Design & Branding

A Project Report submission to

Data IQ School of Analysis

Submitted By
VAISHALI KIRAN

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 ABSTRACT

This report provides a brief analysis of the brand ALLEN SOLLY and its
competitors like UCB, U.S.PA., United Colors of Benetton, Tommy Hilfiger,
Levis, etc.
The internship is based on a 4-week approach to understand how this brand
works and functions in different aspects.
Week1 includes the purpose of this project was to evaluate the strategic
direction of the competitor brands by doing a competition mapping. In
addition to that, we understand the purpose of brands and to highlight a
brand that we identify or share values with in Week 2. We also present a
new design proposal for a product of our chosen brand in Week 3 and for
Week 4 we identify and suggest new key influencers that fit in with the brand
and understand the importance of community engagement and events.

Keywords: Brand and Authenticity, Product Design and Craft, Digital

Marketing, Community Building

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank my mentor at DataIQ School of Analysis; for giving

invaluable feedback and guidance on this project throughout my internship.
It was a great learning experience throughout to see one of the most well-
planned and advanced apparel brands in the country along with being able
to work on a live project, that very few have the opportunity to do
I also take the opportunity to thank all the people who guided me through the
entire process, and fellow participants of this live project who have imparted
the necessary knowledge and skills that I required to complete my Live
Internship.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
S.No. TOPIC Page No.
1. Objective 5
2. Background 5
3. Chosen Brand 6
4. Company Profile 6
5. Division of Analysis According to weeks 7-66
a. WEEK 1 TASK 7-16
i) TASK1 (Brand Positioning) 7-9
ii) TASK 2 (Analyzing the Positioning 9-14
Strategy)
iii) TASK 3 (Perceptual Mapping) 15-16

b. WEEK 2 TASK 16-23

i) TASK 1 (Creating Brand Positioning 20-21
Statement)
ii) TASK 2 (Creating Tagline) 22
iii) Product design and craft 22-23

c. WEEK 3 TASK 23-38

i) TASK 1 (Evaluate Brand Positioning 23-33
Strategy- 14 criteria)
ii) TASK 2 (Marketing Strategies) 33-37
iii) TASK 3 (Go To Market Strategy) 37-38

d. WEEK 4 TASK 38-66

i) TASK 1 (Porter’s Five Forces for Allen 38-45
Solly)
ii) TASK 2 (Marketing Mix) 46-62
iii) TASK 3 (Key influencers) 62-66

6. Conclusion 67

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1) OBJECTIVE
a) Primary Objective of this Internship
To identify various product design, promotion strategies, putting a brand
on map and building it as a brand.
b) Sub-Objectives
➢ Understand the purpose of brands. Highlight a brand that you identify
or share values with.
➢ Present a new design proposal for a product of your choosing.
➢ Identify and suggest new key influencers that fit in with the brand.
➢ Understand the importance of community engagement and events.

c) Expected Learning
➢ Understanding of Importance of Positioning of a brand in the market
➢ Range and quality rationalization with perpetual maps
➢ Product Knowledge and ways to improve designing of the apparels
➢ Influencer approach in the making of a brand, a household name

2) Background
Like any business today, apparel industry also requires the brands to
continuously strive, in order to gain a competitive edge over its competitors.
For this, a brand should be well aware of what its competitors are providing-
both process and product wise. Knowing the product from the competitor
may include the style details, quality, pricing strategy, etc. While knowing the
process might also require the knowledge of how a competitor is able to
manufacture a better quality product at low cost. Thereby, the company
needs to set benchmark among its competitors and work hard in order to
achieve and outperform the competitors' performances, so that the brand
can stay up-to-date in the market and know its strengths and weaknesses.
Meeting the need of customers is the aim of marketing, but this alone is not
enough to guarantee success – the real challenge is the ability to satisfy
customer needs better than competitors.

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3) Chosen Brand-
ALLEN SOLLY

4) Company Profile-
Established in 1988 by Madura Coats Limited,
Madura Fashion & Lifestyle has its origins in the
erstwhile Coats Viyella Plc, Europe’s largest
clothing supplier. In December 1999, Aditya Birla
Nuvo, an Aditya Birla Group company, acquired
Madura Fashion & Lifestyle. In 2000, the
company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Aditya Birla Nuvo. Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, a division of Aditya Birla Nuvo
Ltd, is one of India’s fastest growing branded apparel companies and a
premium lifestyle player in the retail sector.
Madura Fashion & Lifestyle is defined by its brands — Louis Philippe, Van
Heusen, Allen Solly, Peter England and People - that personify style,
attitude, luxury and comfort.
The Aditya Birla apparel brand ‘Allen Solly’ is one of the exclusive brands
in the market. Indian textile industry has always seen the boom with time.
William Hollin founded Allen Solly in 1744. Afterwards, Allen Solly has
maintained quality products with time maintaining its customer services and
customer satisfaction. It’s in 1990 international textile brands started coming
in India and one of them been Allen Solly. During 1990’s FDI policy of Indian
government accepted foreign brands to enter the Indian market with an
association of Indian Brands. Allen Solly entered Indian market via Madura
Garments which was the big producer of threads. In 2001 Aditya Birla Group-
owned Allen Solly. With a revolution in Indian garment (Textile) industry,
Aditya Birla group has changed the face of Allen Solly brand as the exclusive
brand in India. Allen Solly has also started its marketing strategy in India with
its famous ‘Friday Dressing’ concept worldwide. Allen Solly brand has
extensively focused on western style dressing.

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5) DIVISION OF ANALYSIS ACC. TO WEEKS

a) WEEK 1 TASK
i) Task 1: Choose any brand in apparel domain (For e.g.: Levi’s).
What would be the highlights of your brand? It can be luxury or for
common man. What kind of Brand Positioning would you like to do?

Brand Chosen- ALLEN SOLLY

Highlights of ALLEN SOLLY-

1) Product lines that range from affordable and mass-market to luxurious,
high-end style and cater to every age group, from children and youth to
men and women
2) Personify style, attitude, luxury and comfort
3) Concepts of Apparel- (Covers every aspect of requirement to the modern
era working individuals)
a) Allen Solly- Friday Dressing Everyday
Ditching the black, greys and whites, aimed to add a pop of vibrant
personality to formal wear with its clothing range for women and men.
b) Allen Solly- Work Appropriate Casuals
Stylish yet sufficiently casual for days when you mix a little business
with leisure. A pair would be- Shirt, Chinos and Blazer.
c) Solly Sport- Style On and Off the Court

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 The fashionable casual wear line offers a collection of T-shirts, shirts,
shorts, trousers and jackets; perfect for the weekends. An Allen Solly
T-shirt paired with shorts and loafers ideal to wear on and off the court.
d) Solly by Allen Solly
Redefining work-wear for women, the chic and fashionable range is
perfect for 9 to 5. Ditch the blacks and greys, and add a pop of colour
to your work wear style with a trendy Allen Solly dress partnered with
pumps and a stylish tote bag.
How would you do Brand Positioning of ALLEN SOLLY?
It starts with a positioning statement. Since the brand is more towards a
colourful vibe, ensuring people to have leverage in clothing which apparently
they never had. Hence the statement must contain that vibe.
POSITIONING STATEMENT-
“FRIDAY DRESSING; WHY SO SERIOUS”
This Positioning Statement reflects in everything. It involves the brand
personality, its packaging design, product, service, visual identity design.

The packaging design reflects simplicity and

an oomph of color from the regular white and Here, the brand visual in a store is
black. Also the shirt i.e. the product of the so calm and relaxed for the kids’
brand is so well packed, and turned compact section too.
to fit the minimal size. Also a pop of color but
subtle for the work culture is seen on the shirt.

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COMMUNICATION STRATEGY-
ALLEN SOLLY follows the involvement of a brand ambassador that helps
the product to be perceived as approachable.
Indrani Dasgupta, a known name from the Indian Television Industry has
embraced the position of Allen Solly girl for quite a time. The simple idea that
Allen Solly enrolls such glamorous personality for creating brand
awareness says a lot about the promotional campaigns the enterprise believes
in.
VALID PRICE POINT & SIZE-FIT FOR EVERYONE-
The brand focuses on its all-approachable price point. A normal Indian citizen
can really cash on to the style options with the limited amount of money in
his/her pocket by visiting Allen Solly on all occasions.
Be it the size- Small(S), Medium(M), Large(L) or Xtra-large(XL), Allen Solly has
something for people of all shapes and sizes.
The price range is also very soothing, people can buy impressive T-shirts at an
initial price of 500 INR and shirts for somewhere around 900-1200INR.
Price of Jeans, cardigans, jackets and Bermuda’s varies on the basis of quality;
material they are made up of and according to the size as well.

ii) Task 2: Analyse all the positioning strategies adopted by an apparel

brand. (Take any brand: For e.g.: Levi’s). What kind of positioning
strategy would you adopt for your brand?
The brands can, however, choose a combination of these different
positioning categories to create their positioning statement.
• By Product Attribute: Positioning focuses on one or two of the product’s
best features/benefits.
• By User: Positioning focuses on the user "ideal target customer" and
shows the product as a solution to his need or social prestige.
• By Product Class: Positioning focuses on a leadership position in the
overall market.

