Luxury… interesting word… roll it around your tongue and you feel the rich luxurious texture… luxury is luxury… there can be no other word for it, there could not have been any other word for it. And who better than India, nay Indians, to know it.
We Indians know how well it rests cheek by jowl with the vaunted snake charmers, beggars, huts, shanties and slums that serve as home, sweet home. A chink through the slats of a hut; wink and gaze out of that chink caused where the weather-beaten slat parts – the one-eyed gaze will rest on an imposing façade where every meal is perhaps served in silverware and fine crockery worth lakhs, where the jewellery collection of the woman of the house could fill an exotic art museum in any corner of the world, where her bags and shoes coordinated with each priceless dress in her wardrobe could draw collective sighs at their rare quality, beauty and workmanship; where the collection of cuff links and ties alone of the man of the house could cost as much as the half yearly household expenditure of someone in another less imposing house beyond that hut. Comparisons there can be galore, for India is rich… has always been rich.
Delve deep into history – the beginnings of civilisation and the discovery of rich jewellery, look back to some 5,000 years back and the love of royalty for regal apparel woven fine and embroidered with threads of gold, of carved ornate furniture passed down as heirlooms, of innovative footwear that have become stylish even today, of accessories like the exquisite paan daans (betel leaf holders), hand fans, head gears encrusted with diamonds: all the fruits of affluence and leisure. Closer to our times we have all read how the first prime minister of the country had a Park Avenue acquired wardrobe, and then there are descendants from families royale of Baroda, Jodhpur, Kashmir, who patronised luxury in all its hues, and among them one is Tikka Shatrujit Singh, prince of Kapurthala and advisor for the Louis Vuitton fashion group, which is celebrating 150 years of its existence with plans to fete the royalty that patronised its custom-made goods. Louis Vuitton was a part of their childhood. All those gorgeous costumes that their regal grand-grandparents wore were contained in huge trunks – all from Louis Vuitton, each piece of which could today fetch Rs 10 lakh or more. Not just customised trunks, there are also shoe trunks and medicine chests that have been passed down to them.
It still costs nothing to say good buy
India is home to some 61,000 millionaires, went an unobtrusive inside-page headline in several of the country’s top pink papers. This is a 22 per cent increase from 50,000 high net worth individuals (HNWIs) in 2002. Among individual countries in terms of HNWIs percentage growth, India recorded one of the biggest jumps in 2003, as per the just released 2004 World Wealth Report. An estimated net 11,000 more Indians were added to the HNWIs list in 2003 – a minuscule percentage compared to the one billion people that the country harbours. However, what is more heartening are home spun figures. According to official sources, the number of assessees in the over one million slab in 2002-03 was 71,000. This figure, which does not take into account others not covered by the income tax net, could well bloat to exceed a hundred thousand.
But what does this tell us for the topic on ‘premium brands and their retailing’ that we are discussing? Nothing new. Merely a reiteration of what has been said and reported umpteen times in recent months: that the purchasing power of Indians, in some pockets albeit, has indeed gone up, boosted by a booming stock market and healthy economic growth. As high octane marketers press consumers’ need buttons, wants become necessities; and as marketers of high luxury woo subtly but with as much octane power, they weave a spell of aspiration beyond aspirations, of that power of being able to attain the largely unattainable, the aura of super exclusivity. The marketing pitch is further bolstered by imagery, events, packaging which help identification of a brand, and bring about that differentiation which marks a luxury brand from any other brand.
So there is that increasing band of people who think nothing of buying a Tarun Tahiliani lehenga-choli for Rs one lakh. “The one lakh lehenga-choli, just goes off the racks in Mumbai”, says the master couturier, adding: “You don’t have to push it at all”. Cost, obviously, is not a barrier. Siddharta Sharma, a top-notch executive in an MNC did not mind buying a Rs 45,000 Armani suit during a trip to Chicago. “I love its feel, fit, fabric, cut, style. Wearing it fills me with a sense of pride. It makes me feel stand out in a crowd. It’s not money wasted. And who knows, if I wear it well, it could even be passed on to my son”. Note the “experience” and “emotion” here.
