A retrogressive Journey of Branded sarees: Commodity to Brand to ...

Modern Style of DrapingDue to migration to different Western countries likeSouth Africa etc., many Indian women began to wear thenormal sari below the waistline exposing the navel which isknown as Low-rise sari or low hip sari. Also due toliberalization and changing global markets, saris arereemerging as an erotic wrap which can expose as much as itconceals. As a result, saris began to be designed in manyinnovative ways and different materials. Transparent & semitransparentsaris made of sheer fabrics like chiffon etc., is onesuch example.Pre-stitched or automatic SarisPre-stitched sarees is an automatic saree makes sareewearing a one step easy process. These sarees are draped insuch a easy way, just like putting on a skirt. Its a skirt withstitched saree pleats at the centre worn over a petticoat withoutthe fuss or row of tucking, pleating, and adjusting the pallavlength as they are already set in the centre to make you feelmore comfortable and easy in wearing it . Pre-stitched sari ismore often famous in younger age group. They look gorgeouswith fendi bags and saree. Its a new fashion statement foryoungsters! Petticoat is worn separately and it is not stitchedwith saree. This easy to wear, pre-stitched saree can be wornby anybody without the bother of actually draping it.These saris are tied in different ways such as petticoatbeing tied at about 4-6 inches below the navel and just abovethe pubic area, or where the blouse is small which ends justbelow the Breasts and the pallu is thin thereby exposing thesome part of the blouse and almost the entire midriff. Thesewere made popular by the celebrities of Bollywood industryand other popular regional film industries like Tamil cinemaand Telugu cinema. These are mainly worn by the rich andeducated upper class women who consider navel exposure as afashion. But wearing the sari below the navel doesn't alwaysrefer to exposing the navel. Sometimes the navel is coveredwith the pallu in a low-rise sari also. In some Corporates inIndia, saris are required to be worn in an elegant manneravoiding navel exposure.Literature Review:India has a rich cultural heritage of handloomindustry and world famous workmanship of hand-woventextiles. The processing and manufacturing of textiles was thesecond largest occupation of India after agriculture.Fascinating motifs and super design of the fabric assignedspecial importance to the sector. India has the largesthandlooms industry in the world. The handloom sector, with along tradition of excellence in craftsmanship, not only plays animportant role in preserving the country's heritage and culture,it also makes a major contribution to the economy. About 65lakh persons are engaged in weaving and associated activities.There are 32,88,556 household looms, and 1,97,752 nonhouseholdlooms as per Textile: Resurgence published byMinistry of Textiles (2009-10)IRACST – International Journal of Commerce, Business and Management (IJCBM), ISSN: 2319–2828Vol. 1, No3, December 2012The individual’s saree consumption process is seen tobe a “complex construct” (Allere, 1997 p.61). Holt (1995)simplifies the matter and divided consumption into twodifferent views, “economic and symbolic”. Firstly, in relationto economics, Holts (1995, p.1) suggests, “products provideparticular benefits”. Secondly, in relation to symbolic he statedthat products are “conceived as vessels of meaning that signifysimilarly across all consumers”. Further, Alleres (1997, p.53)explains that through the consumption process as resulting inpurchasing products depends on three factors: culture, income,and the exposure to information.Culture affects human behaviour in many ways(Craig & Douglas, 2006). However the impact of culture andhow to determine culture is difficult to understand because ofits bond to all facets of human existence. According toUsunier and Lee (2005) culture has evolved as social,political, economical, and technology has reshaped the culturallandscape. Since there has been a considerable change andincrease in technology, expanding networks, and masscommunication, it has caused an alteration in culturalboundaries (Hermans and Kempen, 1998), and linkagesbetween cultural individuals. Additionally, as individualmembers of cultural groupings migrate from one country toanother it causes an even more obscure vision of culturalboundaries. This is because when individuals migrate andbond with others they bring their values, behaviour, andinterest with them, which are interchanged. It is alsoconsidered that a large extent in consumers purchasing isdependent on their income. Dubois & Duquesne (1993) notethat income is seen as a factor that constraints individuals inpleasing their consumption needs. Additionally, one of thereasons that many people is constraint to purchase luxurygoods are because luxury goods are produced to initially targetupper class clienteles.During the early years, luxury products wereconsidered a privilege to possess. As explained by Nueno andQuelch (1998) the word “luxury” was applied to products thatwere rare and scarce which were only presented to minorindividuals. However, since time has changed and the Sareemarket has grown considerably, saree has been moreaffordable for middle class consumers. Individuals areinfluenced according to the important events and moments thatoccur in their lifetime (Meredith and Schewe, 1994; Ryder,1965). These moments and events may include war, economy,superstars, icons and technology that influence individual’sperceptions and values. Additionally, the significant influencethat individuals will recall occurs between their adolescent andearly adulthood years that they will never forget for the rest oftheir lives (Schuman & Scott, 1989). From the perspective ofmarketers, in targeting individual’s desires is a part of avaluable technique (Noble & Schewe, 2003).Individuals influence from moments and events,should be taken into consideration in developing personal careproducts. consumers in Asia and India in particular havebecome wealthier, accepting Western style culture as a part ofa growth in economics (Debnam & Svinos, 2006). Affecting a98