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 • Against Competition: Positioning focuses on implied or direct competition
with a competitor.
• By Use/Application: Positioning focuses on how the product is used by
consumer, claiming that the product is the best solution for that particular
task/use.
• By Quality or Value: Positioning focuses on the product's claim of either
delivering high quality or high value compared to competitive products.
In my opinion, ALLEN SOLLY creates its positioning statement by- its
product attributes, by user, by product class, against competition, and by
quality or value.
EXPLANATORY- It has the best feature of FRIDAY DRESSING. (Product
Attribute). It targets the youth (target audience/user). It leads in the semi-
formal sector (Product class). It also tries to be really different from its
competitors but indirectly. Allen Solly never really gets into a direct
competition in market (Against Competition). Also, Allen Solly delivers the
range of products for “Urban Men Upper class and upper middle class”
(Quality/value).
Also this positioning with several touch-points, creates a brand image in the
minds of its customers.
Touch-points include: IMC mix, Competitor claims, Product features,
Packaging, Word-of-mouth, Media reviews, Retailer mix, Pricing.
The cumulative perception of all the information sources results in the
company’s image in the mind of the target group.
Progress chart for Allen Solly to analyze its strategies
Allen Solly’s progress from launch to its achievements today can be best
explained through its advertising.

•In the launch phase the challenge was to change the way people perceived
formals and the task was to get them to accept Allen Solly as clothes you can wear
to work. To be able to do this, the strategy adopted by Madura was to re-engineer
Launch consumer perceptions of formal-wear itself. No longer should formal mean only
whites, stripes and light blues -- the perception needed to be extended to fit Allen
phase Sollys distinctive merchandise. Apart from this it was necessary to build an
aspirational fraternity of users who would give the brand greater visibility and
therefore accelerate growth.

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 •The generic need for a ready-made garment did not need to be addressed. It
was recognised that the early adopters would come from those who work in
relatively more relaxed workplaces like software companies and advertising
Source of agencies or those who are self employed. These people would be
Business experimentative, ambitious and self-assured with a lower need to be seen as
different from the ordinary.

•one of the problems was that the brand was perceived as being more casual than formal.
The other insight gained from post-advertising research was that the personality of the
brand was seen as a bit rebellious. The learning, therefore, from the first campaign were
The launch that it was critical to keep the formal (for office) context upfront. The other was to give the
campaign personality a more mainstream feel -- i.e. of someone who would be willing to bend rules
not break them.

•the relevance of Allen Solly at work was being accepted and the consumer was
beginning to look at it as the new code for dressing at the office. The term Friday
Dressing was understood and internalised.
•Its time you stopped wearing uniforms to work was invented for the 1996 campaign.
•The 1996 campaign used extremely strong body language representative of the
Friday Dressers attitude. The stark white background of the advertising and the
FOLLOW distinctive photography made it one of the most visible campaigns of the year.
UPS
•Allen Solly recall was up, to about 60 per cent among the target audience showing
approximately 100 per cent increase over the earlier tracks.
•A special promotion called Allen Solly for a greener world was run which carried gifts
that were environmentally friendly like CFC free refrigerators.
•Allen Solly has been one of the first brands in India to set up its own home page
(www. allensolly.com) on the Internet and the first brand in India to sell off the web.
Allen Solly plans to increasingly go into the area of one-to one marketing and has
built up a database of loyal customers, who will over time, get special benefits and
news of the newer ranges. The launch of its loyalty programme is planned in the
near future.

•To start with the bottomline, the brand has registered a 238 per cent value growth in
1995, 92 per cent in 1996 and is targeted to record a 100 per cent growth in
What have 1997.Friday Dressing as a concept has been established and is firmly associated with
all these Allen Solly.
activities •A target profiling study shows an ever-increasing acceptability among traditional
achieved? PRMG (formal) users. The usage is higher among MNC/Professional houses
How is the compared to a similar profile in other organisations.
brand
•Some important learnings from Allen Sollys success: It is important to anticipate the
performing? changing trends and act quickly to take advantage of them. The effectiveness of delivery
depends greatly on sharply defining a personality that differentiates the brand in a crowd.
Thirdly, a package of activities integrated by a central or core thought is essential to
effectively leverage the budget.

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MARKET POSITIONING OF ALLEN SOLLY-
The top competitors in Allen Solly's competitive set are –
Indian Terrain, Blackberrys, Van Heusen, United Colors of Benetton, Tommy
Hilfiger, ZARA, Pantaloons and Myntra. Below is the product differentiation
of Allen Solly and its competitors in terms of Apparel.
PRODUCT TYPE
MEN’S APPAREL WOMEN’S APPAREL
ALLEN SOLLY ALLEN SOLLY

INDIAN TERRAIN INDIAN TERRAIN

BLACKBERRYS BLACKBERRYS

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UCB UCB

USPA USPA

MEN’S APPAREL (SHIRTS)

DS- DEPATMENTAL STORE; EBO- EXCLUSIVE BRAND OUTLET; PP- PRICE POINT

BRAND CHANNEL ENTRY EXIT PP

PP
ALLEN SOLLY DS/EBO 899 2499
INDIAN DS/EBO 950 2799
TERRAIN
BLACKBERRYS EBO 1795 6995(Super
Premium
Range)
UCB DS/EBO 1099 2499
USPA DS/EBO 850 3499

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This is a picture of the price range of shirts for men which Allen Solly has on
their website.

AFFORDABLE RANGE

PREMIUM RANGE

SUPER PREMIUM RANGE

And this is for their sweatshirts section

AFFORDABLE RANGE

PREMIUM RANGE

SUPER PREMIUM RANGE

We can clearly observe that pricing does not depend whether the product is
into formal or informal sector and hence it’s the quality that matters in
respective divisions.

WOMEN’S APPAREL (SHIRTS)

BRAND CHANNEL ENTRY EXIT PP
PP
ALLEN SOLLY DS/EBO 899 2499
INDIAN DS/EBO 950 2799
TERRAIN
BLACKBERRYS EBO 1795 6995(Super
Premium
Range)
UCB DS/EBO 1099 2499
USPA DS/EBO 850 2499
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 iii) TASK 3: Create a perceptual map and place your brand as
compared to other brands in the same domain.
EXPERIMENTAL

HIGH PRICE

LOW PRICE

SIMPLICITY

Here I have taken the category of Men’s apparel and have considered two
parameters price and fashion quotient to compare Allen Solly’s current
positioning with that of its competitors (direct and indirect) and plotted a
perceptual map for the same. The graph depicts that Allen Solly has more of
simpler styles when compared to Van Heusen whereas Allen Solly has a
similar fashion quotient but at a lesser price when compared to USPA.
Also, I have plotted the graph for women’s apparel in the same; taking the
same parameters. The graph depicts Allen Solly when compared to Van
Huesen it takes the same position in terms of price and fashion ability, simply
due to the fact that it promises ultimate comfort to the body.
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Here, I have considered Price and Quality as the two parameters. Plus,
included some other brands like Park Avenue and Louis Philippe.

SUPERIORITY

EXPENSIVE

VALUE FOR
MONEY

LOW QUALITY

b) WEEK 2 TASK
BRAND POSITIONING STATEMENT
There are four essential elements of a best-in-class positioning statement:
1. Target Customer
2. Market Definition
3. Brand Promise
4. Reason to Believe
For ALLEN SOLLY Brand, we will be defining each element and at the end
we will create a BRAND POSITIONING STATEMENT of our own.
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Target Customer of ALLEN SOLLY-
There are many factors affecting consumer buying behavior.
On a macro-level basis, the factors come out to be –
A) Socio- cultural factors
B) Demographic factors
On a micro-level basis, the factors come out to be –
A) Psychological factors (Attitude, Perception, Motivation etc.)
B) Personal factors
Taking into consideration, the attitudinal and demographic description of the
target group of customers of ALLEN SOLLY, we observe that the brand
persuades the modern youth who like to dress up stylish yet sufficiently
casual. They have a very positive attitude towards this brand apparel since
the customers are loyal.
Also, it created a “HALO EFFECT” that is, if the brand has an overall
positive attitude of customers, it motivates the company to go for BRAND
EXTENSION. Like, Allen Solly, an apparel manufacturer and retailer for
men apparel launched Allen Solly Women and Allen Solly Junior.
The demographic(population) study of Allen Solly shows that-
• They target comparative younger population who indulge in out
shopping. They want to experiment with their office wear and hence
are more attracted to the brand.
• At one point of time, ALLEN SOLLY was a classic men's wear brand.
They had a very strong positioning for the brand. But slowly they saw
distinct and different facets emerging in the Indian demographics.
They spotted the opportunity in the women's wear segment as early
as 2001. With Allen Solly Woman they introduced casual and formal
wear for women.

