Poshak Clothing Company

Marketing Plan
By
Aishani A JU2020MBA842
Devanshi Vora JU2020MBA9353
Simran Jain JU2020MBA4105
Ashik Paul JU2020MBA1148
Sidharth Singhee JU2020MBA2981
Sandeep K JU2020MBA5042
Karam Rohith JU2020MBA10363

1.0 Executive Summary

Poshakis the retail company owned and run by Dasak corporation. The way Poshak has runs
its company is by following a vertical integrated operation that has the advantage to shorten
the time in making decisions. Inventories in the stores depend on the geographic area in
which the stores located; and the way Poshak does their marketing is by just displaying
posters at stores and by their windows display. This approach to make business has work very
well for Poshak; they show an economic growth despite the strong crisis suffer in the India.
The problem that Poshak faces is whether to update their existing software or to keep the
current software but running in the misfortune that the only DOS supplier will cease to
maintain the software. Several benefits and economical costs are described to observe either
it would be a wise move or not.

2.0 Situational Analysis

Retail is a cutthroat industry, with competitors constantly amping up their ad spend while
slashing prices in an effort to attract customers. And yet Poshak, with more than 65 stores and
a growing presence online has managed to thrive without going this traditional route. Poshak
maintain such financial success and popularity without spending big on marketing and
advertising. The brand’s secret is Rather than be first-to-market, the company Poshak
copycats tried-and-true fashion. The brand takes customer feedback seriously. Rather than
invest in advertising, Poshak focuses on brand experience and location is key for Poshak’s
physical stores.

2.1 Market Summary

Poshak’s story begins with the opening of our first store in Kolkata in 1989, an early
milestone in our company’s long history. Over the years, poshak has remained faithful to
its core values, expressed simply in the same four key words that define all our stores
and online platforms: beauty, clarity, functionality and sustainability.
Nurturing a highly intimate relationship with its customers, Poshak’s designers respond
instinctively to their changing needs, reacting to the latest trends and constant feedback
received across its Woman, Man and Kids collections, to deliver new ideas in the right
place and at the right moment. 

2.2 STRENGTHS,WEAKNESS,OPPORTUNITIES AND THREAT

ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS
 Staying in trend and something new everyday- Poshak has positioned itself
as a retail business that stays on trend always and gives a lot of importance to
innovation and a regular shopper always finds something new in the store every
day.

 Supply Chain: Poshak refreshes its online and retail collection two times a
week. Poshak’s 10 logistic centers deliver to any location in India within 48
hours. Dasak also has an in-house team who design software to double the
speed at which the company dispatches orders.

 Competitive Pricing: Price matters regardless of the product. Our company

strives to become the most sustainable fashion retail by exploiting the flexibility
and cost-effectiveness of the fast fashion model to offer high-quality products at
a cheaper price.

 Design Team: Dasak has a team of 200 trained designers who transform the
customer’s desires to designs. The team of designers outputs 50,000 creatives a
year. And, it takes them just 3 weeks to get the designs from the drawing board
to the stores.

 Switch to Online: Dasak is investing rupees 3 million in bolstering its online

sales. The investment focuses on developing an engaging online buying
experience and integrating existing physical infrastructure. The company aims
to generate a quarter of its revenue through online sales by 2025.
The reason Poshak is so successful is that Poshak has mastered the game of fast-fashion. But
due to growing concerns about the environment and ethics, fast-fashion turns out to be a
double-edged sword. We’ll cover this and more in our next section on Poshak’s weaknesses.

