Product strategy of westside:

Westside has a very interesting and broad product variety. The detailed product offering along
with its prices is given in the annexure. Given the business that Westside operates in, it is
incumbent that Westside has such a broad variety. Westside has tried to create a one stop shop
for complete family within its defined segment. But the problem with this strategy is Westside
cannot differentiate itself with its competitors. As most players in this industry operate on same
principle it is very difficult to set oneself apart from the competition. As per our observation, the
product variety that Westside offers change slightly from place to place. The product variety
which we could find in a place like Kolkata was not present in Nagpur. As Mumbai is the
headquarters of the Westside, these stores have the maximum variety. It seems that Westside is
doing a good job on offering different variety-based on the consumer taste and preferences. In
case of apparels, along with its own brand, Westside also has contracts with the stalwarts of
industry like Levis, Wrangler, Lee Cooper, Provogue etc. In boutique section, Westside also has
brands like Biba, Trisha and Gia. The customer has a fairly wide variety of brand to choose from.
Having these renowned brands in the store attracts the brand conscious customer, which
normally would not have considered Westside. Also this gives a chance to Westside to display its
own brand and increase the brand awareness. Another hidden motive to display such wide
variety of brands is to increase the average ticket sales. Although the margin on these standard
brand is low, but it attracts the customer, and hence increases the chances of sales of other items
also. In its endeavor to create a one stop shop, Westside has a contract with the cosmetic giant
L‟Oreal. In jewelry section, Westside displays very popular brand like D‟damas, Gilli, Asmi,
Nirvana etc. Westside also displays perfume brand like Ferrari. In the gifts section Westside has
its own brand and has products like coffee mugs, tea sets, dinner sets photo frames, artificial
flower, aromatic candles, different glass articles etc. Westside also offers various accessories like
purses for men and women, laptop bags, traveler’s bags, ties, fake jewelry etc. Westside also
hold wrist watches and sunglasses of very popular brand like Fast Track, Titan, etc. Another very
interesting factor about Westside is that it gives its employees training on aspects like product
knowledge, workplace ethics, customer service policies and issues, communication skills and
courteousness.
Price Strategy:
After studying the various product categories offered by Westside, we now analyze the various
pricing strategies adopted by Westside. Price communicates to the market the company’s
intended value positioning of its product or brand. The pricing decisions are consistent with the
firm’s marketing strategy and its target markets which is the neo-middle class. The company
does not set a single price but a pricing structure that reflects variations in geographical demand‟
and costs, market-segment requirements, purchase timing, order levels, delivery frequency,
guarantees, service contracts, and other factors. Consumer expectations play a key role in price
response. The company offers the Value for Money price by offering their own brand
“Westport” as they get rid of profit earned by intermediaries. They buy the best possible fabric
available in each product range and develop their own styles. 85% collection comprises of their
in-house brand. In recent past, it has been observed that there are a lot of price variations in the
company’s products showing that it wants to cater to much larger sections of society. For
example – Formal shirts for men ranging from Rs 500-2500, women’s designer purses ranging
from Rs 800-10000.
Here are some pricing strategies adopted by Westside as follows-:
Promotional discounts
This is the best kind of discount offered by the company as it enables the company to retain the
power to be flexible. There are times when they want to give an extra boost to sales i.e. to shift
an old product before updating a new one. For example- In case of Men’s t-shirts, 3 for 499 or 5
for 999 often attract more interest than a straight percentage discount. This kind of pricing is
only there on company’s in-house brand “Westport” and on products like clothing, towels.
Seasonal pricing
The company goes for a full-fledged sale 3 times in a year to draw in more customers and
maximize its sales. The purpose is to shed out the old product at reasonable prices as well as
increase the number of footfalls during that tenure to maximize clientele. Seasonal discounts up
to 15-20% is offered on branded jewelry such as Gili, Asmi, D‟damas, Nirvana on Diwali and
New Year. There are different discounts on different products such as more on clothing and less
on crockery and daily necessities like towels, mattresses, blankets etc. Price concessions are
mainly on home brand products.
Image pricing-
Westside has adopted such pricing to an extent in products such as perfumes. Bottles with
attractive labels are priced at premium. Perfumes are ranging from Rs 500-6500. Branded
perfumes are priced at maximum like Ferrari.
