Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Case Study on David Martin



David Martin (Martin), the marketing manager of Trendz4U, a UK-based garments manufacturer, which offered a range of clothing, was mulling over some key decisions that he would have to take while launching the company's successful brand in India. Two months earlier, the company had taken a decision to enter the rapidly growing market. Since then, Martin had been actively involved in devising the company's marketing strategy for India. Trendz4U was one of the leading apparel manufacturers in UK. Its product line included varieties of menswear, womenswear, and a range of sport wear. It also had a range for children and infants. It had a wide network of shops across the UK with around 100 stores.Trendz4U was renowned for the elegant maxi dresses and camisoles that it unveiled every season. Its stylish, high quality, and impeccably designed clothes, had earned it a good number of satisfied customers in the places in which it operated. In the UK, where it had established a significant presence, Trendz4U also provided free delivery and return services for apparel purchased online for bulk purchases. Its Toga dresses, or one-shouldered dresses, were a hit in 2009.


Trendz4U had always been quality conscious and had technical experts in each operational area to gauge production benchmarks and ensure timely delivery. It had a close tie-up with around 60 suppliers in garment production for supplying all readymade garments. it had a stringent Quality Control mechanism in place with an expert quality team minutely scrutinizing the fabrics. The entire process from sewing till packaging was also monitored to ensure quality and standardization with an eye on the dispatch procedures such as loading, pre-shipment, and post-shipment documentations.

Martin, who had been associated with Trendz4U since 1998, had been assigned the important responsibility of making the brand a success in India. Before the company entered India, he wanted to know a little more about the market as he wanted the brand to make an impact as soon as it hit the market. He decided to collect the data through survey, but while verifying survey answers, Martin found that some respondents had filled in answers without any serious consideration. He observed that 58 questionnaires had missing data or illogical answers and so he decided to discard them. as per the secondary source of data - Industry observers felt that the Indian apparel retailing industry, which had traditionally been dominated by small and family-run stores, had finally come of age. Clothing and textiles had a share of 39% in the whole retailing sector.



Question:

            Explain, How users/customers of Indian apparel retailing industry can be classified based on International Market Segmentation?