Project Report on

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING

STRATEGIES FOR PIROHI

PIROHI by Dhwani and Rumit

(Marketing Head)

By:
Preksha Porwal
153
Fifth Year iMBA

Faculty Guide: Prof. Kunal Mankodi

Amrut Mody School of Management

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 2018 -19
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING
STRATEGIES FOR PIROHI

PIROHI by Dhwani and Rumit

(Marketing Head)

Winter Semester 2018-19

Report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the

six month internship training undertaken for the iMBA program

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 Certificate from Company

We hereby certify that Ms. / Mr. __________________________ has undergone a

Six Months Internship Training with the Organization from __________ to
____________ for a period of _________ months/weeks. Her main area of training
was ____________________. She / He has been a positive contributor to the
organization. Her performance has been satisfactory.

Name of official
Designation
Phone
Email

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 Declaration

I hereby declare that my Six Months Internship Report entitled “BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
AND MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR PIROHI” submitted in partial fulfillment of the
iMBA Program is original and is not substantially the same as one which has already been
submitted in part or in full for any such similar qualification to the University to the best of my
knowledge.

Date: 16th August 2019

Place: Ahmedabad Preksha Porwal

The work mentioned above is carried out under my guidance.

Date: 16th August 2019

Place: Ahmedabad Signature of the Faculty Guide:

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 Acknowledgement

I would like to appreciate the gratitude to Prof. Kunal Mankodi for his full support, expert
guidance, understanding and encouragement throughout the project. Without his patience, timely
wisdom and counsel, this project would have been a tedious task and an overwhelming pursuit.

The internship provided a great chance for learning and professional development, especially in
an unexplored field for me, therefore, I am thankful to Amrut Mody School of Management
(AMSOM), Ahmedabad university, for providing this fruitful opportunity. I would further like to
thank Ms. Dhwani Bhandari and Mr. Rumit Prajapati for their valuable guidance and support at
workplace.

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Table of Contents
About the Company ........................................................................................................................ 7
Department ...................................................................................................................................... 7
Area of Work .................................................................................................................................. 7
Company Mentor ............................................................................................................................ 8
Business Project .............................................................................................................................. 8
Objectives ....................................................................................................................................... 8
Industry Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 9
Brief Note on Methodology .......................................................................................................... 13
Tasks Performed ........................................................................................................................... 14
Analysis......................................................................................................................................... 17
Suggested Solution and Conclusion ............................................................................................. 19
Learning ........................................................................................................................................ 20
Annexure ....................................................................................................................................... 21
Works Cited .................................................................................................................................. 24

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About the Company

Dhwani and Rumit, young fashion designers from INIFD Ahmedabad, began their journey in
2017 by launching their first collection of Gujarati Traditional garments – Navratri Collection of
2018 by the name of “RAAS”. On their great success they thought of taking a step ahead, and
introduced Pirohi in March 2019.

Pirohi is a Hindi term, which means to put a thread inside a needle. Their forte is in fabricating
Indian threads and adding modern design to serve the women of today. Their designs can be
defined as a work of art, which is created by understanding a woman‟s personality and values,
thereby making Pirohi a brand known for its uniqueness and authenticity.

Pirohi designs, manufactures, market and sell the products. Their main focus is to provide
customized wear to quality and style conscious people who want to create their own
individuality. Their mission is to provide unique, eclectic and affordable products with a wide
range of products by their innovation and creativity.

Till now, Pirohi has launched two collections:

1. Spring/Summer Collection ‟19 – “The Summer Shell Collection” consisted of 5 sub
collections, in which 3 were casual designer wear, also known as indo-western wear and
2 ethnic wear on May 12 2019, where they had 30 outfits in total.
2. The second collection they launched is The Festive edit, where they launched 6 sub
collections, where one was of normal range, 3 collections were of mid range and other 2
collections were of heavy range, where they had 30 outfits in total.

Further, Pirohi is coming up with their Navratri Collection in September ‟19 and wedding
collection with heavy range outfits in October focusing on bridal and immediate siders
collection.

Department

Branding and Marketing of the newly established ethnic clothing store in Ahmedabad on offline
and digital platform.

