Minor Project Synopsis / Proposal

On

Competitiveness Of Kidswear Private Labels In India

Submitted by

Priti Roy

Under the supervision of

Ms.Jagriti Mishra

Submitted to

Department of Fashion Management Studies (FMS) National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT)
(Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India) GH-0 Road, Behind Infocity
Gandhinagar 382007. Gujarat http://www.nift.ac.in Month, year

Title: Competitiveness of kidswear private labels in india

Background of the research Private labels are the brands owned, merchandised and sold under the name of a wholesaler or retailer by special agreement with the manufacturer or a producer. These brands are also called the in-store brands or the in-house brands. Kids segment is the most promising in apparel retail in India and the kidswear market is growing healthy and fast. If the kidswear private labels such as Chalk, Sach, Bare kids, Rig of Pantaloons, Urban angels, Street blues, girls rules of Westside etc are made attractive enough to lure the consumers, the brand can increase their market share. The kidswear private labels which occupy less market share in india now are likely to grow up to a significant level as the retail space opens up and matures.

Problem Definition Kidswear private label brands are positioned as low cost alternatives to other regional, national and international brands such as Lilliput, Catmoss, Ginny and Jony etc and are viewed as inferior to the national brands. There is a lack of recall or awareness of these brands in minds of consumers.

Review of Literature Brand owned not by a manufacturer or producer but by a retailer or supplier who gets its goods made by a contract manufacturer under its own label. Private label brands, also known as store brands, refer to those brands that are owned by, and sold through, a specific chain of stores. These products are typically manufactured by a third party (contract manufacturer) under licence. The private label revolution was first observed in Europe and Canada. Globally, private labels contribute 17% of retail sales with a growth of 5% per annum. International retailers like Wal-Mart of USA and Tesco of UK have 40% and 55% own label brands representation in their stores, respectively. Private label penetration in the United Kingdom is close to 37 per cent currently, and is forecast to exceed 40 per cent by 2011. In Germany private label has shot up from 12 per cent of sales to 34 per cent over the last decade. And apart from the multi-brand retail stores, a category of retailers like Ikea, Toys R Us, Zara has also been created who sell only private label brands.

THE ROLE OF PRIVATE LABELS IN BUILDING RETAILERS BRAND EQUITY Although researchers have discussed optimal private label introduction, quality, pricing, and positioning strategies from the perspective of private label sales or category profit maximization, there is little work, either normative or descriptive, that links these strategic decisions to building the retailers brand equity. The following paragraphs discuss some issues that are particularly important from the perspective of retail branding. Category determinants of private label success - What are the category and market factors that determine how effective private labels will be in building the retail brand? Should retailers in different formats emphasize private labels in different categories? Inman, Shankar, and Ferraro (2004) show that consumers associate different product categories with different retail formats. Private label tiers and retailer brand positioning - There are at least four tiers of private label products, ranging from low quality, no-name generics to cheap, medium quality own labels to somewhat less expensive, comparable quality private labels, to premium quality, high value added private labels that are not priced lower than national brands (Laaksonen and Reynolds 1994). Private label branding strategy - Many retailers give their own name to their private label, whereas others use different names for their private label products. For instance, CVS puts the CVS name on all its private label products while Kmart does not. Extending private labels One of the major benefits of brand equity is the option it provides for extending the brand name to other market segments within the category or to other product categories. Manufacturer response - Manufacturers have responded to the rise of retail brands in a number of different ways: decreasing costs, cutting prices, increasing R & D expenditures, increasing promotions, introducing discount "fighter" brands, and supplying private label makers.

Power of private labels: the Hindu business line (2007) Today Pantaloon Retail has 80 products comprising 350 SKUs with five private labels. Arvind Chaudhary, CEO (Foods Business), Pantaloon Retail, adds, The purpose of our private labels is to grow the category and fill the gaps between demand and supply. In the case of private labels there are no restrictions on MRP and this makes it profitable for the retailers who in turn can offer better value to its customers. Private labels help retailers in controlling their destiny. In fact, in the apparel category it is possible for a retailer to have its business entirely driven by its private label.

Many supplier brands are relatively new in India, so potentially have less awareness, and therefore, easier for private label products to supplant supplier brand products. Supplier innovation is often what allows them to stay ahead of retailer private label. Innovative suppliers can come out with new products that retailers havent necessarily thought of. The more market share a retailer has, the greater the opportunity to create a strong private label offering, and the greater the leverage a retailer can put on a supplier.

(Private labels and their increasing importance: RETAIL Rise October; 2009) In India where public is still new to the idea of private brands and still share much stronger bonds with the age old marketed products. The emphasis should be on creating an irresistible value proposition and no chain should create a setup that denies the customer the right to exercise their choice. A coke lover might cancel his whole purchase if he cant find his favorite brand (considering that anyway he will have to go to another shop now), moreover too many similar brands in same category or a single brand stretching to too many products and value segments will also create confusion in consumers mind. If the retailers fall into the trap of using too many private labels, they will end up losing customers.

