Advertising in Slowdown

Advertising is a communication tool used by companies to sell their products and services. Through advertisement companies try to persuade consumers to buy their products or services.

It was expected that during downturn advertising will be the first thing to be axed but figures show something else. Ad spends by top five FMCG companies have raised by 55% in the 2nd quarter of the year 2009-10. 70% of the total revenues generated by advertising sector come from top FMCG companies.

Instead of curbing their expenditure on advertisement, companies started launching their old existing brand in market. Henkel did this by relaunching its soap brand, Margo and also increased advertising and communication spending to 11 percent of the total sales.
The one of the main reason to increase expenditure on advertising is retain existing customers, who might switch to cheaper product.

Companies want to increase their market share by spending more on advertising and marketing. Relaunching and brand promotions lure customers to stick to brand and also attract new customers. During recession times customers become careful in spending. So each company wants to convince customers to prefer their brands. Research shows companies that slash advertising by 50 per cent take three to four years to recover their sales post-recession.

Marketers are wooing consumers with instant gratification, therefore they are using promotion such as discount sales, test drives of cars and get free assured gift(by Hyundai ), buy “a shampoo get a soap free” etc. In apparel retailing, discount plays magnetic role in enhancing footfalls. End of season sales lead to 30-45 per cent jump in sales. Especially in case of kid wear where parents prefer to shop during discount period as kids outgrow clothes fast.

Companies have understood that value retailing appeals to customers so they spend lot on advertisement to increase customer buying, in store promotions helps in impulse buying. Brands like Arvind has also received benefit of impulse buying in their store by introducing range of accessories, where by their average ticket size has increased by Rs 400.

Result too show that increased spending on advertising paid off. HUL’s net profit rose 19.6% from a year earlier and sales were up 21%. Marico’s revenues and net profit grew 28% and 15%, respectively. GCPL’s revenue jumped 26%, although profit was up just 1%. At Dabur, revenue and net profit grew 12.2% and 25%, respectively

Ritu Wears

Ritu wears is a well known Retail brand present in North India. In 1965 Ritu Wears entered the Indian fashion Industry with a 200sq.ft children’s wear store owned by the enterprising Mrs J.D Sahni. It started offering fashion and lifestyle to consumer since its inception.

Ritu Wear has emerged as one of the favorite brands. It success can be measured by its popularity amongst consumer. From single outlet of 200 sq.ft, now Ritu wears has 10 stores which are present in Delhi NCR Region and parts of Punjab. By opening new stores Ritu Wears is reaching close to customers who were far away from the store.

Ritu wears is a customer centric company. Every decision of the company revolves around customer insight. From opening of new stores to expanding their range for clothes. It’s a brand for passionate. Ritu Wears has always believed that without passion there cannot be fashion.

Be it is any festival, or any occasion, Ritu Wears is always there for its customers with collection for that offers. Ritu Wears specialty lies in being a fashion store for the entire family. Ritu Wears want when customer think of family, fun or fashion, they should think of them. The reason why RW is a complete family store is that not only cater exquisite fashion products to the tastes and preferences of every age group but also provide lots of shopping extravaganza and fun for the entire family

Ritu wears has achieved so much popularity amongst its customers due to the efforts being put by lot of people at its back end operation team. Director of company Mr Sahni and their entire family pays lot of personal attention to every feedback from customer and they themselves do product testing before it reaches to final customers. This helps in minimizing customer complaints. Distribution chain of Retail house follows proper coordination from head office and store level which ensures that product reaches customers on time.

Demand and supply gap is reducing to minimal by the constant efforts of the management team. The team follows the strategy of 3 B’s i.e Belief-----Behaviour --------Business.

For eg; if you believe that you want to give best service to your customer then it will be reflected in your behavior (actions) and which result into good business for the organization.

For this organization structure is framed in such a way that there is proper communication and coordination within all levels where best solution/variety can be given to customer.

Once customers are in store him / she finds something for everyone. Visual Merchandising of stores is taken care by management to provide pleasant atmosphere for shopping. Signages and Branding make accessibility easy for customer.

Marketing team of store is very strong, they come up with innovative ideas every time to attract customers to store. Sometimes with footwear Carnival, sometime it’s with Mother’s Day special offers etc.

Ritu Wears is amongst the few fashion houses in India that has successfully initiated and redefined not just sense of dressing with its brand new collections but also the shopping experience itself along with establishing new avenues. The products in its portfolio include apparels for men and women in segments including formalwear, casual wear, ethnic wear, party wear; kids wear, accessories, footwear and a wide range of national and international brands in lifestyle category