Area of Work

1. Business Development : I was looking for various multi designer stores and shops to sell
our collection
2. Branding and Marketing on social media platform

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Company Mentor

Ms. Dhwani Bhandari (Founder of Pirohi)

Business Project

Pirohi is a startup, establishing their brand, for which certain strategies were required for
building the brand and setting their positioning in the market. I was expected to:
1. Planning segmentation, targeting and positioning for the brand.
2. Planning online and offline marketing strategies
3. Increase their visibility on search engine

As they were launching various collections, there was a constant requirement for suppliers with
various types of fabrics and other raw materials like khaat work, borders; for which I had to
explore different markets of cloth and get them connected to those suppliers.

The fashion industry requires stakeholders other than fabric or work suppliers like models and
photographers; I was supposed to hire them on contractual basis.

I was also expected to create different business development strategies to increase their visibility
other than their physical store.

Objectives

1. Execute successful SEO jobs/ tasks for assigned projects to maximize search engine
visibility, traffic and conversions
2. Developing strategies for business growth
3. Managing online and offline marketing campaigns
4. Analyzing the success of marketing campaigns and creating reports
5. Organizing events such as product launches, exhibitions and photo shoots

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Industry Analysis

Women Apparel Market:

The women‟s wear market can see rapid growth globally, because of the fashion trends that are
changing rapidly, which is the most important aspect for women‟s clothing. Asia Pacific is
observed to be as the fastest growing market for women‟s apparel followed by Europe and North
America, which is because of the high proportion of middle class families with increasing
disposable income. (Fashion, 2019)

India, one of the most lucrative markets, is projected with CAGR of 10% is the fastest growing
economies compared to other developed markets of US, Europe and Japan. Indian apparel
market consists of three categories – Men, Women and Kids, where each segment contributes
42%, 38% and 20% respectively. (Fashion, 2019)

Also, “Made in India” will take the centre stage in the apparel sector, giving it a whole new
meaning in 2019. (Radaelli, 2019) According to McKinsey‟s Fashion Scope, by 2022, India will
be worth $59.3 Billion in apparel market, making it sixth largest in the world. (Radaelli, 2019)

Indian apparel market is generally consisted of unorganized sector, but many organized sectors
have now entered the market aggressively through e-commerce and other disruptive distribution
channel, giving a tough competition to the other sector in a short period of time. The awareness
of branded clothes has also been increasing in the era of digitalization and globalization, because
of which women are now connected with the fashion styles and current trends. Also, now when
women have also started working and their disposable income is increasing, we can see an
increasing change in the buying pattern of them. It is predicted that the women‟s apparel will
grow by CAGR of 11% reaching Rs. 2,89,518 crore by 2025, which is currently Rs. 1,02,358
crore. (Fashion, 2019)

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Women wear can be classified under 4 main categories – Ethnic Wear, Western Wear, Indo
Western Wear and Innerwear. The ethnic wear can be further divided into three sub categories –
Saree, Salwar Kameez and blouse-petticoats. (Fashion, 2019)
Inspite of the global revolution and modernizing taking place in the apparel market, by heart
people of India are still traditional and prefer to be clothed in ethnic wear during festivals,
occasions and weddings. According to Technopak, India‟s women apparel market consist of
71% share alone, dominating all other sub categories. Anita Dongre, in one of her interviews
with India Retail stated, Ethnic wear is the biggest categories in Women apparel market and has
a huge demand, not only for the festivals but because of the ethno fusion trend that is coming in,
i.e. pairing traditional pieces with western wear, calling it “Heritage designs with new age –
silhouettes”. (Sharma and Gulati, 2019)

Consumer Preference in Apparel Retailing:

In Consumer Preference Patterns in Apparel Retailing in India, by Rachna Mohan and Charu
Gupta, there are five factors that are very important for any consumer when they go for
shopping; these factors were analyzed by taking a survey of 784 respondents from South Delhi:
1. Personalized attention and services are the most important factor. Acording to the report
69% respondents prefer personalized attention during their shopping experience, where
majority are married, middle age and high income consumer group. (Mohan and Gupta,
2007)
2. The second most important is Specialty, Popularity and Credibility. 62% of the
respondents look for retailers that are located in popular shopping areas and who have
built up their reputation and have existing brand name. People while shopping also look
for specialized category when they are shopping, as it becomes very convenient for them
and it adds to their credibility. (Mohan and Gupta, 2007)
3. The third factor is important for 57% of the respondent, i.e., Emergence of Travel and
Shopping Convenience. Travelling time has become an important factor for people and
they want stores to be located at a popular and convenient place, where they can shop
easily and they don‟t have to waste time from going one store to another. Also, a location
where there is no parking issue, these factors affect a lot of consumers and can thus limit
their customers. (Mohan and Gupta, 2007)

