Raymond shuts down Be: stores; plans re-positioning of brand
To drop ‘niche’ tag, address wider population
There are plans to bring the brand a few notches down the price and audience strata that it previously stood for.
Purvita Chatterjee
Mumbai, Oct. 22 Raymond Ltd is withdrawing its designer-led Be: brand of stores with intentions of re-launching it without the ‘niche’ tag. The textile company is in the process of evaluating its prêt-a-porter brand and its association with designers, with plans of shedding its exclusive image in the market.
“The company has already shut down its stores across cities such as Mumbai and Delhi and there are plans to take the brand on a larger scale across the country. “Be: will cease to be a niche brand,” said a top Raymond official.
With intentions of having a pan-India presence for Be:, Raymond plans to have a different target audience for the brand and is currently undergoing a re-positioning exercise for the same.
“Be: will be made into a more relevant brand and will address a wider population unlike in the past where the brand was meant to address a niche set of people,” the official added. There are plans to bring the brand a few notches down the price and audience strata that it previously stood for. “Be: is not going to be a mass brand and at the same time we are evaluating whether we would like to have designers associated with it,” said the official.
Mr Nabankar Gupta, Ex-Group President of Raymond, says, “In my view there was nothing wrong with the Be: brand but there are a number of women’s wear brands that Raymond already has such as Color Plus, and Park Avenue today could now well become apart of Be:.”
In 2001, Raymond made a foray into women’s wear with Be: — its first pret-a- porter line of designer clothing. At that point of time, almost 50 Be: boutiques had been planned in six cities across the country and even one in Dubai.
The Be: retail stores stocked apparel and accessories from designers such as Priyadarshini Rao, Raghavendra Rathore, Rohit Bal and Rajesh Pratap Singh priced from Rs 600 to Rs 6,000.
Added Mr Aniruddha Deshmukh, Ex-Executive Director, Be: and currently President (Retail & FMCG), Raymond Ltd: “The Be: brand does exist and currently we are looking at what we can do with it.”
With a comprehensive women’s wear strategy, of late Raymond has been steadily increasing its ready-to- wear women’s wear portfolio by stretching its existing brands such as Park Avenue into this category.
Friday, October 26, 2007
direct marketing :shahnaz herbal
Shahnaz Herbal enters direct selling thru Veda Dynamics
Debdatta Das
New Delhi, Sept. 5 Ayurvedic company Shahnaz Herbals is to tap the direct-to-customer selling route through the Veda Dynamics brand name, to expand its presence across the country.
In the direct selling initiative, the company will recruit women ‘beauty advisors’, who will pay an initial amount of Rs 7,500, who will in-turn be given Rs 6,000 worth products to sell as well as training in selling skills and education on the product usage.
“We have kept a high threshold for those enrolling as beauty advisor since we want only women who are serious enough to see this as a continuous source of income,” said Mr Sharik Currimbhoy, Vice-President, Shahnaz Herbals. The advisors will create income for themselves not only through selling the products, but also through inducting other women into the programme. An advisor is entitled Rs 1,000 for every woman she inducts.Pilot project
The company, which has already been running a pilot model for direct selling in Delhi, has already enrolled 600 beauty advisors. “We plan to enrol around 1.5 lakh advisors in the next two years to earn revenues worth Rs 160 crore from the Veda Dynamics initiative by 2010-11,” said Mr Currimbhoy. The total direct-to-consumer selling market for cosmetics in India is around Rs 500 crore, growing at 20 per cent on a year-on-year basis. Shahnaz Herbals expects the overall market to grow to Rs 850 crore in the next three years.
Ms Shahnaz Hussain, Founder and Chairperson, Shahnaz Herbals, told Business Line, “Though I feel we should have started direct selling long back, this will surely be a substantial and very important part of our business in th e future.”
“Shahnaz Herbal has always preferred the referral route rather than the advertising, mass media route. The Veda Dynamics initiative will just take this a step further,” said Ms Hussain.
The initiative will also sell a whole new range of daily regimen products, such as toners and face packs under the Veda Dynamics brand, that have been exclusively created for the direct selling initiative, at a price range of Rs 200-Rs 695.
In fact, the company also plans to introduce the Veda Dynamics initiative internationally, starting with the UAE, gradually extending to other parts of the world where the herbal giant has a presence.
Debdatta Das
New Delhi, Sept. 5 Ayurvedic company Shahnaz Herbals is to tap the direct-to-customer selling route through the Veda Dynamics brand name, to expand its presence across the country.
In the direct selling initiative, the company will recruit women ‘beauty advisors’, who will pay an initial amount of Rs 7,500, who will in-turn be given Rs 6,000 worth products to sell as well as training in selling skills and education on the product usage.
