Brand Preference In Uniform Industry

Brand Preference In Uniform Industry

BrandA brand is a distinguishingsymbol, mark, logo, name, word,sentence or a combination ofthese items that companies use todistinguish their product fromothers in the market. Legalprotection given to a brand nameis called a Trademark.

Brand PreferenceBrand preference reflects a desire to use a particular company's product orservice even when there are equally-priced and equally-available alternatives. Infact, more often than not, brand preference indicates a desire to seek out aspecific product or service even when it requires paying more or expendingmore effort to obtain it! Brand preference is important to companies because itprovides an indicator of their customers' loyalty, the success of their marketingtactics, and the strength of their respective brands. There has been a longstanding interest from marketers to understand how consumers form theirpreferences toward a specific brand. Brand preference is closely related to brandchoice that can facilitate consumer decision making and activate brandpurchase. Knowing the pattern of consumer preferences across the populationis a critical input for designing and developing innovative marketing strategies

A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR BRAND PREFERENCEBased on the preceding discussion, a conceptual model is developed that links brandexperience and brand preference. It considers the basic antecedents of brandpreference and the direct or indirect impact of brand experience on brandpreference. The proposed model has five constructs: the brand experience , brandassociations, brand personality , human personality, and brand personality.

STRATEGY TO INCREASE BRAND PREFERENCE• BrandingOne of the most critical and basiclong-term objectives of marketing isto brand your company or product.This is the use of promotionaltechniques to create a particularreputation that resonates with targetcustomers.

STRATEGY TO INCREASE BRAND PREFERENCE• ResearchOne of the most critical and basic long-termobjectives of marketing is to brand yourcompany or product. This is the use ofpromotional techniques to create a particularreputation that resonates with target customers.Lexus has developed itself as a luxury and statuscar brand for people with upper-middle to upperclass incomes. Target is a value-oriented retailerof fashion, apparel and home goods. Wal-Marthas built its brand on low prices

STRATEGY TO INCREASE BRAND PREFERENCE• Emphasize BenefitsTurning a habitual or routine buyer into anemotionally attached, loyal customer with astrong brand preference is largely based on thecustomer's sense of value. Understanding yourtarget market's preferred product or servicefeatures and benefits helps you optimize youroffering and promote a product concept thatmeshes with the market's interest. As a premiumcoffee shop, for instance, your customers mayprefer benefits such as taste quality, premiumcoffee beans, and fast customer service.

STRATEGY TO INCREASE BRAND PREFERENCE• Engagement\"Engagement\" has become a hot buzz word inearly 21st century brand development. This is theuse of more direct, interactive forms ofcommunication with customers. Personal selling,email and telemarketing are common, traditionalforms of interpersonal communication. Socialmedia, such as Twitter and Facebook, havesignificantly broadened the concept andimportance of brand engagement. Customersmove quickly and exchange experiences withothers in these real-time social venues.

Uniform Segment in India“The market size for Indian uniform garments is pegged at 12,000 crore and it is growing by 10 percent per annum. The uniform garment sector is also witnessing a 10–15 per cent year-on-yeargrowth. While we see a replacement for uniform garments once in every two-three years,corporate/institutions take a longer time, this segment broadly comprises corporate uniform, defenseuniform and school uniforms. Overall uniform industry is highly unorganized in India. Uniforms inIndia are bought by various companies from the manufacturers rather than being rented like inEurope. The main drivers fueling this growth are growth of international companies in India acrossindustries which require uniforms for their staff, increasing literacy, rise in school enrolments. As aresult of these factors, the purchase of school uniforms is on the rise. The leading indigenouscompany that supply School Uniform and Work Wear Uniforms to companies is Mafatlal. Severalmulti national and national companies like S Kumar's, JCT, Lords Wear, The Uniform People,Morarjee, Raymond, Sanctum, Lindstorm and Klopman International have also realized the hugespace in this segment and have ventured into the Indian market.”

Mafatlal eyes slice of India’s Uniform Garment MarketIndia's readymade school and corporate uniform garments sector has a new player - Mafatlal Industries Ltd (MIL).\"We have now forayed into readymade school and corporate uniform garments and plan to touch Rs 500 crorebusiness within the next 5 years only in the readymade uniform category.\"We expect to do around Rs 75 crore in the current year in corporate readymade uniform business,\" MafatlalIndustries President (Marketing and Sales) M B Raghunath said in a statement.Mafatlal's products will be available at the company's family shops, uniform stores and retailers. The company whichsells over 85 million meters of fabric per year, has also launched an e-commerce site for uniforms.Mafatlal claims its s e-commerce model is unique that will merge online and offline business in such a way thatonline will be a business and service provider to the offline retail stores. In this model the online business will notaffect the offline business, the statement said. -Source: Fiber2Fashion.com

