A PROJECT REPORT

ON

TITLE OF PROJECT REPORT

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the

degree of

BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

to

Chhatrapati Sahu Ji Maharaj University, Kanpur

Under the Guidance of Submitted by

Dr. A. P. S. Bhadauria Vaishali Singh
Head of Department BBA-VIth Sem.
Roll No. 0903754

Session 2017 – 18

PSIT College of Higher Education, Kanpur

Bhauti Kanpur
 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the Project Report entitled “Marketing practices of

leather industries- a study with reference to the select footwear retail
units in Kanpur” submitted to PSIT College of Higher Education, Kanpur
in partial fulfillment of Degree of Bachelor of Business Administration is the
original work conducted by me. The information and data given in the report
is authentic to the best of my knowledge.

This Project Report is not being submitted to any other University for award
of any other Degree, Diploma and Fellowship.

Place: Kanpur (Vaishali Singh)

Date: Roll No: 0903754

 PREFACE
Footwear has emerged as a consumer need in modern life. With changing lifestyles and increasing
affluence, domestic and commercial demand for footwear is projected to grow at a faster rate. Rising income
levels of the Indian middle class and demands from young fancy population is helping the market to grow
and thus contributing to a very fast growing Indian economy. There are already many new domestic brands
of footwear apart from leading foreign brands in Indian market. Standing on the threshold of a retail
revolution and witnessing a fast changing retail landscape, the Indian footwear market is set to experience
the phenomenal growth in the coming years. The topic selected for the study is "Marketing Practices of
Leather Industry: A study with reference to the select footwear retail units in Kanpur". The Indian leather
industry is the core strength of the Indian footwear industry. It is the engine of growth for the entire Indian
leather industry and India is the second largest global producer of footwear after china. The Indian footwear
retail market is expected to grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of over 20% for the period
spanning from 2008 to 2011.
The present investigation is about marketing practices - "of what is and what ought to be "for footwear
retail units. It is an exploration of how marketing practices could better serve retail units to achieve their
objectives and societal responsibilities. Marketing is not something an organization does, but participates
in it. It is the way a retail unit contributes to its growth and social wellbeing. Through marketing it adapts
to the context, competition and customer. This integration of marketing and retailing is what is analyzed
and presented. This integration is a process as footwear retail units continually define and redefine their
products and services to consumer. It is therefore apt to say that Marketing of footwear products are
constantly in a state of 'becoming"—becoming more consumer oriented than it was before. The patterns of
marketing mix have been assessed, the pragmatics of implementing strategies has been scrutinized and
creative practices have been unearthed through a comprehensive data collection. Various 'issues' concerning
marketing practices in footwear retail units have been highlighted before attempting to suggest alternatives
that are more adaptive and appropriate.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Research project report is one of the important part of BBA program which
has helped me to gain a lot of experience, which will be beneficial in my succeeding
career.

For this with an ineffable sense of gratitude, I take this opportunity to express
my deep indebtedness and gratitude to Dr. Shivani Kapoor, Principal of PSIT
College of Higher Education for her encouragement, support and guidance in carried
out the

I am very thankful to my supervisor and Head of Department Dr. A. P. S.

Bhadauria for his interest, encouragement and untiring guidance thought out the
development of the project. It has been my great privilege to work under his inspiring
guidance. I am also thankful to my parents and my friends for their indelible co-
operation for achieving the goal of the study
 Table of Contents
S. No. Content Pg. No.

1 Title Page/ Cover Page

2 Student’s Declaration

3 Certificate from Institute

4 Preface

5 Acknowledgements

6 Table of contents

7 Chapter -1: Leather footwear marketing – Industry Profile

Chapter-2: Indian leather footwear retail industry: A scenario
 Introduction
 Footwear industry - An overview
 Leather Industry in India
8
 Indian Leather Sector: A profile
 Retailing
 Retailing scenario - Global view
 Retail industry in India
 Indian footwear Retail Industry
Chapter-3: Research Methodology
 Statement of the problem
 Significance of study
 Review of literature
 Hypothesis
9  Objectives of the study
 Data Analysis
 Data Sources
 Statistical Tools
 Period of the Study
 Presentation of the Study
 Limitations of the Study
10 Chapter- 4: An Empirical study

11 Chapter - 5: Conclusions and Suggestions

13 Annexure - 1 – Questionnaire

14 References
 Chapter 1:- Leather Footwear Marketing
Industry Profile

Introduction:-
The services sector is not only the dominant sector in India’s GDP, but has also attracted significant foreign
investment flows, contributed significantly to exports as well as provided large-scale employment. India’s
services sector covers a wide variety of activities such as trade, hotel and restaurants, transport, storage and
communication, financing, insurance, real estate, business services, community, social and personal
services, and services associated with construction.

Market Size:-
The services sector is the key driver of India’s economic growth. The sector contributed around 53.8 per
cent of its Gross Value Added in 2016-17 and employed 28.6 per cent of the total population. Net services
exports from India grew 14.6 per cent in the first half of 2017-18 and the sector attracted 60.7 per cent of
India’s total FDI inflows.

India's score in the Nikkei/IHS Market Services Purchasing Managers Index grew from 45.90 in
July 2017 to 50.90 in December 2017, supported by growth in the growth in Information &
Communications and Finance & Insurance.

As per the Economic Survey 2017-18, Central Statistics Office’s (CSO) first advance estimates of
Gross Value Added (GVA) in FY 2017-18 indicate that the services sector is expected to grow 8.3 per cent
year-on-year.

According to a report called ‘The India Opportunity’ by leading research firm Market Research
Store, the Indian mobile services market is expected to reach $37 billion in 2017 and grow by 10.3 per cent
year-on-year to reach US$ 103.9 billion by 2020.

Out of overall services sector, the sub-sector comprising financial services, real estate and
professional services contributed US$ 305.8 billion or 20.5 per cent to the GDP. The sub-sector of
community, social and personal services contributed US$ 188.2 billion or 12.6 per cent to the GDP.
Indicators:-
DEFINITION OF PRODUCT:-
The product is defined as a "thing produced by labor or effort or the result of an act or a process".
Since 1575, the word "product" has referred to anything produced. Since 1695 the word has referred to
"thing or things produced". The economic or commercial meaning of product was first used by political
economist Adam Smith.

In marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to a market that might satisfy a want or
need. In retailing, products are called merchandise.

In manufacturing, products are purchased as raw materials and sold. In general usage, product may
refer to a single item or unit, a group of equivalent products, a grouping of goods or services, or an industrial
classification for the goods or services.

Tangible and Intangible Products:-

A tangible product is any physical product like a computer, automobile, etc.
An intangible product is a non-physical product like an insurance policy. In its online product catalogue,
Sears, Roebuck and Company divides its products into departments, and then presents products to shoppers
according to function or brand.

PRODUCTS MARKETING MIX:-

Product marketing mix deals with the first of the "4Fs" of marketing, which are Product, Pricing, Place
and Promotion. Product marketing, as opposed to product management, deals with more outbound
marketing tasks. A product market is something that is referred to when pitching a new product to the
general public. Borden suggested that all those actions of the company represented a Marketing Mix.
Professor E. Jerome McCarthy at the Michigan State University in the early 1960's suggested that the
Marketing Mix contained four elements: Product, Price,
Place and Promotion.
Product:-
The product aspects of marketing deal with the specifications of the actual goods or services, and how it
relates to the end- users needs and wants. The scope of a product generally includes supporting elements
such as warranties, guarantees and support.

Pricing:-
This refers to the process of setting a price for as product, including discounts. The price need not be
monetary; it can simply be what is exchanged for the product or services, e.g. time, energy or attention.
Methods of setting prices optimally are in the domain of pricing services.

Placement (or Distribution):-

This refers to how the product gets to the customer; for example, point-of-sale placement or retailing. This
third P has also been called Place, referring to the channel by which a product or service is sold (e.g.: online
vs. retail), which geographic region or industry, to which segment (young adults, families, business people),
etc. also referring to how the environment in which the product is sold in can affect sales.

Promotion: -
This includes advertising, sales promotion, including promotional education, publicity, and personal
selling. Branding refers to the various methods of promoting the product, brand, or company.

Marketing Mix
 Product
o Product variation
o Product differentiation
o Product innovation
o Product elimination

 Place
 Price
o Cost recovery pricing
o Penetration pricing
  Promotion
o Distribution channel
o Direct sales
o Indirect sales
o E-Commerce
o Individual communication
o Mass communication

Tire four Ps model is the most useful when marketing the low value consumer products. Industrial
products, services, high value consumer products require adjustments to this model. Industrial or B2B
marketing must account for the long term contractual agreements that are typical in supply chain
transactions

 People
All people who directly or indirectly influence the perceived value of the product or service,
including knowledge workers, employees, management and consumers.

 Process
Procedures, mechanisms and flow of activities which lead to an exchange of value.

 Physical evidence:-
The direct sensory experience of a product or service that allows a customer to measure whether
he or she has received value. Examples might include the way a customer is treated by a staff
member, or the length of time a customer has to wait, or a cover letter from an insurance company,
or the environment in which a product or service is delivered.

PRODUCTS QUALITY:-
If a product fulfils the customer's expectations, the customer will be pleased and consider that the
product is of acceptable or even high quality. If his or her expectations are not fulfilled, the customer will
consider that the product is of low quality. This means that the quality of a product may be defined as "its
ability to fulfil the customer's needs and expectations. Quality needs to be defined firstly in terms of
parameters or characteristics, which vary from product to product. For example, for a mechanical or
electronic product these are performance, reliability, safety and Appearance.
MARKETING ORIENTATION OF A FIRM:-
A marketing oriented firm (also called the marketing concept, or consumer focus) is one that allows
the wants and needs of customers and potential customers to drive all the firm's strategic decisions. The
firm's corporate culture is systematically committed to creating customer value. In order to determine
customer wants, the company usually needs to conduct marketing research. The marketer expects that this
process, if done correctly, will provide the company with a sustainable competitive advantage. This
consumer focus can be seen as a process that involves three steps. First customer wants are researched, then
the information is disseminated throughout the firm and products are developed, then finally customer
satisfaction is monitored and adjustments are made if necessary.

A marketing oriented firm will typically show the following characteristics:

a) Extensive use of marketing research
b) Broad product lines,
c) Emphasis on a product's benefits to customers rather than on product attributes,
d) Use of product innovation techniques,
e) The offering of ancillary services like credit availability, delivery, installation, and warranty.
The concept of marketing orientation was developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s at Harvard University
and at a handful of forward thinking companies. It replaced the previous sales orientation that was prevalent
between the mid-1950s and the early 1970s, and the production orientation that predominated prior to the
mid-1950s. Conventional marketing wisdom holds that a market orientation provides a company with a
better understanding of its customers, competitors, and environment, which subsequently leads to superior
firm performance.
For over four decades, market-oriented corporate strategy has been recognized as a pillar of superior
company performance by both academics and practitioners. Market orientation in both manufacturing and
service industries has attracted a significant amount of academic and practitioner interest in the current
marketing literature (Han, Kim, and Srivastava 1998; Day 1994; Kohli and Jaworski 1990). Implementation
of the marketing concept characterizes a firm's intentions to deliver superior value to its customers on a
continuous basis (Slater and Narver 1994).
Market orientation refers to the organization-wide generation of market intelligence through decision
support systems, marketing information systems, marketing research efforts, dissemination of the
intelligence across company departments, and organization-wide responsiveness to the changes taking
place in the environment (Kohli and jaworski 1990).
There is a large body of literature dedicated to studying whether marketing orientation results in superior
organizational performance. Some studies have verified a strong link between marketing orientation and
performance (Matsuno, Mentzer, and Ozsomer 2002; Greenley 1995; Ghosh et al. 1994; Speed and Smith
1993), while other studies did not support a direct positive relationship between performance and market
orientation (Han, Kim, and Srivastava 1998; Jaworski and Kohli 1993

LEATHER FOOTWEAR MARKETING: AN OVERVIEW:-

The first and the foremost problem is the non-availability of quantity of leather at economic prices.
The leather exporters are not interested to sell their leather to the internal leather goods manufacturers
because they get a better price in the export market. The leather goods manufacturers cannot afford to pay
high prices because their cost of production will become too high and they may not be in a position to
compete in the world market. The main competitors of India are china and South Korea as they produce
very attractive goods at cheaper rates. The demand for the products continues an uptrend, but more in the
footwear area of special interest to your fashion. The demand for Indian foot wear is also looking up,
especially the medium price variety.

