RETAIL MARKETING

INDIVIDUAL PROJECT

Study of retail mix of BIBA and ANOKHI stores for ethnic fashion apparels

Submitted On: 9th September , 2013

Submitted to:

Submitted By: Ms. Anshita Shrivastava 121203

Prof. Sapna Parashar

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to thank first and foremost my course coordinator for Retail

marketing, Dr Sapna Parashar. She has been a source of knowledge about retailing all throughout the working of this projects. Her inputs and feedback was very helpful in aligning my research work.

The exposure with this project was immense because of her guidance to visit Anokhi and experience a new format. I also thank the store managers at BIBA and Anokhi for giving information and insight into their company and store.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

S No.

Topic

Page No

1. 2. 3.

Objectives Methodology Results 3.1 Observations for retail mix 3.2 Data Analysis 3.3 Interpretation 3.4 Conclusions 3.5 Limitations

3 4

4 11 16 18 18 20 21

4. 5.

Annexures Bibliography & References

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1. Objectives:
To study the retail mix of BIBA and Anokhi. To find out if demographics affect their buying behaviour for western or ethnic wear. To know whether branded ethnic clothes are preferred than tailor made clothes.

2. Method
Type of Study:

It would be a descriptive study with both qualitative and quantitative methods. Observation and interview with the store manager to gain insight into the retail mix was conducted. The questionnaire method was used to take customers responses. Offline and online both surveys were carried out for BIBA, but for ANOKHI only offline survey was conducted from Ahmedabad women residents.

Sample:

The sample would be 25 customers of BIBA and 25 customers of ANOKHI of women of age group 16 to 60 years.

Sampling frame: Only the customers who had made a recent purchase in the past one year were contacted.

Sampling technique: Non probability sampling convenience sampling was used to conduct the survey.

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Data Analysis:

I have utilized SPSS 20 for the data analysis. The graphs, tables, test results are all attached with the next section. Their interpretation is done in the same order.

3. Results
3.1. OBSERVATIONAL STUDY OF RETAIL MIX FOR BIBA
i. Merchandising: The Word BIBA in Punjabi is an endearment for a young and pretty girl implying sublime qualities, so it was the name decided by Meena Bindra, the founder of BIBA for her line of Salwar, Kameez and Dupattas started in 1986. There is wide variety in terms of style of ethnic wear but limited depth.

ii.

Supply Chain : Biba has 120 stores all over India apart from the in store counters at Lifestyle and Shoppers Stop. The supply of garments is from Delhi. There are four fashion seasons : summer, autumn, winter and spring.

iii.

Formats: The store has two entries one for Biba for women and one for the Biba girls section. The store is a premium designer boutique. It is spread over 3000 sq ft

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iv.

Location: The Biba store at AlphaOne Mall was visited and it is a rich neighbourhood district located in Vastrapur. This store alone contributes about 40% of Bibas sales in Gujarat.

v.

Layout: There is a race track layout where the rounders are placed to create sections of kurtis, anarkalis, unstitched fabrics etc.

Exterior store design: The straight frontage is an addedb bonus for its visibility. Only the window display is present. The cleanliness of the store is very necessary because of its image in the mall and premium clothing. Interior store design: The stores layout broad framework is decided at the company level. Only small modifications are made at the store level. There is no themed presentation but the styles are tried to be clubbed together like the straight cut kurtas are kept on 4 way rounders and the long anarkalis are kept at the wall display. Mostly the suits are presented hangers and the logo of Biba is put on the hanger.

Categories: The premium suits for wedding and party wear were the destination category. This was display at the end with a seating area in front. The convenience category was the selling of matching leggings and duppattas. The routine category was kurtis and daily wear cotton suits. The specialty is their saree collection.

Visual merchandising: The mannequin for latest season clothes are put on display. One woman and one girl mannequin is present. There are glass walls to attract more footfall. The store music is decided at the store level only. There was bright theatre lighting to enhance the clothes.

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The plain white walls also highlighted the clothes. The space planning is done to create an image of ethnicity as there is little space where there are no clothes. It is also a drawback for this boutique layout. There is no signage to help customers where a particular style is kept.

vi.

Pricing : Premium pricing is done to promote the exclusiveness of its design . Its range starts from Rs 450 to 15000.

vii.

Promotion : Biba has end of season sales which offers upto 50% off as sales promotion. It has print ads and billboards primarily. Biba has tied up with e commerce sites like Jabong, Myntra for selling its apparels online.

viii.