It was witnessed (Allen Solly) women's wear reaping the success and
(thereafter) they started pushing other brands (into other segments)
as well.
• They attract both men and women from the “Happily Unmarried”
segment and also kids from 0-12 yrs. From the HALO EFFECT, the

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 brand focuses on independent working women too and also spread its
legs in the kids section which involves aesthetic and leisure.
Market Definition of ALLEN SOLLY-

This is the part of the ALLEN SOLLY website which clearly shows in which
products the brand competes.
PRODUCTS include- Women Apparel, Men Apparel, Junior Apparel,
Footwear, Accessories and FRIDAY LIVING.
ALLEN SOLLY has a great relevance in its customer’s life as it just follows
the youth code, which is breaking all the stereotypes and yet deliver the
manpower efficiently. Introducing the concept of Casual Corporate dressing
came in as a revolutionary step which broke off all stereotypes of the usual
Corporate dressing. Also when women had more trendy and chic choices to
choose upon, the brand automatically became everyone’s favourite.
Brand Promise of ALLEN SOLLY-
Allen Solly is about colour and vibrancy. Aligning our product and merchandise
and delivering the promise of the brand will be the focus. - Pranab Barua,
business director for retail and apparel at Aditya Birla Group.
The brand of some of its competitors are-
• Louis Philippe is based on craftsmanship, quality and excellence.
• Van Heusen is based on power dressing and power dressing comes
from making an impact with your presence.

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 • Impact comes from fashion and Van Heusen will focus more and more
on fashion.
• Peter England is about exceptional value.
ALLEN SOLLY comes out to be unique from them by introducing all of these
already existing brand promises in its apparel but with a touch of modern
vibrant colors with casual dressing which is its USP.
Reason to Believe in ALLEN SOLLY-
• Allen Solly was positioned as an anti-establishment brand. It trashed
the whites and the greys and gave the corporate world a colourful and
vibrant makeover with its Friday Dressing positioning.
• However, what started out as a men’s wear brand, stormed the bastion
of the fairer sex in the year 2000 and emerged the top women’s wear
brand within a short
span of time. At retail,
the brand is valued at
Rs 225 crore. When the
men’s collection was
launched in India the
base was small and the
growth exponential.
With the launch of the
women’s collection,
there was a top line
growth of about 30%
and the current CAGR
of the brand is about
28%.
• In India, when spoken to women consumers there was need to move
beyond the one-size-fits-all standard. They were not just expected to
create fashionable dresses but also the ones that fit just right. The
woman of today tells ‘Fashion is not about perfection…Just give us
good dresses which complement our shape. “This is a way of
encouraging women to go out and own their shape.” Hence the
campaign, “BUNK THE TAPE #OWNYOURSHAPE”.
• Allen Solly, after exploring the men’s and women’s western wear
market, is test marketing clothing for kids. Since it is a soft launch and

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 at the experimental stage, the company is not aggressively
campaigning for it.
i) TASK 1:
a) Create a brand positioning statement for the apparel
brand that you have analysed last week.
A NEW BRAND POSITIONING STATEMENT WOULD BE-
“For the non-stereotypical youth, ALLEN SOLLY is the brand representative
of revolutionary semi-formal; fun CASUAL DRESSING that delivers its
vibrant and colorful choices yet chic and trendy possibility because only
ALLEN SOLLY proves it’s for EVERYONE.”
b) Compare it with other renowned apparel brands
LOUIS PHILIPPE- Defining class, elegance and status, Louis Philippe is a
purveyor of fine clothing for the discerning gentleman. In pursuit of
excellence, Louis Philippe stands for precision in craftsmanship that
translates into clothing that are classic and contemporary, and perfect for the
quintessential man.
VAN HEUSEN- Perfect for the boardroom and beyond, Van Heusen brings
fashion-forward power dressing to today’s multi-faceted professional’s
wardrobe. Catering to men and women, Van Heusen represents
sophisticated elegance that reflects today’s expression of style. Breaking the
norms of conventional nine-to-five dressing, the brand’s range of garments
focus on self-expression and individualism. With power-packed details and
fine fabrics, Van Heusen has successfully defined the way women and men
dress for the corporate world.
PETER ENGLAND- Peter England has made a mark as the largest
menswear brand in India. Known for its standardized fits, superior quality,
wide range and fashionable styles, the trusted mid-segment brand comes
with apparel offerings for young men entering the corporate world. The brand
boots confidence with their clothing that marks the “Beginning of Good
Things”.
My Observation: -
ALLEN SOLLY’s competitors is more on the side of following the stereotypes
of corporate life and is into quality and standard. While ALLEN SOLLY is
more to the non-stereotypical side falling into unconventional category,
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creating an image of its own into the customer’s mind of dressing formally
yet comfortably and in various sizes with good quality product and services
and a hint of minimalistic approach.
VALUE OUTLETS AND MIXED STORES
There are several reasons why Allen Solly would want to have more of Value
Outlets rather than the traditional Mixed Stores.
The Reasons being-
• The first reason is the humongous margins that organized retail chains
expect from manufacturers. Margins in some cases can be as high as
50%. Large volume brands especially could find this demand too
steep, as they play the low margin high volume game. If retailers are
demanding huge margins and mostly getting away with it, there is a
huge incentive for companies to get into retailing themselves.
Moreover, direct retail helps companies in getting an additional 20%
points in margins compared with retailing through partners.
• Direct retail also helps companies in overcoming the inherent
disadvantages of organized retail chains. A brand such as Allen Solly
or Van Heusen, for instance would get probably 200-500 sq. ft. of
display space in an organized format retail store like Lifestyle or
Shopper’s Stop. In comparison, an Allen Solly exclusive outlet could
be around 2500 sq. ft. and stock up the entire range up to 1000 Stock
Keeping Units (SKU).
• Own store also provides better brand experience. For instance, an
Allen Solly women’s wear could be in a different level than men’s wear
in a large retail chain. When the entire chain is controlled by the
company itself, the destiny of every SKU is controlled and thus
delivering a superior experience that translates into value.
• The final argument is related to customer feedback. Feedback is direct
in an outlet and helps in deeper understanding of consumer behavior
that results in better product planning and faster turn-around of
inventory.

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 ii) TASK 2:
a) Create a new Tagline for the apparel brand that you have
analysed last week.
TAGLINE FOR ALLEN SOLLY-
There is more than one tagline I have thought of-
• ALLEN SOLLY: Brings home to offices
• ALLEN SOLLY: WORK.PLAY.SOLLY.JOLLY.
• ALLEN SOLLY: The era of comfort
• ALLEN SOLLY WOMEN: One for all
• ALLEN SOLLY JUNIOR: If kids Play, they better Slay

b) Compare it with other renowned apparel brands.

Louis Philippe- The upper crest
Van Heusen- The Way Forward: Evolve Everyday
Peter England- Beginning of good things
Product Design and Craft
Some product designs that Allen Solly should introduce in its clothing line for
a bit of quirkiness and making it more out of the league.

