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Internal Assessment Assignment: Global Business Environment-Pashmina Shawls Submitted To: Ms. Smita Iyer
Internal Assessment Assignment: Global Business Environment-Pashmina Shawls Submitted To: Ms. Smita Iyer
AUGUST 2015
CONTENTS
Vision
Organization Summary
Organization Location
Market Segmentation
Target Market Segment Strategy
Industry Analysis
1.1 Vision
· Leading manufacturer, supplier and exporter of a wide range of exquisite products such as
Cashmere Pashmina Products i.e. Shawls, Scarves, Stoles, Sweaters, Blanket etc.
· Relentless commitment to provide superior quality products, making them available at
reasonable prices and backing them up with prompt deliveries & efficient services. It is these
factors that will make us a respected manufacturer and supplier of Shawls, Mufflers, Scarves,
Stoles and the like.
· We will have all the necessary facilities to meet the varied needs & requirements of
customers all over the world. we will establish ourselves in the domestic market and will
successfully made inroads into the international market, presently exporting our product range
into the quality conscious markets of USA and Europe.
· We will constantly enhanced our expertise & capabilities with the view to provide our
customers with high quality products. With exclusive designs and stellar craftsmanship, our
products will be definitive statements of style.
1.3 Organization Location
to take advantage of availability of raw material suitable place for manufacturing Ladakh,
Kashmir, India
2.0 PRODUCT INTRODUCTION
Pashmina, from the Persian word for wool, is popularly known in the West as cashmere wool,
from the old spelling of Kashmir. The fine wool comes from the undercoat of the Himalayan
mountain goat, called Chyangra (Capra Hircus) which lives in the high Himalayan regions of
Nepal and the most remote regions of Tibetan Plateau. For over a thousand years cashmere has
been woven into shawls and blankets, prized by royalty and common people alike for its
softness, warmth, and long life. Kashmir was for centuries the only place the fiber could be
woven into shawls, according to treaties that gave the Maharaja of Kashmir exclusive rights to
Tibet's pashmina supply.
While shawls, stoles, mufflers, scarves and blankets woven from pashmina wool have been
adored for centuries in the far East, the Western world has been slow to discover pashmina's
unique qualities. Today most of the world's pashmina shawls are woven on hand looms in
Nepal's Kathmandu valley. And most are woven on a warp of spun silk for increased suppleness
and strength. In recent years this silk and pashmina blend has become the adoring of the western
fashion world. Extraordinarily soft and light, yet exceptionally warm, be it pure pashmina or silk
blended pashmina.
Pashmina wool, also known as cashmere wool world over is the softest, most luxurious and the
best wool in the world comes from Himalayan region from a special Himalayan goat Chyangra
(Capra Hircus) which lives at the altitude of 12000 feet where temperature drops below 40
degree centigrade. The goat is blessed by nature with a unique very thin short inner coat of hair
which is the best insulation in the world and this inner coat of hair is PASHMINA. The
Himalayan goat is survived because of this nature gifted hair in the coolest weather. Pashmina
fiber is 15 to 19 microns in diameter where as a human hair is 75 microns in diameter. One
Himalayan goat produce s 3 to 8 ounce s of Pashmina per year.
Origin of Pashmina dates back to ancient civilization and has been traced back to the times of
Mahabharata. Earlier in olden days pashmina shawls found favor with EMPERORS, KINGS,
PRINCES, RULLERS and NOBLES. This precious fabric was known as FIBER FOR KINGS.
Origin of pashmina in Nepal started long back, the mountain people of Nepal had to depend on
the fabric they wove for warmth, for easy travel and for survival. In many high mountain areas
and semi-tropical jungles, they continued to weave for their perfect protection and comfort wear.
The art of wearing wool products by hand has been practiced throughout the country remains
popular today as its rugged conditions have not changed. Due to gradual popularity and
commercialization of pashmina there are variety of pashmina is being offered in the market like:
pashmina shawls, pashmina stoles, pashmina scarves, pashmina sweaters, pashmina mufflers,
and variety of other pashmina products. These luxurious pashmina shawls are hand woven by
traditional weavers whose families have been in the occupation since ages they inherit this art
from their ancestors, and tradition of pashmina weaving continues from one generation to
another generation.
Nepalese women have traditionally worn pashmina shawls. Our ancestors have described
pashmina as sensual sublimity. It is they who perfected the skill to retrieve pashmina up to 95%
purity and the skill as such got passed from generation to generation as a heritage of Nepalese
craft.
Pashmina is the most original and authentic fibers. The king of all wools originated in Kashmir
hundreds of years ago. The art of Pashmina making in the valley of Kashmir is believed to be as
old as 3000 years B.C. In the past, only rich and elite had the privilege of enjoying luxurious
fabric. It adorned the court of Caesar and was the pride of French queen, Marie Antoinette.
