Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

After research, we found that the Westside seems to be using income basedsegmentation and
targeting the upper middle and lower upper class of society. The brand is positioned on a
fashion at affordable price plank and as a family store delivering acomplete shopping
experience.Are they successful in catering to these classes is a different matter altogether.
Theproduct variety that they offer, the prices of the product that they offer, and the kind of
association people have with the brand is very different from what the Company wants. Itseems
that, at the time of establishment, the Company had very set strategy on whatcustomer base they
wanted to create. But since its inception, the Company has started toattract the customer from
other segments also. It seems tha t the Companys target segment,which was very clear at the
beginning, has become obscure. The reason for this shift is notvery clear but we can speculate
that the company became sales driven instead of creating aloyal customer base. There has been
recent news that to improve its image and to attractthe customer from upper segment Westside is
going to revamp their store. Westside hashired London-based retail consulting agency named
Flitch to add flare to its stores and towoo the customers from upper segment

In 1998, after selling Lakme Ltd. to HUL, Tata

s acquired a London based retailchain named Littlewoods. With this takeover Tata established
Trent Ltd. with Mrs. SimoneTata as head and renamed Littlewoods as Westside. Today Westside
has reached to a totalof 28 cities across India. The store size varies from 15000-30000 sq. feet.
Currently, NoelTata is heading Westside.Westside are designed in such a way that it cater to
shopping needs of variouscustomers.
The mission of Westside says that We want to be the most preferred andconsistently profitable
lifestyle retailer.
The store includes apparels for men, women andchildren of all ages, footwear, cosmetics,
perfumes and handbags, household accessories,lingerie, and gifts. Although nearly 70% of the
products available at Westside are ownedby itself, it also houses various other brands. According
to the account statements of Trent,its annual sales in the year 2010 were Rs. 542.60 cr., and
Westside accounts for 80% of thetotal sales. The profits earned by Trent were Rs. 40 cr.
Reliances Trends, Landmark Groups Max, Pantaloons, Shoppers Stop and Wills
Lifestyle are its major competitors

Product Strategy
Westside has a very interesting and broad product variety. The detailed productoffering along
with its prices is given in the annexure. Given the business that Westsideoperates in, it is
incumbent that Westside has such a broad variety. Westside has tried tocreate a one stop shop for
complete family within its defined segment. But the problemwith this strategy is Westside cannot
differentiate itself with its competitors. As mostplayers in this industry operate on same principle
it is very difficult to set oneself apartfrom the competition.As per our observation, the product
variety that Westside offers change slightlyfrom place to place. The product variety which we
could find in a place like Kolkata wasnot present in Nagpur. As Mumbai is the headquarters of
the Westside, these stores havethe maximum variety. It seems that Westside is doing a good job
on offering differentvariety-based on the consumer taste and preferences.In case of apparels,
along with its own brand, Westside also has contracts with thestalwarts of industry like Levis,
Wrangler, Lee Cooper, Provogue etc. In boutique section,Westside also has brands like Biba,
Trisha and Gia. The customer has a fairly wide varietyof brand to choose from. Having these
renowned brands in the store attracts the brandconscious customer, which normally would not
have considered Westside. Also this givesa chance to Westside to display its own brand and
increase the brand awareness. Anotherhidden motive to display such wide variety of brands is to
increase the average ticket sales.Although the margin on these standard brand is low, but it
attracts the customer, and henceincreases the chances of sales of other items also.In its endeavour
to create a one stop shop, Westside has a contract with the
cosmetic giant LOreal. In jewellery section, Westside displays very popular brand likeDdamas,
Gilli, Asmi
, Nirvana etc. Westside also displays perfume brand like Ferrari. Inthe gifts section Westside has
its own brand and has products like coffee mugs, tea sets,dinner sets photo frames, artificial
flower, aromatic candles, different glass articles etc.Westside also offers various accessories like
purses for men and women, laptop bags,travellers bags, ties, fake jewellery etc. Westside also
hold wrist watches and sunglasses of very popular brand like Fast Track, Titan, etc.Another very
interesting factor about Westside is that it gives its employeestraining on aspects like product
knowledge, workplace ethics, customer service policiesand issues, communication skills and
courteousness.

