1. Introduction<br />In 1998, after selling Lakme Ltd. to HUL, Tata’s acquired a London based retail chain named Littlewoods. With this takeover Tata established Trent Ltd. with Mrs. Simone Tata as head and renamed Littlewoods as Westside. Today Westside has reached to a total of 28 cities across India. The store size varies from 15000-30000 sq. feet. Currently, Noel Tata is heading Westside. <br />Westside are designed in such a way that it cater to shopping needs of various customers. The mission of Westside says that “We want to be the most preferred and consistently profitable lifestyle retailer”. The store includes apparels for men, women and children of all ages, footwear, cosmetics, perfumes and handbags, household accessories, lingerie, and gifts. Although nearly 70% of the products available at Westside are owned by 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 the total sales. The profits earned by Trent were Rs. 40 cr.<br />Reliance’s Trends, Landmark Group’s Max, Pantaloons, Shoppers Stop and Wills Lifestyle are its major competitors.<br />Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning<br />After research, we found that the Westside seems to be using income based segmentation 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 a complete shopping experience. <br />Are they successful in catering to these classes is a different matter altogether. The product 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. It seems that, at the time of establishment, the Company had very set strategy on what customer base they wanted to create. But since its inception, the Company has started to attract the customer from other segments also. It seems that the Company’s target segment, which was very clear at the beginning, has become obscure. The reason for this shift is not very clear but we can speculate that the company became sales driven instead of creating a loyal customer base. There has been recent news that to improve its image and to attract the customer from upper segment Westside is going to revamp their store. Westside has hired London-based retail consulting agency named Flitch to add flare to its stores and to woo the customers from upper segment. <br />Product Strategy<br />Westside has a very interesting and broad product variety. The detailed product offering along with its prices is given in the annexure. Given the business that Westside operates in, it is incumbent that Westside has such a broad variety. Westside has tried to create a one stop shop for complete family within its defined segment. But the problem with this strategy is Westside cannot differentiate itself with its competitors. As most players in this industry operate on same principle it is very difficult to set oneself apart from the competition.<br />As per our observation, the product variety that Westside offers change slightly from place to place. The product variety which we could find in a place like Kolkata was not present in Nagpur. As Mumbai is the headquarters of the Westside, these stores have the maximum variety. It seems that Westside is doing a good job on offering different variety-based on the consumer taste and preferences.<br />In case of apparels, along with its own brand, Westside also has contracts with the stalwarts 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 variety of brand to choose from. Having these renowned brands in the store attracts the brand conscious customer, which normally would not have considered Westside. Also this gives a chance to Westside to display its own brand and increase the brand awareness. Another hidden 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 hence increases the chances of sales of other items also. <br />In its endeavour to create a one stop shop, Westside has a contract with the cosmetic giant L’Oreal. In jewellery section, Westside displays very popular brand like D’damas, Gilli, Asmi, Nirvana etc. Westside also displays perfume brand like Ferrari. In the 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. <br />Another very interesting factor about Westside is that it gives its employees training on aspects like product knowledge, workplace ethics, customer service policies and issues, communication skills and courteousness. <br />Price Strategy<br />After studying the various product categories offered by Westside, we now analyse the various pricing strategies adopted by Westside. Price communicates to the market the company’s intended value positioning of its product or brand. The pricing decisions are consistent with the firm’s marketing strategy 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, purchase timing, order levels, delivery frequency, guarantees, service contracts, and other factors. Consumer expectations play a key role in price response. The company offers the Value for Money price by 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 and develop 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 company’s products showing that it wants to cater to much larger sections of society. For example - Formal shirts for men ranging from Rs 500-2500, women’s designer purses ranging from Rs 800-10000. <br />Here are some pricing strategies adopted by Westside as follows-:<br />Promotional discounts<br />This is the best kind of discount offered by the company as it enables the company to retain the power to be flexible. There are times when they want to give an extra boost to sales i.e. to shift an old product before updating a new one. For example- In case of Men’s 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 company’s in-house brand ‘Westport’ and on products like clothing, towels. <br />Seasonal pricing<br /> The company goes for a full fledged sale 3 times in a year to draw in more customers and maximize its sales. The purpose is to shed out the old product at reasonable prices 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, D’damas, Nirvana on Diwali and New Year. There are different discounts on different products 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.