A Louis Vuitton bag, a Bvlgari scarf, a Fendi belt, … branded luxury goods such as these are disappearing off the shelves with alacrity. “Connoisseurs don’t think twice to pay up Rs 20,000 for a branded gift item or anything between Rs 300,000-800,000 for a dinner set”, says a sales executive at one of the outlets in a five-star hotel. India, indeed, offers a very compelling turf at this point of time for these brands to make an entry: unprecedented economic growth, a billion people showing signs of progress – indicating an expanding top layer of the market, a culture of ‘gifting’ and ‘festive-weddings,’ the fashion and film industries getting bigger, increase in the size of the expatriate community, high growth in tourism and a changing mindset of the Indian shopper. “It helps if markets are easy to identify and characterise, as is with India; New Delhi is considered a good market by many of these brands for being flamboyant, having (extreme) seasons and being the country’s capital while Mumbai is considered important for, besides being the country’s financial capital, being the centre of the diamond trade and Bollywood”, says Pranay Sinha, who has more than a decade of experience in the retail sector and at present CEO, Select Infrastructure Ltd. But there are also many hidden markets too. Prasanna Bhaskar, India country manager for the top of the line premium brand, Louis Vuitton, avers “there is a lot of hidden wealth in pockets like Rajkot and Vadodara, southern Hyderabad, apart from those that we know do exist in Amritsar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, etc. It is very important for us to reach out to these pockets.”
Thus luxury retail need not wait for foreign direct investment or FDI; it has arrived and there can be nothing stopping Indians from buying or selling the best the world can offer. From chocolates to toothpaste, colas to cars, medicines to sportswear and burgers to hotels, global brands have always been an integral part of the Indian markets, increasingly over the last decade. International brand names had always been accessible, so can luxury be left behind? Sooner or later, this was bound to happen; with limited growth and intense competition in the more ‘developed’ world, markets like China, India and Russia offer tremendous growth potential to luxury brands. This is especially so, during a strong economic climate, increasing international travel (read brand awareness) and, in most cases, an aspirational positioning the brand gets to start with. From perfumes, cosmetics and accessories to apparel for both men and women, international brands have been quick to seize the opportunities presented by the Indian market – not just in the major metros but also in towns like Amritsar, Chandigarh…
The difference now is that while this section of the X-fluents, butterflies and luxury cocooners bought their branded stuff during sojourns abroad, they now pick it up within the country itself. It is known that the highest value jewellery sales in metros like New Delhi and Mumbai actually happen door-to-door, and by appointment. The jeweller comes to the house, displays his/her choicest pieces worth lakhs, and the payment is in whichever way is convenient for both. Thus wallets at Rs 35,000 and Rs 4,50,000 ear-rings are quietly stealing a march into urban India. The last festive season saw some 1,000 sq ft outlets outselling even the 20,000 square-footers, as luxury retail ventured out of the closet. From Louis Vuitton accessories to Tiffany pendants, clothes by Hugo Boss, Ermenegildo Zegna, Burberry, Canali and the likes, watches by Girard-Perregaux, Jean Richard, Cartier and Bvlgari, perfumes, jewellery, ties, shoes, everything suddenly seemed to be available, and sold surpassing all expectations.
Look at the hype generated by the lavish scale of the Mittal wedding, and many others of the sons and daughters of other industrialists, politicians, real estate owners, retail chain owners or those birthday bashes that frequent Page Three circles. For each Page Three bash there are some hundreds that get organised in perhaps a larger scale in second grade towns and cities that are witnessing the urban sprawl. Count the number of 1000 cc cars that whiz in the streets of your town anywhere across the country? Where they there, say, some two-three-five years back? How many, among your social circle of friends have availed of a packaged trip abroad, then and now? Hackeneyed this may sound, but the rule: have money, will flaunt has only got stronger over the years. Following close on its heels is, have space, will occupy! There are many clamouring to be a part of the 40 million sq ft of retail space that is expected in the next two years or so. This does not take into account the kind of space that five-star hotels are planning.
Brand walk
We have reached a stage where brands are more than willing to come in and set up shop here. “Not that there has been anything new in the entry of global brands. They have been here since colonial times – from toothpastes to soaps to Dettol to shoe polish... In the premium apparel sector, however, it started in the early Nineties”, says Sinha, who was earlier heading retail practice for Jones Lang LaSalle in India. The luxury connection was always strong. So it wasn’t a surprise when Vama, a luxury saree house, decided to test the market and retail in Mumbai for the first time the Italian fashion brand, Benetton. Similar was the case with Levi’s. “Vama also did the reverse by taking on Indian brands. It opened a J J Valaya store in the heart of South Mumbai. Now it also has Suneet Verma. And, when Grand Hyatt came up it used Vama as an anchor store”, he adds. In between and thereafter there was a veritable parade as more and more international brands started scouting around for a presence in the Indian market.
