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

The brand to be studied for the MBA project is Italian Sportswear and Accessories brand FILA, 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. FILA has always made bold, noteworthy designs in the sportswear and activewear space. FILA also makes footwear and active wear, running, hiking, football, volleyball etc.

Strategy to gain market share and meet competition

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

Implementation of the growth strategy

As part of the growth strategy, the company in the recent past announced its plan to add 100 exclusive stores in India over a period of five years. FILA already have a substantial presence in India and have 1500 points of sale and expects that the number to grow to about 1800. This is largely across metros and even Tier II towns. FILA also launched its heritage store at Fort in Mumbai. Currently, FILA exclusive stores are present in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune and other cities. 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 hold 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

FILA 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 also did some targeted Outdoor campaigns and a fair bit of Print media. FILA will also continue with Digital and also do more targeted Outdoor and Print campaigns. The company spends about 12% of our 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. 

Opportunity in e-commerce space 

In the past while growth of retail foot print, the company also experienced increase in its presence in 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 FILA brand’s business because they feed into each other. As such business growth of the brand in ecommerce space in comparison to physical stores need to be studied in the MBA project work.

Conclusion

FILA brand has widened its retail footprint in India at both Physical and digital space through digital marketing mostly. The brand’s growth strategy should be studied in detailed for reference of other players in the industry as part of MBA Project.