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| Belmonte targets the mid-premium market |
| Chandan Kishore Kant / Mumbai Nov 16, 2009, 00:37 IST |
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Consumers tune in to Shah Rukh’s welcome note in a brand new campaign.
Shah Rukh Khan tries hard to make Belmonte’s target consumers believe that the brand “suits his style” in the new campaign. And India seems to be listening to King Khan.
S Kumars’ home-grown textile brand in the mid-premium segment has covered a long distance in its three-year journey, with sales of the Belmonte range already reaching Rs 1,100 crore in 2009, up 32 per cent compared with the previous year. In the next two years, S Kumars is planning to increase that to at least Rs 1,750 crore.
The new ad campaign shows SRK endorsing the brand saying , “Gentlemen, style ki shuruaat yahan se hai! Belmonte mein aapka swagat hai” (Gentleman, style starts here. You are welcome to Belmonte).
S Kumars knows reach is important if customers have to really welcome Belmonte, which sells shirts, trousers, cargos, suits, blazers, t-shirts, partywears in the ready-to-wear segment apart from fabric.
So the company, which currently has 222 exclusive brand outlets across the country, plans to scale it up to 250 by March next year. Besides, BrandHouse Retails (BHRL), a group company, retails the group's brands in 30,000 multi-brand outlets. S Kumars’ other big brands are Reid & Taylor, Carmichael House, Dunhill and Stephens Brothers.
Tarun Joshi, managing director of BHRL, says Belmonte’s positioning as a mid-premium product was done after careful research. There is a huge segment where people buy unbranded products and a thorough research of the market showed that the mid-premium space had enough potential as it lacked quality players and national brands. “We saw the gap, mapped the potential to our strengths and placed the right product,” he says Joshi says the success of a brand is not described by trials but repeat purchases; “Belmonte is a young, fearless and modern brand. And that is why Shah Rukh, who captures the essence of the brand persona, was chosen as he signifies the global Indian who is a fearless innovator.”
Talking about the new brand promotion campaign, Joshi says, “The ad film takes you through the different facets of Belmonte from formals to casuals and day wears. It tries to say that style is in all of us and you don't need to chase it.”
The higher concentration of Belmonte's exclusive outlets are in the west followed by north, south and east. So far, Belmonte's stores have been stationed on the edge of the cities. However, going ahead, more of its outlets will come up in the metros.
On an average, the size of Belmonte's stores ranges from 600 sq feet to 1,200 sq feet. Bringing upcoming stores within the city may add up to the rental costs. But this is not worrying the company as Belmonte's sales are on the rise. The company tries to keep the rental to sales ratio under 16 per cent for a mature store.
“We are encouraged by the fact that Belmonte is delivering numbers. And now we are witnessing demand from the inner parts of the cities. But the majority of Belmonte stores will come either in tier -II or the edge of large cities,” Joshi says.
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