STRIPED PATTERN
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 DUAL TONE BLAZER

c) WEEK 3 TASK
i) TASK 1: Evaluate your brand’s positioning
Evaluating ALLEN SOLLY’s Positioning Strategy:
Allen Solly STP (Segment, Target Group, Positioning)
Segment: Young fashion conscious Women and Men
Target group: Urban Men Upper class, upper middle class and middle-
middle class
Positioning: Lighten up the workplace Can be bought
by middle-middle
class
AFFORDABLE RANGE
Can be bought
by upper-middle
PREMIUM RANGE
class

SUPER PREMIUM RANGE

Can be bought
by upper class

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There are different criteria
for a brand to establish its
positioning in the market.
Here, we are taking
different topics on the go
and evaluating ALLEN
SOLLY’s positioning
statement. How it became
a powerful, distinguishable
and off the monotonous
league as an established
brand in the Indian market
despite huge competition.
1) Uniqueness of ALLEN SOLLY:

It has covered it all. From the conventional looks to the experimental ones,
ALLEN SOLLY has a section of designated looks for each of its variety (Allen
Solly, Allen Solly Women and Allen Solly Junior).
The Concept of Friday Dressing, 1995. This was and is the brand's core USP
and has held it in good stead over the many years. The brand not only
created a category called 'Work-Casuals' but Friday dressing went on to
become the pseudonym for free-thinking, free-spiritedness and
unconventionality at work place. In simple terms Friday dressing symbolizes
a relaxed casual entry from the busy week into the weekend accompanied
by smart and semi-formal dressing in the 21st century.
Other of its competitors
like Raymond, Arrow and
Belmonte has a major
focus on only men’s
apparel apparently,
ALLEN SOLLY just
breaks through it and
becomes the EYE CANDY
of the apparel industry by
introducing and managing
all these men, women and
kids apparel variety so
effectively and smoothly.
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 2) Matching customer perceptions:

Perception is the process of selecting, organizing and interpreting

information inputs to produce meaning.
Good visual displays in the store attract customers, change their perceptions
and motivate them to buy the merchandise. The retailers try to develop their
stores as a brand to reduce “risk perception” of prospective buyers and
increase “value perception”.
Brand Positioning in the customers’ perception is all about attempting to get
into the psyche of the target segment which should be nurtured in the long
run to build a sustainable association.
• External reference price is a part of perception in customers. Here,
customers compare across outlets for the same brand. ALLEN SOLLY
has retail as well as factory outlets and potential customers might like to
have products out of factory outlets compromising on variety.
Transaction Utility is another example of perception. This relates to the
satisfaction a customer derives from making a deal within a specific price
range.
Here’s the range of Allen Solly Specializes in: (in INR)
❖ Denims: 1499-4900
❖ Kids apparel: 499-3000
❖ Classic and Formal shirts: 1200-3500
❖ Classic and Formal Trousers: 1200-3499
❖ Formal and Non-Formal T-shirts: 800-2500
❖ Footwear: 999-4999
❖ Bags: 2000-5000
❖ Belts: 999-2200

• Acquisition Utility is the extent to which a customer feels that the brand
purchased has matched the value perception. Though prices are
important, a consumer who is drawn towards acquisition utility may be
prepared to pay more for a brand if he/she is convinced that the price
adds to the value of the acquisition in terms of features and convenience.

25
Brands like ALLEN SOLLY, NIRMA, T-SERIS etc. have used transaction
utility in terms of penetration pricing to satisfy consumers.
• Perception also gets affected by the discounts offered by marketers.
ALLEN SOLLY usually keeps that in mind before targeting its audience
because who doesn’t like discounts anyways.

3) Growth in the Positioning Statement:

“Our positioning is clear about what we want to do. Make sure the
merchandise focuses on delivering the brand promise. Allen Solly is about
colour and vibrancy. Aligning our product and merchandise and delivering
the promise of the brand will be the focus”.
“We believe that we can build a very large business that will grow at a
compound average growth rate of 20% for the next five years. We expect to
have revenues of $2 billion by 2020. We believe the entire portfolio of ABFRL
will give margins of around 10%”.

- Pranab Barua, Business Director (Retail and Apparel), Aditya Birla Group

4) ALLEN SOLLY’s USP (Unique Selling Point):

USP: Stylish office wear

Brand Value: Allen Solly was voted as a seventh best brand by
the Economic Times’ Brand Equity in the year 2014. The Brand has been
known to innovate in the area of work casuals and has pioneered in Friday
Dressing.
Experienced Design Teams: Allen Solly has an experienced design team
which understands the changing demands of the consumer and innovates
new designs and products.
Strong Growth: Allen Solly is growing at over 30% CAGR across all its
formats and is poised to clock net sales of over Rs.1000 crores in FY2020.

26
International feel: Although Allen Solly is an Indian brand, it gives an
international feel because of the excellent physical evidence in showrooms
as well as the quality of clothing and the advertising. This International feel
therefore raises the expectation and satisfaction from the brand.

5) How different is ALLEN SOLLY from its competitors?

Usually brands do not go under the knife of REPOSITIONING itself

according to the market or the demographics bur ALLEN SOLLY went for a
REPOSITIONING exercise because of the change in the demographics of
the target segment.
• The brand wanted to be more relevant to the new working class.
• Also, the brand wanted to attract the consumers beyond the work place.
• The brand positioned itself not just as a work wear one but also as a
casual brand for all occasions.

6) Customer Knowledge of ALLEN SOLLY:

ALLEN SOLLY knows how to get new customers by marching into the
experimental section and also it knows how to make its old customers happy
and satisfied as a brand.

Special Privileges are given to “My Solly” Members, which are-

• Get an enrollment discount
• Special birthday gifts and bonuses
• Exclusive preview to sales
• Getting invited to coffee mornings
• Attend specially hosted ALLEN SOLLY events by invitations
• Free garment pick-up and drop services
27
 7) Is it memorable and motivating?

ALLEN SOLLY is one brand which is highly memorable and motivating as

well.
Back in 1993, in INDIA, when the concept of FRIDAY DRESSING was
introduced, it just came out to be so revolutionary that they even repositioned
their brand later on thinking about the audience.
So, they are just embedded in the minds of people to be out of the league
apparel brand.
They are always innovative and motivating-
• They were the first to spot the need of casual work wear for
young professionals
• They entered the market with the blockbuster Friday Dressing
concept
• They used unconventional shades of Beige and Tan and used
fabrics like KHAKI in shirts and trousers, which became an
instant hit
• ALLEN SOLLY introduced the idea of relaxed formals for Indian
Consumers

8) Consistency in all areas of business:

Though Allen Solly is quite consistent in offline as well as online business,

but the social media strategy review can be backed up well.
As far as engagement is concerned, more than 70% of their tweets get no
response at all. Which again goes to show for the lack of shareable content.

28
Source: Simplify360 – A Social Media Analytics Tool

EXPERT VIEW:
Allen Solly seems to be under leveraging its social media presence by under
responding and not fully leveraging the content potential its brand has. The
presence seems to follow a process, which does not seem to be dynamic.
It’s almost as if the brand is bored on social media itself and is happy with
updates that have been set into a framework without much innovation or
imaginative thinking.
Also, it’s a one-way traffic as responsiveness is low to consumer updates
which in itself defeats the purpose of being on social media.
Expert View by Rajiv Dingra Founder & CEO of WATConsult – An Award
Winning Digital & Social Media Agency.

9) Is it easy to understand?

With its simple and unique styles with all solids and pastels and fun creation,
it is a very easy to understand apparel.
It has its designated sections in stores as well as online to give an easy guide
though that so customers won’t have to hassle much and just find their way
and apparel easily.
29
 10) Is it difficult to copy?

Style describes how well the product looks and feels to the buyer. It has the
advantage of creating product distinctiveness which is difficult to copy.
Marketers of designer shirts and ties have used style and exclusivity to
transform these otherwise unexciting, high use items of daily wear in
corporate circles, into instruments of making personality statements. For
example, ALLEN SOLLY, an “informal” formal brand of shirts, is targeted at
the young executive and goes well with “Conversational” ties which have
friendly and flamboyant designs. These ties are no longer tucked away with
socks and handkerchiefs, but made visible through exclusive showrooms or
exclusive sections in existing showrooms. This helps emphasize the unique
style of these products and justify their premium price.

11) Is it positioned for long-term success?

• Increasing Penetration through E-Commerce: With the advent

of technology and penetration of internet and smartphones, the reach of
apparels is bound to increase to the Tier 3 and Tier 4 towns. This is a
great opportunity to expand the business.
• Increasing Brand Awareness: The Generation X is more conscious of
the brands they wear and this provides Allen Solly with an opportunity
to penetrate the market targeting the millennials.
• Global Expansion: Allen Solly needs to expand itself globally
considering the ever increasing demand of branded apparels in the
emerging nations. It especially needs to concentrate on
emerging markets. Allen Solly is present in more than 50 countries, but
with the strong revenue it generates, it can keep expanding.
• Brand Extension: Allen Solly can use a Brand extension to enter
new product categories such as Footwear, caps etc. It already has a line
of fragrances.
• Increase in Disposable Income: According to a McKinsey research the
number of households in the “consuming class” i.e. households earning
30
 more than $4000 a year have tripled in the last 10 years, which has
increased the market size of the apparel industry proportionately.

12) Is ALLEN SLLY believable and credible?

Yes of course, time again Allen Solly has proved itself to be very credible
and reliable with the current trend as well as with its core products.

13) Will ALLEN SOLLY withstand counterattacks from its

competitors?

High Competition: The apparel industry has been growing in India and
competition is rising. This possesses a threat to the popular brands who have
to be at their best and improve constantly. ALLEN SOLLY fits right in as it
provides the best of all in size, fit and durability. It also has its versatile choice
and the core ones too.
Local Market: To move to the smaller cities, Allen Solly will have to fight
against the local market who provide similar designs at a lower rate and thus
it is a threat for brands like Allen Solly.
But again the local designs will not have that premium quality and in todays’
world, most of the people are for quality not quantity.
Never under scrutiny: The advent of technology allows consumers to
compare, review and rate which is a threat as any bad review can affect the
sales and thus Allen Solly work towards better customer relationship
management by providing better customer experience as a whole.

