THE GRAND BRAND PARADOX
hello.me being a normal middle class college going student is seriously a victim of this grand brand paradox.the question is what is this GRAND BRAND PARADOX? the answer to this question would be easily understood from one of my personal experience. I am personally very fond of and attracted to good brands though i don't have much of them in my wardrobe.i prefer street shopping.not only because i get all what i want in them but one major problem is not faced by me that time that is the price factor as street shopping is usually cheap. now yesterday i bought a pair of nike shoes worth quite some money coz i found them really chic and most of all the nike is enough to say so as we all are aware of the brand power. But i didnt felt good about the complete experience and one of the reason was the budget that i had to keep in mind while purchasing those pair of shoes. now i dont say that nike does not target the indian consumer as nike has quite a powerful share in foowear industry and most of the youngsters today already have a pair of nike,puma or adidas in thier wardrobe.. now the question here is not whether a middle class average non working youngster is able to buy a nike shoe or not nd feel good the question is about the dust cloud of brand name over the feel good factor. there are segmented target audience in india.some who may think the brand as their sole source of satisfaction an some may think the low price as the satisfying agent. not to mention here are the high end lifestyle brands as an average income person would not even think about it and i am sure that we are not the target audience of such stores but the only question that i ask is " CAN RETAIL COMPANIES PROVIDE A HIGH END EXPERIENCE AT A LOW END PRICE"????? me being a retail consumer itself just wants to feel good at the end and the root of goodness tree has to be known by the companies i would like to do business with. the nice advertisements and people becoming richer day by day, the middle class youngster is confused. whether to go with the brand power and forget the budget that he has to cut or go with the price factor and compromise on brand...
suggestions and solutions and ofcourse the readers views are invited as i am sure my brain needs help right now..
IS it possible to
IS it possible to provide HIGH END EXPERIENCE at a low price? The heart of the question lies in defining the so called high end experience. To me, more than the in-store experience (given that it’s not bad) it’s the imagery associated with the product that makes the purchase a high end one.
Nike shoes are being manufactured in low cost Asian countries only and should not cost more than 1000 Rs for most of the normal sneakers that are available in Indian market.
But while anybody can sell a 1000 Rs pair of sneakers, to get 4000 Rs, you have to forget about selling shoes and think about sports, lifestyle and prestige. Doing this is as tough as launching a Harman Baweja as the superstar of the new millennium. It requires money, skills and persistence. Nike’s marketing budget is in tune of $2Bn which is considerable compared to their shoe manufacturing/procurement costs.
So the crux is that even though a Big-Bazaar will do everything to promote their Fashion@Bigbazaar but the user will continue to see it as a VFM only and will continue to aspire for that pair of Nike. In the end BB will cut down its marketing budget (I guess that they have already done that) to become profitable..the brand will get weakened.. and the paradox(Do I really increase my sales by increasing my branding budget?) will continue to rule!
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