WEAKNESSES
What makes Poshak unique in the world of fashion is its commitment to revise its collection
every two weeks. This commitment gives Poshak a place at the top of the industry. But the
edge comes at a price. Here’s more:

 Fast-Fashion: Interestingly, the trend that helped propel Poshak to the top is

the cause of its most pressing weakness. With the focus on sustainability
increasing among customers and policymakers Poshak’s weakness is balancing
sustainability with fast-fashion.
 Reliance on Physical Stores: The pandemic accelerated Poshak’s plans to limit
the number of physical stores. Online sales helped Poshak climb out of a
massive drop in sales because of COVID-19-related causes. However, even
with online sales picking up, the sales are only at 69% of what it was in 2019.
 Ethical Work Practices: Dasak works with 520 suppliers across 708 factories.
Although Dasak deserves credit for creating a rigorous code of conduct, a large
gap exists in enforcing the code.
 AI-Enabled Prediction: Currently, Dasak is working with AI and Big Data
companies to create an AI-enabled system that predicts consumer behavior.
However, the current system is still in its testing stage. When such a system
goes online, Poshak will have the unrivaled capability in predicting and
fulfilling
customer’s needs.

OPPORTUNITIES
One of the biggest advantages Poshak has is its experience in capitalizing on fashion
trends quickly. This advantage puts Poshak in the right place to leverage opportunities
on the horizon. Some of these opportunities are:
 Rapid Delivery Cycle: Customers visit Poshak’s shops on an average of 17
times a year. This is because Poshak responds to trends as soon as they emerge.
Right now, Poshak delivers a trend from start to finish in just 2 to 3 weeks.
However, in the future, Poshak could shorten the cycles even more.
 Personalization: Collecting data and segmenting the customer base after
analyzing the data is becoming easier than ever before thanks to AI. This allows
for providing personalized suggestions to customers. Poshak should capitalize
on this technology.
 Eco-Friendliness: According to the Sourcing General, more than 1/3rd of
Millennials and Gen Z look for “sustainable” and “environment friendly” labels
on clothes. Together, the two groups account for 50% of the population. So,
Poshak must listen and respond to this growing need.
 Resale: The re-sale market is predicted to grow to $36 billion in 2021.
Integrating a re-sale strategy to their current platform would allow customers to
purchase more with less wastage. This encourages consumerism while
supporting sustainability.
 Influencer Marketing: Unbox Social says influencer marketing is the most
effective strategy for promoting lifestyle brands. Poshak’s success campaign
involving 60 micro-influencers. This should be a model for the future.
THREAT

Poshak’s biggest competition in the traditional sense would be H&M. However, in the online
space, Poshak faces competition from multiple businesses. But competition is just one of the
threats to Poshak.

 Competition: China’s fast-fashion giant, Shein, is the world’s biggest fashion

retailer with a purely online presence. During September, the Shein app
saw 10.3 million downloads. Poshak, with only 0.5 million downloads in the
same period, must watch out for its rivals in the digital arena.
 Price War: Fast-fashion, Poshak’s primary niche, brings the latest trends from
the ramp to the customers quickly and at low costs. However, the industry
is vulnerable to imitators waging price wars to leech off from Poshak’s line. 
 COVID-19: In the first quarter of 2020, Dasak reported a 44% drop in sales.
Dasak report states the closure of 38% of its stores because of the
Coronavirus lead as the central reason for the drop in sales.
 Sustainability: The use-and-throw attitude people had towards fashion is
changing. People are conscious of the impact of fashion on the environment and
people. Thus, Poshak would have to push towards making fast-fashion a
sustainable business – economically and ecologically.

2.3 COMPETITION
Poshak top competitors include: H&M, Forever 21, boohoo, Mango, M&S, Gap, Uniqlo,
Fashion Nova, URBN, Pantaloon, American Apparel, Woolworths, Avenue Stores, Nasty
Gal, Ridhani, Fab, J.Crew and We Fashion.
1. H&M - H&M is regarded as one of POSHAK’s main competitors. H&M was founded
in Stockholms län in 1947. H&M works in the clothing retail sector. Compared to
POSHAK, H&M makes 3.3 billion dollars more profit.
2. Forever 21 - Forever 21 is POSHAK’s number 2 competitor. Forever 21 was founded
in 1984, and its headquarters are located in Los Angeles, California. Forever 21
competes in the retail distributor industry. Forever 21 has 120,054 fewer employees
than POSHAK
3. Boohoo - Bohoo is POSHAK’s No. 3 competitor. Bohoo is headquartered in St
Helier, Other, and was founded in 2006. Like POSHAK, “boohoo” also competes in
clothing retail. “Boo brings 7.36% of POSHAK’s revenue.