Modernization of the Indian footwear Industry: Reforms and thrust

Areas:
In the 21st century the driving parameters for the footwear industry have changed. The strength areas
are:

a). Development of Indian component Industry: This is crucial to the growth of the Indian footwear
Industry. For this, an action plan must be drawn specific to each component outlining the need of
the particular component Industry rather than a generic plan.

b). Non Leather Sector: It is to be treated as an extreme focus area within the footwear segment. This
indicates the market requirement already existing in the country. The strengthening of this sector
should be treated as the priority area.

c). Policy Measures: To provide expansion of the capacity within this country need to be initiated and
for growth the reverse engineering mode can be preferred.

d). Key reforms in the area of inventory management and act sourcing require urgent attention.

e). Development of special zones for the footwear exports with integrated infrastructure.
f). Development of the SME sector as reliable supplier of small and medium orders for the bigger
companies.

g). Technological up gradation on work methods and technical inputs: During the first and second
phase of the NLDP intervention along with institutions like CLRI and FDDI, common facility
centers in most of the clusters have been established. The centers would help the artisan and local
industries to develop strongly in the areas of product development and quality improvement.

h). Technology up gradation of the small industry: Since the most of the SME's source the material
through small tanning industries, the micro level development of the tanning through technological
and subsidized interest rate will greatly help to increase the value of addition of the product.

i). Establishment of the non-leather park: In case of the leather industry, clusters are already
established, where as in the non-leather segments it is only limited to Mumbai and New Delhi. This
has also become necessary since their growth rate in the footwear sector is expected to be 5% in
the domestic market.

j). Footwear Mission with public and private partnership: A footwear Mission is required to
improve the quality of the capacity and size, match the scale of production of units to gain global
competitiveness. This is feasible only by commissioning a footwear mission. Gross root level

k). Changes in decentralized sector in footwear production would need a Government led initiative.
Footwear mission should include shelves which support modernization and strengthening of ME
segment of footwear and foot wear component Industry

Needed growth promoters for expansion of Indian footwear industry are:

Establishment of footwear industry modernization fund with public private participation
to attract an investment of about Rs. 5300 crores by 2008.
 Launch a footwear Mission.
 Creation of a sector specific investment friendly climate for footwear industry.
 Policy support for promoting the integration of decentralized and small scale sector with
corporate furriness systems through special vendor enrichment and net sourcing models.
  Market initiatives of the private sector to team the Indian industry with merchandising
companies with large share in global trade.
 Launch of HRD Mission on leather to generate a technology culture in Indian footwear
industry.
 Sector specific cluster development program in decentralized production center.

Product and Market Segmentation Indian perspective:

Global footwear trade made from both leather and non-leather materials is estimated at a market
value of US $ 155 billion and trade value of US $ 58. However the global trade and markets of their products
are mature with CAGR of about 3-4% p.a.

India would need to either position in the growth segment or compete effectively with established
players. Athletic footwear represents a high growth segment. Safety and protection wear is a niche products
segment.

Dress and formal shoes (Export segment):

Based on an analysis of CAGR and an expected additional demand for 250 – 300 million pairs
for such footwear in global trade, India may invert upon expanding the capacity by at least another 50 - 75
million pairs for dress and formal shoes.

Casuals (Export Segments):

The share of casuals in global footwear trade is substantial. Nearly 30-40% of the additional
capacity envisaged for planned development of India in footwear manufacturing could well be in the
segment of casuals. In this segment also, women footwear would be a preferred product segment.

Athletic (Export segment):

Athletic footwear segment is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of around 9% in the US market. A
capacity buildup of about 50 million pairs per year is recommended.
Children (export segment):
Children footwear enjoys a high replacement rate in global trade. Particularly for Indian with a
relatively inferior quality cow based leathers for adult footwear products for children form an area of
advantage for Indian leathers. A capacity buildup of about million pairs for export segment is a
recommended forward step.

Safety and protective equipment (Export segment):

Safety shoes and protective equipment sector has found a favorable growth path in Indian footwear
industry, particularly in Kanpur. Since it involves a significant engineering and technological input,
partnership with IIT Kanpur in this product segment are of advantage to Indian footwear industry.

Footwear for domestic market segment:

Footwear for domestic market is in growth in at a steady rate, precipitate use of footwear in India
is gradually reaching global average. With a large human population and with increasing purchasing power,
Indian footwear industry needs to rage the domestic market segment carefully. Organized sector is not very
active in steering to these needs of domestic footwear made for domestic market. Product segmentation of
the domestic market segment will register a substantial change in free trade regime. The quality of
manufacturing capacity for domestic market segment needs to be enhanced substantially through special
intern method if the domestic demand for about 1900 million pairs is to be met at required levels for internal
consumer satisfaction.

Market:
The demand of leather footwear is increasing day by day at the rate of population growth,
development of township, industrial cities and increased economic conditions of people. The educated
people, factory workers, service holders, officials, college and school going students have developed
wearing habit of footwear. Generally the manufacturing units cum selling shops are located in the main
streets, chowks and township in a view to have access to the products. Some have their show rooms in the
towns and cities apart from the manufacturing units. Customers are directly coming to the units and
purchasing their requirements. It has been observed that people who come to these units / shops are starting
selection.

This is of course a usual tendency but afterwards when any product is choice, the customers start
bargaining with some others. At last the seller comes to a point which may have little margin (or) very
nearer to cost of production. Unfortunately the proprietors are not so perfect to calculate the cost of
production (over heads are not properly included in the cost of production) and hence sometimes it incurred
loss. It is summed up that the marketing channels followed by the units are:
(a) Manufactures - Customers
(b) Manufacture - Retailer - customer.

MARKETING MIX OF FOOTWEAR RETAIL UNITS:-

The 'marketing mix' is a set of controllable, tactical marketing tools that work together to achieve company's
objectives. The marketing mix is generally accepted as the use and specification of the 'four Ps' describing
the strategy position of a product in the marketplace.

PRODUCT:-
Marketing decision related to product is concerned with shape, design, characteristics, style, brand,
package and utility. A product line is a group of products that are closely related because they function in
a similar manner, sold to the same customers groups and are marketed through the same type of outlets or
fall within given price ranges

PRICE:-
Pricing is one of the four Ps of the mix. It is also a key variable in microeconomic price allocation
theory. Price is the only revenue generating element amongst the 4ps, the rest being cost centers. Pricing is
the manual or automatic process of applying prices to purchase and sales orders, based on factors such as:
a fixed amount, quantity break, promotion or sales campaign, specific vendor quote, price prevailing on
entry, shipment or invoice date, combination of multiple orders or lines, and many others.

PLACE:-
Another element of Neil H. Borden's marketing mix is place. Place is also known as channel,
distribution, or intermediary. It is the mechanism through which goods and/or services are moved from the
manufacturer/ service provider to the user or consumer. Retail outlets should focus on place where products
are made available to customers to achieve customer satisfaction. Chain of intermediaries, each passing the
product down the chain to the next organization, before it finally reaches the consumer or end-user. This
process is known as the 'distribution chain' or the 'channel

PROMOTION:-
It involves disseminating information about a product, product line, brand, or company. It is one of
the four key aspects of the marketing mix. Promotion is an act of communicating product and its merits to
customers and persuading or influencing them to purchase. Communication is an important tool in
promoting the company products or services. Marketers need to select appropriate ingredients for
communications programme. Public relations, publication, advertising, educational programs, endorsement
of option leaders etc., are the appropriate devices for promoting products promotional or informational
activities at the point of delivery of products can also have an important role in communication
 Chapter 2:- Indian Leather Footwear
Retail Industry: A Scenario

INTRODUCTION
The economy of India is the twelfth largest economy in the world by market exchange rates and
the fourth largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) behind the USA, China, and Japan.
India is also one of the few markets in the world which offers high prospects for growth and earning
potential in practically all areas of business. Indian economic growth has been among the fastest in the
world in the recent years. Service sector is the lifeline for the social economic growth of a country. It is
today the largest and fastest growing sector globally contributing more to the global output and employing
more people than any other sector. The real reason for the growth of the service sector is due to the increase
in urbanization, privatization and more demand for intermediate and final consumer services. Availability
of quality services is vital for the wellbeing of the economy. India’s large service industry accounts for 53%
of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while the industrial and agricultural sector contribute 30%
and 17% respectively. Agriculture is the most predominant occupation in India, accounting for about 53%
of employment. The service sector makes up a further 28% and industrial sector around 12 % the service
sectors are becoming one of the major contributors to the overall GDP. The retail industry is one important
sub-sector of service sector in terms of value and number of employees. Retailing is one of the pillars of
the economy in India and accounts for 35% of GDP 4. Post liberalization, the Retail sector in India is
heralded as one of the sunrise industries. It has never been better for the retail sector in India. Today within
the booming service sector, retailing is the single biggest contributor in terms of GDP to the National
Income.
Standing on the threshold of a retail revolution and witnessing a fast changing retail landscape, the
Indian footwear market is set to experience the phenomenal growth in coming years. In past few years too,
the market has seen robust growth, says "Indian Footwear Industry Analysis". The forecasts and estimations
given in this report are not based on a complex economic model, but are intended as a rough guide to the
direction in which the market is likely to move. This forecast is based on a correlation between past market
growth and the growth of base drivers. The Indian footwear retail market is expected to grow at a Compound
Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of over 20% for the period spanning from 2008 to 2011. Footwear is expected
to comprise about 60% of the total leather exports by 2011 from over 38% in 2006-07. The Indian footwear
market scores over other footwear markets as it gives benefits like low cost of production, abundant raw
material and has huge consumption market. The footwear component industry also has enormous
opportunity for growth to cater to increasing production of footwear of various types, both for export and
domestic market.

FOOTWEAR INDUSTRY: AN OVERVIEW:-

Footwear is a necessity to every person and is thus a segment with vast potential. The footwear
Industry is a traditional Industry in India. The use of footwear has started from very ancient days when
people felt to cover their bare foot to protect them against heat, cold, stones, thorns, roughness of path etc.
From the beginning they saw the skin of hunted animals for the purpose and leather footwear industry
gradually developed and reached to the point that we are seeing now. India is the second largest global
producer of footwear after china and had an export performance of Rs.456.20 crores in 1991-1992 against
Rs.240.47 crores in 1990 - 1991.

Footwear has emerged as a consumer need in modern life. The global footwear production in 2003
stood at 13 billion pairs. China is the major producer of footwear accounting for 7800 million pairs. This is
followed by India - 1848 million pairs. Per capita footwear consumption of the global production has been
estimated at 2.2 per year. There has been a steady growth in the footwear usage pattern of the world. Current
use of footwear of the global human population has been estimated at about 12 billion pairs. For a world
human population of 7 billion by 2010, footwear need of the world would be expected to rise about 14 -
14.5 billion pairs by 2010 at the current rates of growth. China is the country with the highest total
consumption of footwear – 2782 million pairs followed by the USA-2007 million pairs. India's footwear
consumption is 1758 million pairs. With a large human population and with increasing purchasing power,
increased standards of life, Indian footwear industry needs to target the domestic market carefully. India as
a nation enjoys some inherent strengths, which have to be leveraged for the development of a strong
footwear sector

Major strength areas:

The Largest raw material base: India enjoys natural endowment of livestock wealth with a population
of about 470 million live animals of relevance to global leather sector.