<br />Image pricing- Westside has adopted such pricing to an extent in products such as perfumes. Bottles with attractive labels are priced at premium. Perfumes are ranging from Rs 500-6500. Branded perfumes are priced at maximum like Ferrari.<br />Product form pricing- Different versions of the product are priced differently but not proportionate to their respective costs. The company prices products to maximize overall margin. It can be seen in some t-shirts, bags, perfumes, crockery etc.<br />Psychological pricing- The Company uses alternate pricing strategies in almost all products. 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. For example- Pricing glasses at 49 each or 6 for 299.<br />Product bundling pricing- The Company is engaged in pure as well as mixed bundling for various products. Sometimes the purpose is to shed out the stock unsold for long time at minimal margin. Mixed bundling is targeted at increasing the average purchase per person giving 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.<br />Value pricing- Westside has positioned itself as a Value for Money brand. Most people are satisfied with the pricing of Westport products. Westport products targeted the youth and upper middle class specifically but with large price variations in certain products, they want to target the rich class as well. <br />Note- Kindly refer to the annexure for detailed price range of various products.<br />Place Strategy<br />Not many out of the ordinary trends were visible in Westside’s place strategy. The most commonly observed fact about the place strategy was that the chain of stores were functioning mostly in the malls and few exclusive showrooms of major cities. Another fact that we observed during the survey was that Westside stores are mostly located very near its main competitor Pantaloons in most cities, since both follow a similar strategy of functioning in Malls.<br />Westside has its head office located in Mumbai. Sourcing decisions are taken centrally and sourcing offices were setup at Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi. There is a well setup supplier base across regions. Knits are sourced from south India, woollen from Punjab and casuals & formal wears are sourced from garment manufacturers from cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Crockery and gift items are sourced from countries like China and Thailand which offer a wider variety and exclusive design. <br />To know about the strategies followed by Westside retail, we held interactions with Managers of the stores. And to get a broader perspective of the strategy of the retail chain all over India we talked with managers of stores at Nagpur, Bhopal and Kolkata. The main facts that came out during the conversations were:<br />All stores receive their stocks on a weekly basis on each Friday from Mumbai itself. <br />Due to higher purchasing power of the people of Mumbai and the headquarters being 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 the trendy and well-off customers of Mumbai, and increase their sales, and hence their revenue.<br />Across a single city, prices do not change. We found that all stores in a city had almost same product range and same prices of the available products. Since in most Tier 1 cities, there are multiple stores of Westside operating, this prevents any particular store hogging the customers, thereby preventing cannibalization.<br />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 lure them to the stores. In another example, the price of a certain Ladies garment had been hiked by 100 rupees, due to high demand of the product during the recent festive season. The customers didn’t seem to mind the hike in price.<br />Products available in the stores depended city of operation. For example, in cities like Mumbai and Kolkata, products available were larger and slightly on the more expensive side, because of the purchasing power, and the lifestyle of the people of the city, compared to a city like Nagpur.<br />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 couldn’t get a store large enough to do justice for all their customers, they built an exclusive showroom for women so that they can meet the demands and needs of women.Promotion Strategy<br />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 in-house 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, and other kitchen ware. This arrangement has its own advantage, being a brand retailer they make their own style and image to build customer base. Westside also allows flexibility in terms 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 in apparels section. Westside also has some of India’s best-known fashion designers, like Wendell Roderick’s, Anita Dongre, Krishna Mehta and Mona Pali, working with them, who create collections exclusively for the store, and the prices for these are hardly eye-popping (the Wendell Roderick’s range starts at Rs 600). Westside has managed to obtain this exclusivity at a lower price because it has multiple outlets, which in turn, is consistent with their positioning. <br />For media promotions, in 2002, they hired Yuvraj Singh as brand ambassador, mainly because of his stylish and trendy image. ***.