Mafatlal Industries Limited (MIL)The Arvind Mafatlal Group is a pioneer for quality textilesin India since 1905. Mafatlal Industries Limited hascomposite textile mills with the latest technologies andmachinery located at Navsari & Nadiad in Gujarat. Thisinterwoven with tradition, innovation and creative designsenables MIL to deliver world class fabrics. -Mafatlal Industries

Mafatlal Debuts Eco-Friendly Designer School UniformMafatlal Industries Limited (MIL), a flagship company of Arvind Mafatlal Group has launched Designer Collection of SchoolUniforms for the coming season. MIL is the first company to introduce eco-friendly fiber dyed suiting in the school uniform range.Fiber dyed suiting have the advantage of uniformity in shades, high color depth and retention and offer over 60 shades. MafatlalIndustries Limited (MIL) is the largest supplier of school uniform fabrics in India.Mafatlal has brought about a revolutionary change in this sector by developing 600 color combo coordinated booklets for shirt,trouser and skirt fabric combination for retailers, school uniform makers & converters, which will give them a wide range ofdesigns to choose from. This makes it convenient and easy to decide on the right combination.Mafatlal Industries Ltd. is now launching a fabulous 300 color pages of a ‘Designer Collection of School Uniforms Catalogue’ thefirst of its kind in this segment. The range consist of high quality of school Uniform Fabrics in polyester cotton blend, polyesterviscose blend, polyester wool blend in more than 3000 designs in shirtings and over 100 shades in suitings.The Designer Collection of Uniforms will enable the school going youth of India to be smartly attired and will revolutionize theSchool Uniform Fabric Industry by offering a very wide variety of uniform combinations. -Source: Fiber2Fashion.com

Mafatlal to increase Production of School & Corporate UniformsMafatlal Industries Ltd., a flagship company of Arvind Mafatlal Group, will increase production of schooluniform & corporate uniform. Mr. Raghunath M. B. Vice President (sales & Marketing) of Mafatlal IndustriesLtd. stated that Mafatlal have sold more than 50 lakhs meters in school uniform in this season, which was 40lakhs meters in last season. For next year, Mafatlal plans to manufacture school uniform 60 to 65 lakhsmeters. At present, the size of school uniform market is Rs. 10,000 crores and yearly growth rate is 15%. Thisyear, most of the manufacturers thought that the trend would be negative in recession time and planned theproduction conservatively, expecting low volumes. School uniform tailors and converters also delayed theirproduction planning but in the uniform market, the trend and requirement are at an all time high. Due to steephike in yarn prices and weaving charges, the unorganized sector manufacturers at Bhiwandi & Bhilwara couldnot produce enough uniform fabrics to cater to the cheaper price market and the same has created a shortagein the market place. As a result, branded high quality school uniform manufacturers like Mafatlal & S. Kumar'shave taken complete advantage of the situation as they have planned production well in advance. -Mafatlal Industries Ltd

Mafatlal to Capture Market of School & Corporate UniformsMafatlal Fabrics is promoting their products directly at school level along with local retailers & tailors/ converters. They areappointing school uniform dealers all over the country and organizing presentations and seminars for school authorities with thehelp of local dealers. Mafatlal is using 3-D computer presentation with more than 100 patterns & designs with the support ofmore than 5000 designs in shirtings and more than 200 designs and sets in suitings. Mafatlal Fabrics are inviting schoolauthorities directly to seminars to educate the importance of school uniforms & the quality parameter. Mafatlal is also ready tohelp schools in development of designs & patterns for uniforms. Corporate uniform is a Rs.2,000 crore market. Most of thecorporate and large public undertakings are changing their uniform purchase pattern from the traditional way of fabric purchaseto readymade uniforms. The armed forced, many state governments, central government buyers and public sectors aredemanding fabric and ready-mades from reputed manufacturers & well known brands. They have incorporated pre- qualificationcriteria like “Composite Mill Certificate of having spinning, weaving & processing capability”, ISO Certification, Test Report fromTextile Committee, minimum required turnover along with past performance details etc. to avoid low quality suppliers. Textile millslike Mafatlal Industries is the biggest institutional suppliers in the segment. 100 years old Mafatlal Industries Ltd. have 2integrated 100% composite mills situated at Nadiad & Navsari in Gujarat.Mafatlal will enter corporate gift business and will offer products for FMCG & pharma companies. -Mafatlal Industries Ltd

Solapur looks to position itself as Uniform maker ofthe countryFor over 40 years, garment units in Solapur have been making uniforms and supplying them tothe country’s school, college, office and factory uniform market. The largest industry player in theuniform segment, Mafatlal Uniforms, has its manufacturing facility in Solapur. There are 1,200small units spread across Solapur with a strong legacy of stitching uniforms. They churn outaround 5 lakh to 8 lakh uniforms every day here but remain unknown. The majority of them arenot scaling up, with the units doing business in the range of Rs 2 crore to Rs 10 crore on anaverage. A few of them also export uniforms. Their counterparts in Tripur, Mumbai, Bellary andKolkata have moved ahead and have been identified as major players in the Rs 18,000-croreuniform-manufacturing industry. Solapur now wants to change its uniform profile.

