Undergarments are often low priority on consumers’ shopping list. But for the brands it’s just the opposite. They are often endeavouring to position themselves as a comfort wear that perfectly fits your needs. Dollar Industries is indeed a notable brand in this segment with its gross revenue amounting to INR 984.53 crore for the year 2017-2018 with a growth of 10.93%.

Tell us about your collaboration with foreign brands like Pepe Jeans.

Our collaboration with Pepe Jeans is a wonderful opportunity for us to create a space for ourselves in the niche segment. It has helped us enter into the global premium and super premium space. The joint-venture products are slated to be launched in October 2018. Since Pepe Jeans is a well-known brand and well accepted amongst the consumers of different segments of the economy, our association with this company will help us become the undisputed leader in the global hosiery market.

Apart from mainline advertising, what other channels do you use for brand promotions?

We are very active in our brand promotion. Through the process of e-mail marketing and various social media pages, our team has been aggressively marketing and promoting the products across India. The team also promotes through OOH, electronic media and engages with the audience through digital media and events.

In which segment is Dollar better placed?

Although Dollar is widely accepted and loved by the consumers, our mid-segment premium brand Bigboss is most loved segment among the masses. Bigboss accounts for 44% of its total revenue. Since its inception in 2009, it has grown to over an INR 400 crore brand. The consumers cannot think of Bigboss without the brand ambassador Akshay Kumar. Apart from the existing product lines, we are focusing on our customer choices. We’re foraying into various segments such men’s innerwear, children’s wear, women’s wear, seasonal wear to year-long relevance to make it a one-stop innerwear products provider.

Tell us about your retail branding apart from regular paper posters?

Retail branding needs a lot of focus and attention as it is an important point of purchase for the consumers. In case of innerwear segment, people usually prefer to buy products from the brick-and-mortar outlets. They are more comfortable with physically examining the product quality and size before purchasing.

Since Dollar needs a consistent visual identity, we’re using Dealer Boards plugging for the same. Creatives with retailer names on glow sign boards, in shop branding etc are a few ways of showcasing our product style. This makes it easier for the consumers to know about new products and also enhances the aesthetic value of the shop.

What are your strategies to increase visibility at the retail stores? How do you endeavour to enhance customer engagement with Dollar merchandise?

Dollar is involved in various activities to create brand awareness and visibilities at the retail stores. We’re doing 360-degree branding for all our products. As we have over 95,000 MBOs across India, we continue doing various kinds of customer engagement activities in all MBOs.

Not only Bigboss, we are also promoting our brand Missy whose brand ambassador is Chitrangada Singh. Our vision is to engage our audiences and connect with them in every possible way.

What are your plans for the upcoming festive season mainly in West Bengal?

We’re trying to expand our product categories this Durga Puja. Our focus is to be visible and omnipresent by engaging audiences and consumers through social media, events and convey good wishes this festive season. Eventually, we would like our customers to look at innerwear as a fashion essential, rather than considering it as a utilitarian item.

What percentage of sales comes from urban areas compared to rural India? What differences you find among the customers base in these locations?

Our reports say that 42% of the sales come from tier I and tier II cities (which is around 81 cities) and 58% is contributed by tier III cities and other rural areas. Our annual reports suggest that we have equal geographical presence contributed by our different brands. We follow the similar pattern in our brand split where Bigboss forms 44% of our revenue.

Though rural consumers are more price sensitive compared to the urban consumers, they are constantly upgrading themselves and becoming more fashion conscious. The increasing disposable income of people at the rural level is helping them meet their aspirations.

Why is women undergarment market more dynamic than men’s?

The undergarment market in India is changing with colours like neon bringing a respite from the traditional beige, black and white. Offbeat colours have surged in the lingerie closet of Indian women. The trend shows how the Indian woman is getting down to experimenting with her intimate wear. Women undergarment brands have wide product ranges compared to men, and there are various aspects like fitting, style, fabric, colours etc. that need to be perfect in lingerie segment. There is more competition in this segment than men’s as it has a wider and better scope for market penetration. The e-commerce platform has also been surging ahead in the last few years.