(Pantaloons launches new kids- wear collection 11 May 2009)

Pantaloons has introduced a fresh new collection of T-shirts and denims for kids. The T-shirts collection, for boys and girls in the age group of 3 to 14, comprises of polo neck and crew neck available across a wide and vibrant colour palette. Pantaloons has introduced a wide range of denim for kids between 3 14 years, available in 10 different styles for both boys and girls. These denims are comfortable & trendy and priced at equally pricing of Rs 499. Pantaloon private labels kids wear brands include: 1. 2. 3. 4. Chalk Boys T Shirt, Red Bare Boys T Shirt, Mustard Bare Girls T Shirt, Coral Chalk Girls T Shirt, Kelly Green

Source: http: www.pantaloon.com

Westside
Style, affordable prices, quality these are the factors that have shaped Westside's success story in the retail fashion stores business. Launched in 1998 in Bangalore, the Westside chain has, ever since, been setting the standards for other fashion retailers to follow. Established in 1998 as part of the Tata Group, Trent Ltd. operates Westside, one of India's largest and fastest growing chains of retail stores. The Westside stores have numerous departments to meet the varied shopping needs of customers. Westside private label kids wear include: 1. Infant (0-2 yrs) 2. Junior (2-6 yrs) 3. Senior (7-14 yrs)
Source: http: www.westside.com

Childrens Apparel Market in India - the Shift in Preferences:

Children's apparel is a market that is growing rapidly today. Trends in the market are fast changing. This article aims to analyze the market for kids' apparel in detail and explaining the shift in focus that is taking place. Children's apparel includes clothing for kids between 1 and 14 years of age Some major changes in trends are taking place in the market for kids' apparel. One of the important changes is the increasing preference for branded apparel. This shift is taking place on account of changes such as a rise in the disposable income of the people and the increasing influence of foreign culture. The other important change that is taking place in this area is the emergence of kids as an independent buyer group. Influenced by mass media and peer pressure, today's kids are more informed and self-conscious. Pantaloon and Gini and Jony have entered into a joint venture to set up a chain of retail stores for children's apparel. Raymond has launched its first store for kids' apparel 'Zapp!'. DS Corporation, which owns the Ruff Kids brand of kids' garments, is planning to expand. This trend is gradually changing and the market for branded kids' clothing is growing.

(http://www.articleslash.net/Business/145682__Indian-Kidswear-Market-Is-Growing.html)
Childrens wear market continues to grow The children's wear market is highly fragmented on a global scale, but its growth is being fuelled by two key trends according to a new report from just-style: retail development in emerging countries and

increasing luxury sales in already-developed markets. Line extensions promise to succeed in the children's wear category, if well executed by the brand. This is due to the fact that parents tend to dress their children like themselves, and will seek to incorporate brands that fit with the family's lifestyle. This second edition study from just-style examines the global market for children's wear, which covers apparel targeted to children aged up to 14-years-old. The report offers analysis and comparison of the latest market trends, focusing on the top markets, retailers and brands, as well as consumer buying behaviour. The report also looks at products, pricing, advertising in this sector and provides comprehensive market data, including forecasts to 2012.
Source:(http://www.just-style.com/analysis/childrens-wear-market-continues-to-grow_id98556.aspx)

Research Gap: Despite the increase of private label brands in the Indian apparel industry there has been less research on the advantage and disadvantage of kidswear private label brands and their future in indian textile industry. Objective: To study the private labels brands in kidswear segment and their strategies with respect to the national brands.

Methodology: The study is qualitative and exploratory. It will include the study of both primary and secondary data. Secondary data will help in formulating a theoretical basis and help me know about the kids wear characteristics and statistics. Secondary data collected would be based on external resources like published journals, books, magazines and internet. Primary data will be collected through observation and sample survey. Observation of kids wear segments of some brands like pantaloons, Westside and lifestyle will help understanding the strategies and prevailing trends. The survey will be conducted or a random sample size of 50. The sampling technique will be convenience sampling. The sampling frame will include pantaloon, Westside and lifestyle in Ahmadabad. The sample element will include kids and their parents. The questionnaires would include both open ended and close ended questions on interval and nominal scales. Scope:

The study has immense scope in the sense that it will help analyzing consumer attitude and shopping behavior towards the kids wear private label brands it will also help study the growth characteristics of the kids wear private label. The study will also lead to better understanding whether the kids wear private label are for consumer goods and will also help understand the future of these brands. Bibliography (Surname of 1ust author first) For papers: Mathew,S, 2007, Title of Research paper Journal name (in Italics, Not in Bold), No.1, pp 186-203. Belwal Rakesh & Shweta, Hypermarkets in Oman: A study of Consumer Behavior towards Store and Shopping Preferences, 2009, pp 86-102.

For books: Mathew,S and S.K. Jain, 2007, Book Title, Place: Publisher, No.3; pp 186-203 Veblen, Thorstein, The theory of Leisure Class, (The University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1899) pp. 38-26.

For internet sites: http://www.........., downloaded on date & time (complete url should be given) http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/services/travel/Indias-Luxury-story-isoverrated/articleshow/5695709.cms, India's Luxury story is overrated, 18 Mar 2010 [Accessed March 21, 2010, 07:33 p.m.]

Note: - Margin (left 1.5, Right 1, Top 1, Bottom 1) - Line spacing 1.5 in the paragraph text - Line spacing Double between two paragraphs - Double spacing at the start of new paragraph - Font size ( Arial / Times New Roman) Text 12 Headings (12 Bold Capital) or (14 Bold) All tables and figures should be given proper captions and should be numbered on the top. e.g Table 1.1 Sales data for February 2010

Table 1.2

Fig.1 Product life cycle