Don't forget the home ground

News reports in business dailies, including this one, tell us almost every day that India and Asia continue to grow at a robust rate. While developed nations are still suffering from the effects of the recession, India and most of Asia are clocking impressive growth rates.

And even conservative economists reckon that in 2010-11, India will grow at 9 per cent. Yet Indian fashion designers are busy chasing a mirage. Or, to put it another way, they are running after what were once considered the temples of consumerism, the Western markets. London, Paris, New York, Milan were once markets where you had to be seen, to be heard, recognised and respected by the rest of the world.

Not any more. And in the future, this will be even less true. Financial wizards have concluded that India, China and other BRIC countries (Russia and Brazil being the other two) are the markets of the present and the future.

Large corporates in almost every sector are looking to relocate key operations to Asia or trying to find a way to engage with the region in a far more intensive manner than they have done in the past. And they are doing so only because it makes sound economic sense.

Indian fashion designers are, however, running in the opposite direction. Showing and selling in London, Paris, Milan and New York, they think, is the only true affirmation of their talent. By conquering these markets, they feel, they will conquer the world. Alas, far from world domination, all that these designers are doing is emptying their pockets in a futile pursuit.

Any savvy marketing person will tell them that a company’s marketing and advertising budget should not break the bank. Yet, Indian fashion designers persist in doing just that. The cost of a fashion show (essentially a marketing and selling tool) in Paris is at least Rs 1 crore. If a designer were to show twice a year in Paris, that would be Rs 2 crore a year to reach the best in the developed world. Most designers don’t have a turnover of more than Rs 15 crore a year. Even a dodo can see that spending Rs 2 crore a year just to show in Paris doesn’t make for a sound financial decision.

Apart from concentrating on the Indian market, designers here should look at Asia in a far more aggressive manner than they have done so far. China may still seem indecipherable to us, but this is one market that we ignore only at our own peril. The size and the opportunity there should be exploited.

The FDCI (Fashion Design Council of India), the nodal fashion body, should help designers from here to penetrate new and developing markets and not waste time going to Europe. It’s at best an exercise in vanity. From a purely business perspective, it’s a colossal waste of time. Investing in markets that will grow over the next 40 years is wise business strategy. Being seen in saturated markets like London and Paris is just plain stupidity.

(archana.jahagirdar@bsmail.in)