Mafatlal eyes 1,000 Cr. turnover from Uniform GarmentsMafatlal Industries Ltd. (MIL), the flagship company of Arvind Mafatlal Group, is targeting the market for uniforms to touch 1,000crore sales by 2020-21, a top official said. “We have drawn up plans to touch 1,000 crore in four years. Corporate uniformgarments account for 70 per cent of sales and it will come down to 60 per cent as there is a spurt in school uniform garmentsvolume. We have two manufacturing units in Gujarat that have adequate capacities to meet the future needs. Over the last twofinancial years, we had invested close to 300 crore on capex in these units,” MIL makes ten crore meters per annum ofwhich school and corporate uniform garments comprise about 50 per cent. The company is expected to close 2016-17 with a sales income of 625 crore against 545 crore registered in the corresponding year-ago period.To sell onlineMIL will start selling corporate and school uniform garments through an e-commerce portal from April 2017 onwards.“We will start offering it through our own portal. It will take a while as we have to load huge content for over 4,000schools and colleges” said M.B. Raghunath, President, Sales and Marketing, MIL.

Mafatlal to Debut in Rajasthan for Uniform GarmentsMafatlal Industries Ltd. (MIL), the flagship company of Arvind Mafatlal Group, is targeting the market for uniforms to touch RajasthanState India’s largest state by area. Rajasthan has well-developed social, physical and industrial infrastructure as well as good virtualconnectivity. Majority of the factories are located in designated Industrial areas and Export promotional industrial parks (EPIP) resultingin professional and systematic working. The garment manufacturing industry has been flourishing in the state since more than 35 years.Resulting in a trained pool of manpower and expertise in manufacturing garments. Manufacturers are handling all kinds of Woven andKnitted fabrics like cotton, blends, viscose, voiles, crepes, georgette, chiffons, velvet, jacquard, dobby, linens, cotton jersey, viscosejersey, mélange etc. The State Government has a very proactive approach towards industrial, infrastructure and overall development.Companies have invested in advanced and highly sophisticated Cut to Pack facilities, with advanced machinery from reputed companieslike Juki, Brother, Pegasus, Kansai, Hashima, Barudan, SWF, Gerber, Optitex, etc. Manufacturers are certified with internationallyrecognized industry standards like WRAP, BSCI, Sedex, ISO 9001:2008, Working with the reputed international brands. According tosome study, Rajasthan’s school uniform market is still run in unorganized way , small vendors keeps particular school uniform and saleat fixed rate where parents do not have more options for retails shop as normally it is a nexus between school and vendors. Brandedschool uniform market is an emerging concept in India and Rajasthan as is expected to grow strongly.Branded School Uniform –Branded school uniform is an upcoming market in India and has been witnessing strong growth On anaverage, children spend most of their time in school uniforms Therefore, the comfort and quality of these apparel becomes imperative,Purchase of school uniforms is largely restricted and dominated by local Segment, unorganized players and they tend to enjoy a muchhigher profit margin as compared to their organized counterparts

Mafatlal to Join Hands with Bachhraj Uniform in Rajasthan forUniform GarmentsA joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, sharedreturns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to access anew market, particularly emerging markets; to gain scale efficiencies by combining assets and operations; to share risk formajor investments or projects; or to access skills and capabilities.Bachhraj Uniforms :Bachhraj Uniforms was founded 61 years back, with a mission to provide perfect and quality garments withexceptional service at affordable cost, with a customer satisfaction level of 95% which has helped in a high level ofgrowth. The customers have continued with Bachhraj Uniforms because of our ability to adapt to change, to avoidproblems, our quality control and availability of stock throughout the year. With 61 years of existence in UniformIndustry, Bachhraj Uniforms was launched as an exclusive School Uniform outlet on 19 Jan 1956 with a mission toprovide perfect and top-quality Uniforms at most affordable price coupled with unmatched customer service

Mafatlal with Bachhraj Uniform in RajasthanLooking forward to cover the mass area of the market the joint Venture is looking towards the COFO franchising modulewhich will help in covering the largest area this will help in making the presence everywhere. One of the greatest growthstrategies ever – Franchising, The primary advantages for most companies entering the realm of franchising are capital,speed of growth, motivated management, and risk reduction -- but there are many others as well.1. Capital :The most common barrier to expansion faced by today’s small businesses is lack of access to capital.2. Motivated Management :Another stumbling block facing many entrepreneurs wanting to expand is finding and retaining good unit managers.3. Speed of Growth4. Staffing Leverage5. Ease of Supervision6. Increased Profitability7. Improved Valuations8. Penetration of Secondary and Tertiary Markets9. Reduced Risk

Benefits of Franchising