Workforce : Each store follows a 1:5:1 ratio as told by the store manager. There is one store manager, 5 sales executives housekeeping staff. ( 3 are compulsorily women) and one

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OBSERVATIONAL STUDY OF RETAIL MIX FOR ANOKHI i. Merchandising: Anokhi is a specialty store which is known for its unique hand printed fabrics and usage of organic dyes.As pioneers of hand block printing for the export market, Anokhi has built on these for the last thirty years. It constantly seeks to create an environment in which traditional textiles have their place and value and to build a symbiotic relationship between the market and the design product - between skill and tradition.

Anokhi's designs blend contemporary sensibilities with traditions of excellence. Its designers seek the bold and the striking, the graphic and the colourful. The store has a moderate variety and shallow depth.

ii.

Supply Chain: Anokhi has a state of the art work unit, with more than 200 sewing machines, dry cleaning plants, and checking and packaging units. The company deals with more than ten different printing units and two dyeing units which have largely hereditary practitioners of their respective craft. The fashion season is for one month.

iii.

Formats: It is a specialty store. The franchisee owners have kept the Anokhi brand on the left side of store on the ground floor. The store is called Anokhi Options so it has four other home decor brands namely Apartment 9, Yamini, Noorjahan (from Bangalore), Terra Trading (from Mumbai) . The entrance is segmented into two sections where Anokhi is at the left. The reception is right in the front and the side shelf contains scarves of Anokhi in the decompression zone.

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iv.

Location: Anokhi store in Ahmedabad is located in a Neighbourhood Business District at Thaltej. There are posh colonies on both its sides. It is located on the main road. It has a straight frontage. The location experiences heavy vehicular traffic and is located near a cross road.

v.

Layout: The store is arranged in free form style. The unique fixtures are the main attraction of the store design.

Exterior store design: The straight frontage and ample parking space is appealing. It has a unique fish pond on which wooden steps are made to enter the store. The brick colour raw appeal of the walls with big bulky pots at the entrance set the tone of what is present in the store.

Interior Store Design: The clothes are arranged according to colours. So the racks are arranged like blue, green, pink etc with all designs under one colour. The space plannings philosophy is clear to give the customer a laid back and comfortable experience. Ample wide open space is provided with unique seating in centres.

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Category: The department is men and women, main category is colour, subcategory is style wise, then class is according to sleeve length.

Visual merchandising: Anokhis interior and store layout is all fixed by the interior designer. The lighting is bright and more focussed on the shelves highlighting the clothes. The logo of Anokhi is enforced in fixtures like hangers, door knobs, displays etc. The smell of fresh cotton fabric is predominant in the store. The store has a feature that the perforated partitions allow one to see the entire store in one glance. The store music is managed by the interior decorators team all over India. The flooring is in light colour to reflect the light. Mirrors are strategically placed for trying out items.

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vi.

Pricing: The premium pricing is used and the customers are upper middle class looking for distinctive styles and brand association. The range is from Rs 300 to Rs 18000.

vii.

Promotion : Their promotion is low key and only for niche market. They have a few stores and it is targeting people interested in vegetable dye prints. Their headquarter is at Jaipur where a museum is set up to showcase the hand print style for making fabrics. There is an NRI season during festivals where more stock is kept and regular customers are informed about this by telephone.

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viii.

Workforce : Anokhi has over eight hundred employees employed for manufacturing. The store had a store manager, two sales assistants and one housekeeping staff.

B. ANALYSIS
Table 1&2: For mean for BIBA and Anokhi stores.

This is further Hypothesis 1

Ho: Customers prefer branded clothes( BIBA) for their style.

One-Sample Test Test Value = 0 t df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Difference 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower BC_ [Style] 34.097 20 .000 4.476 4.20 Upper 4.75

The test also proves that there is no significant difference and our hypothesis is true.
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Ho: Tailored clothes have a better colour and design and variety

One-Sample Test Test Value = 0 t df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Difference Lower TC_ [Style] colrdesign TC_[Fitting] 12.661 16.941 21.452 20 20 20 .000 .000 .000 3.286 3.810 4.048 2.74 3.34 3.65 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Upper 3.83 4.28 4.44

Ho: Customers prefer branded clothes( ANOKHI) for their style.

The test also proves that there is no significant difference and our hypothesis is true.

