avoided.

Colorplus : consistency pays

Brand : Colorplus

Agency : Rubecon

Company : Raymonds



Colorplus was launched in 1993 by Colorplus Fashions which was a unit of Coimbatore based Ambattur Clothing Limited.

It was launched at a time where no global brands were seriously exploring the Indian market. I would say that no serious branding effort was there in place during that time . The ready to wear segment was in a nascent stage.

Colorplus as a brand now has an iconic status in the readymade segment.The brand which is carefully crafted and brilliantly communicated is the perfect example of brand management.

Rajendra Mudaliar, managing director, and Kailash M Bhatia, CEO has been clear on what the brand is and how this is to be communicated.

In 2003 this brand was acquired by Raymonds. I thought that the communication and brand strategy would change but to my pleasant surprise , it is the same. Thank God...

The brand falls under the Smart casual segment in the ready to wear market with its presence in South and west Asia. In this era of celebrity endorsement , this is a brand which uses no celebrity , and Colorplus is always the star. The brand is exposed through careful media selection and you never see a TVC of this brand. The copy and the layout is ever so consistent and the ads has maitained a classy look throughout its existence.

Seen only in premium publications and business magazines reveals that the brand is clear about the target segment.

Raymonds by acquiring this brand has now entered the premium casual wear segment which is now fast growing. With Parx at the lower end and Colorplus on the premium end, Raymonds is hoping to gain a major foothold in the Indian ready to wear segment in years to come.

Hope Raymonds don't mess up this brand...........

Raymonds: The complete Man :A complete campaign

Raymonds : Expressions : A Complete man

Headline: Leadership comes naturally to those who do not stand on ceremony.
Subhead: Presenting Expressions

Bodycopy: Fine suiting fabrics that are skillfully woven from a unique blend of fibres derived from nature like Bamboo, Casein, Soyabean, Tencel, Linen, Silk, Cashmere, Mohair and Angora.And super 100s and 120s merino wool. So light, smooth and supple, it's perfect for the gentleman who is at ease with himself and the world.

Baseline: The Complete Man.
Agency: R K Swamy/BBDO
Client: Raymond

Source : Agencyfaqs.com

Brand Count :4


Raymonds has struck a right cord with the positioning of "A complete man". Expressions range however is promoted as an aspirational brand emphasizing on the finer qualities of a complete man. This is a very sound strategy that allows the brand to expand using the core values .

The strategy has been executed perfectly using commercials showing the metrosexual qualities of a man. The current series of print ads tries to add the leadership quality to the complete man.

Raymonds also like not only sober personalities but also dynamic go getters to use the brand. So this range is essentially targetted at young achievers, not necessarily conformists.


Although I have reservations about the quality of print ads, since the brand is in line with the positioning, All is well.....

Key words : Brand, Positioning, Marketing strategy, Indian Brands.