Product form pricing-
Different versions of the product are priced differently but not proportionate to their respective
costs. The company prices products to maximize overall margin. It can be seen in some t-shirts,
bags, perfumes, crockery etc.
Psychological pricing- The Company uses alternate pricing strategies in almost all products.
The prices of products end with a odd number, mostly 9. We believe that the number 9 at the end
coveys the notion of a discount or margin psychologically. For example- Pricing glasses at 49
each or 6 for 299.
Product bundling pricing-
The Company is engaged in pure as well as mixed bundling for various products. Sometimes the
purpose is to shed out the stock unsold for long time at minimal margin. Mixed bundling is
targeted at increasing the average purchase per person giving him that incentive in the form of
some discount which persuades him to buy more. For example- 1 shirt for 999 and 3 for 2499, 1
cup for 49 and 6 for 249.
Value pricing-
Westside has positioned itself as a Value for Money brand. Most people are satisfied with the
pricing of Westport products. Westport products targeted the youth and upper middle class
specifically but with large price variations in certain products, they want to target the rich class
as well.
Note- Kindly refer to the annexure for detailed price range of various products.
Place Strategy-
Not many out of the ordinary trends were visible in Westside’s place strategy. The most
commonly observed fact about the place strategy was that the chain of stores were functioning
mostly in the malls and few exclusive showrooms of major cities. Another fact that we observed
during the survey was that Westside stores are mostly located very near its main competitor
Pantaloons in most cities, since both follow a similar strategy of functioning in Malls. Westside
has its head office located in Mumbai. Sourcing decisions are taken centrally and sourcing
offices were setup at Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi. There is a well setup supplier base across
regions. Knits are sourced from south India, woolen from Punjab and casuals & formal wears are
sourced from garment manufacturers from cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Crockery and gift items
are sourced from countries like China and Thailand which offer a wider variety and exclusive
design. To know about the strategies followed by Westside retail, we held interactions with
Managers of the stores. And to get a broader perspective of the strategy of the retail chain all
over India we gather the information from secondary sources. The main facts that came out
during the conversations were:
All stores receive their stocks on a weekly basis on each Friday from Mumbai itself.
Due to higher purchasing power of the people of Mumbai and the headquarters being located in
the same place, stores in Mumbai have the maximum variety of products. This enables them to
cater to the needs of the ever growing needs of the trendy and well-off customers of Mumbai,
and increase their sales, and hence their revenue.
Across a single city, prices do not change. We found that all stores in a city had almost same
product range and same prices of the available products. Since in most Tier 1 cities, there are
multiple stores of Westside operating, this prevents any particular store hogging the customers,
thereby preventing cannibalization.
Prices change keeping in mind the festive seasons and the demands of the products. For example,
during the off season, huge discounts are offered to customers to lure them to the stores. In
another example, the price of a certain Ladies garment had been hiked by 100 rupees, due to high
demand of the product during the recent festive season. The customer’s didn’t seem to mind the
hike in price.
Products available in the stores depended city of operation. For example, in cities like Mumbai
and Kolkata, products available were larger and slightly on the more expensive side, because of
the purchasing power, and the lifestyle of the people of the city, compared to a city like Nagpur.
Also, Westside has recently opened a few stores dedicated exclusively to women, keeping in
mind that, women form the biggest and most loyal customer base for them. In some prime
locations in Delhi, where they couldn’t get a store large enough to do justice for all their
customers, they built an exclusive showroom for women so that they can meet the demands and
needs of women.
Promotion Strategy:
Westside promoted themselves as a premium brand for the upmarket segment (i.e. upper middle
class), when it was launched in 1998. The main promotion strategy of Westside is to promote its
in-house brand, “Westside” which occupies as much as 85% of shelf space. This brand is not
only limited to apparels, but also extends to gift items, and other kitchen ware. This arrangement
has its own advantage, being a brand retailer they make their own style and image to build
customer base. Westside also allows flexibility in terms of serving other brands to woo brand
conscious customers as well. They keep Levis, Provogue, Killer, Lee, Lee Cooper, Wrangler,
Blackberry’s, Monte Carlo, Mufti etc in apparels section. Westside also has some of India’s best-
known fashion designers, like Wendell Roderick’s, Anita Dongre, Krishna Mehta and Mona Pali,