31
 14) More effective marketing and branding decisions making

• Allen Solly Product Strategy: Allen Solly extensively work over new
designs with changes in fashion trends. With the extensive dynamic
market in the textile industry, Allen Solly has maintained its brand image
with maintained quality and customer services. Allen Solly has Men,
women, junior, accessories, footwear, Friday living are different
categories of products in its marketing mix. Exclusive collection of T-
shirts, shirts, shorts, trousers and jackets of Allen Solly is from casual
product segments. Allen Solly has also focused over its exclusive formals
segment. Both in Men and female, the varieties of formats are available.
Business formals with the special products line for young woman
professional made Allen Solly exclusive brands for working professionals.
In accessories category, Allen Solly has partnered with pumps and a
stylish tote bag. Clutches, shrugs, wallets, winter wear and now sports
ware is part of Allen Solly Brand owns Allen Solly, Solly Sport, Solly Jeans
Co as subsidiary brands.

• Allen Solly Price/Pricing Strategy: Allen Solly brand is known for

understanding the need of casual wearing of young working
professionals. Hence the pricing strategy in its marketing mix was
designed considering youth and their purchasing capacity. Ideas of
‘Friday dressing’ was specially introduced to target working people and
32
 their need of looking cool on Fridays in the office. Hence the Allen Solly
also focuses on its prices consider the competition in the market. The
rivals like Blackberry, Roadster, Moda Rapido and much more were also
competing in the same segment. Allen Solly got an advantage of supply
chain network of the Aditya Birla Group which is among strongest of its
own. The group has expertise in operations which helped Allen Solly to
minimized its costs resulting in affordable prices in the market.
• Allen Solly Place & Distribution Strategy: The distribution network of
Aditya Birla Group is strong because of its product line. From retail to
pharma the group has experience in many sectors. Hence Allen Solly had
ready-made a base of the distribution network. As the brand of working
professionals, Allen Solly has focused Metros and Tier 1 cities for their
targeted customer considering their requirements and purchasing power.
The has wide visibility over Indian and globe as well. The main visibility of
the brand is at the Pantaloons Outlets which are owned by ABRL Group.
To maintain the quality, the apparels production is centralized and
remaining operations are based on supply chain network.

• Allen Solly Promotion & Advertising Strategy: Allen Solly has the
extensive marketing strategy to market its products. Corporate
collaboration is the main strategy to increase its sales and visibility to
targeted customers. Pre-Friday launches, Online Promotions,
Telecommunication Promotion and print media are also marketing
strategies of Allen Solly. The brand has strong digital marketing profiles
resulting in more target customer reach. The social media profile of
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram helped Allen Solly to be more customer
interactive and satisfied customers posts help mouth publicity of the
brand. The apparels showcased in the malls and retail stores helped for
better visibility. New business analytics models helped Allen Solly to
manage its targeted segment customers. Innovative store designs and
innovative website helped Allen Solly to maintain its brand value.
ii) TASK 2: Identify the marketing strategies used by the apparel brand
selected by you.
Marketing Mix of Allen Solly analyses the brand/company which covers 4Ps
(Product, Price, Place, Promotion; already discussed above) and explains
the Allen Solly marketing strategy. As of 2020, there are several marketing

33
strategies like product/service innovation, marketing investment, customer
experience etc. which have helped the brand grow.
Marketing strategy helps companies achieve business goals & objectives,
and marketing mix (4Ps) is the widely used framework to define the
strategies.
Apart from these there is another set of marketing strategies which include-
Cause Marketing, Close Range Marketing, Affinity Marketing, Personalized
Marketing, Direct Mail marketing, Free Sample Marketing, Reverse
Marketing and Seasonal Marketing.
For ALLEN SOLLY, it would be Affinity, Personalized and Seasonal
Marketing.
An example for Affinity marketing for ALLEN SOLLY- In 2015, when
Vishal Sikka announced that Infosys would do away with its formal dress
code, he made more than just his employees happy. Within 90 minutes of
the announcement, Allen Solly, a Madura Fashion & Lifestyle brand known
for its 'Friday dressing' range, got in touch with Infosys's HR and offered a
25 per cent discount for all its employees. The prompt action got the lifestyle
brand 350 store walk-ins with a meagre spend of Rs 32,000.
An example for Personalized marketing for ALLEN SOLLY- Allen Solly
Women, India’s pioneer brand in casual work wear from Aditya Birla Fashion
and Retail Ltd. unveils its fresh range of dresses for young women in different
sizes with a brand new campaign ‘Own Your Shape’. The campaign
encapsulates one of the biggest issues women face when selecting dresses
that they want to wear – getting dresses that fits them just right. With this
launch, the brand, which has over 200+ point of sale, expands into the size-
inclusive fashion market by upholding body positivity, to further deepen its
connection with modern women of many silhouettes.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Anil.S.Kumar, COO, Allen Solly said “This film
is our take on Allen Solly’s dresses which embrace the different body shapes
of Indian Woman. When we spoke to consumers there was need to move
beyond the one-size-fits-all standard. We were not just expected to create
fashionable dresses but also the ones that fits just right. The woman of today
tells us “Fashion is not about perfection…Just give us good dresses which
complements my shape…” This is our way of encouraging woman to go out
and own their shape.”
34
The peppy video brings to life chic dresses from Allen Solly Women’s new
collection, in fitted and flared silhouettes, that are just perfect. Each piece
translates well for anyone’s personal style.

An example for Affinity + Seasonal marketing for ALLEN SOLLY-

To mark the launch of its new spring/summer collection, Allen Solly, one of
India’s most salient apparel brands recently rolled a 3-day teaser campaign
prior to the launch of the brand’s summer T shirt campaign,
#EveryTeeUnderTheSun. SapientRazorfish from Publicis stable has
conceptualized the campaign with the basic idea of Allen Solly striving to
increase its logo affinity. The brand’s logo, the stag, is already much loved
among its audience. The task was to bring in an element of quirk and humor
to popularize The Stag, while creating a campaign around the brand’s latest
offering – a wide selection of t shirts for Spring.
This led to imagining conversations that two stag printed T shirts could have,
the unique situations they find themselves in both at work and outside of it,
and how they react to them with the help of a rather wry sense of humor.
Commenting on the campaign, Piali Dasgupta, Creative Director- Sapient
Razorfish said, “The campaign was designed primarily to increase logo
affinity. The stag as a logo, already has an organic, almost raw pull. Allen
Solly loyalists post pictures of The Stag regularly on social media, tagging
35
the brand. The idea was to give the stag some swag, a certain coolness,
while keeping it very real. Share worthy, humorous content in a capsule
format was the way to go. Hence the comic strip approach.”
Inspired by comic strip humor, the agency decided to create quirky, tongue-
in-cheek conversations between tow T-shirts. The situations ranged from life
at work to life post work and extremely relatable to the brand’s 25-35 TG -
from the Xerox machine at work not working to Stag entry not allowed at a
party. Building conversations between two stag-printed T shirts reinstated
the logo value.
The result of the campaign was as follows:
Total impressions: 80,559 (organic)
Total reach: 54,096 (organic)
Total engagement: 1,022
Below are the posts from the series:

36
 iii) TASK 3: Define Go to Market strategy for the brand you have
selected
Go to Market strategy for ALLEN SOLLY
1. Markets: Indian as well global
2. Target Customers: Urban Men Upper class and upper middle class
3. Channels: Stores, Brand outlets, Factory outlets
4. Product (or Offering): Apparel and accessories
USP-Stylish office wear
5. Price:

37
6. Positioning: Lighten up the workplace

d) WEEK 4 TASK
i) TASK 1: Analyse your brand’s five forces.

Porter's Five Forces

(Understanding Competitive Forces to Maximize Profitability)
Porter's Five Forces is a simple but powerful tool for understanding the
competitiveness of your business environment, and for identifying your
strategy's potential profitability. Porter identified five forces that make up the
competitive environment, and which can erode profitability of any brand.
These are:
1. Competitive Rivalry
2. Supplier Power
3. Buyer Power
4. Threat of Substitution
5. Threat of New Entry

38
ALLEN SOLLY’s F2 (Five Forces)
1) COMPETITIVE RIVALRY

The top 10 competitors in Allen Solly's competitive set are Stephen Armor
Brands, Indian Terrain, Trendin, Blackberrys, Van Heusen, Tommy Hilfiger,
ZARA, Pantaloons, Myntra and Amazon. Together they have raised over
450.0M between their estimated 967.1K employees. Allen Solly's revenue is
the ranked 9th among its top 10 competitors. The top 10 competitors average
29.7B.
Apart from these, UCB, U.S.P.A., and Levi’s are also its competitors.