Impressed with the unparalleled looks of Kashmir shawl, Emperor Napoleon presented it to
impress Josephine. Until mid-twentieth century, Kashmir's kings had the sole right to purchase
all pashmina from Nepal, Tibet and other higher reaches of Himalayas. This resulted in
establishment of flourishing cottage industry in Kashmir and has lead to the perfection of art of
pashmina making. The making of Kashmir Pashmina is labor intensive and on an average it takes
nearly 200 - 250 man-hours to make a single pure plain pashmina shawl without embroidery.
The beautiful vale of Kashmir has always been famed for its craftsmanship. The wearing of
tapestry shawls was first introduced into the valley from Turkistan by Zain-Ul-Abdin, the ruler
of Kashmir, in the 15th century. Production benefited from the patronage of the Mughal rulers
like Akbar and his successors, who wore these shawls, and also because of patronage of local
government.
The collapse of the Mughal Empire left many weavers unemployed. The situation however, was
saved by the enormous increase in demand from Europe, where the shawls became popular in the
latter part of the 18th century.
At the beginning of the 19th century, foreign entrepreneurs started to commission shawls
especially for the French market, adapting the designs to suit European taste. Indeed pashmina
became the rage in France after Napoleon presented a rare shawl to Empress Josephine. With the
progress of the century, the adoption in designs became increasingly complex. The European
market for shawls collapsed in 1870 due to a combination of factors such as changing tastes and
competition from Paisley shawls. The economic prostration of France when she was defeated by
Russia added to the declining European market. The Kashmir weavers either left the valley for
Punjab or started producing embroidered shawls for tourists, mainly British officers on furlough
in colonized India.
Today Kashmiri shawls are embroidered by professional men. Lately, the American market has
opened to Pashmina as Americans discovered its plush, soft texture. Fashion gurus now
pronounce it as essential to the wardrobe as the ubiquitous little black dress.
3.0 PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
PRODUCTS PORTFOLIO
Products that we supply include shawls, scarves and stoles our trademark product, other products
are knitwear, blankets, gloves, hats, woven fabrics, outer coats etc. and new offerings in
Sweaters and Winter wear.
The products differ from each other in their sizes ,a standard measure is set for each .
Scarf – 12 inches by 60 inches
Stoles or Wraps – 28 inches by 80 inches
Shawls – 36 inches by 80 inches
Hats and Gloves
Blankets
Sweaters and knitwear
For the above range of products ,explore the frill of designs from the collection and flaunt your
pashmina customised and uniquely styled.
The pashmina mixes provided in our portfolio include
Pure pashmina - 100% cashmere wool fabric
Pashmina Silk – 70 % cashmere wool blended with 30 % silk
Pashmina Silk – 50% cashmere wool blended with 50 % silk
Pricing
Pricing of the products offered varies product to product on different factors:
Fabric composition –
Products with 100% pashmina being the best quality product on the shelf followed by the 70-30
combination and 50-50 combination in the price effective range. Thus we offer products suitable
to every pocket where each consumer can cash in on the iconic value of pashmina.
Category of the product,its size –
Depending on the size you can choose from scarves,stoles ,shawls of different fabric
composition with price range varying accordingly. Different products are used for different
purposes and occasions , visit our website to check out the range of products
Design,Color and customized services offered-
We also offer wide array of designs of the products ,and customization options for your
personally styled pashmina. Check out the products on our website to choose from various styles,
and range of colors.Custom made products by individual styling will be available , avail for the
styling service on our website
SERVICES
Design and Customisation
We will be offering services of customisation of your product orders and unique piece styling,
avail to our home designers to get your pashmina wear uniquely made. Best fit your product to
choice and value (prestigious commodity).
Quality Checks
Being a premium ranged product originality of the product is to be stringently assessed before
buying , we carry out quality checks on the product right from the procurement of the raw
material wool to weaving and designing of the product.
Duplicacy is prevelant in this product range, so products are to be checked for their Standard
marks before buying and the exporters or manufacturers authenticity is to be assessed to make an
informed product choice., scarves, stoles, wraps, throws, blankets to USA, C
3.3 TECHNOLOGY
With all businesses adopting technology into their business processes, increasing the effieciency
is the key objective, Technology can be incorporated in various stages of Production ,Operation
and sales and exports of our goods and services.
The processing of pashmina involves lot of skilled work in sorting, spinning, weaving
and dyeing which are usually done manually. The shawls are made of pashmina with intricate
and unique designs, with the help of local sticks (Kani) using hand jacquard.
Technology in operations
But as the industry is decentralised the scale of production is scattered and low, this can be dealt
with by networking the various sections of the business flow digitally via an Enterprise Resource
planning system to measure and keep track of production, time, inventory and orders processing
and flow.
