STRADIVARIUS

INTRODUCTION
““It is an international brand from women and men’s apparels and accessories. The brand’s
story began back in 1994 with a treble clef that became the hallmark of the firm. However,
Stradivarius joined the Inditex group in 1999 and within a year entered three new
international markets. They celebrate their unique sense of style by inviting young women
and men from around the world to discover all the melodies, energy and emotions behind
Stradivarius - the fashion brand that moves to the sound of its own unique melody.
Stradivarius designs thousands of clothing items and accessories in Spain for exclusive
distribution to its stores, which can be found in over 62 countries around the world, as well as
on its online store, which started operating in 2011. They are fully aware that what makes
their customers happy today may not be what they want tomorrow, which is why they are
constantly hunting down the latest trends to come up with the perfect looks for every
occasion.”
“The Stradivarius spirit is feminine, fresh and creative. It is the dream and fantasy of a real
world, which seeks to enchant its clientele through its designs. Stradivarius has a little piece of
jewellery in the shape of a treble clef, a symbol that represents the rhythm, dynamism and
difference of the brand. At first it began as the initial letter used in the brand's logo, and it has
gradually grown to have its own meaning beyond what it represents: the start of a musical
score. It leads an innovative store concept that offers its customers a complete buying
experience.”
“Stradivarius means catwalk trends that are perfectly adapted to the daily needs of its
customers. Taking the opportunity to interpret fashion in its own way and by encouraging its
customers to use their imagination to combine its collections, it is able to fill the streets with
women who radiate a unique, personal style.”
“Stradivarius is one of the eight brands belonging to the Inditex Group. It designs thousands of
feminine and creative garments in Spain which are then distributed in its stores worldwide,
targeting women between 20-35 years old (Inditex annual Report,2017). Stradivarius captures
the essence of youthful creativity. By the medium of this rationale we seek to address the need
gap in the Indian market, a brief overview of the retail sector, the appropriate route to be
followed by the brand to enter the Indian market and the growth plan to be adopted for the
Indian market.”

Brand Personality

“A brand is a name that has the power to influence and create mental associations with its
consumers to reach their subconscious minds – (Kotler,2000)”. Following the same lines
Stradivarius has been widely successful in creating a name for itself globally.

The brand personality of Stradivarius is well defined as ‘a fast fashion brand that captures the
essence of youthful creativity.’ It seeks to understand the latest trends and developments in
fashion to allow young women to express themselves irrespective of the occasion (Inditex
Annual Report, 2015). The brand understands its target audience and has in a short span of
time built a market for itself (Suen,2019). Firstly, Stradivarius does not use typical advertising
like print ads or television commercials to reach out to its target audience. Instead, they let their
stores and social media handles do all the required talking for them.

Their stores look luxe and chic, despite the low prices of the merchandise. The store is made
up of wood, bricks and mirrors, some bearing the Stradivarius logo. Basically, the display of
the store emits an antique look. Also, what sets Stradivarius apart from other brand is that they
know who their consumer is and hence concentrate on advertising that particular segment rather
than investing in advertising.

Stradivarius highly believes in engagement via social media and possesses global followings
on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter. A promotional section on its site features a host
of influential guest fashion bloggers (Business of Fashion, 2015)
Brand Elements

They are those vital features of the brand that help in creating a long-lasting impact in the minds
of the consumer and thus communicate the brand identity. Mentioned below are the elements
of branding for our chosen brand Stradivarius:

 Name: The name ‘Stradivarius’ means catwalk trends that are perfectly adapted as per
the needs of customers. It simply means a brand that moves to its own unique melody.
It has a treble clef in its name which ultimately became the hallmark of the brand.
 Product: Stradivarius has a wide range of merchandise in its store. It is best described
as a hub of cheap chic. Stradivarius imitates the latest catwalk trends and also gathers
inspiration from fashion leaders on social media in order to spin up new garments.
 Colour and logo: The logo of the brand is very feminine and delicate and excels in
respecting the brand philosophy. The name of the brand is in black with white
background. Stradivarius also gives a musical vibe by its logo, as it has a treble clef in
its name that represents rhythm, dynamism and difference of the brand.
Brand Resonance Model
The Brand Resonance Model states that one must shape that how the customers feel and think
about the product that is being sold, in order to build a strong brand. For customers to have
positive thoughts, feelings, beliefs, opinions about the brand, the brand must build the right
type of experiences around it. When the brand equity is strong, the customers tend to buy more,
and even recommend it to other people around, are more loyal and are less likely to switch to
your other competitors. The model puts emphasis on 2 sides of the brands- one is the rational
route that is on the left-side of the pyramid, and on the right side is the emotional route. (Keller,
2001)