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4. Repeated Satisfaction and Rewards is the fourth factor, where 48.65% of the respondents
want to shop from a store that gives them best satisfaction and wants to stick to it. Also,
they look for formal loyalty reward scheme, this increases the credibility of the store and
also makes the customers feel special and make them re-visit the store. (Mohan and
Gupta, 2007)
5. 32% of the respondents get attracted by the display of the store. This includes
mannequins, interior and exterior of the store. By looking at the products outside,
customers gets attracted and want to see what other products they have and make them
visit the store. (Mohan and Gupta, 2007)

Also, there are five factors that assess the quality:

1. 57% respondents desire to touch, feel, examine the finer details of the cloth, work on it
and every finer details of the brand during their shopping. (Mohan and Gupta, 2007)
2. Design and style is the second most important factor, as it is preferred by 46% of the
respondents. People are now looking for more personalised and unique designs that make
them stand out of the crowd; also after the western culture has affected our lifestyle and
the awareness of fashion trend, people are looking for more Fashion Designers and
Labels. (Mohan and Gupta, 2007)
3. 44% of the respondents, especially male, prefer shopping from a well-known brand. The
name of the brand affects a lot of our respondents. This maybe because of the social
status or the name they are getting attached with. Also, people now have become very
brand conscious, good brand is associated with good quality and that affects their buying
decision. (Mohan and Gupta, 2007)
4. 40% of the respondents say that they get attracted with the offers any store offers. These
are the people known as Discount Hunters, though 25% of the respondents say they
prefer to shop from a store that has specifically fixed price. 22% of the respondents are
influenced by the size specification; majorly people who look for plus size, where they
get buy their clothes from and get variety. (Mohan and Gupta, 2007)

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Money Spent on Wedding Clothes:

A generic growth is being observed in the number of big fat Indian weddings, where segments
like catering, decoration, photographers, jewellery, make-up, clothes have seen a great boom.
The Indian wedding industry is being estimated around US$40 billion annually and is growing
with 20%. On an average people are spending about 1/5th of their wealth on wedding functions.
(The National, 2016)

A passion of fashion is increasing as the urbanisation has hit the Indian market; people are now
aware about the changing trends and want to spend money on it. Today, Indian retail clothing
market is changing with the current style which is highly influenced by Bollywood and what
celebrities are wearing, wedding wear and outfits for special occasion or festive tops the chart in
Clothing market of India. Also, wedding outfits these days are not just about the big day
lehengas, it also comes with trousseau, where even a middle class family is spending around Rs,
2 Lakh, and can be seen around Rs. 15-20 Lakh amongst higher upper-middle class. (Hindustan
Times, 2019)

When asked top designers of India about the route to success in this industry, Sabyasachi says,
the only route is investing in Bridal Couture. Tarun Tahiliani says, earlie, prospective brides used
to buy wedding lehengas for Rs. 4 Lacs to 5 lacs, but today, they are spending around 8 Lacs,
there is a growth of 25% in the spending capacity of Indians, for the bridal outfits since last year
at his store. (Mehta, 2019) Varun Bahl, in one of the interviews with Hindustan times says that
though many designers start their journey with a pret culture, but if one wants to survive Indian
market, they have to go bridal. Sabyasachi, India‟s most leading designer, in the same interview
mentions that, if any designer wants to grow in turnover and stature in India, the only route is
through going bridal. All the designers call weddings as a recession proof market in India, as it
is only in weddings that Indians dress up and invest a huge amount, as weddings are one of the
most celebrated moments in Indians life. (Hindustan Times, 2014)

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Brief Note on Methodology

During my work tenure, I preferred Exploratory Research Method. There were two ways in
which I conducted my research, Primary Research and Secondary Research. The research was
qualitative in nature.

Primary Research: I carried out interviews with various exhibitors and designers (Naresh
Menghani and Anshu – Amodini, Brinda) to understand the market trends and consumer buying
behaviour. Also, observational research was carried out where we exhibited in various galleries
and exhibition.

Secondary Research: I read a lot of case studies and interviews of famous designers like
Sabyasachi, Tarun Tahiliani, Anita Dongre and Manish Malhotra to understand their success
stories that could help Pirohi to strategies their marketing techniques and grow their business and
increase visibility. Also, I studied Apparel market and how much the wedding industry is
growing and if Pirohi can grow their business more in bridal couture.