1. Installed capacity for production of finished leather: India enjoys a strong and large installed
capacity for production of finished leather supported by a technology base. Installed tanning
capacity in India is about 3.20 billion per year.
2. Trained man power: the traditional skill of the footwear making is the strength of India

3. Domestic market: The domestic market of the Nation has remained competitive and largely price
conscious. It is growing further and currently the needs of the domestic sector are met from the
production of decentralized sector.

4. Cluster formation: Footwear industry has grown in clusters although there are internal
competitions mitigating, the emergence of empowered clusters, it seems possible to further
strengthen the existing clusters through specific interventions.

5. Institutional support: Support from institutions like Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI),
Footwear Design and Development Institute (FDDI), Council for Leather Exports (CLE), National
Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) & National Institute of Design (NID) to the Indian
Footwear industry is significant. These Institutions afford the advantages of supply of trained man
power, appropriate technologies and Research & Development backing and market information for
industrial use.

6. Technology: The footwear sector has matured from the level of the manual footwear
manufacturing method to the automated footwear manufacturing system. Modern footwear
manufacturing methods are followed by the organized footwear manufacturing.

7. Strong dynamic component industry: The independent component industry is the key to success.
The growth of the component industry has to be against the global perspective of the trade rather
than with the country specific need.

8. Government policy: The government policies of the country have been facilitating the necessary
changes in the post liberalization period.
The country's economic policy and the reforms in the financial market have led to the positive growth of
the industry.

They are:
1. 100 % foreign direct investment (FDI) and Joint ventures are permitted through the automatic route.
2. The success stories of large, dedicated leather parks in Kolkata, Jalandhar and Kanpur have spurred
the development of a leather tanning complex in Andhra Pradesh, a footwear complex and footwear
Components Park in UP, a footwear components park in Agra and leather goods export Park in
Kolkata.
3. Modernizing manufacturing facilities and establishing design studies.
4. Duty free import of all types of raw materials & embellishments under specific schemes.
5. Concessional duty on import of specified machinery for use in leather sector.
6. Liberal import- export of consumer products and components.
7. Gradual lowering of import tariff - peak rate 15%
8. Simplified import- export procedures, facilitating quicker customer clearances.
9. 100% repatriation of profit & dividends, if investments made in convertible foreign currency. Only
a declaration to this effect to the Reserve Bank is required.

Leveraging Strengths:
Access to Resources as a unique strength: Strength of India in footwear sector originates from command
on the reliable supply of resources in the form of raw hides and skins, quality finished leather, large installed
capacities for production of finished leather and footwear, large human capital with expertise and
technology base, skilled manpower and relatively low cost of labor, proven strength to produce footwear to
global brand leaders and acquired technology competence for mid & high priced footwear segments.

A Climate for substantial investments into footwear industry: A Need The strengths of India in the
footwear sector are best achieved by strengthening, augmenting, modernizing and expanding the industry
through a planned & integrated development program and mission mode actions.

A Partnerships with market leaders: A strategic step for leveraging strengths: In order that the share
of India in global trade increases from its current 1% volume share into at least 4.5% levels, it is necessary
to build strategic partnerships with market leaders.
LEATHER INDUSTRY IN INDIA:-
Indian leather industry is the core strength of the Indian footwear industry. Leather is as old as
mankind. It is the most versatile of substances, which has been used by man from time immemorial. It
provided the material for the first few primitive articles that the pre-historic man probably used. Leather
market was highly developed in ancient Chinese, Indian and Mediterranean civilizations. Leather is animal
hide or skin that has been converted by chemical treatment and processing. Leather is having higher growth
because of good demand for Indian leather all over the world. Leather Industry contributes to country's
Wealth and has always been a symbol of fashion, prestige combining with other great properties like
strength, durability, cushioning comfort, resistance to water, wear and perspiration etc. Leather Industry
occupies an important place in the development of State's economy and leather products constitute about
60 % of Indian Exports. It gives employment to socially depressed people. In (Kanpur) of the total
employment, 25% is being given by the leather industry. Nearly 58% of the leather industry in India which
is labor-intensive and export oriented is undergoing a sea change, nay, a metamorphosis, thanks to the
implementation of Govt. Policy to switch over from the production of semi-finished leather to one of the
finished leathers, leather footwear and leather goods etc., The basic infrastructure in the form of
development of indigenous leather machinery, common service and training facilities etc., is being provided
to the industry by Govt. and thus the run way is being prepared for the take-off. As a part of its effect to
play a lead role in the global trade, the Indian leather industry is now focusing on the key deliverables of
innovative design, state of the art production, technology and unfailing delivery schedules.

Evolution of leather Industry:

Leather has had a universal appeal since time immemorial. The manufacture of leather is one of
the oldest technological professions. The leather making of primitive man was a race between his efforts
and the destructive forces of nature. Leather gauntlets, quivers and Jewelry cases found in Egyptian graves
dating back to 3000 B.C. give some indication of the great age of the craft. Even before the beginning of
recorded time, man has worked with hides and skins to make the earliest form of clothing.

Leather goods production remained part of the shoes makers work right up to medieval times, when
it was taken over by the book binding trade which was then growing in importance. Uttar Pradesh occupied
a predominant position in the making of finely crafted joothies and leatherwear for Moghuls. In the South,
leather formed one of the items of trade between the south Indian states and the Greek and Roman
Kingdoms of Europe. With the setting of European colonies in India, Leather industry became more
organized particularly to meet the defense requirements of the British Empire.
Later on, Kanpur, Kolkata and Madras were the main centers of production to meet their requirements.
About two centuries ago, the leather industry began to expand in a number of European countries. Shoe
making machines were modified to suit the requirements of the new industry and gradually new machines
and tools were introduced. Till the beginning of the 19th century, leather and allied industries in India
formed one of the main activities of the rural sector. Even today the leather goods industry is only semi
mechanized. Much of the work must be still done by hand. The first and second world wars gave a boost to
the industry and today with the emphasis on export of finished leather, the industry is mainly in the hands
of small and organized sectors. It would therefore appear that the rural industry, particularly the tanning
part of it is on its way out. However, there are sizeable pockets situated all over the country which are still
active and show potential for development if given assistance and encouragement
.
Leather Goods: In 1845, Daniel Prutzmann, a Viennese devised a leather purse with a metal frame, a
most important innovation. From then on leather goods production developed rapidly and today it is an
important industry employing thousands of workers all over the world. When the leather goods like shoes,
chappals, suitcases, handbags, belts etc. are made from exotic materials as the skins of reptiles, rare birds,
frogs, tortoise feet (or) fur they are known as fancy leather goods. However the production of leather goods
and fancy leather goods in the developing countries which are carried out mostly in small units suffer from
serious short comings, all of which cause substantial reductions in the value of the finished goods. The
locally tanned leather is often of inferior quality, cutting patterns are usually made of old newspapers,
instead of card board, leather is cut haphazardly with scissors instead of cutting knives, the cutting patterns
used for the outer parts of the article are also used for the linings (causing them to wrinkle), the basic rules
for sample making and for preparing cutting pattern are unknown, bad thread is used, cheap plastic suede
lining inexpensive reptile bags make the articles unattractive, and the metal frames are out of fashion and
of inferior quality

Live Stock:
Hides and skins are the basic raw materials for the leather industry. The livestock of a country is
the potential source of supply of their raw materials. If animals are not slaughtered and are allowed to die
their natural death, hides and skins appear as the residue of their worthy productive life. But, if they are
slaughtered at the end of their productive life, hides and skins appear as by - products of the meat industry
Importance of Leather Industry:
A. Higher growth: Leather industry is having a higher growth because of good demand for Indian
leather. Leather contributes to a country's wealth.
B. Leather Industry's Big Role in Economic development: The leather industry occupies an
important place in the developing of the state's economy and leather products constitute about 60%
of Indian exports. Its share of foreign exchange income for the country is so vital that it could be
inadvisable to cause any irritant in the way of its growth even indirectly IK.
C. Importance of Leather industry in terms of Exports: India is now entering a new era
economically and there are big plans for the leather Industry. The objective is not only to increase
exports but also to ensure that the share of value added leather products in exports is 90% by the
end of 1989-9019

In 1986-87 the total exports of leather and leather products were Rs. 930.78 crores, the share of finished
leather dropped to 43% .Indian leather goods are exported to the countries namely Italy, Germany France
and Japan.

Position of Leather Industry in India:

Active trade in leather articles and tanned skins is believed to have existed early in the 13th century
between India and Imperial Rome, as reported by Marco Polo, the world traveler from Venice, citing
reference to the use of leather portents by the Great War lord Kublakhan.
India has earned a place of distinction for itself in the world in leather manufacture and technology. Leather
industry in India is an export oriented industry.
The good export performance is now attracting greater and newer entrepreneurial interest. The Govt., of
India has setup the Bharat leather corporation to promote the development of the leather industry in the
country as a whole, along the desired lines. The Indian leather industry exists at three different levels large,
small & village scale. A study conducted in south India reveals that about 70-80 percent of the tanners are
at small scale and only about 20% are in the large scale sector. While the large scale and small scale levels
account for this export performance, the rural scale figures prominently in rural economy and development.
Govt, policies on promoting Leather Industry:
(a) Setting of Industrial Estates: It is necessary to install the costlier and high productivity machinery in
common facility centers which could be located in areas of concentration of the tanning units. It is learnt
that Kanpur Industrial Investment Corporation had extended a loan of Rs. 30 lakhs to their newly formed
society

(b) Accelerate the growth of leather Industry: The union commerce Minster Mr. P. Shivasankaran has
observed that modernization of the Industry was undertaken but such a programme should ensure
technology upgradation with employment generation. The periodical overseas market surveys by the trade
and scientists would expose them to international trends and development which could help them accelerate
the growth of leather and allied industry.

(c) Tax holiday for 100 percent Export oriented units: The Government has decided to extend 100%
export oriented units with the admissible benefits of tax holiday to the units located in the export processing
zones. In order to reduce the cost of bounding, concessional charges will be made where there is a cluster
of export oriented units.

(d) Liberalizing Licensing policy: The licensing policy for production of leather footwear and other
leather goods has been liberalized so as to facilitate the establishment of new units and expansion of existing
units in the organized sector with 75% export obligation in centrally notified backward areas.

(e) State Trading Corporation: Import of raw hides and skins in slip loads requires heavy investment
which may not be possible even for big tanners. As an alternative, governmental agencies like the state
trading corporation can import and market the same.

(f) Policy support: The various policy initiatives taken by the Government for increasing the share of value
added leather products include duty free OGL import of crust leather and finished bovine leather to augment
the availability of the critical raw material for export production.

Contribution of Kanpur Leather Industry to National Economy:

Kanpur enjoys a leadership position in the tanning industry in India. Kanpur has witnessed the
gradual shift in the character of the tanning industry with the changing policy decisions by the government
of India for enhancing the value addition in the leather exports. Modern machinery has been introduced
from time to time.
RETAILING:

Retailing, one of the largest sectors in the global economy, is going through a transition phase not only in
India but the world over. Retailing comprises of organized and unorganized sectors. Organized retailing
refers to trading activities undertaken by licensed retailers, that is, those who are registered for sales tax,
income tax, etc. These include the corporate-backed hypermarkets and retail chains, privately owned large
retail businesses, departmental stores, supermarkets, rural retailing, e-retailing and luxury retailing. High
growth in the Indian economy, resulting in greater purchasing power amongst the middle class, which in
turn went on a purchasing spree, consumer
Awareness, investments by venture capitalists and private equity firms have contributed to the growth of
organized retail. However the process of acquiring license is still a bottleneck for the development of Indian
retailing.

Unorganized retailing, on the other hand, refers to the traditional formats of low-cost retailing, for
example, the local kirana shops; owner manned general stores, convenience stores, hand cart and pavement
vendors, etc. 2S. Most Indian shopping takes place in open markets and millions of independent grocery
shops are called kirana. Organized retail such as supermarkets account for just 4% of the market as of 2008
29. Regulations prevent most foreign investment in retailing. The unorganized sector is still dominant in
India, since it has the advantage of low investment need.