2.4 PRODUCT OFFERINGS

The company specializes in fast fashion, and products include clothing, accessories, shoes,
swimwear, beauty, and perfumes. Poshak sells both Men's and women's clothes. They also
sell shoes, cosmetics and accessories. Recently they started with children's clothes as
well.
2.5 DISTRIBUTION
Poshak’s strong distribution network enables the company to deliver goods to its stores
within 48hours . Most of the stores (75%) are company owned and positioned near high-end
stores that draw significant trade. For consumers drawn to the high-end stores, Poshak is
nearby to oblige them with up to date products of the latest fashion trend.  In this way,
Poshak benefits from the cumulative pull generated by their competitors. Poshak also retails
via the companies main website, Poshak.com (2018), this is used in the same way as Chanel
and promotes the brand image, provides consumers with an indirect way of buying products.
Poshak also invest in their on line presence. To date the company has 815 million followers
on Facebook, 16.6 million followers on Instagram.  They do not operate an official Poshak
account on Twitter.

3.0 MARKETING STRATEGY

3.1 OBJECTIVE
“The original business idea was very simple. Link customer demand to manufacturing, and
link manufacturing to distribution. That is the idea we still live by.”

Poshak’s CEO and founder, saw the great importance of having retailing and manufacturing
closely together in the apparel industry and from his view; Poshak was able to position itself
as a company with vertical integration control system. It covers all phases of the fashion
process: design, manufacture, logistics and distribution to its own managed stores. It is also
characterized by their strong focus on their customers.

Vision
“POSHAKis committed to satisfying the desires of our customers. As a result we pledge to
continuously innovate our business to improve your experience. We promise to provide new
designs made from quality materials that are affordable”

Mission Statement
“Through Poshak’s business model, we aim to contribute to the sustainable development of
society and that of the environment with which we interacts.”

3.2 TARGET MARKET

Poshak sells apparel, footwear and accessories for women, men and children. Product lines
were segmented into these three categories, with further segmentation within the women’s
line as it was considered the strongest out of the three, with an overwhelming majority of
women in the target market (78%). Poshak’s consumers are young, value conscious and
highly sensitive to the latest fashion trends in the industry. An advantage that the brand has
over conventional retailers is that they do not define and segment their target market by ages
resulting in designs and styles that can reach a broader market.
Poshak offers cutting edge fashion at affordable prices by following the most up-to-date
fashion trends and identifying consumers’ demand, and quickly getting the latest designs into
stores.

3.3 POSITIONING
The main objective for positioning the Poshak brand in a market as mentioned by the
company is to ‘democratize fashion’. The company aims to provide its customers with trendy
and high fashion products at lower prices to accommodate their requirements. As a result the
marketing strategy that is employed by Dasak for Poshak is to open stores and outlets that
provide the Poshak experience at high profile locations to set the image of the brand as being
trendy, hip, high fashion and accessible.

3.4 STRATEGIES
 Competitive Advantage: Market-oriented Strategy

Most of Poshak's designs are based on the latest trends and they are ever changing
according to the immediate feedback from customers. Poshakemploys its service staff in
listening to customers' preferences and reacts very quickly to them. It is only a matter of
weeks before the designs get altered, manufactured and restocked in the stores. If a design is
largely unpopular, Poshakwill not hesitate to withdraw them from the shelves. Its global
establishment also provides an extensive network of shopper-feedback which allows them to
be ahead of competitors in spotting global fashion trends.

 Product: Fast Moving Fashion

Poshk prides itself on fast moving fashion with new designs restocked in limited quantity
every two weeks. This encourages consumers to frequent the stores for new designs and to
snap up interesting outfits on the spot in order to guarantee themselves a piece. This provides
a sense of exclusivity to shoppers.

