"Vimal" is back..
Reliance is enjoying the bull run on the stock market and both the brothers together have beaten Bill Gates in market capitalization hands down. But anyways, Mukesh alone has amassed enough wealth to make it to the top 5 league. With Anil not very far behind soon we will hear the adage that "beat one Ambani and meet another Ambani at the top". Though Reliance's story is not a very clean one but still the kind of value they have created for their share holders is amazing. One stock of the group trippled in 3 month time and another grew by more than ten times in one and half years.
Well, the stock story needs a lot of discussion so lets just focus on the brand Vimal or for that matter on "Only Vimal". Reliance Fresh has not gone down well with the small retailers but the format is already a hit and timing was perfectly alright as it would have been difficult to follow Bharti-Walmart in this space. Two things were certain. One that Reliance wants to eat into the retail pie and two that they were really serious about it. Just recently they announced their intentions to enter into health-care retail and now the return of Vimal has been formally announced.
It's no more lonely at the top -
Things surely have changed in all these years since Vimal choose to stay away from market. The focus has shifted from the stitched to ready to wear segment. Even the stitched segment is dominated by brands like Reid and Tailor and Raymonds. The retail scenario has completely changed. Pantaloon Retail with it's multi-format retail ventures is big and booming, Arvind mills is planning their own retail outlets and Mudra Garments is likely to follow the Arvinds in their retail foray. And these two companies together have brands like Lee, Arrow, Levi's, Wrangler, Flying Machine, Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Louis Phillipe, Peter England etc which together accounts for more than half the market of the branded ready to wear (men's) segment and feeling the heat of the growing muscle power of the discount retailers and in-house branding strategy, these manufacturers are planning to enter into the retail sector.
Vimal's makeover -
A contemporary logo (which is not very contemporary), Italian designers to design the ready to wear garments (the irony is that those who are familiar with the designer's name wouldn't buy the Vimal brand and those who are not familiar with the name it doesn't matter to them whether the designs are coming from Italy or elsewhere) and most importantly an enhanced product offering were the part of this makeover exercise. The product offering includes Vimal Red, White and Black ranges. The Reds and Whites are targeted towards value segment (people like me and most of my blog readers) and value conscious segment (bottom of the retail pyramid) and the black will be slightly upmarket offering targeted to eat into the market share of definitely the Madura brands (Allen Solly, Louis Phillipe and Van Heusen).
Name or the nemesis? -
I am not sure that the company is going to launch both the ready to wear as well as ready to stitch fabric under the same brand name. My guesses are that the company is thinking about the same brand name Vimal for all the three segments with the color appended like Vimal Red, Vimal white or Vimal Black. The argument is the 'nostalgia' attached with the brand. My argument against is that though I like Vimal brand and their catchy advertisements of the past but still it could work well against this brand also. After all, who wears a shirt bought by his father? A gift may be yes but if I am supposed to buy for myself, I would still go for Louis Phillipe, Van Heusen or Zodiac. Yeah, the one thing which will work with this name is the large pool of retailers and distributors who will be more than eager to carry this brand. Vimal has old connotation about it and as far as I think, they should go for a branding exercise and should create a few brand extensions on the Vimal Platform. Which I think they will do because Reliance is looking at a long term strategy and they are here to increase their retail foot-prints so sooner or later we will see some brand extensions coming out of the Vimal's stable.
Life is surely tough -
There are several factors which can hinder market adoption of the brand like Vimal. Take the fabric market, the whole space is cluttered with new players like Reid and Tailor, Belmonte, as well as some strong old players like Raymonds, Mayur, Digjam, OCM, Siyaram, Dinesh which all enjoy good recall. Infact, just recently Dinesh and Mayur has started aggressive advertising again. In the ready to wear market, it's fiercely competitive in every segment. The ride ahead is surely bumpy but we all know about Reliance. They are expert in creating a market and growing it. So, lets see.
Brand Ambassadors? Who?
Mayur of course has got the right brand Ambassador in Salman Khan which will go a long way in building on the recall of "Mayur Mayur kya hit, kya fit". Amitabh has been taken already and Belmonte has launched a campaign of BelMonte style Studio with Shah Rukh Khan. Amitabh is already endorsing a brand. Saif is with Provogue. So it seems that Amir is the only good choice left. Let's see what their creative agency has stored in for them.