39
 a) Competition in the Size Charting among different Brands?

PRODUCTS BRAND XXS XS S M L XL XXL XXXL

CREW NECK UCB
U.S.P.A.
Tommy Hilfiger
Zara
Levi’s
Allen Solly

PRODUCTS BRAND XXS XS S M L XL XXL XXXL

CREW NECK UCB
U.S.P.A.
Tommy Hilfiger
Zara
Levi’s
Allen Solly

Available Stores
Unavailable Stores
b) Competition in Pricing
• Price Point of Allen Solly and direct competitors are almost head-on-
head except Tommy Hilfiger. To make comparative pricing more
transparent and logical products which are made up of similar material
and finishes are taken up.
• Brand modal price is Rs.1599.
• At every price points brands have a greater detailing, product USP &
washes for consumers to attract.
• Highest range of price offered by Tommy Hilfiger, Zara and Levi’s.
• Average no. of styles taken as per one store per season holding
• Maximum no. of offerings at 1999 and 2499 to offer more value at lower
price points
• Consumer is buying only at value pricing but not disclosing it to be
major factor of decision making
• Do not mind doing away with quality parameters if it is fitting into the
budget

40
 • Thus, it caters to all sections of society i.e. Upper Class, Middle Class,
and Lower-Middle Class.

Product Pricing

1%

1% Less than 1k

31%
1k-2k

2k-3k
67%
More than 3k

c) Entry- Exit Price Points

BRAND COLLARS ENTRY PRICE EXIT PRICE
UCB Crew neck 999 2599
Polo T-shirt 1399 2599
U.S.P.A Crew neck 999 1399
Polo T-shirt 1399 2499
Tommy Hilfiger Crew neck 1999 2999
Polo T-shirt 2399 4599
Zara Crew neck 990 2490
Polo T-shirt 1190 2490
Levi’s Crew neck 799 2099
Polo T-shirt 1399 2299
Allen Solly Crew neck 999 1299
Polo T-shirt 1199 2199

41
 d) Overall Price Range
LOW MEDIUM HIGH
Product Brand
799 899 999 1199 1299 1399 1499 1599 1699 1799 1899 1999 2199 2299 2399 2499 2599 2699 and above

UCB
U.S.P.A.
TOMMY HILFIGER
CREW NECK
ZARA
LEVI'S
ALLEN SOLLY

UCB
U.S.P.A.
TOMMY HILFIGER
POLO NECK
ZARA
LEVI'S
ALLEN SOLLY

LOW
MEDIUM
HIGH

e) Fit

f) Colour
Sticks to blue & black: majority of the consumers are confined to blue & black
colors, after them white and grey is preferred. Induce color variety and
shades in the store.
g) Comfort
• Perceived to be synonymous of T-shirts: since it needs to be worn for
long durations at a stretch e.g. Driving, riding, partying, and travelling.
• Stretch required for easy movement of arms
• Raglan Sleeves allowing natural range of movement

42
 2) SUPPLIER POWER
ALLEN SOLLY demonstrated the importance of an efficient supply chain in
branded apparel retailing and ended the debate on the feasibility and
sustainability of Allen Solly’s supply chain-led innovation. Allen Solly was the
first in India to identify and tap the existing gap in the relaxed formal wear
segment for the growing young working professionals. Allen Solly identified
the increasing experimentation with bold colors by men for their formal wear
and tried to bridge the increasing gap. The concept of Colour Lab, launched
in 2013, enabled Allen Solly customers to design their own shirt or trouser
with their choice of colour. Having introduced this application, the company
also had to develop the supporting reverse supply chain to enable the timely
delivery of the customized orders.
Sooraj Bhat, brand head at Allen Solly, said the increased economies of
scale resulting from fewer suppliers also leads to better support from the
existing suppliers for developing new products.
Madura brands have some common suppliers while the rest are exclusive
vendors.
“Reducing vendors is not a template for every manufacturer. It’s about your
reach and scale in the market, brand strength, and ability of the vendors to
be able to deliver large volumes. Madura is a market leader and large
enough to be able to do it," said Ankur Bisen, vice-president,
retail, Technopak Advisors Pvt. Ltd, a consultancy.
“The biggest advantage of consolidating the vendor base is the economies
of scale in sourcing yarn—your yarn costs will go down. Plus, there is less
wastage, more uniformity in product, and better quality control," Bisen said.
Aditya Birla’s Madura Fashion and Lifestyle, owner of clothing brands such
as Louis Philippe and Peter England, reduced the number of its suppliers to
gain more control over costs and quality in a fiercely competitive retail
market.
“We have consolidated our vendors. We now buy from just eight vendors
from 20 two years ago," said Jacob John, brand head at Louis Philippe,
Madura’s biggest brand. “It’s a volume game, so if we commit a larger
volume, we get a (lower) price. But the most important thing about
consolidation is quality."

43
Reducing the supplier base has improved delivery time to retail stores and
reduced the number of rejections—things that become essential when there
is a slowdown, said Kedar Apshankar, operations chief at Peter England.
“Overall though, our costs have gone up because of the push towards
improving quality. Costs related to product upgrades, IT (information
technology), freight, etc., have all increased. But yes, had we not
consolidated our vendor base, costs would’ve increased even more. So it’s
about cost optimization rather than an absolute reduction in costs,"
Apshankar said.
3) BUYER POWER
For ALLEN SOLLY, the purchase volumes are large. So, retailers have
power over suppliers. Buyer to supplier ratio is low and so the retailers can
leverage their size to source from multiple suppliers. Threat of backward
integration is high especially in case of foreign players as it will help them cut
costs.
4) THREAT OF SUBSTITUTION
Threat of substitution in case of any formal apparel brand is the ethnic
apparel; which is, saree and kurtas. Women tend to easily replace these
formal attires with the ethnic ones due to either price point or comfortability.
5) THREAT OF NEW ENTRY
The entire strategy boils down to three things: thrust on international styling,
top quality and an eye for detail-
Says Prakash Nedungadi, the engineer turned CEO spearheading the
operations of Madura Garments.
Although it is a bit hard to enter this already big budget industry but over the
past few years, the smaller brands have started to threaten the bigger
players in almost every product category. This phenomenon even exists for
the services sector. Every brand in the multiple-brand loyalty bouquet is
witnessing greater brand switching due to greater brand variety.

44
SOURCE-Brand Management by ranjeet verma

45
 ii) TASK 2: Imagine that the head of your brand has just given your
department a huge project: you must completely update the
company's website and online store to improve customer retention
and increase sales. What are the strategies you will follow?
THE 4S WEB MARKETING MIX (Scope, Site, Synergy, System)
1) SCOPE- Issues of scope include markets and competitors, customer
profiles, effects of the online operation on existing internal processes
and identification of the strategic role of the firm’s online presence.

Community Building
Retail brands have a good fan following on Facebook as compared to
other sectors. 50% of the brands are above the 1 million mark.
FastTrack, however, is a long chase at 8 million+ fans, which is an
excellent number for Indian brands and still maintaining a healthy
growth rate of 6%.

On Twitter too, FastTrack has the highest number of followers, which

is 56K+. It is far ahead of all the other brands which are like tortoises
in comparison with less than 10K followers.

46
Allen Solly, which has an staggering growth rate of 367% for the time
period analysed, might soon catch up with FastTrack,
considering Allen Solly’s growth rate is only 8%.

Flying Machine has the lowest number of followers (778) but is growing
at a rate of 9.5%.

Content Strategy

Louis Philippe posts the most posts among the 10 retail brands. LP has
posted 286 updates which, on an average, is 3 posts a day. This is
followed by Vero Moda, Jack & Jones and Allen Solly, which post at
least 2 updates a day on an average.

Basics Life posted the least number of times (75) which means the
brand skipped posting on certain days like the weekend.

According to the Unmetric Insight module, 5,335 new posts were

written across these 10 ‘brand walls’. That’s an average of 5.4 posts
per day, per wall.

47
Campaigns and Performances

Some of the top performing campaigns came from Louis Philippe, Van
Heusen, Allen Solly and FastTrack. #Naughtees by FastTrack
and #CrossOverStyling by Allen Solly were the top performing
campaigns. While #CrossStyling got the most number of likes,
#Naughtees had a wider audience reach. #Naughtees scored the
highest engagement score (249 out of 1,000) with only 2 posts while
the rest scored below 150 with an average of 10 posts.

#Naughtees received an average of over 7K+ likes, 189 shares and 81

comments per post. The graph below breaks down the number of
interactions that each campaign achieved.