Since retailing is the process of connecting the supplier and consumer, pricing of products is very
important in a price conscious market like India. Unorganized retailers play an important role in this regard
and are a vital part of the supply chain. If unorganized retail segment positions itself correctly, it can carve
a niche for itself in India's booming retail sector.

Growth factors of the retail sector of Indian economy:

 Increase in per capita income which in turn increases the household consumption.
 Demographical changes and improvements in the standard of living.
 Change in patterns of consumption and availability of low-cost consumer credit.
 Improvements in infrastructure and enhanced availability of retail space.
 Entry to various sources of financing.
The infrastructure of the retail sector will evolve radically. The emergence of shopping malls is going steady
in the metros and there are further plans of expansion which would lead to 150 new ones coming up by the
year 2008. The non-food sector, segments comprising apparel, Accessories, fashion, and lifestyle felt the
significant change with the emergence of new stores formats like convenience stores, mini marts, mini
supermarkets, large supermarkets, and hyper marts. With the arrival of the Transnational Companies
(TNC), the Indian retail sector will confront the following round of alterations. At present the Foreign Direct
Investments (FD1) is not encouraged in the Indian organized retail sector but once the TNC'S get in, they
would try to muscle out their Indian counterparts. This would be challenging to the retail sector in India.

RETAILING SCENARIO- GLOBAL VIEW:

Retailing in more developed countries is a big business and better organized than in India. According to a
report published by McKinsey & Co. along with the Confederation of the Indian Industry the global retail
business is a worth a staggering US$ 6.6 trillion. In the developed world, most of it is accounted for by the
organized retail sector. The service sector accounts for a large share of GDP in most developed economies
and the retail sector forms a very strong component of the service sector. In short, as long as people need
to buy, retail will generate employment. Globally, retailing is a customer-centric with an emphasis on
innovation in products, processes and services.
With total sales of US$ 6.6 trillion, retailing is the world's largest private industry, ahead of finance and
engineering. Some of the world's largest companies are in this sector: over 50 Fortune, 500 companies and
around 25 of the Asian Top 200 firms and retailers. Wal-Mart, the world's second largest retailer, has a
turnover of US$ 260 billion, almost one-third of India's GDP.As many as 10% of the world's billionaires
are retailers. The industry accounts for over 8% of GDP in western countries, and is one of the largest
employers. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, more than 22 million Americans are employed in
the retailing industry in over 2 million retail stores.

RETAIL INDUSTRY IN INDIA:

Retail in India is largest industry, accounting for over 10 percent of the country's GDP and around eight
percent of employment. Retail in India has emerged as one of the most dynamic and fast paced industries
with several players entering the market. The future is promising, the market is growing, government
policies are becoming more favorable and emerging technologies are facilitating operations. Retailing in
India is gradually increasing its way to becoming the next boom industry. Big in size and turnover, Indian
retailing industry is characterized by certain attributes. The network of retailers reaches every nook and
corner of the country. So any product produced anywhere in the country can be easily accessed by the
buyers from any location. Thus the convenience of Indian retailers is very high. Secondly, in India the
retailing industry is an unorganized lot consisting of, in most of the cases, small entrepreneurs and the
virtual omnipresence of the Indian retailer can be attributed to these small entrepreneurs only.

 The second attribute gives rise to the following characteristics: Power of the retailers, as such is
very less, and in many cases it is negligible. This weakness has been exploited by the manufacturers
and the stronger partners of the marketing channel. The retailers, in general, abide by the terms and
conditions set by the manufacturers and other "big brothers" of the channel.
 The manufacturers cannot directly reach all retailers in a particular geographical area. Therefore,
the manufacturers cannot maintain the desired relationship with the retailers, which in turn, make
management of the channel complicated. This also makes the possibility of a direct feedback loop
from the retailers almost remote.
 Therefore, the member operating between the manufacturers and retailers become more powerful
as they can block the channel of communication between the two. So the dependence of retailers
on other channel members increases to a high extent. Thus the participation of retailers in the flows
of marketing mix becomes lower than desired.

Retailing Scenario - India:-

The retail scenario in India is unique. Much of it is in the unorganized sector, with over 12 million retail
outlets of various sizes and formats. Almost 96% of these retail outlets are less than 500 sq.ft, in size, the
per capita retail space in India being 2 sq.ft. Compared to the US figure of 16 sq.ft.

India's per capita retailing space is thus the lowest in the world. With more than 9 outlets per 1000
people, India has the largest number in the world. Most of them are independent and contribute as much as
96% to total retail sales. Because of the increasing number of nuclear families, working women, greater
work pressure and increased commuting time, convenience has become a priority for Indian consumers.
They want everything under one roof for easy access and
Multiplicity of choice. This offers an excellent opportunity for organized retailers in the country who
account for just 2% (and modern stores 0.5%) of the estimated US $180 billion worth of goods that are
retailed in India every year.
 The growth and development of organized retailing in India is driven by two main factors: lower
prices and benefits the consumers can't resist. According to experts, economies of scale drive down the cost
of the supply chain, allowing retailers to offer more benefits offered to the customer. The retail business in
India in the year 2000 was Rs.400,000 crore and is estimated to go to Rs.800,000 crore by the year 2005,
an annual increase of 20%.The contribution of the organized retail industry in the year 2000 was Rs.20,000
crore and is likely to increase to Rs. 160,000 crore by 2005.
 Chapter 3:- Research methodology

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:-

Review of literature on Leather footwear retailing in general and in specific to Indian context
evolved various problems confronted by footwear retail industry. Leather industry is racing towards hi-
tech, advanced technologies and leather footwear retail outlets are competing to position themselves in a
unique way. The retail market in India is estimated at Rs 5, 88,000 crore, of this the unorganized market is
worth Rs 5, 30,000 crore and organized market is only 5000 crore. Recently it has been observed that the
growth of the organized sector has been positive, but the unorganized sector will remain the strongest player
in the domestic segment due to the cost advantage and unorganized distribution channels. Availability of
the easy and low cost of capital for the unorganized sector has to be initiated. The government intervention
in the areas of finance is required, this should be linked to the working capital requirement rather than
modernization since it is the SSI (small scale industries) and cottage industry, which are employment
providers at the grass root level. In this deregulated competitive environment foot wear retail outlets need
to evolve and implement a strategic service vision not only to serve but to grow. The weakest link in the
domestic market today is that marketing linkage. The efficiency in the retail network has not been
potentially exploited. This is one of the reasons for the increase in the cost of product. The retailing in the
domestic sector has slowly started coming up but limited only to the branded players like Reebok, Adidas,
Red tape etc. The merchandising technique thought retail showrooms in the unorganized sector has still not
developed. Retail training of short term duration, at the institutional level is required to be started.

The leather industry today is facing three C's- competition, consolidation & consumerism. Leather
footwear retail outlets must endeavor to design products as perceived by user as cost effective & need based.
In this context leather footwear retail outlets must identify the needs of present & prospective users &
deliver quality products. Leather footwear retail outlets demand huge investments for acquiring
sophisticated technology and qualified sales professionals for delivering quality products & brands and in
turn expect reasonable return on investment. Conventional & rudimentary practices have not been able to
realize the expected returns. Only a switch over to application of marketing principles and concepts can
make a tremendous impact on the leather footwear retail outlets if they are designed properly. As a matter
of fact, the application of marketing principles has not reached its true potential in most of the retail outlets.
Many of the footwear stores are unaware of result oriented marketing plans & strategies, which will ensure
quality and attract greater number of customers. In this regard there is a necessity for integrating the
marketing retail outlet so as to impose the performance. Marketing has numerous advantages for retail
outlets, customers & in turn for society. These are improved performance of retail outlets, better utilization
of technologies, and improved satisfaction of target market. Leather product's marketing is a managerial
device that enables design, positioning, pricing and promotion of value - added services with customers as
its local point.

SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY:
Leatherwear, it is felt, will be a happening area in future, especially so in the context of increasing
demand for branded products within the country. The footwear sectors are a very significant segment of the
leather Industry in India. India is the second largest global producer of footwear after China, accounting for
14 % of global footwear production of 14.52 billion pairs. India produces 2065 million pairs of different
categories of footwear (Leather footwear 909 million pairs, Leather shoe uppers 100 million pairs and Non
- Leather footwear 1056 million Pairs). The Indian footwear industry provides employment opportunities
to a total of 1.1 million people, mostly from the weaker sections of the society. Out of this, about 0.2 million
are employed in the organized sector, 40 % of who are women. India exports about 115 million pairs and
nearly 95% of its production goes to meet its own domestic demand. Footwear for domestic market is
growing at a steady rate. Per capita use of footwear in India is gradually reaching global average. The
demand for the products continues an uptrend, but more in the footwear area of special interest to youth
and fashion. With the large human population and with increasing purchasing power, footwear industry
needs to target the domestic market segment carefully.

The Indian footwear market is dominated by casual footwear market that makes up for nearly two
- third of the total footwear retail market. As footwear's retailing in India remained focused on men's shoes,
these exists a plethora of opportunities in the exclusive ladies and kids footwear segment with no organized
retailing chain having a national presence in the either of these categories. The Indian footwear market
scores over other footwear markets as it gives benefits like low cost of production, abundant raw material
and has huge consumption market. The footwear component industry also has enormous opportunities for
growth to each to increasing production of footwear of various types, both for export and domestic market.
Most of the leather firms are in an unorganized sector. The small scale industries, cottage and artisans
sectors follow old and traditional methods of manufacture. As production processes are traditional, product
quality cannot meet the international standard. The low quality product with limited variety has made many
of the Indian leather units non-competitive given the nature of the leather industry, modernization of leather
industry requires the following initiatives to make it Efferdent, agile, responsive and competitive namely
to enhance productivity, reduce wastage, increased product design. Organized sector is not very active in
catering to the needs of domestic footwear demand. Internal policies may need to be renewed in the light
of cost of compositions of the footwear made for domestic market. Ethnic footwear is a sub-sector of leather
products which includes handcrafted footwear produced by artisans and traditional families. But today
ethnic footwear industry in India is in a quite miserable state. Lack of standardization, product deficiencies,
lack of innovative and improved designs, competition from organized sector and cheap footwear producing
firms, lack of proper marketing channels etc. are few causes of the problems being faced by the Indian
ethnic footwear industry. The industry has also become more professional, providing product specific
information to buyers and sellers as well as foreign market analysis.

LITERATURE REVIEW:
Jeffrey, in his study examined the trends in retailing, with special reference to large-scale outlets
between 1850-1950 in Britain and also Jeffrey and derrick knee analyzed in detail the structure of retail
trade in Europe 9. "S.S. Dutta in 1972 found out the importance of leather with definite physical, chemical
and biological properties so that they can be used in our daily life and industries. Srinivasan in his article
has thanked the government for many of the facilities extended to the leather export trade'. Sargunar in
1981 in voice journal stated that small and medium leather units suffer more than larger unit’s. S.Aparna
in 1986 in her case study "Impacts of the tanning industry on the physical and social environment" listed
the various impacts on the total environment13. In 1986 the Union commerce minister Mr. P. Shiva Shankar
has observed that modernization of the industry has undertaken but such a programme should ensure
technology upgradation with employment generation. Miguel korzeniewicz in 1992 examined the roles of
Argentine leather production, Brazilian shoe manufacturing and American footwear consumption in
shaping a leather-footwear global commodity network 14. G. V. Ramalingeswar Rao in 1996 has made an
attempt to explore the socio-economic characteristics, business operations of retail business and highlighted
the importance of retailing units in the development of economy 15. In the year 1998 M. Amiti remarked
that significant positive growth was concentrated in leather products 16. In 1999 Peter knorringa informed
that informal artisanal employment conditions effectively pass on overall instability in the Agra footwear
industry to the jatav community (artisans) 17. Iqbal haidari in August 1999 stated that the leather and leather
made-ups industry plays a significant role in the economy of Pakistan and its share in GDP is 4%.” In
November 2000 Mammo muchie recommended that both countries need to formulate and implement the
policies that will move the leather industry from raw and semi-processed production outwards to the leather
products and leather goods sub-sectors ". Andrew Glyn in the year 2004 referred that imports constituted
80% of U.S consumption for leather products, 57% for apparel. Sankar U in 2001 remarked India's
international competitions in leather products may be eroded under some new policy initiatives taken by
the Government. A. Amudeswari and A. K. verma in 2004 reported that Central Leather
 Research Institute (CLRI) has also gained prior experience working in networked fashion with six
of the nine partnering CSRI institutions through earlier programs. Mr. Gautam gopalakrishnan, Mr. Md
Siddiqi, K.V. Satish and Mr. BN Das in 2005 explained about raw material resources, manufacturing cluster
and strong dynamic components of an industry.