IRACST – International Journal of Commerce, Business and Management (IJCBM), ISSN: 2319–2828Vol. 1, No3, December 2012vast amount of previous research, individual’s preferencesRecognising this challenge, the Chennai – basedplay a key role in purchasing luxury goods as well as culture. RMKV is innovating, making denim saris, reversible ones andIndividual’s preferences may be based on desire and nondesires,saris with pockets in them. “The biggest challenge today iswhich are based on experience in purchasing luxury retaining the younger generation’s interest and bringing themitems from their satisfaction, or non-desire such as bias into the sari-wearing culture.” The innovative saris are pricedtowards brand products (Anurit et al., 1999). Different age at the higher end, but serve to create a brand image for thegroups may view luxury items differently. Mature age groups company attracts customers. This helps attracting customers inmay view luxury products differently in comparison with a big way. The biggest difference in marketing for thetoday’s teenagers, due to the effect of technology that the different sexes is that men do not mind going to a party andprevious generation did not have (Hauck & Stanforth, 2007). seeing others wearing the same shirt as they are wearing, but awoman wants exclusivity in her purchases.High time to redefine marketing strategies for sarees inIndian TerritoryWith the well – known tagline of “A woman expressesherself in many ways, Vimal is one of them,” the Reliancegroup’s Vimal shown on the sari scene. “The Reliance groupcompany, once a leading player in the branded sari market, isre-launching itself as a complete family brand by next yearand saris will be a part of its portfolio for Indian wear.”Garden Vareli invested heavily in marketing its saris duringthe mid- ‘90s when it became synonymous with the mostpopular Indian fashion wear brand. But today, even as itcomes up with innovative designs once in a while, its focus ison backward integration.The sari market is stagnant; focus is shifting from saris tosalwar kameezes, and companies which used to specialize insaris are creating more of dress materials. Like her, for manyin India, especially in the younger generation, sari has becomean outfit to be worn on special occasions and not on a dailybasis, largely a cosmetic garment today.”Top 20 Saree brands in India1. Satya Paul2. Kalyan Group3. Kuthampully Saree4. Divya Parameshwaran5. Sirumugai6. Karishma Kotak7. RmKV8. Dharmavaram, Anantapur9. Sari10. Mandira Bedi11. Rajampet12. Sonepuri Sari13. Tamil Nadu14. Nouva Monika Wahlgren15. Kanchivaram16. Rajahmundry17. Arvind Mills18. Bellary19. Economy of Tamil Nadu20. Sabyasachi MukherjeeInnovation can be order of the day:Nevertheless, companies are trying to create a brandfor saris, like the pioneer group with Hakoba, offering a widerange of Indian and Western women’s-wear in traditionalwork such as chikankari and kantha, saris contribute to 33 percent of Hakoba’s revenues. Nevertheless, there is a market forbranded saris among older women in the smaller cities andtowns of the country.RmKV is a very old and popular store for silk sarees inChennai. There are few other good silk saree stores in Chennailike Nalli, Kumaran Silks, The Chennai Silks etc. They allhave very good collection on silk sarees and other sarees.When come to shopping online on that stores, RmKV, NalliThe Chennai Silks have online stores, whereas online storeof Kumaran Silks is under construction since years. RmKVand The Chennai Silks also have chudiar and dress materialsfor women, apparels for men and kids, whereas Nalli onlinestore has only collection of sarees. RmKV do not have onlysilk sarees there, they have Traditional Silks, EmbroideredSilks, 9-yard Silks, Theme Silks, Embroidered Fancy, PrintedSilks, Mysore Silks, Arangaetram Collection, NaturalSilks, Casual Sarees, Tasar, Georgette, Raw Silk, Cot-Silk etc.Similarly The Chennai Silks have different collections otherthan silk sarees. Whereas Nalli online store have Bridalcollection, New collections, Casual collections and Nalli Nextcollections.Generation Y & Netigens could be Hot button to makeSaree acceptable:Horovitz, (2002) describes that generation Y (bornbetween 1977-1994) are individuals that have a free spendingspirit and consist of 71 million 8 to 25 year olds. Althoughthere are a mass amount of generation Y consumers, thewealthiest group of people is between the ages of 19 to 25 yearolds who are either employed in full time jobs or part timework. Those who are either part time or at full time work arecollege students (Martin & Turley, 2004). Students often takeup part time work to find extra funding for their excessivespending. Usually students who work full time are employedduring the university holidays or breaks. Additionally, theseyoung consumers tend to be familiar with credit cards andtechnology (Weiss, 2003). This is consistent with a studyconducted by Kara et al., (1994) stated that there has been aconstant rise of accessibility of credit cards to target youngadult market since 1980’s. Likewise, retailers have createdtheir own store card offering interest-free period. Moreover,99

