School of Business, Public Policy & Social Entrepreneurship (SBPPSE)

Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD)

Miraaya: the trendy womens
wear brand
Group: 7

Rakesh, Ritika, Safal, Sanaa
21-Aug-14






1. How do you define value proposition of Miraaya?

Answer:

A value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered and acknowledged and a belief from
the customer that value will be appealed and experienced. A value proposition can apply to an
entire organization, or parts thereof, or customer accounts, or products or services.
It defines how a product or service will add more value or better solve a problem than other
similar products and services offered in a market.
In the case analysis of miraaya, we come across certain good examples of value propositions
used by miraaya. Since the main target segment of the company is woman irrespective of
working or non working but with a strong conviction in Indian values.
A wide range of sales offering channels are:-
Company owned exclusive brand outlets
Franchised exclusive brand outlets
Multi brand outlets-shop in shop formats
Online channels
All these channels of sales and marketing provide wide shopping experience to customers
on their ease and comfort levels.
The online channel gives a click away shopping experience.
Products and their pricing ranges has actually tried to capture entire segment at lowest
being USD 10 to USD 40.
The most important factor that plays bigger is the comprehensive range of female
apparels and jewelry with a more innovative touch, for eg. Fusion of top wears like kurtis
tops blouses etc. with a large variety of trousers and handbags, footwears etc. that
complement the apparel range.
All these factors justify the value proposition for MIRAAYA.










2. What is brand? What are the critical success factors for a start up retail brand like
Miraaya?

Answer:

Mr. Rajesh Jain knew from his past experience as head of buying with various retail companies from
large-format retail to high-end designer labels that Indian women had been buying apparel, especially
Indian traditional apparel. He very well understood the challenges faced by the buyer as well the needs of
the consumer. All this helped him to plan and research in detail before the launch and segment the
market to identify the target group
Choosing the brand name: Brand is the "name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies
one seller's product distinct from those of other sellers." Brands are used in business, marketing,
and advertising. Initially, livestock branding was adopted to differentiate one person's cattle from
another's by means of a distinctive symbol burned into the animal's skin with a hot branding iron. In
accounting, a brand defined as an intangible asset is often the most valuable asset on a corporation's
balance sheet. Brand owners manage their brands carefully to create shareholder value. The word "brand"
is often used as a metonym referring to the company that is strongly identified with a brand.
The brand name chosen i.e. MIRAAYA characterizes the great MEERA BAI a devotee of lord Krishna.
She represents women with strong values within, and a bold and independent demeanor on the outside.
She had the confidence to uphold her beliefs while remaining true to traditional Indian values. This
helped the women to connect to the brand as they felt it was specifically meant for them.
Target audiences: A lady who is working inside or outside the house and has a strong conviction in
Indian values. At the same time she is independent in her thought and expression. The number of working
women has increased over the time; this has led to rising disposable incomes as well as economic
freedom, thus changing the consumption patterns. The educationally forward burgeoning middle class in
India prefers the contemporary and trendy styles of living. Aiming specially at women living tier II and
tier III cities.
4 Ps
Product range: The product range is comprehensive in that it includes womens apparel and womens
accessories. The apparel category comprises Indian ethnic and fusion top wear like tunics, kurtas and
tops/blouses.
Pricing: The product range begins with a pricing of $10 and goes up till $40, wherein they offer a wide
variety of products.
Promotion: The indulge in extensive promotions mainly via e-commerce websites such as snapdeal,
flipkart, myntra, pepperfry, reddif, jabong etc. apart from this they also have their own e retail website
which is the first in India to offer free shipping across the world.
Other than e-commerce websites MIRAAYA also makes its presence felt through social networking
websites like facebook, linkdin, twitter etc., they also believe in providing very good experience to its
customers which increase word of mouth.
Place: they analyzed the need to be an organized player in tier II and tier III cities because there are
number of players in these cities and MIRAAYA offered good and consistent quality and ensured the
consumer recognized it.
Apart from that Mr. Rajesh Jain followed an excellent distribution channel which included own store
and shops- in-shops in department stores. Department stores provided the unique advantage of gaining
scale quickly while also pushing MIRAAYA for quality standardization. This helped it to gain a
competitive advantage over the non-branded competitor who would not be offering scale and quality. The
products were sold through four channels mainly:
Company-owned exclusive brand outlets(EBOs)
Franchised exclusive brand outlets
Multi brand outlets(MBOs)
Online websites and other e commerce websites



3. Explain the brand equity?

Answer:

Brand Equity is the added value endowed on products and services.
One of the most valuable intangible assets of a firm is its brand, and it is incumbent on marketing to
properly manage their value. Building a strong brand requires careful planning, a deep long term
commitment, and creatively designed and executed marketing as is shown by Miraaya. It is perceived as
the trendy womens wear brand.
The brand name itself symbolizes Miraayas target customer- a lady who is working inside or outside the
house and has a strong conviction in Indian values. At the same time she is independent in her thought
and expression.
Creating a brand value is possible with the help of added exposure to popular media like television, social
networking sites like facebook, twitter etc. And there is also a noticeable shit from the traditional
customer stitched to ready-to-wear, from unbranded to branded apparel. Thus Miraaya is able to
make place for itself in the minds of the customer as its offers womens apparel and womens accessories.
With its new and innovative products such as Patiala salwars and kurtas in knit cotton fabric, pocket for
mobile phones in salwars. They also introduced maxi dresses and jumpsuits much ahead of the trend. To
top it off their fashionable and pocket friendly offerings would definitely be valued by the customers.
This is therefore reflected in the sales. Miraayas top line grew very rapidly from $0.25 million to almost
$0.90 million from FY 2-010-2011 to FY @2011-2012. By FY 2012-2013, 30 per cent of the entire
revenue was coming from online channels. This was one of the reasons that even though the revenue did
not grow from FY 2011-2012 to FY 2012-2013, the gross profit increased by 40 per cent.
Other aspect of Brand equity is reflected customer loyalty which is seen in Kochi store where customers
are attracted without prominent signboards.
Brand is thus a product or service whose dimensions differentiate it in some way from other products or
services designed to satisfy the same need. It can be symbolic, emotional or intangible related to what
the brand represents or means in a more abstract way.




4. Suggest innovative strategies to improve brand equity of this brand.

Answer:

Some strategies which Miraaya can adopt are as follows:
Brand promise
A companys brand is a promiseits what the company promises to the people who interact with
it. And companies that deliver on their brand promises create real brand value.
By establishing an emotional relationship with the customers by upholding their values, you can
create a brand promise. It increases the customers trust and faith in your offers, which also
attracts potential traffic to the site for which you are trying to improve the equity of the brand.
Individual or separate family brand names
As Kotler also explains one way to build brand equity is to brand different products by different
names. One major advantage is that if the product fails or appears of low quality, the company
has not tied its reputation to it. Miraaya is a Contemporary Indian Womens Wear , its product
ranges from ethnic Indian wear to footwear. By branding its different product like accessories
and footwear like sandals, it can further increase its brand equity.
Brand Sponsorship
Besides advertising another way of building, a solid understanding of the various sources of
brand equity is needed. One of these sources is sponsorship, defined as a cash or in-kind fee
paid to a property (typically an, entertainment, non-profit event or organization) in return for
access to the exploitable commercial potential with that property Sponsorship is the financial or
in-kind support of an activity, used primarily to reach specified business goals. It promotes a
company in association with the sponsor.
Miraaya can sponsor various nongovernmental events, as the company is already engaged in
activities towards the community, by sponsoring such events it can increase its brand value as
well.
Social marketing is another way of improving the equity of your intended brand. For example,
customers are more and more concerned about the environment these days. You can clearly say
your customers that you follow the environmental friendly method of producing your products.
This will help your customers build trust in your products or services, which in turn will improve
the brand equity. Miraaya has already done a very good initiative for community-building and
customer engagement beyond shopping by its tie up with Rashmi Anand.
Providing quality offer remains the best way of improving the brand equity. Never
compromise with the quality of your offers. Convey the message to your customers that you
always try to make them satisfied with the core benefits they are seeking for. If you can maintain
the standard your customers expect, you surely can improve the equity of your brand.




5. What are the future challenges for this brand?

Answer:

Future challenges for Miraaya:
Excessive Competition:
The apparel industry is a highly competitive and fragmented industry with low barriers to entry,
with many apparel manufacturers and distributors, both domestically and internationally, as well
as many well-known designers, some of whom have substantially greater resources along with
products that are lower priced than Miraaya.
Within each of the geographic markets, there is significant competition from global and regional
branded apparel companies, as well as retailers that market apparel under their own labels.
Miraaya faces a tough competition coming from prominently placed brands like Biba, Global
Desi which spend a huge sum of amount on their marketing and brand popularity, where Miraaya
lags behind. The marketing practices need to be improvised. Miraaya requires an even more
popular celebrity for endorsement to improve its identification in the market.
As Miraaya wishes to enter the Global playground, it requires efficient schemes to establish itself
in western countries where Indian ethnic wear is mostly occasional. Therefore, sales may vary as
per the demography or depend completely on the population of Indian in those countries.
Miraaya requires capital investments as its plans include foray into various off-shoots that come
out of making a brand-brand management, product designing and development, retail operations,
visual merchandising and merchandise management.