K. Hoang and A. Nachimuthu in the year 2005 highlighted that the success of automatically grading
leather hide will not only provide the tanner with a means of accurately defining the price of a leather hide
but also greatly assist the footwear manufacturer in the most optimal nesting of irregular shoes parts within
a given hide. In July 2006 Jici Wang explained that the footwear industry, one of the china's traditional low
technology sectors has been viewed as a sunset activity. Sankaran in 2006 identified the growing domestic
demand for footwear and identified the role of human resources development to enhance productivity. P.R.
Raghavendran noted that India has earned a place of distinction for herself in the world in leather
manufacture and technology. Leather industry in India is developing because the Government of India has
set up the Bharath leather corporation to promote the development of the leather industry.

According to G. Chandrasekhar (2007) the organized retail sector has the potential to contribute to
the transformation of the country's moribund agriculture sector and appropriate policies helping all kinds
of customers as well as big and small retailers. Amatul Baseer and G. Lakshmi Prabha in 2007 published a
paper on the problems and prospects of Indian retailing; they say there are vast opportunities for retailing
in India

Arvind singhal in 2007 studied the economic impact on Indian traditional retailers, confirmed to
perhaps 3 lakhs to 5 lakhs retailers across India largely in relatively small towns, come in direct range of
about 1000 hypermarkets and about 300+ supermarkets by 2011 ". B. Srinivasan Raju and Krishna Reddy
in 2007 published a paper on organized and unorganized retailing. They found the retail sense changing
really fast.

Dr. Musime Andrew in 2007 has examined the retail marketing culture and the theoretical
understanding between the customer and the entrepreneur. The result found by him and the market culture
possessed by the companies was different. K.K. Pandey in 2007 pointed out the revolution in retailing
industry has brought many changes opening the door for many Indian as well as foreign players
 Kamalnath had the Commerce and Industry ministry publish the IMAGES INDIA RETAIL
REPORT 2007. The work states that retail employs the second largest number of people after agriculture
32 Malcolm voice (2007) mentions that the Indian retail trade is growing faster in the world

Ms. Mayavati chief minister U.P. took severe action in 2007 banning the mode, rent retail shopping
mall, keeping in mind the safety and security of the unorganized retailers. In 2007 Michele alessandrini,
Bassan fattouh and Pasquale scaramozzino in their article stated that during the 1990's, many sectors
including leather remained under a license regime.

Mr. Mukhtarul Amin in 2009 positively asserts that despite global meltdown, Indian leather
industry has a promising future in the global market. Juyeon Park, Marilyn Delong in July 2009 explored
the current phenomenon of user-technology negotiation associated with new technology adoption in the
apparel and footwear industry".

HYPOTHESIS:
 Marketing orientation of the leather footwear retail outlets is directly related to the form of
ownership. Proprietorship retail outlets exhibit high market orientation than partnership retail
outlets.
 Marketing orientation of leather footwear stores is directly related to volume of investment. The
higher the volume of investment the higher the marketing orientation.
 Marketing orientation of shops is related to frequency of new products and designs display. The
higher the frequency of new products and designs, higher the marketing orientation.
 Marketing orientation is influenced by number of branches in different locations. The higher the
number of branches higher is the marketing orientation.
 Marketing orientation of leather stores is directly related to brand portfolio offered. The large the
brand portfolio the higher is the marketing orientation.

To test the above hypothesis the study is under taken with the following objectives:-

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

 To identify the socio-economic origins of selected respondents.
 To study the relevance and scope of marketing in selected footwear retail outlets.
 To study the design of planning product mix.
  To evaluate the pricing strategies of various footwear retail outlets.
 To analyze the strategies adopted by the retail outlets for the promotion of their products
 To evaluate the location strategies of retail outlets and
 To suggest ways and means for strengthening retail outlets for better marketing.

DATA ANALYSIS:-
Though the researcher wishes to cover the entire leather industry, its orientation towards marketing for
arriving at meaningful conclusions, due to paucity of time and other constraints the researcher has decided
to limit his area of study to marketing practices of leather footwear retail units in the selected districts
(UP, Vellore & Erode) in Kanpur.
Retail stores can be divided into two categories

1) Sole Proprietorship:-
Stores in this category are owned by an individual. They have unlimited liability.
2) Partnership outlets:-
These stores have two or more partners but not more than. They have unlimited liability
and profits are shared among partners as per their capital ratio.

The Researcher undertakes the study of footwear retail stores, which includes both proprietorship
and partnership. A preliminary survey reveals that footwear retail outlets are confirmed to mainly urban
areas. It was also identified that majority of the footwear stores are located in UP (Leather capital of
India), Kanpur.

Total Leather Footwear stores in Kanpur:-

Form of Organization Number of Retail Outlets

Proprietorship 340

Partnership 180

Total No. of Leather Footwear Stores 520

Mostly all the retail outlets are confined to urban areas.

 Sample mix of proprietorship and partnership Retail outlets

Proprietorship leather footwear retail outlets 220

Partnership leather footwear retail outlets 140

Total 360

To make the sample more representative of the entire district, sample has been selected from Kanpur

DATA SOURCES:
The study is based on primary and secondary sources of data. The main sources of primary data are
the selected retail outlets in Kanpur. Data collected through primary source consists of information collected
through structured Questionnaire. The secondary source of data consists of information collected through
booklets, national dailies, journals, magazines, publications and reference books etc. This study is based on
primary and secondary sources of data.

Primary Data:-
Primary data is collected from the selected retailers by administering structured questionnaires. The
questionnaires comprises of various questions relating to stores. The timing for administrating the
questionnaire was fixed by prior appointment with the store owners. The authorities of the store owners
who responded to questionnaire varied designation -wise from shop to shop. Managing directors, public
relations officer, marketing manager etc.

Secondary Data:-
Secondary data is collected from journals, magazines, booklets, national bodies, publications and
other reference books. They are:-
Secondary data is also collected from various websites on the internet. The websites researcher used for
information is:-
 www.about.com
 www.leathervocabulary.com
 www.leatherindia.org
 www.hoovers.com
 www.brownshoe.com
  www.petaindia.com
 www.lots of essays.com
 www.kanpurbds.com
 www.indian leather portal.com
 www.rsc.org
 www.sciencedirect.com
 www.bata.com
 www.leathernet.com

STATISTICAL TOOLS USED:

The primary and secondary data was collected for the purpose of study and a series of statistical
tools such as chi-square test, spearman's rank and percentages are also used. Apart from that to make the
study more interesting and informative pie diagrams, bar diagrams etc. are also used.

PERIOD OF THE STUDY:

The study broadly covers five years i.e. 2010-2016. The rationale behind choosing this period
particularly is due to the fact that in this period the retail sector in India was flourishing. During this
period many number of footwear retail outlets have transformed their retail formats to become more life
style oriented and are positioning themselves as vibrant and contemporary Indian brands. Apart from that
there is an increase in the upper middle class segment that is looking for quality products.

PRESENTATION OF THE STUDY:

The entire study has been divided into six chapters.
Chapter I: - Is introductory in nature and provides the necessary background on Indian leather footwear
retail Industry
Chapter II: - Deals with products marketing, marketing of leather footwear products and a literature
review relating to this present study.
Chapter III: - Deals with the statement of the problem, need, scope, methodology and limitations of the
study.
Chapter IV: - Covers profile of the selected leather footwear retail units and presents analysis of various
marketing practices adopted.
Chapter V: - Deals with empirical study of leather footwear stores to describe problems
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY:
1. The present work is confirmed to proprietorship and partnership stores in Kanpur. Hence conclusions
drawn from this study may not be generalized to other than these stores.

2. The study results are mainly derived from the primary data. The relative length of the questionnaire
resulted in non-responses for sometimes. Information on some of these items available from secondary
sources .Hence, precision in the results may have lost.

3. The study failed to provide the list of leather shoe shops selected for survey in order to preserve
confidentiality.

4. Retailers gave the details through their friends and relatives.

5. The employees of the retailers gave the information orally.

An earnest attempt is made, despite limitations to arrive at a fairly objective and representative assessment-
inferences or conclusions.
 Chapter 4:- An Empirical Study

Selling is a challenge under any circumstance but good marketing can be the wind in sails
that propels sales efforts past seemingly insurmountable obstacles and into safe lagoons of high
margin and high loyalty services. One early step in marketing is focus. Retail units need to decide
what they excel at, based on a deep understanding of the structure of the market and how their own
strengths match market needs.

Achieving successful and sustainable sales follows a very predictable funnel pattern. First,
the prospective customer has to become aware of retail outlet. Next, outlets must give them the
opportunity to associate favorable characteristics with services. Then, only the customers seriously
consider buying. Without these intermediate steps, shops might often be the bottom player on a
triple-bid process where the buyer never gives a particular store serious chance in their mind.

Leather footwear retail stores are going to grow in importance. One - fourth of the total
footwear sales (i.e. INR 2,500 crores) happen through organized retail outlets, and this makes it
the second most organized retail segment in the country, next only to watches. Specific purpose of
this research is to throw some light on how marketing is practiced by footwear retail stores. The
study extensively addressed the role of marketing in selected leather footwear stores.
To look at the insights of marketing practices of selected footwear stores, the study employed a
structured questionnaire consisting of five parts.

In the first part, respondents were asked to indicate general information relating to form of
organization, organizational set-up, investment, frequency of display of new products and designs,
number of branches in different locations etc. Information obtained was utilized to build profiles
of the footwear retail stores and to know retail unit's characteristics. The study tried to correlate
the form of ownership, frequency of display of new products and designs, investment and number
of branches with marketing orientation. This gives us comprehensive reasons why marketing has
been adopted by retail units.
 The second section of the questionnaire addresses the first element of the marketing mix
i.e. Product. Questions relating to products/ brands offered, regarding retail pro, membership cards,
etc. were asked. The data was classified properly and tabulated to know the implication of multi
branded offerings on degree of marketing orientation and also assessed the role of facilities
available in driving the retail units towards marketing.

The third section relates to pricing pattern of retail units for various types of foot wear
brands, categories of footwear and supportive services. A series of questions relating to price
levels, pricing strategies, personnel behind price fixation along with questions relating to
comparative evaluation of pricing between different retail units, discounts offered were posed to
the respondents.

The fourth section emphasizes distribution of services, which is the third "P" of marketing
mix i.e. Place. The information relating to reasons for location, tie ups with other players of the
footwear industry, role of other modes in delivering the products to customers have been asked.

The last section of the questionnaire addresses the promotion tools adopted for the
marketing and role of public relations. A five point scale was adopted for different statements to
evaluate the attitude of retail outlets on marketing. The respondents were asked to rank various
marketing goals of their organization to compare marketing goals across form of ownership and
also respondents were asked to rank various marketing activities to know about marketing mix
influence across organization type.

The final questionnaire was administrated to a random, stratified sample of 360 leather footwear
stores selected. The proprietary nature of data and the relevant length of questionnaire resulted in
non-responses for some items. As a result, such information on budget allocation for promotion
and other information relating to financial aspects have been omitted from the analysis. In terms
of reliability, there is a tendency of high degree of responsiveness in the sample of retail units
selected.
 The study neatly organized the information in the form of uni-variate, bi-variate and multi
variate tabulation to infer various findings. The study applied various statistical tools to analyze
the information, keeping in mind the relevance of statistical tools.

