Max Fashion allocates Rs 10 crore for five-week long campaign, releases first

Max Fashion, under the Landmark Group, has launched its first television campaign after 10 years of being in the business. At a moment, when all the brands are either talking about discounts or focusing on showcasing their collection, Max wanted to connect with their audience on an emotional level. Conceptualised by JWT, it is a five-week long campaign, with a budget of Rs 10 crore, to reinforce the brand’s key message –fashion for the entire family at great prices. 

Commenting on the brief given to the agency, Jiten Mahendra, Vice President- Marketing at Max Fashion said, “We have actually disobeyed the rules of the category by not showcasing the fashion collection because our whole intention was to connect at the emotional level. The attempt was to create an affinity of the brand, in the midst of a place when the other players are only talking about offers and discounts. So we told the agency to highlight a few things, the occasion should come in, the mirror of a Max family should be seen and finally highlight the role of the brand in this whole thing.”

Mahendra also spoke about the other marketing mediums involved, the budget for the campaign, the target audience, the reach of the brand, competition scenario and challenges in this category. Excerpts:

Other than the TVCs, how else will you be promoting the campaign?

Other than the TVC, we will be using radio, digital and on-ground promotions. We also have plans of integrating the thought ‘Endless Ways’ in various programmes. There are 7-8 shows, which we have identified in the Southern market, which are not high in terms of the frequency, but the creative is contemporary in nature. We were clear that we won’t get associated just for the sake of being seen everywhere, for us, it is not about saliency, it is about connecting well with our audience. For the Hindi speaking market, we are in advanced talks with several YouTube channels for creating content in this particular genre and also with a lot of fashion magazines.

So does it mean that in general the Southern market works better for you?

For this category as a whole- the value fashion, which includes brands like Pantaloons, Reliance Trendz, Globus, Westside and others, if you look at the Category Development Index (CDI) and the Brand Development Index (BDI), it is actually very positive in the Southern market. Also, wherever, the literacy rate of women is higher, the brand does a good job. Currently 75 per cent of my business comes from women, who are not only evolved but also involved. However, for men, they are neither evolved nor involved, for him it is always a hunt.

How much are you spending on the entire campaign?

Approximately we are spending around Rs 9-10 crore from now till the end of November on the campaign. The major spend is no doubt on TV, which is more than Rs 4 crore, then there is digital, which takes another Rs 2 crore.

Why did it take 10 years to launch your first TVC?

We wanted the reach of our brand to be fairly there when we do our TVC. The reason being here, unlike FMCG, the placement has to happen first because if there is demand and you can’t supply, it will only harm the image of the brand. For us, the TVC is not about a spike in sale, but whatever we have learned in the last 10 years, we have to be honest to it.

Did you strategically plan the campaign launch around the festive season?

It is a brand thematic campaign and has nothing to do with any festive season. The festive season actually happened coincidentally, the idea was to get the right insight and this project has been worked upon for a long time. We are handled by JWT Bangalore, but we decided and asked all the JWTs to pitch in for the same idea. Finally, it ended in Vivek Kakkad, Director, and Senthil Kumar, Chief Creative Officer, writing the script.

What is the USP of the brand?

The core USP of the brand is that everyday fashion is more important than occasion fashion.

How is your reach in both metros and the tier II market?

We will be closing at Rs 2,400 crore this year, with 160 stores across 60 cities. The footprint is growing because this format is not constrained by metros, there are total 85 stores in tier I and 70 stores in tier II, so there is an equal mix.

Who is the TG of the brand?

25-34 years is our primary TG and we realised that 18-24 is also quite excited to see the life of those between 25-34 years. These two groups have a mutual harmony in one way or the other and also from the business point of view, we realised that (18-24) is also growing. Therefore, our marketing is not linear and as a brand we are not talking to just one TG.

How is your presence in the e-commerce space?

We have a group company called Landmark Shops, which is doing the e-commerce for us. The reason, why we didn’t participate with others is to control the discounts. We tied up with Flipkart once and we realised that when everyone is on a 70 per cent discount, we couldn’t give it because our average selling price is only Rs 450 and selling a product beyond that price point doesn’t make any sense.

How stiff is the competition scenario?

Around 7- 8 years back, Indian fashion players like Pantaloons or a Westside wanted to cater to the premium audience and not to the larger audience. Everyone started with the interest of being a private label, but then they realised that it is a difficult task. In the last few years, these players have frequently changed their positioning which shows that there is lack of clarity, it actually helped us. There is a reason you will see, a lot of brands have been asked to shift out of malls, in order to make place for an H&M, Forever 21 or a ZARA. The reason being, it is not only about taking up space in a mall but also about justifying the revenue.

What are the key challenges in this category?

Most of the players are focusing on the top seven markets and nobody is actually trying to educate the customer about fashion. Here the players are not interested in increasing the base, but more in the penetration to the same base. 

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