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Tasks Performed

Procurement of Materials:

As they wanted to launch their Spring Summer Collection, they asked me to look for vendors
from Surat who could supply them with different grey and readymade materials. I used various
contacts that are already in the textiles and manufacturing or trading of various materials like
silk, cotton, chiffon etc. and made a list, which we visited on 2nd March 2019.

Later, as they planned to launch their Wedding and Navratri collection, we researched about
various markets that are popular for the raw materials we require, and learnt that for fabrics,
borders and khaat work there was a good opportunity in Mumbai market, and as we deal with
pure fabric majorly, Bangalore was the market for silk. We visited the cities in the month of
June, procured various raw materials and began with the production.

Branding of Pirohi:

It‟s very important for a brand to design and create strategies for how it wants to be recognized
by its audience. As of now, people have known this brand with the name of “RAAS”, a brand
that stitched Navratri collection. So shifting them and their perception was a huge step for us.

So to build on that we first started with designing the logo, according to me, logo has a huge
impact on the audience as they create their first perception about the brand through it. We
wanted it to be simple and should have an element that would make it easy for the viewers to
understand what the brand is about. For which I chose to put an icon of a needle and thread that
signifies what Pirohi actually means. Also the colour of the logo that we chose was black and
white as it signifies power, luxury, selegance and modernity.

Second, I worked on the targeting and positioning, like whom we want to target and what we
wanted them to see Pirohi as. In the Company‟s background, it is mentioned that it stitches
clothes using the Indian fabrics and adding their modern designs, so we wanted to target the
women of today, the next gen women. For which I decided to majorly target women from the
age of 18 to 40. Also, looking at the previous insights through social media I found out that the
highest response we got was from the age bracket 18-40, because of which I thought of
continuing with it.

Social Media Marketing:

According to Live Mint, Instagram‟s third most followed category by young people globally is
Fashion. Rahul Rai, co-founder of Lifestyle brand Nicobar, says that 50% of the customers

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discovers brand through Social Media, and today it is very important for a brand to increase their
visibility globally. A Hootsuite Instagram stats-list suggests that 60% people discover products
through Instagram, and 70% are likely to make a purchase on their mobiles. Thus, we decided to
market our collection and spread the awareness through Instagram. Also, a contest was run
when we reached our first 1000 followers, to increase the engagement, where were asked our
followers for their favourite Summer Shell Collection outfit, this helped to increase the
engagement on Instagram, and around 40 people participated in it.

Earlier, before Pirohi was introduced, there were 500 followers on instagram, which through
posts, stories and content, the followers increased to 1083. Also, the number of visitors in the
page increased from 70-80 to 500 a day.

I also studied the communication strategy of the top notch fashion brands like Sabyasachi,
Jade, Papa Don‟t Preach, Falguni Shane Peacock and other brands like Abhinav Mishra,
Monisha Jaisingh, Monika Nidhi. Other than the popular brands nationwide, I also studied the
communication strategies used by the local brands of Ahmedabad, and where do they market
their collection and how.

I spoke to various Fashion Influencers of instagram of Ahmedabd like Heena Somani, Shirali
Shah (Dhaaga Saarang), Pratibha Raj (The Vogue Driven) and asked for their package and
procedure of how they can help us with marketing. For the wedding and Navratri Collection we
would be tying up with them to increase our visibility of the brand and collection.

Content is very important for social media marketing, it increases the engagement with the
followers and profile visits. I was working on the posts, captions that we put, and stories that
keep our followers engaged. I learnt that the best way to keep our followers stay connected with
the brand is through regular stories, post updates and creating contests. So when we hit 1000
followers we planned for “Pick Your Favourite” contest, where followers were supposed to
choose their favourite outfit from the given options and whichever outfit had highest vote was
chosen as the outfit of the contest and any 3 people who had voted for that outfit were given 25%
discount.

Other Business Opportunities:

I also made a list of various Fashion exhibitions that are going to help in the month of April,
Galleries where we can showcase our collection. Met various exhibitors and people who visits
exhibitions regularly to know about the footfall, other labels that exhibit, their experience with
Ahmedabad crowd, sale etc.

I also made a list of various Fashion Galleries in Ahmedabad where we could display our
collection after the launch, to increase the client base. For which, I looked on internet and visited
various galleries to look for the footfall and buying response.

