Brand’s Strategy to Widen Rretail Footprint in India: A Case Study for MBA Project

The brand to be studied for the MBA Project is Italian Sportswear and Accessories brand, which was founded in Biella, Italy in 1911. The brand is well known for its historic introduction of colour on the tennis court in 1973. The sportswear and Accessories brand has always made bold, noteworthy designs in the sportswear and active wear space. It also produces footwear and active wear running, hiking, football, volleyball etc.  

Strategy to gain market share and meet competition

The brand has been in the Indian market for a few decades now, but it has still not seen the kind of growth that its peers like Adidas and Nike have today. So, the sportswear and accessories brand has strategic plans to gain market share and meet that kind of competition. While all these brands operate in the same sportswear or active wear space as the brand under study does, it is important to note that the brand under study is still very different from its peers. The Sportswear brand is well known across the globe as an Italian sportswear brand but at the same time, there are also fashion-forward. This brand under study focuses more on the fashion and lifestyle segment. In India, in the last two years, they have created a strong base of products that resonates with Indian sensibilities in both the footwear and apparel segments. The brand’s global identity and it’s India positioning is very similar. The next few years for the brand is about representing a more fashion forward imagery. So this brand always does, and this is what will separate this sportswear and active wear brand from its competitors. Everyone in the market will continue to grow at a certain pace because activewear as a category is growing very fast today. Industry reports says that activewear will continue to grow at a CAGR of 13.9 %, which holds huge potential for every player in this market. The company is confident about the prospects that the India market holds, and will continue to leverage its Italian, fashion-forward legacy. The brand’s growth vis-à-vis its marketing strategy should be studied in the MBA project work so that it can be an eye opener for all.

Implementation of the growth strategy

As part of the growth strategy, the company in the recent past announced its plan to add at least 100 exclusive stores in India over a period of five years. They already have a substantial presence in India and have 1500 points of sale and expect that the number to grow to about 1800. This is largely across metros and even Tier II towns. The sportswear company also launched its heritage store at Fort in Mumbai. Currently, this brand exclusive stores are present in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune and other metro cities as well. The company planned to continue to keep that up and launch one store each month going forward. In addition to the metro cities, the company is expanding in North Indian markets of Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida and Punjab, where it has held a great deal of potential. While company owned stores are the primary objective, the brand is also in the process of identifying key partners to pursue a franchise model. A detailed study needs to be carried out for growth of the brand over the few years as part of the MBA Project.

Advertising strategy

The Italian company has been known to advertise heavily on Digital media, much more than traditional platforms as most of its conversations with the target audience takes place in digital space. Trends also originate pretty much out of a social media post or from an interaction today. The brand, in the recent past, also did some targeted Outdoor campaigns and a fair bit of Print media. They will also continue with Digital and also do more targeted Outdoor and Print campaigns. The company spends about 12 % of its overall turnover on advertising. About 40 % of that will be devoted to Digital. Therefore, advertising strategy and spending of the brand should also be studied as part of the MBA Project so that the media mix and the strategy can be useful to small and medium other players in the Indian market. 

Opportunity in e-commerce space

In the past while growth of retail foot print, the company also experienced an increase in its presence in e-commerce sales. This trend may continue for the next couple of years. In the future, both online and offline will hold equal importance for the brand’s business because they feed into each other. As such business growth of the brand in the e commerce space in comparison to physical stores need to be studied in the MBA project work.

Conclusion

The Italian sportswear and accessories brand has widen its retail footprint in India at both Physical and digital space through digital marketing mostly. The brand’s growth strategy needs to be studied in detail for reference of other players in the industry as part of MBA project.