Price Strategy
After studying the various product categories offered by Westside, we now analysethe various

pricing strategies adopted by Westside. Price communicates to the market the

companys intended value positioning of its product or brand. The pricing decisions
areconsistent with the firms marketing strate
gy and its target markets which is the neo-middle class. The company does not set a single price
but a pricing structure that reflects
variations in geographical demand and costs, market
-segment requirements, purchasetiming, order levels, delivery frequency, guarantees, service
contracts, and other factors.Consumer expectations play a key role in price response. The
company offers the Valuefor Money price b
y offering their own brand Westport as they get rid of profit earned by
intermediaries. They buy the best possible fabric available in each product range anddevelop
their own styles. 85% collection comprises of their in-house brand. In recent past,
it has been observed that there are a lot of price variations in the companys products
showing that it wants to cater to much larger sections of society. For example - Formalshirts for
men ranging from Rs 5002500, womens designer purses ranging from Rs 800
-10000.Here are some pricing strategies adopted by Westside as follows-:
Promotional discounts
This is the best kind of discount offered by the company as it enables the companyto retain the
power to be flexible. There are times when they want to give an extra boost tosales i.e. to shift an
old product before updating a new one. For example- In ca
se of Mens
t-shirts, 3 for 499 or 5 for 999 often attract more interest than a straight percentage
discount. This kind of pricing is only there on companys in
house brand Westport and
on products like clothing, towels.
Seasonal pricing
The company goes for a full fledged sale 3 times in a year to draw in morecustomers and
maximize its sales. The purpose is to shed out the old product at reasonableprices as well as
increase the number of footfalls during that tenure to maximize clientele.Seasonal discounts upto
15-20% is offered on branded jewellery such as Gili, Asmi,
Ddamas, Nirvana on Diwali and
New Year. There are different discounts on differentproducts such as more on clothing and less
on crockery and daily necessities like towels,mattresses, blankets etc. Price concessions are
mainly on home brand products.
Image pricing
- Westside has adopted such pricing to an extent in products such asperfumes. Bottles with

attractive labels are priced at premium. Perfumes are ranging fromRs 500-6500. Branded
perfumes are priced at maximum like Ferrari.
Product form pricing
- Different versions of the product are priced differently but notproportionate to their respective
costs. The company prices products to maximize overallmargin. It can be seen in some t-shirts,
bags, perfumes, crockery etc.
Psychological pricing
- The Company uses alternate pricing strategies in almost allproducts. The prices of products end
with a odd number, mostly 9. We believe that the
number 9 at the end coveys the notion of a discount or margin psychologically. ForexamplePricing glasses at 49 each or 6 for 299.
Product bundling pricing
- The Company is engaged in pure as well as mixed bundling forvarious products. Sometimes the
purpose is to shed out the stock unsold for long time atminimal margin. Mixed bundling is
targeted at increasing the average purchase per persongiving him that incentive in the form of
some discount which persuades him to buy more.For example- 1 shirt for 999 and 3 for 2499, 1
cup for 49 and 6 for 249.
Value pricing
- Westside has positioned itself as a Value for Money brand. Most people aresatisfied with the
pricing of Westport products. Westport products targeted the youth andupper middle class
specifically but with large price variations in certain products, theywant to target the rich class as
well.

Place Strategy
Not many out of the ordinary
trends were visible in Westsides
place strategy. Themost commonly observed fact about the place strategy was that the chain of
stores werefunctioning mostly in the malls and few exclusive showrooms of major cities.
Another factthat we observed during the survey was that Westside stores are mostly located very
nearits main competitor Pantaloons in most cities, since both follow a similar strategy of
functioning in Malls.Westside has its head office located in Mumbai. Sourcing decisions are
takencentrally and sourcing offices were setup at Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi. There is a
wellsetup supplier base across regions. Knits are sourced from south India, woollen fromPunjab
and casuals & formal wears are sourced from garment manufacturers from citieslike Mumbai
and Delhi. Crockery and gift items are sourced from countries like China andThailand which
offer a wider variety and exclusive design.To know about the strategies followed by Westside
retail, we held interactions withManagers of the stores. And to get a broader perspective of the
strategy of the retail chainall over India we talked with managers of stores at Nagpur, Bhopal and
Kolkata. Themain facts that came out during the conversations were:


All stores receive their stocks on a weekly basis on each Friday from Mumbaiitself.