the government in some countries attracts indebtedness, suchas in the UK, through the availability of student loans. Theaccessibility of credit card is known as a contributory elementin the trading-up and overspending constructs (Bakewell &Mitchell, 2003). However, the mass of influences that affectthe generation Y consumers is the media. The media couldinclude a wide range of technology.Marketers are the major people who contribute to thematter of influencing consumer behaviour through theknowledge of fashion. The reason is that teenagers areconcerned about fashion value more than any other age groups(Koester and May, 1985). The media, which include theinternet, mobile phones, and satellite television are sometechnology that generation Y consumers value (Meredith andSchewe, 2002). The valuation of technology such as televisionhas affected viewers in relation to materialism amongadolescents, and the duration of viewing televisionprogrammes consists of seven hours a day (Nielsen, 1995).Individuals are affected by television, and the possibility isthat the more viewers consume television it is more likely thatthey will reflect their perceptions in “reality” as they have seenin television world.Additionally, O’Guinn and Shrum (1997); Wells andAnderson (1996) stated that what is televised in association tocharacters and materials represent the more affluent wellbeings.Wysocki (1997) explains that there has been anincrease in addiction to technology such as MTV (musictelevision) and internet chat rooms that homogeniseindividuals preference and attitudes. As there is an increase inhomogenisation and technology such as MTV and internetchat rooms is distributed worldwide, it has created greatsimilarity between teens in different nations than older peoplein the same country (Anderson and Hee, 1998). Suchhomogenisation has created global teen values, expressingindependence, self expression, openness to new ideas, andteen cultural values (Meredith and Schewe, 2002). Theconcept of global teen values could attract marketers to targetthe teen industry with luxury and expensive products. Forexample, commercializing on MTV and shows that wouldattract consumers to buy luxury products that are associatedwith celebrities and heroes. The effect would causestandardisation in product consumption hence MTV istelevised worldwide and the same message would be putacross so that all teens would have the same desire across theworld. In order to understand the generation Y consumers, it isalso important to consider factors that motivate theseindividuals towards the purchasing of luxury goods.Individuals view the word “luxury” differently depending ontheir socioeconomic background. In the marketing context,consumers view the meaning of luxury goods through eitherpeople’s interaction such as aspired and/or peer referencegroup, or object property such as product quality and hedonicvalue. Luxury consumer’s behaviour has motivatedparticularly in sociability and self-expression (Vigneron &Johnson, 1999).IRACST – International Journal of Commerce, Business and Management (IJCBM), ISSN: 2319–2828Vol. 1, No3, December 2012Leibenstein (1950, p.188) classified demand of goodsand services consumption in relevant to motivation into twomain aspects: functional and non- functional. Functionaldemand is “demand for a commodity which is due to thequalities inherent in the commodity itself”. On the contrary,demand of goods consumption that comes from other factors,which is not the product quality, is defined non-functionaldemand. Additionally, Leibenstein (1950) suggests thatexternal effects on values are the most important nonfunctionaldemand. This can be further explained by twosituations. Firstly, the product has increased or decreased dueto the quantity of consumers purchasing the same products,and secondly the product has a higher value.Conclusion:All said and done, offering exclusivity and a rationalprice is something of a pipedream to saree marketers. Tillthen, women who desire saris must adjust to the idea of clonesor making a drastic shift from saris to salwar kameezes orwestern wear. Marketer must enhance Competitive Advantagethrough Ingredient Branding and Brand Ecosystem strategyusing its high quality cotton to differentiate its cotton andtextile products in the marketplace, and also to improve itscompetitive position in India and there by rejuvenate thebranded sarees among Indian population.REFERENCES1. Alkazi, Roshan (1983) "Ancient Indian costume", ArtHeritage; Ghurye (1951) "Indian costume", Popular bookdepot (Bombay); Boulanger, Chantal; (1997)2. Costumes of India and Pakistan: a historical and culturalstudy - Shiv Nath Dar - 19693. R. S. McGregor, ed (1997). The Oxford Hindi-EnglishDictionary. Oxford University Press. p. 1003.ISBN 9780198643395.4. Monier-Williams, Monier (1995). A Sanskrit-EnglishDictionary. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. p. 1063.ISBN 81-208-0065-6. http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.unikoeln.de/monier/index.html.Retrieved 2010-07-04.5. Kapoor, Subodh (2002). 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