Past imperfect, happening present
As brands came in, in a trickle, there were little pockets here and there across the country serving the elite with exotic jewellery, exquisite apparel et al, like Gazdar in Mumbai which has been around since 1930 and earned a reputation for itself as the Tiffany’s of India, or Indian Textiles that sold sarees for a lakh even much before fashion designers came into the picture. This store was haunted by people from across the globe looking for unique fabrics and jewellery. Most of the purchases for this class of society were, however, largely done during travels abroad. Come the mid Eighties and the economy was beginning to ease up a wee. The purchasing power of people had gone up. But, apart from the few corners scattered in one or two metros, there wasn’t much that offered a great shopping experience. A group of sophisticated ladies felt this need for a classy shopping complex selling elegance and chic. The women from the Air Force Wives Welfare Association set up the Santushti Shopping Complex in the mid Eighties. The rentals here were reasonable and there was ample parking space. Though a little dated now, Santushti actually gave Delhi its first taste of luxury. It had Rajesh Pratap Singh, the exclusive clothing store, Christina, and the likes of Escada brought in by Feroze Gujral. Alongside there was also this group of designers from the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) who were beginning to create a buzz in the Indian fashion scene. 1MG in New Delhi came up when some designers like Rajesh Pratap, Abraham and Thakore and Neeru Kumar from Tulsi – all from Santushti – wanted to expand. After 1MG, Courtyard opened shop in South Mumbai at Colaba. This again was the creation of some fashion designers from Delhi and Mumbai.
Quietly, reticent cricketer Dilip Doshi, who had hung his flannels for good, and was known for his fine tastes, set up Felicitous, a gift store, sometime in the late Nineties in the tower wing of the Taj Palace in Mumbai. He also had a Mont Blanc outlet here which was later shifted to a bigger store in the Palace wing. In the meantime he also brought in Girard-Perregaux watches and subsequently added a few more to his kitty. The watch market had begun to pick up in the Nineties. Rauf Ansari’s Regent was already in Mumbai at the Taj and New Delhi had Kapoor Watch Company among others. Many more brands were beginning to come in. But, the only place that these big brands could find the right atmosphere to sell was the five-star shopping arcades. “We all go looking for the right space and end up in a five-star hotel”, complains Ravi Chawla of Ravissant, who must be counted among the pioneers who imported luxury for Indians. The business of housing five star brands in the five-star ambience of such hotels perhaps took off from the Taj Mumbai, which was born out of Jamshedji N Tata's dream to set up a hotel that could be counted among the world’s best. The story that he was once disallowed entry in a hotel because of the colour of his skin is part of folklore. The Taj has always been the seat of luxury in India. When films were just happening, the Taj reception would have today’s sepia-toned posters adorning the Taj lobby.
Where and when was luxury missing from India? It may have ebbed in between, but the high tide is just about beginning.
The luxury of the brand
But, how do you define a luxury brand? Is it only a high price tag? Or, are there other attributes that spell luxury when associated with a brand? Or, is it that with highly disposable incomes and with marketers allowing just about everyone to buy whatever they fancy with payment in instalments and, very often, zero per cent interest, a clear shift is emerging – brands that are available on discounts or payment in instalments and the no-discount, no-instalment brands. The ‘Luxury Market Report 2003: Who buys luxury, what they buy, why they buy’, says: “The luxury market today is you, me, and everyone”. Therefore, the best option for brand marketers is to add more luxury value to their products. “With everyone else jumping on the discounting bandwagon, marketing and brand strategists must swim against the tide and find a direction in luxury: move your brand up market, adding more value to the consumer by making it more premium, more special, more exclusive, more luxury”. According to the report by Pam Danziger of Unity Marketing, a US-based marketing research and consulting firm that specialises in consumer insights for luxury marketers, “luxury is for everyone and different for everyone… In the coming years the luxury market is going to hold the most promise for marketers across the whole spectrum of price points… wherever you sell your products, the consumer wants to experience that special feeling of luxury.”
The concept of luxury brand performance connects both the intrinsic definitions of luxury – quality performance, design performance, uniqueness – with the experiential: how the brand makes the consumer feel and the way they experience luxury. “Luxury marketers not only need to design and produce ‘best of the best’ products, they need to make sure that their products also deliver the emotional, experientiel satisfactions that the luxury consumer desires. It is through performance that ‘old luxury,’ encompassing the thing, is transformed into ‘new luxury’ that delivers the experience, the emotion to the consumer.”
