Retailers need to take risks: CEO, Brand House Retail at IFF ‘09

28 Jan 2009

“Courage is a mindset and great brands believe in momentum and the power to innovate,” said Subhinder Singh, MD, Reebok India.

“It is all about belief. Reebok has constantly invested in new talent and explored the relationship with cricketers. We allowed MS Dhoni to implement his design in place for one of our collections,” added Singh while his address at India Fashion Forum 2009 (IFF “09) in Mumbai. Singh was speaking at the session on ‘Fashion Dynamics’ at the inaugural day at IFF ’09. Singh opened the session with topic ‘Marketing Courage for Smart Move’. The debate on how the demands of the new age consumers are evolving was enriched by the discussion on ‘Staying Ahead of the Fashion Curve’.

“India being a multi stock country, the opportunities are immense. So the retailers need to take risks and start thinking out of the box. Also we need to approach fashion in a more holistic way,” observed Tarun Joshi, CEO, Brand House Retail.

Shyam Sukhramani, director marketing, Levi Strauss India, took the discussion forward by pointing out how larger than life retail formats can be fashioned in order to create a blockbuster effect on the masses. He said, “We need to build our stores as an aspiration destination. Also at our flagship stores we need to consistently elevate the customer experience and drop new news every month.”

In order to provide more dynamic perspective mobile phones were roped in as fashion accessories. Almost 50 per cent of the Indian youth are believed to make their style statement through the latest model of their cell phones than clothes and accessories, disclosed Shankar Subramanian, director retail, Nokia India.

— Sayanti Banerjee, Mumbai