Ho: Tailored clothes have a better colour and design and variety
One-Sample Test Test Value = 0 t df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Difference Lower TC_[Fitting] TC_ [Style] colrdesign 29.445 13.555 13.508 15 15 15 .000 .000 .000 4.250 3.500 3.875 3.94 2.95 3.26 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Upper 4.56 4.05 4.49

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Chart 1 and cross tabulation 1 for Biba:

Chart 2 and cross tabulation 2 for Anokhi :

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Conducted a cluster analysis to understand the profile of the customers shopping at BIBA:

Conducted a cluster analysis to understand the profile of the customers shopping at Anokhi

Number of Cases in each Cluster 1 2 Cluster 3 4 Valid Missing 3.000 7.000 16.000 9.000 5.000 1.000

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3.3. INTERPRETATION
We see that from table 1 & 2 of descriptive statistics that:

Tailored clothes are having a mean of 3.29 and branded clothes a mean of 4.48 for style. The mean for BIBA clothes being considered trendy and fashionable is also 4.05. Thus the respondents find branded clothes more stylish.

Similarly Anokhi has been given a mean rating of 4.44 for style and being trendy and fashionable. It is also rated high on comfort. Again this brand is known for its unique fabric manufacturing. It uses the hand printing stencils and organic dyes for its designing.

For the ratings of BIBA on the retail mix, the customers have rated reasonably priced as the lowest 2.95 apart from this the other store features like stock ,size, display ,convenience of location the customers have given nearly an average rating.

As with BIBA, Anokhi too is rated about near average ie 3 ;on convenient location , stock and reasonable price. The premium pricing of both these brands is creating a perception barrier for the potential customers

We see that from the charts 1 that majority customers are students and they prefer ethnic wear as depicted by the cross tabulation 1. About 33% housewives and students both have shown a preference towards the new ethnic fashion.

We take the data of the membership into an excel sheet and find out the members of each cluster. The most members are present in cluster number three and 7 out of 9 have said that they prefer ethnic clothes. We can delve further into their demographics and target them

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D. CONCLUSION
We see that tailored that the changing fashion trends towards ethnic wear being more preferred is all because of the design of traditional with a contemporary twist. Both these stores have a unique style and identity, where Anokhi focuses only on cottons and BIBA on all kinds of fabrics. The upper middle class is brand conscious and associates with these brands. The footfall is low but both these stores have developed a niche segment catering to their needs. There is an aspirational value associated with BIBA thus its presence on online portals is creating more discount seeker customers.

E. Limitations:
i. The sample size is less than thirty and is not representative of the total customer base of these two stores. ii. The study is conducted with only one store in the city. For better insights at least all state stores should have been visited for comprehensive research. iii. The store traffic could have been analysed to understand the store layout s success. This could not be done due to time constraint.

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4. Annexure:
This questionnaire is for my project in retail marketing. It is about women fashion apparels. So if you love clothes then please help me in my research project!! :) * Required Name

Age(in years) *

18-22

23-29

30-45

45-60

Above 60 years

Marital status *

Single

Married

Are you a *

Student

Housewife

Working professional

What kind of clothes do you prefer more? *

Western wear

Ethnic wear (kurtis, salwar suits)

Rate the following for TAILORED CLOTHES. *Here 1= very poor, 2=poor, 3=OK, 4=good, 5=very good 1 Fitting Comfort Style Affordability 2 3 4 5

Rate the following for READYMADE BRANDED CLOTHES. * Here 1= very poor, 2=poor, 3=OK, 4=good, 5=very good 1 Fitting Comfort Style Affordability 2 3 4 5

From where do you shop most frequently? *

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Choose only one option in every row. Never Branded outlets in malls Designer Boutiques Get clothes stitched by tailor Unbranded local stores Once a year Half yearly Quarterly Monthly

Rate the following for the brand BIBA on a scale of 1 to 5. Here 1= Very poor, 2=Poor,3=Ok, 4=Good,5= Excellent * 1 Always has my size of clothes Variety in colour combination and design Reasonably priced Accessibility of clothes in racks and shelves Trendy and fashionable Always in stock for my size Attractive display Service quality of sales staff Convenience of store location Well lit ambience Proper signage for store layout , collections, tags 2 3 4 5

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5.Bibliography and references:

1. http://www.bibaindia.com/ 2. http://www.anokhi.com/anokhi/about-us.html 3. Merchandising by Grace L. Kunz, Fairchild publications.

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