working with them, who create collections exclusively for the store, and the prices for these are
hardly eye-popping (the Wendell Roderick’s range starts at Rs 600). Westside has managed to
obtain this exclusivity at a lower price because it has multiple outlets, which in turn, is consistent
with their positioning.
For media promotions, in 2002, they hired Yuvraj Singh as brand ambassador, mainly because
of his stylish and trendy image.
Another winning Westside idea is Club West, a customer loyalty programme launched in May
2001. The 60,000-plus members of this club get special bonuses like rebates at restaurants and
on holiday packages from the Taj Group of Hotels, home delivery of alterations, and best of all,
special shopping hours on the first day of any discount sales event organized by the chain. As an
in-house promotions strategy, further discounts are offered to employees of Tata group.
Westside have a strong women consumer base so they came up with an innovative concept of
“Westside Woman” to cater exclusively to women in areas with high potential, where they
couldn’t get a shop large enough to accommodate all other sections. The first store had started in
Shalimar Bagh, Delhi. It is a one stop shop for women. Even though this is one of kind project, it
got decent enough response.
Westside promoted themselves as a lifestyle brand with premium products, but they have a vast
range of products with them, from value based products to the premium range products. And
with time their customer base began slipping towards value seeking customers because of having
greater products in the affordable range. One of the flaws in their promotion strategy, from our
perspective, is that almost 85% of their shelf space is occupied by products of their in-house
brand, thereby preventing a more diverse basket of brands. This led to gradual loss of their
upmarket consumers, who are becoming more and more brand conscious by the day. These
consumers are moving towards Shopperstop, Wills Lifestyle as they have a huge range of
premium brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss, Benetton, Playboy, Pepe Jeans, Arrow,
Van Heusen, Louis Phillips, Red Tape, Raymond’s, Park Avenue, U.S Polo, Biba, Trisha,
Numero Uno, Flying Machine etc under one roof. And today the Club west card is not an order
winner and it has reduced to the status of an order qualifier only. And in the value based category
new players are also coming up such as Landmark’s Maxx, Ritu’s Big Life, Globus etc. Westside
is also facing a tough competition through the local players.
Now again to woo their upmarket customers Westside is rejuvenating their brand by introducing
some international labels in their brand basket. They are testing it in Mumbai in the Gourmet
West which sells packaged food, they will soon add a sushi, cheese and wine counter to upgrade
the experience of its consumers and increase frequency of their visits. But at this point of time,
the obvious question arises; will they be able to attract the upmarket consumer again to the
Westside, which now has an image of a mid-segment retail store? To change its image over, is
not an easy task, and it will become more complicated, as they can lose from both sides by losing
their old customer base and also the new target customers, should the new strategy not work.
Now to promote their new strategy they will have to spend in the media promotions and maybe
hiring of a brand ambassador might help further, because at present they are dormant in the
media promotions, as compared to Shopper’s Stop and Pantaloons. These promotions will help
in attracting attention of the customers. And according to their new strategy they are planning to
revive their brand this strategy might be helpful. Because while reviving the brand they should
be able to connect themselves to the consumers so media promotion will be helpful. Today
demand of international labels is increasing day by day, so to tap this opportunity Westside
should decrease the shelf space of their in-house brands. This will have a twofold benefit first, it
will be able to attract the upmarket consumers and simultaneously they won’t lose their old
customer base. Previously the strategy of keeping the in-house brand in a big percentage worked
because at that time, due to downturn consumer’s preferences, which changed from costly brands
to reasonable brands so they shifted towards Westside in-house brands. But with the reviving of
the economy, the consumer’s spending power increased and their preference is again shifting
towards their old brands.
As Westside opened a theme based store in Shalimar Bagh in New Delhi exclusively for
women, following of the same strategy in other metro cities might help them. Because they have
a strong women consumer base and have a wide variety in this range.
The selling of the cosmetic range is much more dependent on the display of these products and
as what we have seen in the Westside stores of Nagpur, Bhopal, Kolkata, that display of these
product was not much appealing to the buyers, as compared to what we have seen in Shopper’s
Stop, where they have excellently displayed their whole range of cosmetics.
 Annexure
Product price list:
Product Heads Price range (in Rs.)