To display and increase the sale, we decided to put up our collection in other Multi Designer
Stores and Shops as well, for which, currently I am working on it and visiting their stores and
asking for their requirements to display our collection.

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Events Organised:

Launch of Pirohi: On 12th May 2019, the store was launched, where all family members and
close relatives and friends were invited. We showcased our first spring-summer collection of
Pirohi – “The Summer Shell Collection „19”. It had 5 sub collections in it, three were casual
designer wear, that included indo-western kurtis, culottes (half-pants) and tops. The other two
categories were for heavy range.

Photo Shoots: Two photo shoots were arranged by me till now, where first was for The Summer
Shell Collection ‟19 and second for the latest festive collection. Preparing for Photo shoot is a
long process the budget is given and according to that we choose models, photographers,
location, theme for the shoot, decoration items, etc.

Exhibitions: We exhibited our Spring Summer Collection ‟19 at three galleries of Ahmedabad –
Anay Gallery (Prahladnagar), Anmol Gallery (Law garden, CG Road) and Vruria Gallery
(Sindhu Bhavan Road).

After the festive edit was launched, we showcased our new collection at Divalicious by My
Glamm at Courtyard by Marriott Hotel.

We are coming up with Navratri collection next week, for which we are going to exhibit at
Rajpath Club.

Graphic Designing:

I designed various day-to-day posts for social media and invites for exhibitions through
softwares liker Canva and Corel Draw. I had no experience of these software before, so it took a
little time, but I somehow learned and managed to display various ads, invites and flex board
on digital platform.

Promotion on Social Media:

Since the launch of Summer Shell Collection ‟19, we promoted our collection on Instagram,
through paid promotion. In the last 3 months, we promoted 3 posts of ours with different outfit.
We chose our target audience on the basis of gender, age and locations.

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Analysis

In Business Development, the growth of customers is important, but we can‟t ignore the other
side, which is supplier side. While comparing the market of Ahmedabad with other cities, I
observed that Ahmedabad has equally good fabrics of cotton, but the market of pure, majorly
silk, lies in Bangalore. There are many fabric wholesalers and retailers of Ahmedabad that
procure the fabric materials from Bangalore, because of which there is a price difference of Rs.
150/- per meter. India is a market for both manufactured and imported fabrics; cities like
Mumbai and Surat are the hub for cotton imported fabrics, which are not found in Ahmedabad.
Also, other than fabric, there are many raw materials that are used in the process of
manufacturing a designer outfit, like borders and khaat work. Ahmedabad has a big market for
the khaat work and borders, but compared to Mumbai, it lacks variety and latest designs. When
we visited Mumbai, Sabyasachi had launched their latest collection and the borders that they had
used were available in the wholesale market within a day or two of their launch, such borders are
not seen in Ahmedabad. Also, there is a huge price difference as Mumbai is the hub for such raw
materials and extra cost of transportation is added when they reach Ahmedabad.

After the launch of our first collection “The Summer Shell „19”, the first step of marketing that
we took was to work on our Visual Merchandize, i.e., photo shoot of the outfits that were
designed so that we can post the pictures on social media, so that people can see our collection.
As mentioned in Industry Analysis, 32% of 900 people had said, they were attracted with the
displays on mannequins and pictures, which made them visit the store. 6 out of 10 walk ins, said
they saw the outfits on mannequins and were hence attracted to visit the store. Also, through
three promotions on social media, there is an increase of 115% followers on Instagram. When
Pirohi was launched there were 500 followers, which have now reached to 1075 followers in the
span of 3 months. There is a clear increase in awareness and visibility of our label, but the sale
was not directed through it. People are using our social media presence, majorly, for referencing,
where they can look at our collections, contact us and then visit our store.

We exhibited our collection to increase awareness and sale in three galleries of Ahmedabad and
Divalicious Exhibition in Marriott. We expected a huge footfall and sales in galleries, but it did
not turn out well, when we asked other exhibitors, they said that the collection we have is a little
heavy in frange, which generally people of Ahmedabad do not spend on in months of May and
June. For us, they said, our season of sale starts from July, which is the month when families
who have weddings in Novemeber start their wedding shopping. Also, it was summer vacation in
May, and many people were out for holiday, so the footfall did not reach our expectation. In
Divalicious, the footfall reached our expectation, and there were approximately 250-300 people
who visited our stall. The response we got from there was overwhelming. It helped us to increase
our visibility and made people aware of the new designer store in Ahmedabad. Through this
exhibition there was an increase of 30 followers of Ahmedabad. As people got to know that we
have a store and it is located in Ahmedabad, many visitors were interested in coming to our
stores and getting the outfits customized, rather than buying from the exhibition. The outfits we

