Textile industry, domestic as well as global, is blooming and flourishing rapidly. It has become one of the pillars of country's economy. Some of the important features include branding and innovation. Fibre2fashion contacted some of the top textile players so as to get their viwes on the significance of this sector.
"Today, branding is very important," said GM Thappar, Marketing Manager at Donear. He added, "It helps companies reach the right customers and build reliable contacts and strong relations."
Avinash Parasar, Marketing Manager for Alps Industries, explained, "For textiles, developing brand is important but companies need not promote them through television and other campaigns. In textiles, it is all about quality and texture. Thus, most of the exposure should be through a good network and word-of-mouth publicity."
Rehman, Marketing Manager, Jalpac India Ltd, agreed and said, "Though branding is essential, especially for high-end segment, promotion is mainly through network. When a company has been in business for long, offering quality services, like Jalpac does, itself becomes a brand."
Saket Jaipuria, Ginni Filaments Ltd CEO, further said, "Branding is necessary, right from raw materials, yarns, fibres to the final product."
He added, "It is also very important for the company to launch new products. Research and development should be done to improve and innovate better products."
Thappar joins in, "Innovation is a never-ending story; as globalization spreads its wings in India, originality becomes the mantra to stand out. In this era, if a company wants to survive, they need to continuously think and innovate on various levels like products, sales, promotions and communication. Defining USP for the product is essential."
Arun Kumar, Marketing Head at Salona Cotspin Ltd, stressed, "When it comes to natural raw material production, innovation is limited. However, if we consider designs, innovation plays a vital role."
Parasar, however, disagrees with this. "Textile is still a traditional market and people are basically followers, not leaders. So, much scope for innovation is not available. In textile, it is more of sales marketing," he said.
Director of Dhar Textile Mills Ltd, Manish Jajoo, said, "When it comes to a company in its pioneer stages, innovation need not be a priority. However, for entities like Dhar, consumer surveys play a big role in innovation and helps to create new concepts and novel products that meet buyer satisfaction."
Avinash Parasar said, "Usually, prime focus for innovation is forecasting colors, texture and pricing. Rates matter a lot in this business as, even now, drawing rooms and bedrooms are very traditional. Pricing is a major factor since takers for curtains worth Rs 2 lakh will be handful. If companies concentrate solely on quality and class, they won't be able to survive. So, the correct marketing strategy is to cater to the masses."
So how does changes in textile industry affect branding and innovation? Expert from Sky Industries Ltd said, "This does not necessarily affect branding and innovation. However, enterprises amend brand images as required. Then again, if analysis done is as precise as possible, there are minimal chances of it affecting the industry. Thus, an innovation or brand can undoubtedly be based on this."
However, Jajoo explained, "Yes, branding and innovation differs with changes in textile industry as well as from company to company. As such, big enterprises will definitely get affected as they want to maintain their position and are required to keep up with the changing scenarios. Upgrading technology as innovation and introducing new products is very important for having good stand in the market."