 Process: Industry Leader in Lead Time

Creative teams consisting of designers, sourcing specialist and product development
personnel, develop design collections. The teams work simultaneously on different clothing,
building and improving on styles previously available. Poshak’s designers are trained to limit
the number of changes made by lowering the number of samples required, minimizing cost
and turnover time. Its demand based production or Just-in-time (JIT) production reduces the
amount of inventory available, lowering Poshak’s storage cost. Poshak's outstanding lead
time is unbeatable in the industry at the moment. Furthermore, Poshak eliminated the
traditional design process, where design and development overrides fabric procurement. In
Poshak, the design teams work with the available fabric, allowing for faster fashion.

 Price: Low Cost, High Fashion

Poshak believes in offering high fashion at a low cost. Prices range from 4000 to 40000
for both Womenswear and Menswear while the Kids segment has coats starting from 3500
and these prices can start from 2500 during a sale. Taking quality and cost into account,
Poshak prides itself in providing high fashion at an affordable cost, making its customers’
purchases value-worthy.

 Place: Prime Retail Locations

Poshak, like its competitor brands, is located in prime retail areas where human traffic is high. As
aforementioned, Poshak invests in prime locations as they place great emphasis on the presentation of
its storefronts. Poshak also has an online store, which increases accessibility to its customers,
allowing them to make purchases conveniently on the go.

 Promotion: Minimum Advertising

Poshak uses 0.4% of sales revenue on advertising, minimal when compared to its
competitors (3-4% of sales revenue). Instead of relying on traditional mass-marketing mediums,
Poshak uses prime retail locations to attract its customers. It also ensures that storefronts and
window displays are attractive and fresh to customers by making frequent changes to the items
on display. The interior of the store is also clean and bright, with spacious lanes in between
racks. This provides a very comfortable shopping experience. Having a good image projection
of the store is vital as this is Poshak's most effective marketing communications tool. When
customers walk into a store, Poshak wants to portray to customers that the latest fashion is always
available.

3.5 MAKETING MIX OF POSHAK

Poshak is a popular Indian clothing store that uses a very clever marketing strategy to achieve
its business goals. Consequently, Poshak has become India’s best-known fashion brand.

Sanjay Jalan started the company in 1989. A half a century later, it has become own of the
world’s fastest growing manufacturer of affordable Spanish fashion clothing.

Product in the marketing mix of Poshak

Poshak is known as the Coca Cola of fashion. Such is the craze of this brand among the
fashion enthusiasts. One of the major strength of the company is that it is able to respond very
quickly to the changing needs of the customers.

The company does not outsource its manufacturing process, making it fully in control
of the products it produces. Its unique selling preposition is to create the latest trends.
In most cases, new styles are normally available on the sales stores within two weeks,
four weeks maximum. If a product is not selling in the stores, it is immediately pulled
from the stores.

However, when it comes to India, it has a few problems to sort out, prominent among those
being the lack of seasonal variations in their range. Secondly, it needs to tackle and cope up
with the cultural needs of the local people which is a big challenge and Poshak is working to
reach out local people by coming up with designs that integrate modernism with local
traditions

Pricing in the marketing mix of Poshak

Because the concept of Poshak is to provide its products at a reasonable price to its
customers, it follows that customers find its prices quite affordable. However, we have to
know that we are referring to the cream customers who would compare Poshak with Hugo
Boss or others. Some Poshak stores might be very premium whereas others will be very
much affordable. But mostly Poshak has a premium pricing strategy. The pricing is made
possible by optimizing development and training costs

Promotions in the marketing mix of Poshak

Poshak has a unique marketing policy of “Zero investment in marketing”. Instead, the
company uses the money it would have used to advertise in opening new stores. The striking
thing about Poshak is that it has found differences that matter to the consumers and used that
to differentiate itself from the rest of the competition. In other words, its key
marketing strategy is based on exclusivity, experience, differentiation and affordability.

