Fab India Marketing Strategy & Marketing Mix (4Ps)

Marketing Strategy of Fab India analyzes the brand with the marketing mix framework which covers the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). These business strategies, based on Fab India marketing mix, help the brand succeed in the market. Let us start the Fab India Marketing Strategy & Mix to understand its product, pricing, advertising & distribution strategies:

Fab India Product Strategy:

The product strategy and mix in Fab India marketing strategy can be explained as follows:

Fab India is considered a cult lifestyle brand as it converges global clothing style with traditional Indian handicraft. Fab India has expanded and remained profitable without losing its soul of handmade clothing and ethnic wears made by rural Indian craftspeople. The company offers a wide range and variety of products in its marketing mix as it has diversified into categories such as furniture and personal care. Its portfolio is broadly categorised into

• Women clothing and accessories like Lehenga, Saris, Salwar, Kurtas, Tunics, Shawls, Jwellery, Bags and Footwear

• Men clothing and accessories which include Kurtas Shirts, Jacket, Pyjamas, Trousers, Footwear, Bags and Jwellery

• Kids clothing for boys, girls, and infants.

The girl category has Kurtas, Churidars, Jackets. Boys category has short kurtas, shirts, jackets. Infant category has boys and girl accessories

• Home and gift segment has Table Covers, Bed Linen, Curtains, Floor Coverings, Bath Linens, and Giftwares like Tableware.

• Furniture for living room, study room, dining room, and bedroom

• Personal Care products for hair and skin like body wash, creams, Face pack, Shampoo, Conditioners

• The company has organic line of products such as Tea & Coffee, Oils & Ghee

• Fab India offers western dresses under Fabel brand

Fab India keeps its product portfolio same across the geography of its operations.

Image: Wikimedia

Fab India Price/Pricing Strategy:

Below is the pricing strategy in Fab India marketing strategy:

The target customer of company is middle class consumers in cities of India and abroad. The market in apparel segment is competitive, so Fab India applies going rate competitive pricing for most of its product.

However, Fab India applies product line pricing for each of its product wherein a base price is set for the high price sensitive consumer segment and higher quality products are marketed to less price sensitive consumer segment at a premium over the base price. This strategy has helped the company to expand its middle-class base as well as in attracting upper class of society. The company recognises the value perceived by Indian consumers in hand made clothing and thus deploys perceived value pricing to add a slight mark up on its products. Fab India also does promotional pricing by offering its product at discount prices for a window of time.

Fab India Place & Distribution Strategy:

Following is the distribution strategy in the Fab India marketing mix:

Fab India exports its product which are limited to garments and home linens to over 33 countries. The exports are done to wholesale as well as retail channels. Company had opened its first retail store in New Delhi in 1976 and has expanded its retail channel up to 211 retail stores across India, 2 stores in Singapore, 2 stores in Dubai, 1 store in Italy, 1 store in Nepal, 1 store in Malaysia and 1 store in Mauritius. Fab India also sale its product through its online web portal. Company’s product also available through other e-tail platforms like Amazon and Flipkart. Fab India also operates as wholesale supplier to other brick and mortar retail shops and Fab India’s products are available through modern retails and through traditional wholesale channel.

Company sells its product to commercial accounts directly through its dedicated sales team.

Fab India Promotion & Advertising Strategy:

The promotional and advertising strategy in the Fab India marketing strategy is as follows:

Fab India’s unique proposition lies in its institutional framework where it gives employment to thousands of craftspeople in rural India and has protected the dying industry of ethnic handmade clothing. Company put forward its work for the community in all its marketing campaigns to get emotional connect with people of India. Its campaign also revolves around assuring higher quality of its products which are handmade and organic. It organises crafts mornings where artisans speak about their art and experts are invited to speak on importance of using organic products and environmental production. Company has been involved in various CSR activities and is one of the most known brand in India for its work towards the society. Fab India has used acquired media platforms like Facebook and Twitter where subscriber positive opinions on its page has helped the brand in acquiring more customers in India as well as globally. Of lately, the brand has also started developing TV commercials and ad campaigns on digital media platforms like YouTube. For its B2B channel, Fab India offers product customization and interior consulting for heritage hotels, resorts, and corporate houses.

Since this is a service marketing brand, here are the other three Ps to make it the 7Ps marketing mix of Fab India.

People:

Fab India has twin focus, one is to create profitable retail platform for its product and second is to create sustainable jobs for the rural sector. Fab India works on community ownership, where people are made shareholders to their local production unit which sells the product to Fab India retail outlets or in some cases to other retails. Most of the employees on the direct payroll of the company are also given stock ownership to derive more commitment towards company’s objective. The company is focussed on women empowerment and more than 75% of the employees in its management cadre are women. The company hires only those people who are aligned to the social values of the company. It gives attention to the requirements of skill development of the employees through regular training programmes.

Process:

Fab India incorporates “supply-region companies” as its subsidiary and make rural artisans community its shareholders up to 26%. These supply-region companies are managed by the artisans and craftspeople and these companies are responsible for producing products which are then sold at Fab India’s retail outlets. As of 2012, the company had about 16 subsidiary community owned companies or “supply-region companies” which employed more than 80000 craftspeople. The company has invested significantly in developing IT infrastructure for its own e-commerce webpage through which it sells the products in India and in international locations.

Physical Evidence:

Fab India’s retail stores are designed to display the brand’s deep Indian ethos. The stores have spacious, bright, and cheerful look to display its versatile range of merchandise. The interiors have elegant designs like use of wooden screen made from sheesham wood to demonstrate the luxurious Indian heritage. The company has won numerous awards for its work towards creating a sustainable livelihood to the rural craft people. The company’s business model has been covered in a Harvard Business School case study. Fab India was awarded “Best Retail Brand” by Economic Times in 2004. The company was rated among the best Indian companies to work for in 2012 by Economic Times. Hence this completes the marketing mix of Fab India.

About Fab India:

Fab India is an India retain chain of clothing and ethnic wear. The products of Fab India are handmade by rural India crafts men and women. The technique used for production is traditional and products are hand-made. Fab India was founded in 1960 by John Bissell and is headquartered at New Delhi, India. Fab India became India’s largest retail apparel brand with an annual sale of more than INR 1000 crore in 2015 which was significantly higher than its closest rivals Zara and Levi’s India. About 75% of FabIndia’s sales is contributed by domestic Indian market. Indian retail market is expected to grow up to USD 865 billion by 2023 at a CAGR of 6%. The apparel industry’s share in Indian retail market is about 8% which counts the value of USD 40 billion.

Combining with global sales, Indian textile industry is valued at USD 120 billion and is expected to reach USD 200 billion by 2020. The export of locally made retail and lifestyle products are growing at a CAGR of 10%.

This article has been researched & authored by the Content & Research Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

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