<br /> Another winning Westside idea is Club West, a customer loyalty programme launched in May 2001. The 60,000-plus members of this club get special bonuses like rebates at restaurants and on holiday packages from the Taj Group of Hotels, home delivery of alterations, and best of all, special shopping hours on the first day of any discount sales event organised by the chain. As an in-house promotions strategy, further discounts are offered to employees of Tata group.<br />Westside have a strong women consumer base so they came up with an innovative concept of “Westside Woman” to cater exclusively to women in areas with high potential, where they couldn’t 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 though this is one of kind project, it got decent enough response.<br />Westside promoted themselves as a lifestyle brand with premium products, but they have a vast range of products with them, from value based products to the premium range products. And with time their customer base began slipping towards value seeking customers because of having greater products in the affordable range. One of the flaws in their promotion strategy, from our perspective, is that almost 85% of their shelf space is occupied 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 and more 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 to the status of an order qualifier only. And in the value based category new players are also coming up such as Landmark’s Maxx, Ritu’s Big Life, Globus etc. Westside is also facing a tough competition through the local players. <br />Now again to woo their upmarket customers Westside is rejuvenating their brand by introducing some international labels in their brand basket. They are testing it in Mumbai in the Gourmet West which sells packaged food, they will soon add a sushi, cheese and wine counter to upgrade the experience of its consumers and increase frequency of their visits. But at this point of time, the obvious question arises; will they be able to attract the upmarket consumer again to the Westside, which now has an image of a mid-segment retail store? To change its image over, is not an easy task, and it will become more complicated, as they can lose from both sides by losing their old customer base and also the new target customers, should the new strategy not work.<br />Now to promote their new strategy they will have to spend in the media promotions and maybe hiring of a brand ambassador might help further, because at present they are dormant in the media promotions, as compared to Shopper’s Stop and Pantaloons. These promotions will help in attracting attention of the customers. And according to their new strategy they are planning to revive their brand this strategy might be helpful. Because while reviving the brand they should be able to connect themselves to the consumers so media promotion will be helpful.<br /> Today demand of international labels is increasing day by day, so to tap this opportunity Westside should decrease the shelf space of their in-house brands. This will have a twofold benefit first, it will be able to attract the upmarket consumers and simultaneously they won’t lose their old customer base. Previously the strategy of keeping the in-house brand in a big percentage worked because at that time, due to downturn consumer’s preferences, which changed from costly brands to reasonable brands so they shifted towards Westside in-house brands. But with the reviving of the economy, the consumer’s spending power increased and their preference is again shifting towards their old brands. †<br /> As Westside opened a theme based store in Shalimar Bagh in New Delhi exclusively for women, following of the same strategy in other metro cities might help them. Because they have a strong women consumer base and have a wide variety in this range. <br />The selling of the cosmetic range is much more dependent on the display of these products and as what we have seen in the Westside stores of Nagpur, Bhopal, Kolkata, that display of these product was not much appealing to the buyers, as compared to what we have seen in Shopper’s Stop, where they have excellently displayed their whole range of cosmetics. <br />Competitors<br />The major competitors of Westside are Shopper’s Stop, Pantaloons, and Will’s Lifestyle. Given the nature of the industry, there is fierce rivalry between the competitors. Shopper’s Stop, Pantaloons and Will’s Lifestyle also use almost the same segmentation, targeting and positioning, with their own subtle differences.<br /> Shopper’s Stops targets the upper lower and upper class. Its product, pricing, place and 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, Shopper’s Stop has its own loyal customer base, and due to this Shopper’s Stop is highly successful. Will’s Lifestyle also has a similar kind of image as that of Shopper’s Stop and also has its own loyal following.<br />The biggest competition that Westside faces is from Pantaloon Retail, the flagship company of Future Group. Led by its founder and Group CEO, Mr. Kishore Biyani, it is one of India’s 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 to customers like Alterations and Home Delivery with 50 stores across India, operating mostly in malls and exclusive showrooms, it operates along the same lines as Westside, with similar festive season discounts, offering Gift Vouchers and Loyalty programs which are more or less the same as Westside offers to its customers. It was earlier endorsed by Lara Dutta, Zayed Khan, and Bobby Deol. Promotion is mostly done through printed media.