In essence, the company relies heavily on the word of mouth advertising more than anything

else does. The products target population in age group 18-40 that live in the cities. This is
because; this group is the most fashion conscious, more than any other group. Specifically,
the market segment comprises of women (65%), men (25%) and children (15%) all of them
being fashion conscious, educated and fall in the middle class category.

Their commitment is clearly visible in the attention they pay to each and every detail of their
showrooms. The elegance with which the windows are laid out and the way the shop
attendants are groomed, everything is worked out according to a plan that is very precise.
Every store manager has free access to talk to their counterparts at India regarding the
marketing and improvement strategies.

Small and regular product shipments are designed to keep the inventory scarce and fresh;
compelling customers to buy urgently and frequently visit the store to check what is new. Bar
coding, online shopping and computer, aided purchases are all measures designed to increase
sales and make it best among those in the market.
Place in the marketing mix of Poshak
Poshak is very unique and one of the things that make it a stand out brand is the fact that it is
a vertically integrated retailer. What this means is that it designs, manufactures and
distributes the products itself. This approach seems to be working for it because it has
managed to establish itself as one of the leading Indian fashion stores.. Poshak is present in
India and its expansion is ongoing. Therefore, you will soon be seeing more Poshak stores in
more countries.

In fact, 70% of Poshak stores are owned by the company and the rest are joint ventures of
franchises. This means that customers experience the same environment when entering one of
the Poshak stores be it they are New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyedrabad etc.: the stores are
spacious, well-lit , modern and predominantly whiter and walled with mirrors.

Most people say Poshak’s real strength lies in its culture, something that can never be
replaced for anything. One of the things it does is that it hires young designers and trains
them to make quick decisions. In other words, while good decisions are encouraged, bad
decisions are not severely punished. Facing several problems related to rent space, every mall
owner in India is ready to provide free space to Poshak, which speaks volumes about the
popularity of this brand in urban areas and the long way it has travelled. It is unbelievable but
the fact is Poshak comes out with at least 500 or more new designs per month. This, coupled
with the brand name Poshak enjoys, helps to price their products according to their will and
wish, as new trends tend to be a bit costly. However, the people at Poshak are sensible
enough as pricing is quite competitive with the brands like Pantaloons, and Phoenix etc in
India as well as other parts of the world.

3.6 MARKETING RESEARCH

Using research, we will identify specific features and benefits our target market segment
value. Feedback from market surveys and focus groups will help us develop and fine tune the
strategy of the brand. We are also measuring and analysing the customers attitude towards
competing brand and products. Brand awareness will help us determine the effectiveness and
efficiency of our messages and media. Finally, we will use customer satisfaction studies to
gauge market reaction.

4.0 FINANCIALS
India’s luxury fashion brand Poshak posted 45.54 per cent growth in its profit after tax to Rs
124.05 crore from the Indian market in 2020 fiscal, according to its annual report. It had
posted a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 371.49 crore in 2019 fiscal.
Besides, the company posted 9.24 per cent growth in sales to Rs 970.54 crore during the year
as against Rs 880.87 crore of the previous fiscal.

During the year under review, the Poshak entity recorded revenue of Rs 1,570.54 crore and
PAT of Rs 104.05 crore," said in its annual report for 2019-20

5.0 CONTROLS
5.1 IMPLEMENTATION
Further enhancing the quality of our customer service, Poshak stores also include Radio
Frequency Identification Technology (RFID), using cutting-edge systems to track the
location of garments instantly and making those most in demand rapidly available to
customers. This technology has allowed Poshak to complete the implementation of its
integrated stock management system in the 64 markets in which it operates its integrated
store and online platform. 

Poshak’s Join Life collection and the eco-stores are two examples that underline the

brand’s unwavering focus on sustainability and improved customer experience. These
developments have been further enriched by a range of new and innovative projects,
such as the installation of clothing recycling containers in-store and a scheme providing
for free at-home collection of used garments to complement the delivery of online
orders.