How Marketing Research Services Can Help the Textile Industry

The textile industry is one of the largest Indian industry that provides employment to both skilled and unskilled labor in India. It is also one of the most rapidly developing industry. Booming trade has helped both the rural sector as well as the urban centers. In addition, we now have sizeable foreign investment and expertise flowing into the Indian textile in-dustry.

Corresponding with this growth is the story of Marketing Research Services in the textile industry. Whether dealing with a B2B company or a consumer services business, market-ing research has made an immense difference in how these businesses are making criti-cal decisions on branding, sourcing, marketing, communication and even business ex-pansion.

As the Indian textile industry becomes more competitive, marketing research will have an even greater role to play. For foreign companies from countries like UK and Sin-gapore, research is even more important, since it helps them to understand the complex Indian market. Some of the ways in which marketing research has made a significant im-pact in the textile industry are:

Consumer segregation: Unlike most industries, the consumer’s preference are the key here. In a country like India where multiple textiles and fashion trends exist and thrive simultaneously, it is important to know just who your customer is. Marketing research will focus on the basics like lifestyle, taste, preference, age and income of the consumer. This helps us to price, expand and plan our entire growth strategy.

Brand development: The brand is a major commodity in the textile industry, especially in retail. Here the brand plays an important role because it helps us carve out a niche and exploit it further. As a long-term research function, brand development focuses on overall strategies to improve brand image. It helps us to pinpoint the brand, whether it is a luxury, cost-effective, exclusive, urban, eco-friendly and so on.

Need-gap analysis: A by-product of a rapid spread has been the over-saturation in some areas of the textile sector. Research focuses on whether the demand actually exists. What is the level of competition and where can your company enter? Is there space for your product? What is the demand and supply in the given market?

This analysis is essential in creating estimates for future demand, which is the critical el-ement in creating strategies. This information will affect all our decisions — deciding on production capacity, demand and supply of products in the B2B area, pricing strategy and promotional activities.

Gauging expansion need: Too many companies go bust for expanding too soon. The two most common reasons of faulty expansion are overcommitting business assets and enter-ing an over-saturated market. Most often this can be easily avoided by timely research. Apart from need-gap analysis as stated above, research will also focus on the company’s own capabilities.

Usage & attitude study: It is important to understand how people and businesses are us-ing textiles. There has been considerable innovation, change in style and preferences of the average consumer. Marketing Research Services study the changing usage patterns as well as people’s attitude towards a brand and its product.

Retail research: For B2C companies the retail experience is a critical part of their busi-ness organization. The customer experience, their feedback and perception can make all the difference between success and failure. Research focuses on the layout of stores, how shoppers make their selection, what attracts them to rival brands and so on.

This research has been instrumental in creating more shopper-friendly layouts at many major stores, innovative retail strategy and better shopper experience on the whole.

Knowing Triggers: Like any industry, there are the triggers that cannot be crossed in a given market. These can be dictated by prevalent social or religious customs, norms and culture. A foreign brand must keep these in mind when entering into the textile business. Even Indian brands often fail to understand regional barriers.

For instance, Market Research Services for a big clothes retail chain that was planning to open a store in small town found little demand for their western women swear range. This was mostly due to local conservative culture. Consequently, the store focused on their ethnic wear with just a select selection of their western wear. This meant less wastage, more judicial use of its inventory and better retail experience.