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sell are premium in range, for which customers need time and want to discuss every detail of
which, so they don‟t want to buy in hurry. Also, as we have a local store and they can visit us
anytime, they prefer to visit us and then buy. There were many visitors who thought that in
exhibitions the outfits are sold with higher price, compared to stores, because of which, they
hesitated to buy in exhibition and wanted to visit our store. The overall purpose of increase in
awareness and visibility was fulfilled through exhibiting in Divalicious, and it worked better than
exhibiting in galleries.

Through exhibitions and walk ins, we got to know that people in Ahmedabad, showed more
interest in Wedding or heavy range designer outfits, rather than designer casual wear.
Ahmedabad market does not really experiment with the trend and styles and don‟t want to invest
money on casual designer piece. On talking to various designers and exhibitors, we got to know
that the casual designer collection of The Summer Shell ‟19 works more for metro cities like
Delhi and Mumbai, and hence, we should exhibit this collection there.

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Suggested Solution and Conclusion

It has been three months, since the launch of the store and our first collection, but the number of
walk-ins did not meet our expectation. One of the major reasons behind it is the location of the
store that is hindering the walk-ins in spite of various marketing techniques used. For a store to
run their business successful, location is an important factor, a retail boutique store should be
located near the area where their target audience resides, or place that is a popular shopping area,
thus, if they are looking for a new store, they should probably try in Prahladnagar or CG Road,
where there are many boutiques and other retail shopping store.

Pirohi should start collaborating with influencers and celebrities, as they can lead a campaign
really well. If they endorse the outfits of Pirohi, people who follow those celebrities/influencers
will ultimately have faith in the brand they are promoting. This will not only help in increasing
the visibility, but also help them to build credibility of the brand in the minds of the target
audience.

Furthermore, Pirohi should extensively participate in pop ups, fleas and exhibitions, as this will
increase their awareness. They should exhibit in other metro cities also like Mumbai, Delhi and
Jaipur, as people over there have high standard of living, so is their spending capacity, thus,
making them invest in all the latest fashion trends. This will help them to interact with their
target audience one-on-one, helping them to engage more and understand the demand, not only
of Ahmedabad but also other cities, through which they can get to know what collection works
best for which crowd. And thus, create a new target audience and collection according to it.

Showcasing their outfits in a multi designer store will help them fetch customers who already
have enormous faith in that store. So, this way it will increase the customer base & hence the
sales.

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Learning

1. Fashion Marketing is a whole new concept for me. I learnt how the fashion brands work,
market their brand and the communication strategies they use to build up our future
strategies.
2. Studying the trending keywords for hashtags to increase the visibility online.
3. Understanding the concept of Fashion Influencer Marketing.
4. Communication with the team members to strategies the communication, marketing and
business development ideas.
5. Understanding the budget and diving your funds according to it.
6. Various graphic designing software like Corel Draw and Canva.

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Annexure

Interviews:

1. Brinda Vaishnav:
Brinda organises exhibitions in Ahmedabad since last 5 years, she is the founder of
Shubh Avsar in Rajpath Club and has been in this line since 8 years now. She explained
us the buying pattern of Ahmedabad consumers and guided us with some of the best
exhibitions we can consider to exhibit our collection. We invited her to our launch, where
we showcased her our Summer Shell Collection ‟19. According to her, the best time to
exhibit is the before any festivals, as it assures walk ins and sales. She asked her to avoid
any off season exhibitions as not many people turn up, thus there is no scope. She also
suggested us not to go for exhibitions in galleries as we have our own store, and should
thus, focus only on fleas and other popular exhibitions of Ahmedabad like Hi Life, Dzire
and Karra. These exhibitions have a good name in the town and many people expect a
good collection, especially, for their weddings and other side functions outfit.