“Consumers seek a new equilibrium between the roles they play in their inner and external worlds”, according to Danziger. Integrating findings from qualitative and quantitative research, she discovered a psychographic segment that she calls “butterflies”. “While distinctions between the luxury segments are subtle, the butterflies stood out as the most evolved consumers, with the most mature perspective on their position as luxury consumers. For them having wealth carries social responsibilities. They don't necessarily feel guilty about having so much, but they are not solely focused on their own inner life and personal identity, rather they are equally concerned with their position in society.”
Stressing that “connecting” is the key word that characterises the new dominant trend in the consumer market today, she adds: “Like butterflies emerging from their cocoon, consumers today are searching for more meaning in their lives. No longer preoccupied with self-centred materialism, buying more and more things to feather their ‘nests’, consumers are turning their focus to the external world. They are looking for ways to link up and forge meaningful relationships with others in their social sphere. Today, cocooning is dead, as the age of connecting takes hold… This new connectedness is all about linking up with the world through the media, travel, and electronic networks. It’s about becoming a part of something bigger than one’s own narrowly defined inner landscape. In other words, luxury cocooners are disconnected. Butterflies are connected.”
The implications of the shift from cocooning to connectedness for marketers are profound. "For marketers the single biggest challenge is that we must truly connect with our consumers by developing an ongoing, meaningful, two-way dialogue with customers, potential customers, and future customers. In the past, advertising and public relations, both one-way communications originating from the company, have dominated. But with the Internet, company web sites will become the central hub for two-way communication with customers. Every point of contact between a brand and the consumer must be reconfigured for two-way interconnectedness and new methods of communications must be established between customers, retailers, distribution partners and the company," Danziger adds.
The luxury of money
But, who buys luxury? The Luxury Market Report delineates a psychographic profile of the four key types of luxury consumers. These include:
- X-Fluents (Extremely Affluent) who spend the most on luxury and are most highly invested in luxury living;
- Butterflies, the most highly evolved luxury consumers who have emerged from their luxury cocoons with a passion to reconnect with the outside world. Powered by a search for meaning and new experiences, the butterflies have the least materialistic orientation among the segments, yet they spend nearly as much as the X-Fluents on luxury;
- Luxury Cocooners who are focused on hearth and home. They spend most of their luxury budgets on home-related purchases;
- Aspirers, those luxury consumers who have not yet achieved the level of luxury to which they aspire. They are highly attuned to brands and believe luxury is best expressed in what they buy and what they own.
While this report studies the US market, how true does it hold for India? Very true indeed, what with the mall sprawl revolutionising not just the country’s skyscape but also shopping habits. All this has been triggered largely thanks to the entry of MNCs that led to bigger pay packets, the IT boom, BPO boom, nuclearisation of families with both members earning, an increasingly younger “aspiring” population, that has a bigger percentage of Indians equipped with more purchase power than they ever could have imagined. This has also led to the emergence of that breed of aspirers and luxury cocooners who revel in spending, but definitely looking for value for money. It is this breed that very easily demolishes the myth that Indians, who are too value-conscious, don’t know how to spend!
Chawla has an interesting story to narrate. ”Some fifteen years back when we had brought Cartier to India, we organised a small event to showcase the watches, to make people aware of what this brand is all about. Mind you, all those who came were people of the world, quite with it, regular customers of Ravissant. But they were shocked to see that a watch could cost Rs 3 lakh. The amazement was amazing. Nobody was interested in the watch per se and the people would go back – enthralled at ‘how expensive it was’ and then of course its beauty. Having money is not the only criteria, it’s important for people to be aware of brands and know what they stand for,” he stresses.
Bhaskar delineates the Indian luxury brand purchaser into three tiers: The first is the traditional Indian businessperson, a discreet buyer who knows what he/she is looking for. This is followed by the second generation of businesspersons who are also discreet but revel in the power they wield. The third is the nouveau riche who has acquired money through new economy business. “They are the high fashion types, who love to flaunt what they have”. The fourth category is the corporate buyer, which, as of now is a very small segment and it will take another four-five years to grow into as large a market as say in Hong Kong. The corporates here are more focused on the social sector like education, housing or even sports.
And so most of these premium brands have a database of some 1,000-4,000 members who are sent mailers about product launches. Besides, there are also one-on-one meetings and events. Some brands like Louis Vuitton even have a group of fashion icons as their opinion leaders. “Once they start patronising a brand, the rest is easy to follow,” says Bhaskar, who laments the lack of a proper environment and talent that is a strong requisite to help market luxury brands.
