7 occasions for shopping

Indian market have changed a lot since 1991 that is after LPG, after this major turnaround in the Indian economy the mind set of Indian customer have also changed mostly the behavioural aspect of the shopper. The shopper are not exposed to modern trend , western world , new technology and a much more competitive world or environment. And since we belong to ZAP86 category that is we are born after 1986 so the key thing about ZAP86 is that they are less loyal that is they are more switcher they flit from subject to subject and they are very much away from old social values. And these shoppers influence all age group, drive fashion trend and they want to be classy and dress differently for different occasions.
Now with such a scenario when nothing is fixed but still the marketer has to survive I will share a real situation of a famous brand name – ALLEN SOLLY , it is a well know brand now almost everyone must be knowing mostly all the ZAP86 like this brand.
Initially Allen Solly was placed as a formal, middle management brand for the age of 35+ groups. So such an image was the reason for falling sales and they lack the youth pull that was must now to be in the market. So they set their new objective as to make their brand famous in the age group 23-28 without losing current shopper. It was a great challenge ahead for them. So they appointed an consulting agency to do a research on Indian Retail how to tap ZAP86. The conclusion was very interesting one to know.
They came up with the idea that there are 7 key occasion when young shopper plan to buy clothes and they strength was that they were the first one to know that. So the next step what ALLEN SOLLY took was expected they introduce seven occasion of wear that are perceived as fashion that command the trend and price. So Allen Solly has change the whole look of the store into 7 occasions of Tees, semi-formal, casuals, formals, corporate, party and festive with each occasion having different varieties in terms of cut design and colours.
As the zapping mentality of ZAP86 generation is obsessed with the desire for choice, apparel for 7 occasions will give them alternative for different purposes, and break the monotony of being perceived a mono brand store. The ZAP86 influence will pull in the 30+ generation who look for multiple occasion garments too. They have even given a very trendy and youthful look to the store , a mix of different cost effective materials were used such has copper wood but all of them were of high quality and high aspiration. Even when I have gone with my friend to Allen solly store in Bangalore it was clearly been observed how they display the occasion based dressing the best thing was my friend got her formal there only that gave her the best fit. Just because of different variety of sizes that they have with them.
So what they did in marketing terms can be simply called as positioning based o occasion. They have not applied very high funda logics but they simply tried to get the answer of the question what make people buy cloth what is that drive them to a store, and Allen Solly got the answer the 7 occasion that drive any person to the store to shop and they positioned there product range on that basis that is occasion based positioning. Since the Indian fashion market is highly unstructured with shoppers preferring variety for different occasion so Allen Solly became the best destination for people.
They started to think differently about the customer, they were not selling a product to a customer but they were selling an ideal self to a person that vary based upon the occasion they focus on the simple thing how an individual want to look like in a particular occasion that is not actual self but his ideal self what he want to be. They started to think differently about design and also about brand experience that we can easily identify based upon the store look and its experience.
And thus by doing this they have repositioned themselves as a brand for all occasion. Thus the secret of marketing or selling anything lies in answering one simple question – what make you to go for shopping? Thus marketing is all about that one unique skill of learning how to walk inside the minds of the customer and getting answer to such question and there is no shortcut to it but its ones experience that teaches all this.

- SHANKAR