<br />Annexure<br />PRODUCT-PRICE LIST<br />Product HeadsPrice range(in Rupees)Men's WearFormal Shirts500-2500Casual Shirts200-1200Formal Trousers700-3000Casual Jeans800-3200Casual T-shirts150-1000Casual Shorts250-700Jackets1500-3500Sports Wear800-3500Night Wear700-2500Women's WearIndian Kurtas300-1500Casual T-shirts and Tops200-700Casual Jeans700-2800Capris500-1500Evening Gowns800-2500Western Formals1000-3000KidsShorts200-800Jeans400-1200T-shirts150-800Shirts300-800Frocks400-1000Crockery and KitchenMugs99-150Cup and Saucer sets50-250Dinner Set2000-5000Flower vase150-450Photo frames250-500Wine glasses40-150Cutlery Sets90-150 per 3 pieceFrying Pans500-1000Steel Thermos350-900Daily NecessitiesPillows and Pillow covers200-1000Towels-:Hand and Face50-150Bathing350-600Bed Sheets600-1500Blankets1200-4000Jewellery(Branded)GilliAs per brandAsmiAs per brandNirvana As per brandD'damasAs per brandHome and Gift ItemsStuffed animals400-1500Toys and Games200-1000Wallet and Designer purse500-2500 and 800-10000Traveller's bag and laptop bag600-5000 and 600-1500Perfumes and deodorants150-1000 and 500-7500AccessoriesWatches-:Titan1000-10000Fastrack350-2000Sunglasses-:Fastrack250-2000Polaroid1000-3000Belts200-600Wrist bands30-80Bracelets50-250FurnitureSquare coffee table2000-5000Kuber Vitrine12000-20000Kuber buffet10000-15000Two tone coffee table2500-4500Jalie Cabinet with one drawer3500-5000Kuber Console Table2500-4500Kuber Book Shelf6000-10000X-Block Shelf5000-8000Accent Side Board8000-15000Telephone Stand2500-5000FootwearBathroom Slippers200-700Leather shoes800-3000Sports Shoes700-3500Interior decorationAntiques500-2000Night Lamps800-2500Wall Hangings1000-3000Artificial Flowers100-200<br /> <br />News related to Westside<br />Tata Group's Trent all set to launch operation Westside-<br />(Source- The Economic Times, 1 DEC, 2010)<br />BANGALORE: Westside, the flagship retail chain of Tata Group’s Trent, will add a gourmet food section and launch premium labels through designer collaborations and international licensing deals to take on peers such as Shoppers Stop and Lifestyle that are pulling away increasingly affluent consumers.“We had been slipping towards the lower end of the middle band over a period of time but are now climbing back,” says Westside COO Gaurav Mahajan . “We do not want to vacate our current positioning by alienating existing consumers but want to spread upwards,” he adds. The chain is already test marketing an upmarket food section, Gourmet West, in Mumbai. A first in the lifestyle retail segment in the country, Gourmet West sells packaged vegetables and will soon add a sushi, cheese and wine counter to upgrade the experience of its consumers and increase frequency of their visits. Industry analysts and officials say Westside has been lagging in terms of product innovation and fashion element in recent years when a slew of players — Reliance’s Trends and Landmark Group’s Max at the value end; Pantaloon in the mid-market segment and Shoppers Stop and Lifestyle in the premium market — piped up competition in the lifestyle retail chain space. “Westside has been a conservative company compared to players like Lifestyle and Shoppers Stop, which expanded quickly between 2005 and 2008,” says a top retail executive, on condition of anonymity. Westside is the oldest and largest of Trent’s businesses that also include Star India Bazaar hypermarkets and Landmark book and music shops. Started in 1998 after Tata’s acquired British retail chain Littlewoods and renamed it Westside, the lifestyle chain now has 49 outlets across 28 cities in India. Between financial year ended 2008 and 2009-10 , Trent’s stand-alone (largely Westside) revenue grew 8.6% to Rs 542.60 crore against Shopper’s Stop’s 30% growth to Rs 1, 478 crore. However, Westside is ahead in profitability because 85% of its merchandise is in-house brands. Experts say Westside has lost out on sales productivity (due to lower ticket values) and footfalls in the past few years. “Westside started out with a great model of private brands but as competition increased they entered fast-selling categories such as watches and cosmetics, which were in most cases managed by third parties. The look and feel then became inconsistent with the overall format,” says the retail executive. The chain wants to turn that around. It has signed up London-based retail design consultants Fitch to spruce up its store appeal. “The shelf life of store design is 5-7 years. That is something we have not done for a very long time. We are in the process of jumping a few levels to catch up,” says Mahajan. <br />Westside is also tweaking its merchandise mix to suit micro locations. In its revamped Chandigarh outlet, for instance, a catchment with a high affinity to premium brands, Westside’s private labels have lent more space to brands Vero Moda, US Polo, Ed Hardy and Chicco. The chain will open 11 large-format stores this fiscal and plans another 15 next fiscal to cash in on the boom in consumption, driven by rising incomes, booming economy and increased aspiration levels of a young consumer class. <br />Westside is also signing exclusive licensing agreements with international brands such as Aerology in footwear to quickly advance into higher price points. “There are lots of niche international brands that are looking at being housed inside a department store rather than on their own in India as quality real estate is very expensive,” says Mahajan. It has tied up with designers such as Wendell Rodrigues and Priyadarshani Rao and introduced premium in-house brands, Ascot for men and Nuon to drive this premium positioning.<br />Bibliography<br />www.google.com<br />www.mywestside.com<br />www.tata.com<br />www.fashionunited.in<br />Retail Industry, Changing Trends by Dhanajay Keskar.<br />Marketing Management by Philip Kotler, Kevin Lane Keller, Abraham Koshy, Mithileshwar Jha,<br />Brands and Branding by Economist.<br />