Retelling luxury
Ever seen even a butterfly flap its wings in the exotic retail outlets of five star hotels? I have rarely. The salespeople invariably look oh-so-bored and the sanitised environment is quite “a put-off”. But business they do generate and profitably so, if the number of foreign brands that have made an entry into the country, and the many more that are set to enter, is any mark to show the growing scale of the market. Louis Vuitton, which opened its first outlet in February last year, is all set to break even this year and even open its flagship store in Mumbai in September. Hugo Boss, which retails socks at Rs 950-1,300 – the lowest priced product, and suits for men beginning at Rs 39,900-66,000, has “achieved more than we expected”. Euro Traditions that has brought in brands like Dolce & Gabbana, Dior among several others, has also recorded a 20-25 per cent growth, according to Varun Grover, regional head – North/East.
The country need not really wait for FDI. FDI may wait, but luxury will not. The market here may not be as big as in China or Japan, but India is a unique market, even in terms of luxury as it is for so many other things. You may get a Chanel outfit for less than a Tarun Tahiliani ensemble.
That India could well emerge as a retail powerhouse cannot be discounted. As the market evolves, there will emerge retailers beyond the Rs 1,000 crore mark. Under the circumstances, it would not be wrong to say that the premium luxury market is at the threshold of a boom. Now pegged at Rs 2,500 crore, the premium fashion market – for both men and women – comprising apparel, lingerie, accessories, cosmetics, jewellery and footwear, has been growing steadily at 20 per cent. The growth for home fashion is at the same rate, though estimated at Rs 250 crore.
So while large format retailers like Lifestyle, Shoppers’ Stop, Pantaloon and the like offer shop-in-shops for the Christian Dior range of perfumes, watches, or Swatch and Esprit watches, designer jewellery etc, the five-star hotels house Louis Vuitton, Hugo Boss, Tiffany, Bvlgari, Aigner, Daks, Mont Blanc, etc, that are coughing up anything between
Rs 450-850 per sq ft, depending on the city and premises. Hotels have realised the potential of this market. Recently, the ITC Maurya Sheraton in New Delhi shifted its pastry shop from a key corner of its usually bustling foyer to a quieter cul-de-sac. In its place came The Regent, a store selling some of the world’s costliest watches, from Cartier and Audemars Piguet to the limited edition Swiss brand DeLaneau. And Mont Blanc — already occupying a niche at the Maurya — has been given half the ground floor space once reserved for Khazana in the Taj Mahal, Delhi, though the latter is the group’s own brand. Louis Vuitton, as stated before, will soon be marking its entry into Mumbai in the sea-facing corridor of the Taj.
No wonder that hotel foyers are now prime retail space, and managements are looking at configurations to accommodate high-end brands, says Sinha. As of now there are five hotspots in the country as far as luxury retailing goes – the Taj and Grand Hyatt, Mumbai, Oberoi and Maurya Sheraton, New Delhi, and the Leela, Bangalore. While many of the outlets are looking to expand to other cities, some 20 more international brands are in waiting or at the negotiation stage, all set to put up shop. The hotspots in Mumbai are Vama, Taj, and Courtyard in the south. The Grand Hyatt, with a retail centre focused on HNWIs, is all set to emerge as a hotspot in another two-three months. In New Delhi the emerging hotspots are Saket Dome (see Box) and the Taj Mahal Hotel which is undergoing renovations.
But, are the hotel arcades the best place for these luxury brands? A host of people who have been in the business of bringing in international brands rue the lack of a right environment. “The brands we bring are too strong for a mall. We all go looking for the right space and end up in a five-star hotel”, complains Chawla, whose Ravissant boasts of a clientele that includes the Gandhis, Ambanis, Nandas, Godrej’, Munjals and the like. Ravissant has also taken up franchisees for L’Occitane, Rosenthal, Royal Doulton, Wedgewood, Bvlgari tableware, Versace and the renowned Jacque Dessange salons in Mumbai and Delhi, apart from inhouse silver, fashionwear, and home products. Bhaskar echoes his views. “We are forced to choose hotel arcades in the absence of an appropriate luxury market.”
Challenges ahead
What is it that a retailer needs to know before setting up a luxury retail space?