2. Naresh Menghani:
Naresh is one of the exhibitor, who buy in Jaipuri Kurtis and sell them in popular
galleries of Ahmedabad like Anay, Reflection and Anmol. He is in this business since 12
years now. We met him when we exhibited in Anay Gallery, and he said he loved our
collection. According to him, we have good designer outfits, which would have a good
sale when exhibited at right place, like big exhibitions and not galleries. People in
galleries come and majorly prefer outfits that are of low range. Looking at our collection
he said, our outfits would work best for Mumbai crowd, and we should try our market
there, as Ahmedabad market don‟t get what designer outfits are. Shopping season for
ethnic wear starts after end of July, where people start their purchase for festivals and
weddings, he said, we should wait for some time as May, June and July is considered as
off season. Also, the range that we are dealing in is little premium for Ahmedabad
consumers, and is difficult to expect sale in off season. But, he motivated us, and said, we
have some unique designs and our sale would begin before the festival season start, that
is end week of July. He also suggested us, to exhibit in big exhibitions like Hi life, Karra
and The Shaadi Festival, as it would have majorly, walk ins that are interested in
Wedding and festival collection, which we are serving, and would thus guarantee sale. He
also said that it would be a good opportunity for us to increase awareness and visibility.

3. Anshu Seth – Amodini:

Anshu is also one of the exhibitors, who keep exhibiting in galleries of Ahmedabad. She
first started her business, by designing ethnic outfits from home and had her own in house
production and workshop before 8 years. But the range and style did not work in
Ahmedabad. Because of which she had to shut it down as the cost of investment was very
high and ROI was less. After 2 years, she was in huge loss, and she began with a retail
model, where she would buy outfits from Kolkata in bulk and sell in Ahmedabad. These
outfits are normal in range and are affordable by majority of Ahmedabad market. She
said, she does not like what she is selling, and that is not her style, but the crowd

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 demands for such outfits and this model is working for her. Now she sells from home and
does exhibitions in galleries throughout the year. According to her, Ahmedabad people
don‟t really care about the uniqueness, material and work that we are giving, they want
outfits that are cheaper in rate and should have a little work on it. It is in the last 3-4 years
that consumers are getting little educated about the current trends and the concept of
fashion brands and trends, majorly because of social media presence, that they would
now begin to invest. She said we have a good scope in Ahmedabad now, as the collection
is very unique for Ahmedabad market, given, we exhibit at right place and promote our
outfits well using social media platform.

Invites for exhibitions:

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Contest for first 1000 followers:

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Works Cited

(Fashion, 2019)
Fashion, I. (2019). An overview of the women's wear market in India - Indiaretailing.com.
[online] Indiaretailing.com. Available at:
https://www.indiaretailing.com/2018/02/09/fashion/womens-wear-market-india/

(The National, 2016)

The National. (2016). India weddings a billion-dollar industry. [online] Available at:
https://www.thenational.ae/business/india-weddings-a-billion-dollar-industry-1.162964

(Mehta, 2019)
Mehta, A. (2019). Haute action: From Vogue to mall stores, everyone wants a piece of India’s
wedding fashion market. [online] Scroll.in. Available at:
https://scroll.in/magazine/892094/haute-action-from-vogue-to-mall-stores-everyone-wants-a-
piece-of-indias-wedding-fashion-market

(Mohan and Gupta, 2007)

Mohan, R. and Gupta, C. (2007). Consumer Preference Patterns in Apparel Retailing in India.
[ebook] Available at:
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.120.6508&rep=rep1&type=pdf#page=
223

(Radaelli, 2019)
Radaelli, M. (2019). Fashion world 2019: The time is ripe for India - New Delhi Times - India's
Only International Newspaper. [online] New Delhi Times. Available at:
https://www.newdelhitimes.com/fashion-world-2019-the-time-is-ripe-for-india/

(Sharma and Gulati, 2019)

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Sharma, R. and Gulati, G. (2019). India's evolving women's ethnic wear market to grow to Rs
1,26,210 crore - Indiaretailing.com. [online] Indiaretailing.com. Available at:
https://www.indiaretailing.com/2019/03/07/fashion/indias-evolving-womens-ethnic-wear-
market-to-grow-to-rs-126210-crore-by-2019/

(Hindustan Times, 2019)

Hindustan Times. (2019). The Indian wedding gets fatter. [online] Available at:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/brunch/the-indian-wedding-gets-fatter/story-
wr76FKfTVBU7kRZBO1vRxH.html

(Hindustan Times, 2014)

Hindustan Times. (2014). Why Indian fashion designers are obsessed with weddings. [online]
Available at: https://www.hindustantimes.com/brunch/why-indian-fashion-designers-are-
obsessed-with-weddings/story-yau6CuLvQfuZI5dQg1kdLO.html

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