The study has tested the formulated hypothesis. These hypothesis, if found to be true, could serve
as guidelines for managerial decision making of leather footwear retail units.
The various propositions generated are:-

1. Marketing orientation of the leather footwear retail outlets is directly related to the form of
ownership. Proprietorship retail outlets exhibit high market orientation than partnership
retail outlets.
2. Marketing orientation of leather footwear stores is directly related to volume of investment.
The higher the volume of investment, higher is the marketing orientation.
3. Marketing orientation of shops is related to frequency of new products and designs display.
The higher the frequency of new products and designs, higher the marketing orientation.
4. Marketing orientation is influenced by number of branches in different locations. The
higher the number of branches higher is the marketing orientation.
5. Marketing orientation of leather stores is directly related to brand portfolio offered. The
large the brand portfolio, the higher is the marketing orientation.
6. Attitude of the retail outlets towards marketing leather footwear directly influences
marketing orientation. Positive the attitude higher is the marketing orientation.
7. Availability of different types of footwear can be related to marketing orientation. More
the categories of footwear higher the marketing orientation.
8. Volume of investment directly influences the price of products. Higher the volume of
investment higher is the price.
9. Extent of tie-ups with other players with in the footwear industry does influence sales
growth. More the tie-ups with number of players, higher the sales growth.
10. Perceived level of competition has direct bearing on marketing orientation. Higher the
perceived level of competition higher is the marketing orientation.
11. Marketing orientation of the retail outlets is related to the return on investment. Higher the
return on investment lower is the marketing orientation.
The above hypothesis testing adopted chi square test. The evaluation of other responses of retail
units is made by using percentages and Spearman rank correlation coefficients. To assess the
marketing goals across the form of ownership and marketing mix influence across form of
ownership Spearman correlation coefficient has been measured.

TESTING OF HYPOTHESIS:
Hypothesis is usually considered as the principal instrument used in research. Hypothesis explains the facts
to deduce the problem condition. Hypothesis is defined as hypothesis set forth as an explanation for the
occurrence of some specified group of phenomena either asserted merely as a provisional conjecture to
guide some investigation or accepted as highly probable in the light of established facts. Hypothesis is a
predictive statement, capable of being tested by specific methods, that states an independent variable to
some dependent variable.

Hypothesis testing determine the validity of the assumption with a view to choose between two conflicting
hypothesis about the value of a population parameter.

There are several statistical methods for testing of hypothesis.

The study has incorporated Chi-square test, a non - parametric test to test the selected hypothesis. Chi-
Square test is used to determine if categorical data shows dependency or the two classifications are
independent. Chi-square can be used to test:
1. Goodness of fit
2. Significance of association between two variables
3. Test the homogeneity or the significance of population variance.
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1) Indian Leather-Digest of Leather News, March 2005.
2) Leather stocks may catch fancy of investors: Business Line, 13th Sep 2007.
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Asian News Services.
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2006.
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England November 2008.
8) Foreign trade, leather footwear kicks into shape, council for leather exports.
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organization in a postmodern world".
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changing threats"
18) Leather and leather goods industry in Pakistan."
19) Leather processing in Ethiopia and Kenya"
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& suggestions for policy action- Sankar U, Publication, New Delhi allied 2001."
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22) Mr. Gautam gopalakrishnan, Mr. Md Siddiqi, K.V. Satish and Mr. BN Das "Strengthening,
Augmentation, Modernization and Expansion for Indian Footwear Industry' Indian Leather
march, 2005."
23) Image processing techniques for leather hide ranking in the footwear industry". T. S. K
Mahadevan in 2005 explained the technical aspects that exist in leather industry.
24) China's consumer- goods manufacturing clusters
25) "P. R. Raghavendran, A case study on CLRI in the dissemination of Leather Information", MLIS
unpublished thesis, University of Madras, 1984, p.l2."
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27) Problems and prospects of Indian retailing, Indian journal of retailing, Vo. 2 2007".
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chairman, technapark advisors Jan 3 2007".
29) "Organized vs. unorganized retailing, retail management: principles and practices, Pg. no 169
181, new century publications, New Delhi."
30) "Dr. Mussie Andrew, marketing culture and marketing effectiveness .A reflection in the Ugandan
telecommunication industry. Macarena university business school journal of business and
management research vo. 2, issue, Oct 2007"
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bbd nitm, Lucknow".
32) Hypermarkets, food and grocery segment to drive retail growth, Mr. Kamalnath, commerce and
industry minister releasing the IMAGES India retail report 2007 at a high powered industry and
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 Chapter 5:-Conclusions & Recommendations
The Retail sector across the world is undergoing cultural transformation as the traditional passive customer
is becoming more assertive and skeptical. Increase in the literacy rate, a wave of information technology
and whooping competition are asserting a voice to the customer to demand more varied and fashionable
footwear. Competition, a growing number of footwear retail units, cost conscious customers who demand
better standards of service forced the leather footwear industry to look for marketing practices in order to
achieve the desired goals. Presently all most all the footwear retail units have been looking for ways to
capture market share, expand their business and thus ensuring themselves of their survival in this
competitive market. Behind the scenes of this metamorphosis, many forces— the rise of the demands by
customer, the introduction of innovative technologies, a new breed of entrepreneurial providers and non-
providers changed attitude and paved the way for market driven footwear industry.

LEATHER INDUSTRY IN INDIA:

The Indian leather industry is spread over the formal as well as informal sectors and produces a
wide range of products from raw hides to fashionable shoes. The industry comprises of firms in all
capacities starting from small artisans to prominent global players. Specialized institutions like CLE
(Council for leather exports) and CLRI (central leather research institute) have been set up to promote the
overall performance of the industry.

India ranks first among major live stock holding countries in the world and thus has a rich
endowment of raw materials in terms of the cattle population. It has the capacity to fulfill 10% of the global
leather requirements. Export of leather and leather products during 2004-2005 registered an impressive
growth at US $2,380 million, exceeding the target of US $ 2,284 million fixed by the commerce ministry.
Leather footwear is the most leading product category driving the growth of the leather industry. In 2005,
leather footwear alone accounted for 30% of the total export of leather and leather products from India. The
post liberalization era has opened up a plethora of opportunities for the Indian leather industry. With global
players looking for new sourcing options in addition to china, India stands to gain a bigger share of the
global market. Leading brands from the US and Europe is planning to source leather and leather products
from India. Global players who participated at the India International leather fair, 2005, consider India as
the market to be in. The 2006 leather fair was being designed to focus on the opportunities for sourcing
from India.
 This report looks at the leather industry from both the macro and micro perspectives. At the macro
level it deals with international competitiveness of the industry, environmental and regulatory issues like
PCP (penta chloro phenol) concentration and concerns on animal rights violations, employment creation
and trade related details. It also provides information on the micro structure of the Indian leather industry,
the major players and foreign collaborations.

India has a less than 3 % share in the global trade in leather compared to china's 20%. Realizing
the growth potential of the leather industry, the Govt. of India has been making significant efforts to
promote rapid advancement of the industry. On June 30, 2005, the cabinet committee on economic affairs
(CCEA) decided to implement Rs. 2.9 billion scheme for the integrated development of the leather sector.
Under this scheme, existing tanneries will be modernized and new units will be set up for footwear
components and leather products. This scheme is expected to result in gains in terms of productivity, right
sizing of capacity cost cutting and design development.

NEED OF MARKETING IN FOOTWEAR RETAIL OUTLETS:

The study reveals the necessity of integrating retail outlets with marketing concepts and plans to enrich the
performance and viability of footwear retail stores. A number of retail outlets emerged during late nineties
maximizing the need for marketing products. The study explored ways and means to overcome the barriers
of competition through an evaluation of elements of marketing mix of footwear retail outlets. At this
juncture, the study attempted to remove the abuses of various professionals on retail marketing. With this
study, the critics who make allegations have a consolation for their abuses regarding the implementations
of marketing principles into the retail outlets.

The study encounters various problems and prospects faced by footwear retail outlets in promoting
their products. The reasons for low customer turn over, unreasonable return on investment and soaring cost
of new brands & products and low degree of marketing orientation have been explored through an objective
evaluation.
The study identifies the ways and means to strengthen retail outlet's performance. The study tried to fill the
gap in the levels of expectation as defined by retails outlets and the levels of performance.
MARKETING ORIENTATION-ATTITUDE OF FOOTWEAR RETAIL OUTLETS:
Marketing concepts have been simply borrowed from larger organizations and applied to retail outlets.
Retail outlets have to adopt marketing principles with a philosophy of delighting customer in place of
customer satisfaction. A massive investment in retail outlets made them to implement marketing plans and
strategies into the retail outlets.

A major portion of selected footwear stores though having positive attitude towards marketing,
have some misconceptions in the eyes of retail outlets. Marketing is an activity to increase incumbents and
doesn't influence the productivity of retail outlets. Retail outlets accept the relevance of marketing in
helping the customer to select the best store. Referrals are the result of relationship marketing with sales
professionals and others. Image of the outlet lays in the quality of products, new designs and styles,
innovative brands and a more satisfied customer. Marketing is a tool to create awareness about the facilities
available and specialties offered. To achieve the financial viability and increased reputations to some extent,
marketing practices can be adopted in the retail outlets. Marketing related advertising helps the user to know
about competitive quality services and at prices they can afford.

Footwear stores at the outset opine that marketing is not unethical. Just like any other business
investments in Lakhs to corers are needed for erecting the outlet set up. Marketing is a formidable weapon
to forge competitive edge over competitors, when an outstanding array of excellent products, designs and
brands is within the reach of the store.

Nowadays retail outlets are merging public relations with marketing and are of opinion that
marketing is selling the products by adopting publicity. The element of scientific approach is lacking in the
marketing orientation of retail outlets. Increased competition, emerging number of stores, informed
customers who demand quality products and need for return on investment had forced outlets to emphasize
more on marketing principles. Retail stores have to learn systematic planning of marketing activities to
achieve better results. They need to concentrate on diverse group of activities such as designing the product
mix, adopting approximate mixing strategy, selecting the place, which refers to the channel of distribution
of products, procedure for developing public relations and establishing method for promotion of products.
There is a need to combine a set of marketing tools to serve a particular segment of the population.

How many marketing tools are required to make a good mix depends on particular product/service. The
study has considered 5 P's product, price, place, promotion and public relations. A retail store that develops
an optimum marketing mix emerges as the most successful player in the retail market.
Retail units at this juncture failed to develop an optimum marketing mix due to lack of managerial skills
required for establishing marketing department and organizing marketing planning programs. Retail units
are developing through introduction of the latest brands and designs, but fail to develop market talent. This
develops a greater distance between market talent and other talents. This resulted in the failure of design of
optimum marketing mix which is necessary to out- perform competitors.

MARKETING MIX OF RETAIL UNITS - A STUDY:

Today marketing touches every retail unit. It establishes a link between the provider and user. Marketing
involves a large number of activities— design of product mix, pricing, physical distribution, sales
promotion & advertising, marketing research, public relations etc. Marketing combines several activities to
serve and satisfy customer need while meeting the larger goals of retail outlet. The large scale retail outlet's
establishment with their sound finance can establish a well-structured marketing system, where it is a
nightmare for small establishments because of their diversified problems and limited resources. It is very
sad to say that many retail units give little importance to the marketing mix. The study attempts to discuss
the various elements of marketing mix under the headings products mix, price, place, promotion and public
relations.