48
Relevant v/s Irrelevant Content

Some brands run

out of topics to talk
about and hence
try to spice up their
content with topics
which are fun to
read but otherwise
irrelevant for the
brand. Allen Solly
has some posts
which comes
across as being
out of sync from
the overall
content. It has
posted some
travel content in an
attempt to get
some interaction.

However, on
Twitter, the brand has some very nice tweets which are also very
relevant.

Conversations on Twitter

Interacting with fans on Twitter should be the focal point for brands.
Some brands are doing this beautifully. Louis Philippe makes it a point
to track conversations even when not tagged. Such interaction takes
the brand reputation places.

49
Allen Solly
encourages
conversation by
posting open
ended questions.
Usually when a
user praises a
brand, the brand
makes an effort to
thank him/her.
However, Allen
Solly has also
taken this forward
by asking the user
what they like
about the product,
trying to extend the
conversation.

50
Consumer Engagement

Retail Brands are product oriented and this is clearly not

helping increase engagement among fans. Vero Moda has the highest
PTAT score of only 3.4% but most brands fall in the range of 1-2%,
which is average but still on the lower side.

This score might also vary from time to time, considering the high
engagement during a campaign as opposed to negligible scores at
other times.

The PTAT score is something that is not well understood by many

Facebook users and often they use it to measure engagement.
However, since the score takes in to account a whole host of different
interactions, it’s not a good indication of engagement.

From the chart below Basic Life has the highest engagement score
(311), followed by FastTrack (134). While high engagement on a page
does not guarantee growth, it is definitely one of the major factors for
attracting a high organic growth. Flying Machine (21) scored the
lowest.

51
Allen Solly posted a contest related post which received an
engagement score of 834, highest within 10 brands, and among a total
of 1,785 posts. This also was different in terms of Facebook Only Offer
for fans.

Customer Service

While some brands have only 20 tweets to reply to, others might have
over 200. Therefore, it is important to look at the response rate as well.

Allen Solly has the best response rate of 41.13% while Peter England,
as mentioned above, has the best average reply time of 3 minutes.
Apart from Van Heusen, which has a response rate of 20%, all the
other brands are below 10%.

52
 2) SITE
How do we actually see the website on different platforms and how
engaging they look in the first sight?

• ON DEKSTOP/LAPTOP Safety comes first for ALLEN SOLLY

When the site is opened in

laptop/desktop, it shows this
visual. The brand is really
cooperative here and focuses on
the safety issues of both its
employees and its customers. On
clicking that we find a page of
warehouse and delivery safety
and precautions.

This is the page that appears

stating warehouse and delivery
safety and precautions

53
• ON MOBILE
This is how the website looks on a
mobile screen and it is pretty much the
same with great optimization according
to a small screen and easy access with
the same safety checklist at the bottom
and even with an added feature of
placing a shortcut menu on the home
screen.

Also there are very easy steps on both

laptop/desktop and mobile to checkout
a product for a hassle-free user
experience increasing the engagement
process.

Step 2: Click on
the cart button
and then select
CHECKOUT

Step 1: ADD the

product to cart

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 Step 3: APPLY coupons if any and click on PLACE
ORDER. ADD Shipping address and then pay.
You also get an email conformation regarding the
details and tracking number and also a notification
from the brand to the provided phone number

The mobile version is also the same with very few adjustments and easy
checkout and payment processing.
There is no such official app for ALLEN SOLLY but yes its products are on
different shopping apps like Myntra, Flipkart, Ajio etc.
3) SYNERGY designates areas where integration between the online
presence and the organization or its networks is essential.
• Allen Solly’s Twitter Campaign Went Viral with an Interactive Billboard

The brand that has a prominent presence on Facebook and Twitter, milked
both the networks for the entire process. Facebook, which has more than
one million fans now has been quite interesting compared to Twitter. In
addition to the smart content, the brand had designed a Facebook app –
“Hot Fridays” was exclusively built for Allen Solly fans and if you were not
then it required you to ‘like’ before you could participate in the contest. The
contest was a simple one, where you had to share your “Hot Friday” story
and you could claim for prizes if your story had maximum votes from your
friends.

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Taking this one step further, Allen Solly launched its latest Friday collection
through a first-of-its-kind tweeple powered launch at Garuda Mall in
Bangalore. People from the city of Bangalore were invited to ‘Tweet
themselves with a hot Friday’. All one had to do was visit the mall between
3:30 and 6:30 pm with a smartphone and a Twitter account.

The game worked like this: The brand tweeted using a hashtag
#RainingSolly Fridays are hot because… and tweeples had to tweet using
the hashtag given with a particular code. The hashtag kept changing every
15 minutes and they had to tweet the fastest as the fast ones stood to win
an Allen Solly shirt. To make it interactive the tweets were simultaneously
livestreamed as well on the Allen Solly Facebook page or one could always
follow the hashtag #RainingSolly.

Link- https://youtu.be/8eHt6CVUlLI

With every tweet, embedded with #RainingSolly, the wire behind each shirt
would push the product a little further until the shirt literally “rained” on the
customer.

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Linking social media to your customer’s environment is a great idea. Taking
inspiration from this example, you could create promotional kiosks at a
store/brand location, which automatically offers a giveaway every time
someone shares a social media post about your brand.
• Allen Solly, Madura Fashion and Lifestyle, Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd
Allen Solly is Madura Fashion’s professional dressing brand, competing
with Blackberry and Van Heusen. It provides trendy, youth-centric quality
professional wear. Due to its brand positioning, the company maintains a
very active social media presence as well.

When B.G. Mahesh, Managing Director of Oneindia spotted a typo-

“Comming Soon”, on an Allen Solly hoarding in a mall at Bangalore, he
immediately tweeted a picture to his 10 000 followers online. Allen Solly
reacted quickly and thanked him for bringing this error to their notice. But
the company wasn’t done.

Two days later, Allen Solly came up with an innovative, humble and
humorous apology for Mr. Mahesh. In a tweet, with him tagged, the
company posted a picture of a ruled school notebook saying, “We will
not spell Coming Soon as Comming Soon.” By bringing in a humble
apology everyone could relate to, “they owned up to their mistake, and
even added a funny twist to it,” says Dingra. This social media move
caught so many eyeballs that Twitter India added this conversation to their
deck as a case study.
Key Takeaways for Marketers
Internet of Things (IoT) promises to revolutionize campaign design and
delivery. These are some of the most notable IoT applications in marketing.
Inspired by these, you could:
• Leverage IoT’s capabilities to intersect the physical with the digital,
embedding connected components into offline campaigns.
• Gather data from a wide variety of sources, accurately estimating
customer behavior and response to product properties.
• Find new ideas for product placement, linked to digital elements such
as social media or e-commerce.

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This is a great time to invest in new technologies and relentlessly pursue
innovation. Marketers can offer customers a range of new products,
services, and more importantly, vibrant and refreshing experiences. That’s
why you need to place cutting-edge technologies, such as IoT right at the
top of your market stack, reimagining the entire ecosystem of experience,
demand, and expectation around your product/service.
All it needs is a little brainstorming, a ton of research, and a pulse on what
your customers really want!
4) SYSTEM- providing an outline of technical factors underpinning the
secure, safe, cost-efficient and customer-friendly operation of the
corporate website.
Data that we collect
We may collect various information if you seek to place an order for a product
to us on the Site.
We collect, store and process your data for processing your purchase on the
Site and any possible later claims, and to provide you with our services. We
may collect your title, name, gender, email address, postal address, delivery
address (if different), telephone number, mobile number, fax number,
payment details, payment card details or bank account details.
We need this information in order to allow you to go ahead with placing your
order for a product on the Site. We may use that data to process payment
for the product and deliver the product to you. We also use that data to inform
you when the product is about to be delivered.
We may pass your name, phone number, email id and address on to a third
party in order to make delivery of the product to you (for example to our
courier or supplier).
We may also share your data with our franchisor, if any. You further authorize
such franchisor to use this information to sell products to you, directly or
indirectly.
We may also use your data in order to manage the Site, collect payment
from you, enable you to subsequently use parts of the Site, detect any fraud
or Site abuses, send you information relevant to the Site or our products, and
in case we have any queries. Payments that you make through the Site will