“We have kept a high threshold for those enrolling as beauty advisor since we want only women who are serious enough to see this as a continuous source of income,” said Mr Sharik Currimbhoy, Vice-President, Shahnaz Herbals. The advisors will create income for themselves not only through selling the products, but also through inducting other women into the programme. An advisor is entitled Rs 1,000 for every woman she inducts.Pilot project
The company, which has already been running a pilot model for direct selling in Delhi, has already enrolled 600 beauty advisors. “We plan to enrol around 1.5 lakh advisors in the next two years to earn revenues worth Rs 160 crore from the Veda Dynamics initiative by 2010-11,” said Mr Currimbhoy. The total direct-to-consumer selling market for cosmetics in India is around Rs 500 crore, growing at 20 per cent on a year-on-year basis. Shahnaz Herbals expects the overall market to grow to Rs 850 crore in the next three years.
Ms Shahnaz Hussain, Founder and Chairperson, Shahnaz Herbals, told Business Line, “Though I feel we should have started direct selling long back, this will surely be a substantial and very important part of our business in th e future.”
“Shahnaz Herbal has always preferred the referral route rather than the advertising, mass media route. The Veda Dynamics initiative will just take this a step further,” said Ms Hussain.
The initiative will also sell a whole new range of daily regimen products, such as toners and face packs under the Veda Dynamics brand, that have been exclusively created for the direct selling initiative, at a price range of Rs 200-Rs 695.
In fact, the company also plans to introduce the Veda Dynamics initiative internationally, starting with the UAE, gradually extending to other parts of the world where the herbal giant has a presence.
re branding
RIL set to re-launch Vimal around Diwali
Virendra Pandit
Ahmedabad, Oct. 25
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is set to re-launch its fabrics brand ‘Vimal’ with a new look, new logo and new offerings around Diwali, with some of the famous names likely to endorse the brand under the ‘Icons of India’ theme. Reliance is also going to launch a range of ready-to-wear apparel for men, for which it has tied up with some well-known readymade garment-making companies.
The company has been in talks with music maestro A.R. Rehman, chess champion Vishwanathan Anand and Bollywood star Aamir Khan, among others, to endorse Vimal.
Vimal is being re-launched nearly three decades after its debut.
The exclusive 20-odd stores have been renovated and new ones would be integrated under the Reliance Mart format of Reliance Retail vertical, under which 500 stores are proposed to be opened across the country in the next few years.
The new-look Vimal, already available in men’s fabrics apart from home furnishings, will also become available in ready-to-wear-apparel format shortly, the company sources said here. These apparel would be available under three sub-brands, namely Vimal Red (with popular pricing for a wide range of the menswear market), Vimal White (a premium and trendy range) and Vimal Black (the top-end sub-brand that would retail only exclusive finely-crafted apparel, designed by Italy’s well-known fashion designer and President of the ‘Made in Italy’ committee, Mr Maurizio Bonas).
Red and White would be available in the exclusive Vimal stores and in all the other stores stocking Vimal. However, Vimal Black would be available only at exclusive Vimal stores.
The Vimal exclusive outlets are being transformed in line with the new identity of the brand.
They claim they will offer top-of-the-line customer shopping experiences and facilities, such as custom tailoring and styling.
Virendra Pandit
Ahmedabad, Oct. 25
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is set to re-launch its fabrics brand ‘Vimal’ with a new look, new logo and new offerings around Diwali, with some of the famous names likely to endorse the brand under the ‘Icons of India’ theme. Reliance is also going to launch a range of ready-to-wear apparel for men, for which it has tied up with some well-known readymade garment-making companies.
The company has been in talks with music maestro A.R. Rehman, chess champion Vishwanathan Anand and Bollywood star Aamir Khan, among others, to endorse Vimal.
Vimal is being re-launched nearly three decades after its debut.
The exclusive 20-odd stores have been renovated and new ones would be integrated under the Reliance Mart format of Reliance Retail vertical, under which 500 stores are proposed to be opened across the country in the next few years.
The new-look Vimal, already available in men’s fabrics apart from home furnishings, will also become available in ready-to-wear-apparel format shortly, the company sources said here. These apparel would be available under three sub-brands, namely Vimal Red (with popular pricing for a wide range of the menswear market), Vimal White (a premium and trendy range) and Vimal Black (the top-end sub-brand that would retail only exclusive finely-crafted apparel, designed by Italy’s well-known fashion designer and President of the ‘Made in Italy’ committee, Mr Maurizio Bonas).
Red and White would be available in the exclusive Vimal stores and in all the other stores stocking Vimal. However, Vimal Black would be available only at exclusive Vimal stores.
The Vimal exclusive outlets are being transformed in line with the new identity of the brand.
They claim they will offer top-of-the-line customer shopping experiences and facilities, such as custom tailoring and styling.
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