Product Mix:-
Products are tangible in nature and the provider also has to show their world class excellence while
formulating the product mix. In the footwear retail units the most important thing is footwear i.e., the
product. Products offered in footwear units are for all categories of people. Now a days the customer has
become brand conscious so the units must provide different types of latest brands and designs. The study
found that many retail units claim to be multi branded ones though they are not. Some retail outlets are
unable to provide all the brands due to lack of investment. This develops a poor image among the customers,
which creates dissatisfaction with the product provided.
In the outlet setup, designing the product mix is a complex phenomenon and has financial implications to
add product/service to the product line. Outlets need to design by knowing what people want to buy from
the footwear stores after considering resources available. What is needed is some common sense. Branding,
brand name, brand image, building that image is important for retail outlets.
Several retail outlets perceive competitiveness of outlet in terms of variety of brands and designs.
Product Strategy:-
Retail units, which market one product/brand, are rare today. Most of the outlets are offering many brands
i.e., they are multi branded. The brand portfolio preferred by retail units depends on various factors such as
availability of trained sales staff, demand for the specific product, design or brand, financial viability etc.,
though the retail stores are multi branded, in general, retail stores are focusing on specific brand/product to
build image of the retail unit. Such a strategy allows retail unit to understand several factors:-

1. Market trend and reaction of customers towards store performance

2. Positioning of competitors and their products.
3. Offerings those are attractive to the customers.

In essence, specialization focus rests on a narrow competitive scope. Retail units following specialization
strategy can achieve competitive advantage. This specialization strategy is a variable option for retail units
with limited resources. The study found that retail units with lower investment are focusing on a specific
brand and are performing well.
Membership cards, discount coupon etc., form part of a brand portfolio offered by selected retail units. The
above things are offered by small to large retail stores. It is a boon, a gift to customers particularly in urban
areas as they can receive desired products within no time.

Some Products Offered by Retail Units:-

Product planning and development is an important aspect of marketing. Marketers need to innovate new
products to strengthen the product line. This holds good for retail sector. Continuous product innovation
encompasses the technical activities of product research and design, need and wants of customers and the
expected demand for the newer designs and products. A footwear retail unit in order to excel has to plan
and innovate newer and creative products and customer services to attract customers. Retail units need to
concentrate on wellness activities. An equal emphasis on creative strategies is necessary to increase its
market share. The study encountered various products offered by the retail units. Both primary and
secondary sources of data have been explored to look into the product line offering of the retail units. Some
of them are:-
Membership cards:-
Retail units larger in size are offering membership cards of different types for individuals and entire family.
A membership card provides a percentage reduction in price charged for products offered by them. The
purpose of the cards reveals that they are not tailor made and unable to meet the needs & expectations of
card holders.

Retail Pro:-
Retail pro is a world class point of sale software system that provides footwear store retailers the right
business tool to help compete effectively in an ever-changing and demanding marketplace. Easy to install
and use, this flexible, affordable point-of service software solution helps effectively manage all aspects of
the store's inventory. It also manages a large range of merchandise shoe assortments — with ease. Keep
track of every item — from seasonal, casual, dress to sportswear and anything in between.
Understanding specific merchandise requirements, one can easily track and manage shoe assortments and
non-inventory related items. Better buying decisions can be made based on accurate sales information and
inventory records. Customers and employees are kept happy with item lookups. Speed at time of checkout
and delivering better and improved customer service is easily achievable.
Retail units can achieve economies of scale by increasing its facilities. Majority of selected retail units have
not installed retail pro due to various reasons such as lack of awareness and lack of investment.

Price:-
Price is the payment that the commodity or product commands. It's an exchange value for goods and
services in terms of money. Price determines the profitability of the firm. But higher price always doesn't
lead to maximization of profits. This may be due to the law of demand that states, demand is inversely
proportional to price i.e., volume of sales will decline with increase in price and in turn reduce the profit.
Hence organization needs to fix an optimum price to obtain tradeoff between sales & profit.
Footwear retail stores in India are operating on a commercial basis in a market place, but don't respond to
classic marketing principles of supply, demand, price & quality. Retail units are heavily burdened with
good intentions of developing quality in products. This is leading to high societal cost of products and is
considered right by many. Quality in the provision of products is multi-dimensional. High quality products
are easily accessible; satisfy customers and produce good outcomes. During late eighties and early nineties
quality competition increased in the retail sector due to technological innovation. Retail unit's huge
investments in creating the best products & services increased non- price competition and in turn increased
the price of products.
The present study initiated efforts to evaluate the present system of pricing, roles involved in pricing,
economic, & non-economic factors considered in fixing price etc. to arrive at meaningful conclusions and
thereby derive concrete suggestions for improving the pricing system of retail units.

Fixing the price:

It is worth mentioning that, while fixing the price for a product offered by retail units, they are not exercising
scientific method of pricing. Because many retail units perceive that pricing doesn't resume such a
complicated exercise as it demands qualified personnel, time and money. In most of the retail units, prices
are fixed arbitrarily, without any consideration of the components of cost.
Most of the retail units are adhering to market price that is a price commonly adopted by other retail units.
A deviation from market price leads to premium price or affordable price, which the retail units practice.
Premium price may also be called as psychological cum prestige price which builds an elite image combined
with the profile of a retail unit where everything is world class —the products and their quality, customer
services, supportive services and many more. Affordable price is psychologically satisfying price which is
lower than prevailing charges at industry level.
Value based pricing is not so much practiced by most of the selected retail units.
Retail units need to adopt a scientific way of computing prices of products and to keep control on cost and
expenses down. The adaptation of economic credentialing will help the retail units to utilize resources
optimally and keep prices much lower than the competitors.

Published price—Informed customers:-

The best way to create positive attitude among customers about products is possible by developing
knowledgeable customers. The more the customers know about price, quality and other things, the more
effective the retail unit. Customers are generally confused and not knowledgeable relative to prices of
products. Retail units need to develop a system of published price to create awareness to customers about
price. This helps customers to assess the prices in relation to his paying capacity and decide whether to
retain with the retail unit or not. It is advisable that the retail units must develop a system of transparency
and develop informed customers.
Differential pricing of retail units:-
Customers can't know the difference of product produced by two or more producers. Hence they select a
provider based on lowest price or availability. The study identified retail units differentiating their products
through price. Differential pricing has been adopted by almost all the retail units selected. But there exists
some differences in adopting basis for differential pricing. In the retail unit set up differential pricing is
lower price than actually designed and is implemented to create favorable impression on the retail units.
Differential pricing is based on type of customer, Payment terms, quantity ordered and referral sources.
Retail units are adopting differential pricing based on all the factors with some variations in the degree of
influence.

Price of products—a comparative Analysis:-

A comparative approach may help the retail units in deciding the best price for the products. The empirical
study has shown that majority of the retail units are adhering to at par prices without any consolation of
quality of products, demand for the products, elasticity of demand, competitor evaluation prices etc. The
study has shown a few retail units adopting a higher price by differentiating their products over the other
retail units. Even there are some retail units offering lower prices to attract and retain poor customers who
are sensitive to price.

Place (Distribution):-
Place is an important component of marketing mix that finds customers to fit the service rather than fitting
the service to the needs of the customers. The primary goals of the distribution of products are
Identifying the locations where products can be delivered.
Demonstrating the product delivery process from customer’s point of view and to define customer’s
involvement.

 Defining various components, roles and interactions involved in product delivery to ensure
customer satisfaction.
 Identifying critical areas where product delivery break downs occur.
 Developing plans to ensure efficiency in the delivery process.
Retail units to endure success, they should locate at a place convenient to the customers as well as to cover
large catchment area. As the physical presence of the customer is required to get the desired product or
brand, the focus should be on the size of the catchment area. The footwear retail units need to know how
far customers can travel to use the service. This requires an assessment of connectivity of the place of retail
unit to other areas.
The present study identified retail units as urban concentrated to facilitate access to connectivity to other
places. Even retail units have developed a tendency of locating units in urban areas expecting a good market
for their products.

Components of product delivery - A study of retail units:-

Products delivery undergoes a sequential flow of activities and interactions between the customer's frontline
employees, support employees. These flow in a distribution channel in the delivery of products. In retailing
structure, distribution channel comprises of people —manufacturer or importer, whole sale, retailer.
Retailers are at the emic of the supply chain. Online retailing, a type of electronic commerce (B2C)
transactions and mail order, are forms of nonstop retailing. Home delivery facility is advancement in the
delivery of products to serve the elite people in the society.

Retail outlet set up has an owner, store manager (to look after store operations). Apart from that
certain divisions like marketing division (visual displays, Public relations, Promotions), Merchandising
(Planning, Buying, inventory control, HR (personnel, trained), Finance (Accounting, credit), technology
are present. In order to delight the customer, retail units need to integrate all these components into the
distribution system. To make distribution system of retail units effective these components must be
balanced. If any link of the distribution system is weak, the result is poor service delivery.
Tie up with other players of footwear industry:-

Growing retail industry and severe competition has resulted in Cross promotions and tie ups. These
gain an even greater significance in the Indian context with the absence of legislation favoring foreign direct
investment in the retail sector.

These tie-ups enable international players to ride on the existing distribution network of local
players and go a long way in creating visibility for the foreign brand. For example, it has been noticed that
Reebok India tied up with Bata in 2001 for sale of its Reebok and Rockport footwear in Bata outlets. Global
brands such as Nike, Adidas and Reebok also sell their footwear in India, either directly through their own
outlets or through tie-ups with players such as Bata. Still the tie ups have not gained that much significance
but definitely growing to increase in near future. The effects of selecting retail units in establishment of tie
ups with other players of the footwear industry are nominal.

Promotion:-
Promotion is one of the tools of marketing mix intended to communicate information about products/
services offered by producers with a view to influence the present and prospective customer's purchase
decision. Retail stores promotion mix includes advertising, publicity, attracting referral sources, personal
selling, public relations and seminars & exhibitions. The retail units need to combine the elements of
promotion mix to produce a marketing programme. In designing the promotion mix, retails units need to
design communication objectives, decide on target audience and allocate budget. After this has been
established, the objectives, target audience and budget are to be divided among different elements of
promotion mix. This is the process of matching the objectives and target audience with the capabilities of
Communication channels.

An attempt is made to known the preference of retail stores over various Promotional devices advertising,
publicity, referrals, public relations and educational programs. Advertising stands first in the footwear
store's preferences of promotional mix followed by referrals, public relations, publicity and seminars &
exhibitions.

Advertising:-
Advertising is paid form of non-personal communication through paid media by an identified sponsor .The
various media preferred in today's marketing environment are television, radio, newspapers, magazines,
hoardings and internet. Television advertising can reach very broad audience, but it is not very selective
except in the variation of audience across channels. It is unlikely to go for television advertising if the target
audience is tightly defined. Now a day's radio has been displaced by television, hence most of the audience
is interested in viewing television programs than listening to radio. Newspapers and magazines offer
selective focus, as they themselves are targeted at specific audience. Internet advertising is only suitable if
the target audience is techno-savvy. Hoardings are display boards that draw the attention of people who
navigate the road. Retail units need to select various media based on the target audience.
The study identified the television advertising as the most preferred media by retail units followed by
newspapers and magazines, hoardings, radio and internet.
Outlet selection of media for advertising should be preceded by research—identification of target audience,
assessment of communication reach, and viability of the outlet etc. otherwise advertising is doomed to fail.
Outlets have to conduct this simple research before they spend enormous amount of money on advertising.

Communication messages - Guidelines for Success:-

In advertising footwear products, important thing to remember is design of advertising messages.
Advertising messages have to be carefully planned and designed to develop trust in the retail outlet. They
need to communicate promises that are possible only. Almost an equal emphasis is given by retail outlets
over selection of various messages—store image, products and brands offered, discounts offered, type of
footwear offered.

Publicity:-
Publicity is another form of marketing communication created by the firm and generated by media to
provide information to the public. Unlike advertising, publicity uses unpaid media to disseminate
information. The content of publicity may not be as designed or the coverage may be uncontrolled. Every
enterprise has direct bearing on social, economic & political life of the community. News media look upon
various enterprises for coverage of- news. Even the firms have desire for news coverage by media.
Good publicity produces good relations and sustainable public support for the firm. Bad publicity is mostly
the result of lack of information and stained relations with media. It is in the interest of the firm to supply
the information and develop an understanding with the media.