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be processed by our company Madura Fashion & Lifestyle A Division of
Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail Limited, a company registered in India.
You may receive phone calls from us, our franchisor or our third party
associates in relation to providing services to you.
You must only submit to us or our agent or the Site information which is
accurate and not misleading and you must keep it up to date and inform us
of changes immediately.
Your actual order details may be stored with us and you may access this
information by logging into your account on the Site. Here you can view the
details of your orders that have been completed, those which are open and
those which are shortly to be dispatched and administer your address details,
bank details and any newsletter to which you may have subscribed. You
undertake to treat the personal access data confidentially and not make it
available to unauthorized third parties. We cannot assume any liability for
misuse of passwords unless such misuse is our fault.
Subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy, we shall not share any of your
personal information with third parties without your explicit consent. We do
not sell or rent your personal information to third parties for their marketing
purposes without your explicit consent and we only use your information as
described in the Privacy Policy. We view protection of your privacy as a very
important community principle. We understand clearly that you and your
information is one of our most important assets. We store and process your
information on computers located in India that are protected by physical as
well as technological security devices. We use independent agencies to
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transferred or used in this way, please do not use the Site.
We reserve the right to communicate your personal information to any third
party that makes a legally-compliant request for its disclosure.
Credit Check and Fraud Prevention
We use standard and authorized payment services of reputed companies
and our Credit Check and Fraud Prevention policies are aligned to the
policies of these companies. All disputes would be subject to the jurisdiction
of courts at Bangalore.
Other uses of your personal information
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We may also send you other information about us, the Site, our other
websites, our products, sales promotions, our newsletters, SMS updates,
anything relating to other companies in our group or our business partners.
If you would prefer not to receive any of this additional information as detailed
in this paragraph (or any part of it) please click the “unsubscribe” link in any
email that we send to you or follow the un-subscription process as detailed
in the SMS. Kindly note that unsubscribing from one medium does not
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(days which are neither (i) a Saturday or Sunday, nor (ii) a public holiday
anywhere in India) of receipt of your instruction we will cease to send you
information as requested. If your instruction is unclear we will contact you for
clarification.
Competitions
For any competition we use the data to notify winners and advertise our
offers. You can find more details where applicable in our participation terms
for the respective competition.
Third Parties and Links
We may pass your details to other companies in our group. We may also
pass your details to our agents and subcontractors to help us with any of our
uses of your data set out in our Privacy Policy. For example, we may use
third parties to assist us with delivering products to you, to help us to collect
payments from you, to analyze data and to provide us with marketing or
customer service assistance. We may exchange information with third
parties for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction. We may
transfer our databases containing your personal information if we sell our
business or part of it. Other than as set out in this Privacy Policy, we shall
NOT sell or disclose your personal data to third parties without obtaining your
prior consent unless this is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy
Policy or unless we are required to do so by law. The Site may contain
advertising of third parties and links to other sites or frames of other sites.
Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices or
content of those third parties or other sites, nor for any third party to whom
we transfer your data in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Cookies

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The acceptance of cookies is not a requirement for visiting the Site. However,
we would like to point out that some functionality on the Site and ordering is
only possible with the activation of cookies. Cookies are tiny text files which
identify your computer to our server as a unique user when you visit certain
pages on the Site and they are stored by your Internet browser on your
computer's hard drive. Cookies can be used to recognize your Internet
Protocol address, saving you time while you are on, or want to enter, the
Site. We only use cookies for your convenience in using the Site (for example
to remember who you are when you want to amend your shopping cart
without having to re-enter your email address) and not for obtaining or using
any other information about you (for example targeted advertising). Your
browser can be set to not accept cookies, but this would restrict your use of
the Site. Please accept our assurance that our use of cookies does not
contain any personal or private details and are free from viruses. If you want
to find out more information about cookies, go to
https://www.allaboutcookies.org or to find out about removing them from
your browser, go to https://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-
cookies/index.html.
The Site uses technology from Google Analytics through which data is
collected and stored for marketing and optimization purposes and data use
profiles are prepared under a pseudonym. Cookies may be used for these
purposes. The cookies enable recognition of the Internet browser. The data
collected with these technologies is not used, without separate authorization
by the person concerned, to personally identify the visitors to this Site and is
not collated with personal data on the pseudonym holder. The permission for
data recording and storage may at any time be cancelled with on-going
effect.

Security
We have in place appropriate technical and security measures to prevent
unauthorized or unlawful access to or accidental loss or destruction of or
damage to your information. When we collect data through the Site, we
collect your personal details on a secure server. We use firewalls on our
servers. When we collect payment card details electronically, we use
encryption by using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) coding. Whilst we are unable
to guarantee 100% security, this makes it hard for a hacker to decrypt your
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details. You are strongly recommended not to send full credit or debit card
details in unencrypted electronic communications with us. We maintain
physical, electronic and procedural safeguards in connection with the
collection, storage and disclosure of your information. Our security
procedures mean that we may occasionally request proof of identity before
we disclose personal information to you. You are responsible for protecting
against unauthorized access to your password and to your computer.
Consent
By submitting data to us or our agent or using the Site, you consent to our
use of your data in the manner set out in this Privacy Policy.
Copyright
We have copyright over this Privacy Policy. Use by third parties, even by way
of extract, for commercial purposes is not allowed. Infringements may be
subject to legal action.
This Privacy Policy can change at any time to include / exclude clauses and
allensolly.com does not bear responsibility for updating users on the same.
iii) TASK 3: Identify and suggest new Key Influencers that fit in with
brand. Keep in mind a product-based company and product needs
to be highlighted but not overpower the personality and story. A
successful campaign should naturally marry product and influencer
seamlessly.
An influencer is someone who has:
• the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of his or her
authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with his or her audience.
• a following in a distinct niche, with whom he or she actively engages. The
size of the following depends on the size of his/her topic of the niche.
I personally feel that there are only some influencers who can truly do justice
to this brand because of their good image and a connectivity with their fans.
Taking only Instagram to begin with because real marketing for todays’ era
is Instagram. “When in doubt, Just gram it”.
There are couple of influencers who have already been approached by
ALLEN SOLLY for the influencer marketing. These are-

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Name of Influencer TYPE OF INFLUENCER
By follower By content type By level of
number influence
KRITIKA Macro-influencer Blogger and You Expert influence
KHURANA (804k followers) Tuber

DEEKSHA Micro-influencer Blogger and You Great influence

KHURANA (420k followers) Tuber

JUHI GODAMBE Micro-influencer Blogger and You Great influence

(378k followers) Tuber
RIYA JAIN Micro-influencer Blogger and You Great influence
(318k followers) Tuber
MASOOM Macro-influencer Blogger and You Expert influence
MEENAWALA (553k followers) Tuber

MEHAK SETHI Micro-influencer Blogger and You Great influence

(300k followers) Tuber
Influencers ALLEN SOLLY needs to approach-
• Shalini Chopra- Fashion Blogger

YouTube-
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVW23OM1kaldc3Ew5XC5dzw
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 Blog- http://www.stylishbynature.com
Facebook- Shalini Chopra
Twitter- StylishByNature
Instagram- stylish_by_nature/
Overall reach- 581870
City- Bangalore
Overall score- 85
YouTube subscribers- 2.17K
Blog traffic- 15600
Fb likes- 181670
Twitter followers- 22600
Instagram followers- 416K
Domain Authority- 51
Social score- 100
• Aashna Shroff- Fashion Blogger

YouTube-
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX_Qcz3B9qsIT1U2upD9btQ
Blog- http://www.thesnobjournal.com
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 Facebook- Aashna Shroff
Twitter- AashnaShroff
Instagram- aashnashroff/
Overall reach- 566950
City- Mumbai
Overall score- 77
YouTube subscribers- 176K
Blog traffic- 1000
Fb likes- 68950
Twitter followers- 6000
Instagram followers- 491000
Domain Authority- 18
Social score- 90

Instagrammers are a great help when it comes to social media marketing. Apart from the
above personalities there are my 2 top personal favorites who have created something
out of the league and spreading body positivity and genuineness through their media
platform which I personally believe can cater ALLEN SOLLY’s positioning statement for
women especially.

• Sakshi Sindwani- stylemeupwithsakshi

• Kusha Kapila- kushakapila

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Also,
For different products, Allen Solly can get in touch with several celebrity
Influencers like-
• MC Mary Kom, P.V. Sindhu who can be valuable for the endorsement of
Allen Solly Sports (Women) and Milind Soman for Allen Solly Sports
(Men).
• Harshaali Malhotra, an Indian child actress and model who appears in
Hindi-language films and television series; has a huge fan base over
media platform and can be a valuable asset for endorsing Allen Solly
Junior.

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CONCLUSION

In conclusion, after a 4-week long internship in DESIGN and BRANDING,

the expected learning was fulfilled discussed in the OBJECTIVE section
of this report, which is-
➢ Understanding of Importance of Positioning of a brand in the market
➢ Range and quality rationalization with perpetual maps
➢ Product Knowledge and ways to improve designing of the apparels
➢ Influencer approach in the making of a brand, a household name

It was a great experience overall to learn so many new things about the
retail industry and also the industry in general. And It would be so
beneficial in my future endeavors.

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