Due to higher purchasing power of the people of Mumbai and the headquartersbeing located in
the same place, stores in Mumbai have the maximum variety of products. This enables them to
cater to the needs of the ever growing needs of thetrendy and well-off customers of Mumbai, and
increase their sales, and hence theirrevenue.

Across a single city, prices do not change. We found that all stores in a city hadalmost same
product range and same prices of the available products. Since in mostTier 1 cities, there are
multiple stores of Westside operating, this prevents anyparticular store hogging the customers,
thereby preventing cannibalization.

Prices change keeping in mind the festive seasons and the demands of the products.For example,
during the off season, huge discounts are offered to customers to lurethem to the stores. In
another example, the price of a certain Ladies garment hadbeen hiked by 100 rupees, due to high
demand of the product during the recent
festive season. The customers didnt seem to mind the hike in price.

Products available in the stores depended city of operation. For example, in citieslike Mumbai
and Kolkata, products available were larger and slightly on the moreexpensive side, because of
the purchasing power, and the lifestyle of the people of the city, compared to a city like Nagpur.

Also, Westside has recently opened a few stores dedicated exclusively to women,keeping in
mind that, women form the biggest and most loyal customer base for
them. In some prime locations in Delhi, where they couldnt get a store large
enough to do justice for all their customers, they built an exclusive showroom forwomen so that
they can meet the demands and needs of women.

Promotion Strategy
Westside promoted themselves as a premium brand for the upmarket segment (i.e.upper middle
class), when it was launched in 1998. The main promotion strategy of Westside is to promote its
inhouse brand, Westside which occupies as much as 85% of

shelf space. This brand is not only limited to apparels, but also extends to gift items, andother
kitchen ware. This arrangement has its own advantage, being a brand retailer theymake their own
style and image to build customer base. Westside also allows flexibility interms of serving other
brands to woo brand conscious customers as well. They keep Levis,Provogue, Killer, Lee, Lee
Cooper, Wrangler, Blackberrys, Monte Carlo, Mufti etc inapparels section. Westside also has
some of Indias best
-known fashion designers, like
Wendell Rodericks, Anita Dongre, Krishna Mehta and Mona Pali, working with them
,who create collections exclusively for the store, and the prices for these are hardly eyepopping (the Wendell Rodericks range starts at
Rs 600). Westside has managed to obtainthis exclusivity at a lower price because it has multiple
outlets, which in turn, is consistentwith their positioning.For media promotions, in 2002, they
hired Yuvraj Singh as brand ambassador,mainly because of his stylish and trendy image.
***.Another winning Westside idea is Club West, a customer loyalty programmelaunched in
May 2001. The 60,000-plus members of this club get special bonuses likerebates at restaurants
and on holiday packages from the Taj Group of Hotels, homedelivery of alterations, and best of
all, special shopping hours on the first day of anydiscount sales event organised by the chain. As
an in-house promotions strategy, furtherdiscounts are offered to employees of Tata
group.Westside have a strong women consumer base so they came up with an innovativeconcept
of Westside Woman

to cater exclusively to women in areas with high potential,

where they couldnt get a shop large enough to accommodate all other sections. The first
store had started in Shalimar Bagh, Delhi. It is a one stop shop for women**. Even thoughthis is
one of kind project, it got decent enough response.Westside promoted themselves as a lifestyle
brand with premium products, butthey have a vast range of products with them, from value based
products to the premiumrange products. And with time their customer base began slipping
towards value seekingcustomers because of having greater products in the affordable range. One
of the flaws intheir promotion strategy, from our perspective, is that almost 85% of their shelf
space isoccupied by products of their in-house brand, thereby preventing a more diverse basket
of brands. This led to gradual loss of their upmarket consumers, who are becoming more
andmore brand conscious by the day. These consumers are moving towards Shopperstop,Wills
Lifestyle as they have a huge range of premium brands such as Tommy Hilfiger,Hugo Boss,
Benetton, Playboy, Pepe Jeans, Arrow, Van Heusen, Louis Phillips, Red Tape,Raymonds, Park
Avenue, U.S Polo, Biba, Trisha, Numero Uno, Flying Machine etc*under one roof. And today
the Club west card is not an order winner and it has reduced tothe status of an order qualifier
only. And in the value based category new players are also
coming up such as Landmarks Maxx, Ritus Big Life, Globus etc. Westside is also facing
a tough competition through the local players.Now again to woo their upmarket customers
Westside is rejuvenating their brand byintroducing some international labels in their brand
basket. They are testing it in Mumbaiin the Gourmet West which sells packaged food, they will
soon add a sushi, cheese andwine counter to upgrade the experience of its consumers and