The study evaluated the efforts of retail stores in handling publicity and their willingness to share
the news with media. A less number of retail units are willing to release news for coverage. The news is
mainly related to store events and public interest topics. Retail units have not fully realized the role of
messages and other programs in the retail unit publicity.

Retail units must realize that lack of publicity will adversely affect the image and even business.
On the other side, publicity can make or break retail unit reputation and its very existence. Hence
establishing and maintaining good news media relations is one of the most important functions of retail
unit. Every retail unit regardless of its size, location and whether or not public relations department or
marketing department has needs to develop and enforce an official policy to deal with news media.
Public relations:-
Public relations is an important component of promotional mix and touches almost every department of the
retail unit. Public relations programs is apparent in the retail unit set up and helps to create a favorable
image in the minds of claimants of the store. It is needless to say that, well planned public relations will
pay handsome dividends in the long run. The focus of public relations in the retail units must be
distinguished in terms of variety of public community, the personnel of the outlet, media professionals,
sales professional, Govt, agencies, guests, visitors, referrals sources, suppliers and others who are interested
in the retail units.

The main function of public relations is developing and promoting an understanding and
appreciation of the outlet by the public. Public relations must build a strong, positive relationship with the
media to diffuse criticism, customers by providing excellent customers services, outlet's staff to develop
high morale & productivity, referral sources to increase referral cases. The major responsibilities of public
relations are —interpretative, advisory, marketing and communication. Public relations whether it exists or
not as a separate department it is necessary for a store to make appropriate actions and develop programs
to build public relations. The present study identified the existence of public relations departments in more
than 21.42% retail units selected for the study.

The various promotional tools adopted for public relations by retails units are:-

 News Letter
 Leather fairs
 Free leather Camps
 Brochures and pamphlets
 Community programs

Newsletters:-
Retail units release newsletters to create awareness and provide information on various aspects to investor's,
well-wishers of the retail units, institutions & business.
The newsletters cover various features - store's achievements, articles on latest footwear, services, products
and fashion etc. Majority of retail units studied were releasing newsletter with main emphasis on store
achievements and products offered.
Leather Fairs:-
Leather fairs are organized and taken part by very few retails units selected. Retail units may coordinate
with each other to organize leather fairs. Retail units distribute literature on awareness, promotion material
etc.

Free leather camps:-

A considerable percentage of selected footwear retail units are organizing free leather camps now & then
to develop positive image among the public and in turn to enhance public relations.
Retail units are conducting free leather camps especially in the rural areas and are providing footwear at a
reasonably low price. Retail units can show their social responsibility by conducting leather fairs & camps
and in turn can derive good public relations with the community & there by attracting customers to their
outlets.

Referral sources:-
The study with reference to above revealed that, referrals form a major percentage of footwear retail unit's
customers. Attracting referral sources stands important in increasing volume of sales. All the selected retail
outlets are relying on potential customers to increase referral cases.
Retail units are adopting all ways and means to develop good relations with referral sources. Retail outlets
can strengthen public relations with referral sources by giving them assurance of comprehensive feedback
about their customers on a regular basis along with a word of thank.

Word of mouth publicity:-

Advertising and other forms of promoting may be used to leverage word of mouth publicity. Retail units
can persuade satisfied customers to tell other customers. Even word of mouth publicity can be used directly
in media advertising in the form of testimonials from satisfied customers. Retail units can create programs
to reward customers who introduce their relatives, friends & colleagues to the retail units.
CUSTOMER EXIT INTERVIEWS - AN OPPORTUNITY TO FIND PITFALLS:
Retail units can organize customer exit interviews to know about the strength and weaknesses of the system.
Customers form different opinions on the store, based on their contacts with the store personnel, store
environment, infrastructure and facilities.

Ordinarily customers don't exert their dissatisfaction in front due to many reasons. There is no
doubt, a dissatisfied customer will inform ten people and develop a bad image of the outlet. Retail units can
conduct customer exit interviews to know the reasons for dissatisfaction and assure him/her that it will not
happen in the next visit. This nullifies negative impression developed by the customer. No footwear retail
unit selected is organizing planned exit interviews. Retail units need to realize the importance of exit
interviews in building up a strong customer relationship with no extra effort & cost.

MARKETING DEPARTMENT-TO BE OR NOT TO BE:

In majority of the selected retail units there is no separate designed department for marketing. Marketing
activities are organized by the head of the retail unit i.e. the store manager. In some retail units it is function
of public relation officer or administrative officer. Small and medium sized retail units don't find it
economical to have a separate department. A few large retail units are having marketing department.
The study identified retail units performing various marketing activities without having a formal marketing
department. The empirical study recognizes that marketing department to be or not to be doesn't matter as
long as retail units recognize the important of marketing.

MARKETING ORIENTATION AND MARKETING DEPARTMENT:

Presence of marketing department doesn't make retail unit more marketing oriented. But marketing
department is necessary to perform various activities with a bit of professionalism. Hence retail units that
can afford resources can go for organized marketing department.
MARKETING GOALS AND MARKETING ACTIVITIES ACROSS THE
ORGANISATION TYPE - PROPRIETORSHIP VS PARTNERSHIP:
Examination of marketing goals of the retail units reported a high level of agreement on preferences of
marketing goals by proprietorship and partnership retail outlets. Among these goals there is no discrepancy
between proprietorship & partnership retail units. Both types of retail units ranked increasing market share
as their primary goal followed by increasing return on investment and to increase customers. It is interesting
to know that agreement on reducing cost of products and increase in customers is quite similar.

This makes us to understand that retail units are primarily concentrating on increasing market share
and return on investment by increasing customers. Optimum utilization of facilities and equipment —rest
rooms, infrastructure etc., is possible by increasing customers. The degree of acceptance of marketing
activities by proprietorship and partnership retail units appears to be quite similar with minor variations in
accordance with the primary marketing goal - increasing market share.

Retail units, both proprietorship and partnership accepted provision of product / service as their
prima - facie activity. We can understand that retail units are concentrating on increasing the product line
to increase more & more customers.

Pricing strategy is assumed important in partnership retail units whereas public relations in
proprietorship type of retail units next to product / service offering. In the preferential ranking of marketing
activities, image development & marketing planning stand last in both proprietorship and partnership retail
units. This may be due to not having department in many retail units.

MARKETING ORIENTATION - VARIOUS DIMENSIONS OF SELECTED FOOTWEAR

RETAIL UNITS:
Various dimensions of marketing orientation of retail units are volume of investment, frequency of getting
new products and designs, brand portfolio, attitude towards marketing and perceived level of competition.
Retail units tend to be more marketing oriented if larger the volume of investment, more the frequency of
getting new products and designs, larger the brand portfolio, positive the attitude towards marketing and
more the perceived level of competition.

Form of ownership, number of branches, return on investment and categories of footwear have no
influence on marketing orientation as per the study.
INVESTMENT VS PRICE:
In the footwear retail industry, retail units compete with one another by offering superior brands and
products coupled with great customer services. The increased investment in the advanced state - of- the -
art equipment, developing store environment and the higher remuneration to the sales professionals and
other things send the costs of the retail units spiraling. But heavy competition prevailing between the
footwear retail units leads them to both price competition and non-price competition. In such situations
investment and price are independent of each other. Pricing is determined on the basis of competitive
analysis rather than on investment. Another reason may be marginal cost approach in pricing. This method
is adopted by retail units after the recovery of investment made on equipment and other infrastructural
facilities.

SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS:
 Footwear retail unit entrepreneurs are experienced and motivated individuals but are lacking
managerial and technical skills to manage and market their products effectively.
 Several retail units expressed concern over the "intense competition in the market "and how, as a
result, they are "not doing well financially ", they attempted to give a picture of low return on
investment.
 Many of the footwear retail units restricted their products & brands due to various reasons. They
failed to offer full range of products and brands to the customers. This subsidized the competition
in favor of large retail units offering full range of products with all the latest fashionable &
comfortable brands.
 The study envisaged that most of the retail unit’s mostly smaller ones are not providing various
categories of footwear. This is not true with large retail units which are financially sound enough
to provide all the categories and types of footwear.
 Even though many footwear retail units are having positive attitude towards marketing, there is no
separate designated marketing department in majority of the retail units. This may be somewhat
true with respect to financial strength of the retail unit.
 Retail units larger in number failed in developing a comprehensive marketing programme to
strengthen the customer base and ensure affordable products to the customers. They have designed
marketing plans just to sustain in the retail industry. They have not recognized marketing as a
formal function, even though they are practicing various marketing activities such as advertising,
developing referral network, public relations programme etc. Marketing function has not been
effectively integrated into a cohesive long term strategy.
 Marketing as an operational strategy received less attention, hence retail units failed in developing
optimum marketing mix. Lack of professionalism, misunderstanding about marketing and
increased concentration on the development of talent superseded sound marketing practices
resulting in poorer marketing mix.
 The pricing mechanism prevalent in the retail units is very difficult to understand. Retail units
sometimes are fixing price through an interaction with the customer. Absence of published price
schedule with many of the retail units supports the above. Retail units have adopted insidious form
of pricing strategy.
 Retail units seen from the marketing perspective failed to devise an elaborate and well defined
promotional strategy.
o The reasons would be
- Strong referral system established over years with long standing customers etc.
Lack of marketing professionals.
- Investment for upgradation of excellent infrastructure over the years.
- Top priority assigned by the retail units for publicity of brand portfolio and sales
professionals who provide service.
 Retail pro has not received much attention in the Indian environment. Except a few large retail
units; many have not made efforts in installing this software.
 Tie-ups with other players of footwear industry are seen in few selected retail units. This is done
with the purpose of increasing sales growth.
 Retail units are mainly urban concentrated .some retail units which are large have established
branches in different locations of the same city or in other cities, but not in semi urban or rural areas
.
 An analysis of secondary data concludes that some of the products of retail units appear to be costly.
Hence they failed to draw the attention of public.
Recommendation:-
 Retail units need to be more marketing oriented. Such retail units can understand trends of the
footwear retail industry, so that they can increase investment, frequency of getting new products
and designs and add newer products. A marketing department with well-defined goals needs to be
created in the retail units to design marketing planning and to succeed in the competitive markets.
Marketing department needs to be headed by qualified experienced marketing professional. A fair
chance may be given to the head of marketing to interact closely with all divisions of the retail unit
by establishing marketing department, a retail store can capitalize on these trends rather than be
victimized by them.
 Retail units to experience better net revenues need to understand customers, availability of new
products and offerings of their competition. Marketing can no longer be limited to advertising and
public relations.
 The most damaging feature of footwear retail units is they are caught in a "be better "trap surfaces
when they build strategies upon a heritage of comparison programs. These initiatives often
accelerate the loss of competitive edge over competitors.
 In the absence of true strategies that uniquely fulfill customer needs, they cannot produce
competitive edge. Retail units need to realize that doing things differently is more powerful in the
market place than doing things better.
 Finding your customers and creating what they want before competitors do is now imperative.
 Retail units need to develop a well - designed system to obtain immediate feedback about the
performance of retail store and store personnel.. A follow up of customer's satisfaction need to be
assessed by developing and administering a structured questionnaire at the exit point of service.
This makes retail units realize weakness and loopholes in the system leading to customer
dissatisfaction.
 Footwear retails unit's advertising in particular must concentrate not only on encouraging customers
to buy, but also on encouraging retail unit personnel to interact in a friendly & reassuring manner.
 Tie-ups with other players of the footwear retail industry helps in sales growth. So retail units can
think about it.
 Footwear retail units may develop a brochure which provides information relating to history of the
retail unit, description of brands, availability of various categories of footwear, customers services,
prices of the products , easy payment options etc., to avoid misconception among the customers
about the retail unit & its functioning.
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Journals:-
1. The Springer journal.
2. The Sage journal.
3. Innovation: Management Policy & Practice.
4. Technology in Society.
5. International journal of Technology and Globalization.