All those factors of enabling consumers experience an experience is critical to succeeding as a luxury retailer. “In our country”, says Sinha, “luxury was being delivered like a lavish song in scattered nooks and corners of the country like at the 30,000 sq ft area in New Friend's Colony or Carma in Mehrauli. Geographically the surroundings were fine, but lookswise terrible. However, once you stepped within, the transformation was a pleasant surprise and people didn’t mind. Indians are used to the lack of a decent civic environment. Luxury works on the streetside in other countries, because they know how to look after their streets. But show one Indian street, which we know how to look after? Let’s face it. We don’t know how to look after our physical environment. It’s only in a controlled environment that we are able to create any kind of a decent experience. We don't have any policy against beggars that may be enforced. People are at ease with that chaos and they enjoy their life with that chaos”. But it doesn't go with luxury.
Secondly, there is the factor of security. This is big money that exchanges hands. Not just money, security is important even for the stores, and the confidentiality between the shopper and the shopkeeper. It is vital for a retailer to respect these aspects of retailing if he's trying to figure out luxury. It is very easy for Indian retailers to overlook these things, because they continue to feel that India will continue to be the same and continue to flock the shops on the street. Here, however, we are not talking of the 90 per cent who come from a typically FMCG background, catering to the mass market. One needs to bring in professional retailers into retailing of luxury. They must be comfortable with luxury themselves. And that’s the reason one finds that most in the business of retailing have backgrounds like international MBAs, wives of industrialists, industrialists themselves, celebrities, models, people like Louis Vuitton’s Shatrujit Singh or Ravissant’s Chawla, or Fahiman Mirchandani and Suresh Miranda who brought into the country some of Europe’s biggest names such as Christian Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Moschino, Ted Lapidus, Gianfranco Ferre, Perry Ellis, La Prairie, or former model Anna Bredmeyer who's just moved from Tiffany’s to Canali, professionals like Bhaskar who's worked in several countries, Raj Nayar who came from Zegna overseas to Zegna India, or Simrita Dhillon who was with Zegna.
One of the challenges that the luxury retail industry is facing in the country is actually people. “A luxury model in terms of an organisation is a very niche market. Retail per se is not the preferred occupation. Till FDI in retail is allowed, business graduates would not want to join retail. And this trade needs people who are comfortable with luxury, who understand what it is all about and not be in awe of it,” contends Bhaskar. Louis Vuitton, she informs, is trying to hold workshops in some business schools on the art of luxury retailing.
It is also very important for a retailer to figure out that gap in the market, figure out which brand one wishes to market and also which brand wants to come into the market (Chart 1). And, having identified that, the other problem that crops up is that of retail real estate – which brand will work where, whether the retailer will be able to buy the product legally and sell it, or decide whether to manufacture the product in India and sell it with an international brand name. You can be a re-seller, master franchisee with rights to bring the brand into the country and then go into sub-franchising or plain Jane expansion like Mango or M&S, or be a retailer like Doshi’s Entrack which represents several international brands in the country, or like Daks Simpson which has been brought here by Forbes Gokak. A foreign company cannot invest in the retail market but it can supply goods on preferred terms, principles. They are able to charge royalty and cost of construction. These are the investments they can make which don't fall under FDI. So a retailer can actually get someone to spend 1 crore on interiors and also get the person to sell the goods at a preferred rate.
It is not all hunky dory here. Problems there will be. But, which business in which country comes without its share of hurdles? Space, strategy, human resources – these are the three crucial areas that need to be negotiated smartly and with dexterity. Sometimes a good buy could also equal a good bye. India is a country very aware of what the buzz is in New York or London – be it theatre, arts, fashion or cinema. So, don’t bring in stuff that has already been rejected. For, failure will then certainly be yours.
The horizon
A market that has the potential to grow at 50 per cent as opposed to the growth at 20 per cent that it has been cruising along for quite sometime now. A market waiting for a boom. Good enough. But, this is also a market thirsty for innovation, for new ideas, for dare-doers. Now is the time for it. Now is the time to go for the kill. India’s first seamless mall, Bangalore Central, has tried out the Selfridges concept. How far it will succeed, the coming months will unfold. But, it reflects the gumption to do something new, something untried in the Indian market. Are large format retailers thinking of providing an exclusive ambience for premium brands? What about some new marketing strategies in a rare, exclusive ambience? Retailers need to put their thinking caps on and lure the ever askin’ for more premium brigade. Some five-six years down the line, one can expect at least 4-6 Indian cities counted among the top 100 locations in the world in terms of luxury spend. A saturated, developed world is knocking hard on India’s doors. 2005 will see us move towards a free economy. India will have to open up further. Under such circumstances, the market can only get better. There is space also for a lot many players. Hoteliers are creating space for luxury, developers are competing with hoteliers. The time is ripe now. Sow to reap!
