Khadi Brand Perception:

In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi brilliantly spun khadi into a people's movement for independence
and self-reliance. So even though mostly consumers relate to a patriotic notion when it comes
to Khadi, this unique product of India has enormous business potential, even internationally.
All this time, in the eyes of the consumers khadi has been synonymous with the staid
government-run Khadi Gram Udyogs and Khadi Bhavans of the Khadi and Village Industries
Commission (KVIC) and not as any other brand of clothes they purchase.
However even today a large portion of the consumers are not aware of the products Khadi
brand offers other than clothes. To many, khadi means the Indian fabric and clothes made out
of that fabric.
But khadi over the time has become much more than that and are going places now.
Even so, there is very less awareness among the youth of India. For this assignment we did a
basic research by asking 20 of our acquaintances about what they think of khadi.
According to maximum of them khadi is a government initiative to some hand spun cotton
clothes and about 5-6 knew about other product lines that khadi offer.
A research paper on Customer Attitude and Preference towards the Brand of Khadi and
Village Industrial Products in Coimbatore District reveals that out of total 300 respondents

61% of the respondents buy KVI products moderately, 34.7% whenever they come

across it, 2.3% buy frequently and 2% are not interested in buying KVI products.
69.3% of respondents perceive that KVI products are good, 20% feel they are average

and 10.7% of respondents perceive that the quality of KVI products are Very good.
88.3% of respondents are satisfied with KVI products and 11.7% are not satisfied with

the same
48.7% of respondents feel that the quality of KVI products are good, 43.3% perceive
it is moderate, 5.3% feel it is excellent and 1% of respondents perceive the quality is

bad compared to other market items

60.7% of respondents perceive the packing to be moderate, 32.3% feel it is not

attractive and 7% perceive it to be attractive

45% of respondents are loyal towards a specific product and 55% of respondents are
not loyal towards a specific product.

19 % of respondents came to know about the KVI product through Newspaper, 27%
of the respondents through fellow worker/ friend, 23% of the respondents through

relatives and remaining 31% of the respondent through government

81.3% of respondents have revealed that KVI products are available all over the city
whereas 18.7% of respondents tell that they are not available.

The paper concluded that khadi products are found to be reasonable and affordable by the
customers. Khadi has gained worldwide appreciation as it is handmade, durable, long lasting
and organic in nature. The fabric is produced by the masses for the masses. It is associated
with Gandhian philosophy as well as makes a fashion statement. Through the medium of
khadi weaving, the weaver expresses art and designing by the spindle and loom. It is widely
accepted in the Indian fashion circle. Leading fashion designers now include it in their
collection by designing clothes with khadi material. There is huge demand for it in
international market, especially in western countries.
This study also reveals that the overviews about the products manufactured by the KVI are
satisfactory. The Customer Attitude towards the purchase decisions are influenced more by
the way of trust worthy, service, price and quality. It is an attempt to study the KVI product
and its awareness and preference towards the KVI products is being surveyed to make this
study complete. As a result, it has been observed from the respondent that the KVI products
are qualitative and pricing is reasonable and affordable. But the customer also expressed the
need of improvement in packing.

Brand identity:
Brand identity is not what the customers identify the brand as but how the brand portrays
itself as. Khadi is all in all the swadeshi fabric, the nations fabric, originates itself more
than 5000 years ago and believed to be from ancient India. Khadi is not a product. It is the
philosophy, the philosophy of freedom. Gandhiji once said. It was Khadi that became power
of nation and brought independence to us.
Khadi the brand reflects freedom and pride (value propositions), which is about setting the
trend and become trendsetter particularly for the young generation.

Khadi is an eco-fabric. It portrays itself as a fabric that can help saving environment, and by
purchasing Khadi we can also help building a better environment. Khadi is harmless to our
skin. Khadi ties the whole nation with one thread. Khadi became a mean to unite people of
different religions and class.
70 % of the artisans involved in the process of Khadi production are women. Khadi
production is a labor-intensive industry, with a scope of providing more employment with an
investment of a very small capital especially in the rural areas. Indias national flag is made
of Khadi. Khadi enables full development of locally available raw materials and human
resources.
The Khadi and Village industrial products are to develop the rural and urban marketing. So
the government is mainly concentrating in the KVIC to develop the rural marketing. This will
help to provide employment, producing saleable articles and creating Self reliance amongst
people, building up strong rural community spirit.
It is the only fabric where the play of texture is so unique that no two fabrics will be
absolutely identical, thus lending it exclusivity and inimitability in terms of feel and texture.
Khadi is among the most progressively modern of all textiles, one that not only has desirably
material possibilities but also consonance with the native ecology and sensitivity to the
human condition that sustains it.

Bridging the gap:

The very first step is to create an inimitable and aesthetic brand building program for the
fabric~ Khadi the brand. On-target positioning is required for the brand to hit the target
audience and the target market.
Khadis unstoppable

and

magnanimous

USPs like

eco-savy,

Gandhi-Khadi

relationship, importance in history, can be utilized properly to capture the market. All the
above three USPs can be hit one by one with the certain time period to aware the market,
creating the interest, establishing and maintaining the brand personality and brand image with
integrated 360 degree branding (covering almost all the mediums). The idea is to associate
the brand with the consumers by impacting the strong message of pertaining the freedom
and prestige of India, contributing and adapting the green challenge for India and
recollecting the Gandhijis Khadi philosophy.
Since, Khadi is truly the nations fabric (the swadeshi brand), we can comfortably apply
credentials here. Huge publicity would enhance great consumer attention and consumer
involvement to confirming the authenticity of the brand.
On-going BTL and ATL activities to cater the market, featuring them the significance of the
Khadi and its core values.
Fashion shows, trade shows, ad campaigns and so on for sustaining the identity for the Khadi
brand, carrying the target audience, advertising message, nature of the product, and the
particular medium.
Once the on-target positioning has been established within the USPs parameters, then
aggressive marketing (branding+advertising) techniques and PR activities are required to
generate the hype and endorsing the brand of Khadi. Testimonials and inspirational figures
can also play immense part to promote the brand. Those figures can be politicians, film
fraternity, fashion designers, activists and social servants etc.

Steps being taken:

According to a report in The Statesman, on August 9, 2015, Khadi, has seen a rise in
its sales since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal for its greater use last year,and

would now have Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan as its brand ambassador.
KVIC launched a new range of khadi denim products from jeans to T-shirts and
jackets in June to popularise Khadi among youth. Levi's launched khadi jeans this
August to tap the youth market - with every garment in the collection displaying the
name of the weaver and where it was produced.But hearteningly, Indian designers
were first off the mark on that score with Rajesh Pratap Singh creating a bespoke
khadi denim collection in Rajasthan that's hand-stitched and hand dyed with natural
indigo, in addition to being handspun and handwoven! Indeed, Indian designers have
been upping the premium profile of the fabric at fashion weeks here and abroad. Not
only has Hyderabad-based textile designer Gaurang Shah showed his khadi line at the

Berlin and New York fashion weeks, khadi is becoming a fixture in most collections.
Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) Chief Executive Officer Arun
Kumar Jha said they intend to take sale of khadi from Rs 1140 crore in 2014-15 to at

least 1600 crore in 2015-16.

There are about 7,000 government-recognised Khadi outlets in the country. Jha said

the the aim is to take the number to 20,000 by 2017 through franchise agreements.
Last year Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented Chinese Prime Minister Xi
Jinping a specially commissioned khadi waistcoat and US President Barack Obama
with a khadi-bound copy of the Bhagavad Gita, comes an indication that the Centre is
mulling a trademark for the freedom fabric too.