 Men's Wear
 Formal Shirts 900-2500
 Casual Shirts 700-2000
 Formal Trousers 700-4000
 Casual Jeans 800-5000
 Casual T-shirts 399-2000
 Casual Shorts 499-1500
 Jackets 1500-5000
 Sports Wear 800-4000
 Night Wear 700-3000

 Women’s Wear
 Indian Kurtas 400-20000
 Casual Shirts and Tops 300-900
 Casual Jeans 700-3500
 Capris 500-1500
 Evening Gowns 800-2500
 Western Formals 1000-4000

 Kids
 Shorts 200-800
 Jeans 400-1200
 T-shirts 150-800
 Shirts 300-800
 Frocks 400-1000

 Crockery and Kitchen

 Mugs 99-250
 Cup and Saucer sets 250-500
 Dinner Set 2000-5000
 Flower Vase 150-450
 Photo Frames 250-500
 Wine Glasses 99-250
 Cutlery Sets 90-250 per 3 piece
 Frying Pans 500-1000
 Steel Thermos 350-900
Daily Necessities
 Pillow and Pillow covers 200-1500
 Towels:-
 Hand and Face 50-150
 Bathing 350-600
 Bed Sheets 600-1500
 Blankets 1500-5000

 Jewelry(Branded)
 Gilli As per Brand
 Asmi As per Brand
 Nirvana As per Brand
 D’damas As per Brand

 Home and Gift Items

 Stuffed animals
 Toys and games
 Wallet and Designer Purse
 Traveller’s bag and Laptop bag
 Perfumes and Deodrants
400-1500
200-1000
500-2500 and 800-10,000
600-5000 and 600-2500
350-15,000 and 500-7500

 Accessories
 Watches:-
 Titan 1500-20,000
 Fastrack 700-5000
 Sunglasses:-
 Fastrack 350-2500
 Polaroid 1200-4000
 Belts 350-1500
 Wrist bands 50-100
 Bracelets 100-1000

 Furniture
 Square Coffee Table 2000-5000
 Kuber Vitrine 12,000-20,000
 Kuber Buffet 10,000-15,0000
 Two tone coffee table 2500-4500
 Jalie Cabinet with one drawer 3500-5000
 Kuber console table 2500-4500
 Kuber Book shelf 6000-10,000
  X-block shelf 5000-8000
 Accent Side board 8000-15000
 Telephone stand 2500-5000

 Footwear
 Bathroom Slippers 200-700
 Leather shoes 800-3000
 Sports Shoes 700-3500

 Interior Decoration
 Antiques 500-5000
 Night lamps 800-2500
 Wall Hangings 1000-3000
 Artificial Flowers 100-200

People:-
 Well trained staff at stores to help people with their purchases.
 Employ close to 10,000 people and employ around 200 more per month.
 Well-dressed staff improves the overall appearance of store.
 Use scenario planning as a tool for quick decision making multiple counters for payment,
staff at store to keep baggage and security guards at every gate, makes for a customer-
friendly atmosphere.

Process:-
Westside places a lot of importance on the process right from the purchase to the delivery of
goods. When customers enter the stores they can add the products they which to purchase in their
trolley from the racks. There are multiple counters where bill can be generated for purchases
made. Westside also provides some tokens or offers of over purchase of 5000. Products in
Westside is properly stacked in appropriate racks. There are different departments in the store
which display similar kind of products. Throughout the store there are boards/written displays
put up which help in identifying the location of a product. Moreover boards are put up above the
products which give information about the products, its price and offers. Westside stores are
normally U-shaped and well planned & design.

STP of Westside:
 Segmentation and Targeting:
After research, we found that the Westside seems to be using income based
segmentation and targeting the upper middle and lower upper class of
society. The product variety that they offer, the prices of the product that
they offer, and the kind of association people have with the brand is very
 different from what the "company wants. It seems that, at the time of
establishment, the "company had very set strategy on what customer base
they wanted to create. But since its inception, the "company has started to
attract the customer from other segments also. It seems that the "company’s
target segment, which was very clear at the beginning, has become obscure.
The reason for this shift is not very clear but we can speculate that the
company became sales driven instead of creating a loyal customer base.
There has been recent news that to improve its image and to attract the
customer from upper segment Westside is going to revamp their store.
Westside has hired London based retail consulting agency named Flitch to
add flare to its stores and to woo the customers from upper segment
 Positioning:-
The brand is positioned on a “fashion at affordable price” plank and as a family store
delivering a complete shopping experience. Westside caters to the shopper who values
not just the product but the total shopping experience.

Citations:-
1. https://www.scribd.com/doc/37084868/7-P-s-of-Marketing-Mix
2. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/70824
3. https://www.scribd.com/document/280005506/Stp-of-West-Side
4. http://www.mywestside.com/downloads/Sixty_Fourth_Annual_Report_
2015-16.pdf
5. http://www.mywestside.com/Home.aspx