Creating a brand has become extremely difficult these days. The media is widely fragmented and expensive and even researchers are struggling to find proper ways to measure brand loyalty. Only time can tell that whether Vimal will be able to win it's old consumers back but yeah strategically Vimal's makeover and relaunch is aptly timed.
Well, the stock story needs a lot of discussion so lets just focus on the brand Vimal or for that matter on "Only Vimal". Reliance Fresh has not gone down well with the small retailers but the format is already a hit and timing was perfectly alright as it would have been difficult to follow Bharti-Walmart in this space. Two things were certain. One that Reliance wants to eat into the retail pie and two that they were really serious about it. Just recently they announced their intentions to enter into health-care retail and now the return of Vimal has been formally announced.
It's no more lonely at the top -
Things surely have changed in all these years since Vimal choose to stay away from market. The focus has shifted from the stitched to ready to wear segment. Even the stitched segment is dominated by brands like Reid and Tailor and Raymonds. The retail scenario has completely changed. Pantaloon Retail with it's multi-format retail ventures is big and booming, Arvind mills is planning their own retail outlets and Mudra Garments is likely to follow the Arvinds in their retail foray. And these two companies together have brands like Lee, Arrow, Levi's, Wrangler, Flying Machine, Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Louis Phillipe, Peter England etc which together accounts for more than half the market of the branded ready to wear (men's) segment and feeling the heat of the growing muscle power of the discount retailers and in-house branding strategy, these manufacturers are planning to enter into the retail sector.
Vimal's makeover -
A contemporary logo (which is not very contemporary), Italian designers to design the ready to wear garments (the irony is that those who are familiar with the designer's name wouldn't buy the Vimal brand and those who are not familiar with the name it doesn't matter to them whether the designs are coming from Italy or elsewhere) and most importantly an enhanced product offering were the part of this makeover exercise. The product offering includes Vimal Red, White and Black ranges. The Reds and Whites are targeted towards value segment (people like me and most of my blog readers) and value conscious segment (bottom of the retail pyramid) and the black will be slightly upmarket offering targeted to eat into the market share of definitely the Madura brands (Allen Solly, Louis Phillipe and Van Heusen).
Name or the nemesis? -
I am not sure that the company is going to launch both the ready to wear as well as ready to stitch fabric under the same brand name. My guesses are that the company is thinking about the same brand name Vimal for all the three segments with the color appended like Vimal Red, Vimal white or Vimal Black. The argument is the 'nostalgia' attached with the brand. My argument against is that though I like Vimal brand and their catchy advertisements of the past but still it could work well against this brand also. After all, who wears a shirt bought by his father? A gift may be yes but if I am supposed to buy for myself, I would still go for Louis Phillipe, Van Heusen or Zodiac. Yeah, the one thing which will work with this name is the large pool of retailers and distributors who will be more than eager to carry this brand. Vimal has old connotation about it and as far as I think, they should go for a branding exercise and should create a few brand extensions on the Vimal Platform. Which I think they will do because Reliance is looking at a long term strategy and they are here to increase their retail foot-prints so sooner or later we will see some brand extensions coming out of the Vimal's stable.
Life is surely tough -
There are several factors which can hinder market adoption of the brand like Vimal. Take the fabric market, the whole space is cluttered with new players like Reid and Tailor, Belmonte, as well as some strong old players like Raymonds, Mayur, Digjam, OCM, Siyaram, Dinesh which all enjoy good recall. Infact, just recently Dinesh and Mayur has started aggressive advertising again. In the ready to wear market, it's fiercely competitive in every segment. The ride ahead is surely bumpy but we all know about Reliance. They are expert in creating a market and growing it. So, lets see.
Brand Ambassadors? Who?
Mayur of course has got the right brand Ambassador in Salman Khan which will go a long way in building on the recall of "Mayur Mayur kya hit, kya fit". Amitabh has been taken already and Belmonte has launched a campaign of BelMonte style Studio with Shah Rukh Khan. Amitabh is already endorsing a brand. Saif is with Provogue. So it seems that Amir is the only good choice left. Let's see what their creative agency has stored in for them.
Creating a brand has become extremely difficult these days. The media is widely fragmented and expensive and even researchers are struggling to find proper ways to measure brand loyalty. Only time can tell that whether Vimal will be able to win it's old consumers back but yeah strategically Vimal's makeover and relaunch is aptly timed.
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