increase frequency of theirvisits. But at this point of time, the obvious question arises; will they
be able to attract theupmarket consumer again to the Westside, which now has an image of a
mid-segmentretail store? To change its image over, is not an easy task, and it will become
morecomplicated, as they can lose from both sides by losing their old customer base and alsothe
new target customers, should the new strategy not work.Now to promote their new strategy they
will have to spend in the media promotionsand maybe hiring of a brand ambassador might help
further, because at present they aredormant in the media promotions, as compared to Shopper
s S
top and Pantaloons. Thesepromotions will help in attracting attention of the customers. And
according to their newstrategy they are planning to revive their brand this strategy might be
helpful. Becausewhile reviving the brand they should be able to connect themselves to the
consumers somedia promotion will be helpful.Today demand of international labels is increasing
day by day, so to tap thisopportunity Westside should decrease the shelf space of their in-house
brands. This willhave a twofold benefit first, it will be able to attract the upmarket consumers
andsimultaneously they w
ont
lose their old customer base. Previously the strategy of keepingthe in-house brand in a big
percentage worked because at that time, due to downturn
consumers preferences
, which changed from costly brands to reasonable brands so theyshifted towards Westside inhouse brands. But with the reviving of the economy, the
consumers spending power increased and the
ir preference is again shifting towards theirold brands.

As Westside opened a theme based store in Shalimar Bagh in New Delhiexclusively for women,
following of the same strategy in other metro cities might helpthem. Because they have a strong
women consumer base and have a wide variety in thisrange.The selling of the cosmetic range is
much more dependent on the display of theseproducts and as what we have seen in the Westside
stores of Nagpur, Bhopal, Kolkata, thatdisplay of these product was not much appealing to the
buyers, as compared to what wehave seen in Shopper

s Stop, where they have excellently displayed their whole range of cosmetics.

competitors
The major competitors of Westside are Shoppers Stop, Pantaloons, and Wills
Lifestyle. Given the nature of the industry, there is fierce rivalry between the competitors.
Shoppers Stop, Pantaloons and Wills Lifestyle also use almost the same segmentation,

targeting and positioning, with their own subtle differences.

Shoppers Stops targets the upper lower and upper class. Its product, pric
ing, placeand promotion strategy are such that it caters to exactly the market they are
targeting.Unlike Westside they have not slipped into and other class, and are consistent with their
offering. Due to this consistency, Shoppers Stop has its own loya
l customer base, and due
to this Shoppers Stop is highly successful. Wills Lifestyle also has a similar kind of image as
that of Shoppers Stop and also has its own loyal following
.The biggest competition that Westside faces is from Pantaloon Retail, the flagshipcompany of
Future Group. Led by its founder and Group CEO, Mr. Kishore Biyani, it is
one of Indias leading business houses with multiple businesses spanning across the
consumption space. Placed in the lifestyle segment, the stores contain brands like Ajile,UMM,
RIG, Akkriti, Bare among others. Pantaloons also have various Factory Outlets,besides its
regular retail stores in different cities that offer products at discounted prices.The store offers
products that range from 199 to 3000, and offering special benefits tocustomers like Alterations
and Home Delivery with 50 stores across India, operatingmostly in malls and exclusive
showrooms, it operates along the same lines as Westside,with similar festive season discounts,
offering Gift Vouchers and Loyalty programs whichare more or less the same as Westside offers
to its customers. It was earlier endorsed byLara Dutta, Zayed Khan, and Bobby Deol. Promotion
is mostly done through printedmedia.