Technology in Manufacturing
Mechanised processes of combing to obtain quality raw materials, use of power looms instead of
handlooms in weaving of the fabric will lead to better quality and faster outputs ,
Further the finishing of the products involving plucking which was done by pickers is now
mechanised to give a better quality of finishing to the product, dyeing has made possible
providing pashmina in variety of colors thus increasing demand.
Packaging – Export standard packaging quality, being a delicate and aesthetic value product, set
packaging techniques with better technology.
Technology in Sales
Online Marketing, Social media sales etc for promotion of the product.
4.0 MARKET ANALYSIS SUMMERY
We will put this product after making specific E-commerce website of that product. So this
product will be available in all the market around the globe but as Pashmina Shawl is the high
end product so for the selling of the pashmina product we will target the rich market.
For the marketing of the product we will use digital medium of the publicity like:
Google Ad words
Social Media Marketing
Search engine optimization
Going in different export promotion council
The main benefit of the online Marketing is that we can target specific area of that region for
selling.
This is the high end product but for the demographic segmentation we can target the people form
any age group.
4.2.3 Behavioural segmentation
Behavioural segmentation divides consumers into groups according to their knowledge of,
attitude towards, usage rate, response, loyalty status, and readiness stage to a product. There is an
extra connectivity with all other market related sources. Behavioural segmentation divides
buyers into segments based on their knowledge, attitudes, uses, or responses concerning a
product. Many marketers believe that behaviour variables are the best starting point for building
market segments
In the case of online marketing we have facility like the we can target the specific people for the
market of our product who are searching for the product related to wool and finding for the
clothes for the winter.
Geographical Indications (GIs) have gained more interest since its protection has been ensured
multilaterally under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
Agreement of the World Trade Organisation. Kashmir Pashmina (shawls) is the first officially
registered item in GI registry of India under Handicraft goods form Jammu and Kashmir. A GI
certification is licensed to the producers and other business operators of the GI production line
through a membership application in a GI club.
Introduction
1. GIs have no exclusive character with regard to production. Anyone outside the designated area
can still produce and sell the goods just under another name.
2. In addition to the marketing costs associated with promoting the GI product there may be
production costs associated with ensuring the existence of the quality attributes that consumers
associate with the GI. These extra costs will have to be subtracted from the premium to
determine the net contribution of GIs to profits. Existing empirical literature is almost silent on
this issue.
3. Another issue about GIs is the ‘trickle down effect’ of benefits. The price benefits need to be
filtered through the product value chain and reach the producers who sit at the bottom end of the
value chain. Institutions have to play a big role in order to ensure realization of potential benefits
of GIs. Empirical evidence on this aspect is also scarce.
4. Actual realization of the potential benefits ingrained in the registered would require effective
management in future. This would entail sustained efforts backed by appropriate planning and
adequate investments over the medium to long term. Accordingly, strategic interventions by
public or quasi-public institutions are an essential prerequisite for the GIs initiatives in India to
succeed but this is not well defined.
5. Most of the Indian GIs are linked to traditional knowledge, culture and lives of the
communities. So, India has a considerable scope for building the brand image of such exotic
products by highlighting the cultural aspects historical stories, legends and myths associated with
them And also has a considerable potential to develop ‘cultural tourism’ around its traditional
products by drawing focused attention on the cultural aspects associated with them, particularly
among foreign tourists there is not any specific policy about it. 6. There is an urgent need to
improve the inter-departmental linkages and coordination to avoid duplication of efforts and
optimize returns. Such a coordinated approach could immensely facilitate the process of
exploiting the commercial and socio-economic potential of GIs in the India and simultaneously
help in securing various spill-over benefits from this collective IPR. And at the multilateral level,
it is extremely important for India to weigh the costs and benefits of GI protection in general and
the extension of Article 23, in particular on the basis of rigorous empirical research.
• The US and the EU are the major importers of Indian wool and wool-blended products.
In 2013-14, the US (US$ 33 million) was the largest market for India woollen yarn,
fabrics and made-ups, followed by Germany (US$ 8.9 million) and UK (US$ 5.7
million).
• Embroidered, knitted and crocheted shawls are clubbed as artware. Their exports during
2005-06 was Rs 110.23 crore (Rs 1.1 billion) up from Rs 53.65 crore (Rs 536.5 million)
during 2004-05.
• The artware are exported mainly from Ludhiana, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Manipur, Kashmir
and Himachal. Embroidered shawls of Kashmir, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Punjab are in
demand in Saudi Arabia, USA, Japan, UK, Canada, Singapore and Oman.
Below are the trade fairs where pashmina shawls must be promoted
1. Dolma Trade Fair
2. Nepal Trade Fair
3. India International Garment Fair
1. While export of shawls from India continues to rise, the country faces
stiff competition from machine-made Chinese and Bangladeshi products,
which are available at very low price.
2. India faces stiff competition from China, Turkey and Bangladesh who
account for 35 per cent of the total shawl exports in the world. They are
large volume exporters of low cost embroidered, knitted and crocheted
goods.