Brand Salience:
1. Awareness: The brand Stradivarius already has a good awareness in the
international market amongst its other competitors like H&M, Zara etc.
2. Recognition: Popular Parent company- Inditex, is Recognised as the sister brand of Zara,
thus the brand is likely to become popular in no time after its launch.
3. Recall: Good store locations along with good Window display of all inditex brands.

Brand Imagery:
The brand has an image of being good value for money, trendy and is a fast fashion brand
in the eyes of its customers. The values associated with the brand are: Modern, trendy,
fashionable, cheaper than some of its competitors, youthful.
Brand Performance:
 Reliability & Durability: Even after being a fast fashion brand, the customers are
highly happy with the quality of the products.
 Style & trendiness: The brand is highly fashionable and up-to-date with its trends
that are popular in the market.
 Service effectiveness: Stradivarius has the parent brand Inditex, which has a fixed
service policy for all its brands- be it after-sale services like exchange policies, or
gift voucher, even it has all the good store locations for its brands.

Brand Feelings:
The feelings that customers all over the world have for this brand is more of creative,
independent, a brand that understands them, inspires them, has a combination of both
essence and culture.

Brand Judgements:
Stradivarius is a well-known brand among its customers for its good quality clothes, value
for money, trendiness, fashionable etc. The customers usually make judgements about the
brand on this basis only.

Brand Resonance:
The brand has comparatively Loyal customers who come back for new styles and trends
every time they go shopping. - It also has a good both online and offline presence in the
market. - It also offers several Loyalty programmes globally, and would do the same in
India as well, like Birthday gift cards, emails, wishes, permission marketing etc.
Brand salience is the extent to which a certain brand is given importance when the consumer
is facing a buying decision.

Salience is the quality of being noticeable or prominent in the mind – exactly what every brand
owner wants, especially at the time when buyers are about to make buying decision and when
markets are more competitive than ever (WARC,2017).
Growth Plan in the Indian market

So far, the brand has cranked out all its designs from a hub near Madrid and airlifted the
finished products to its stores twice a week. The costs have therefore been defrayed by charging
a higher price in each of these foreign markets. In India, most foreign retailers have struggled
to build a strong franchise model based around import-led premium pricing strategy
(Forbes,2018)

Therefore, this makes it crystal clear that the brand should not immediately embark on opening
a large number of stores in India. The brand should follow an ‘’oil stain’’ strategy. It means
that first open a few stores in the country to gain knowledge about the market and then apply
that knowledge to expand.

According to Pablo Isla, the most important factors before entering a new market are the
existence of potential customers and appropriate locations (Business of Fashion,2018).

Initially, we would open two stores in Delhi and Mumbai and one in Bangalore. The stores will
be having more of basic and casual wear collections rather than the higher end collection
clothes and accessories.

Entry Strategy of Stradivarius In India

While Stradivarius owns a majority of its stores in the international market, but Stradivarius
should enter into a Joint Venture in India due to the following reasons:

1. The brand should enter in a Joint Venture with Aditya Birla Fashion and Lifestyle, a
highly recognised clothing distributor.
2. Joint venture is a feasible mode of entry in India because this is a co-operative strategy
in which the manufacturing facilities and know- how of the local company are
combined with the expertise of the foreign firms in the market, especially in large,
competitive markets where it is difficult to acquire property to set up retail outlets.
 Market Analysis

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

Segmentation:

Segmentation is the first and the starting point of the entire exercise. It basically refers to sub
dividing of the market into homogenous sub-sections of customers, where a particular sub
section might be selected as a target market to be reached with a unique marketing mix
(Keller,2012).

The segmentation strategy is based on the typical demographics of customers like gender, age,
psychographics, lifestyle, attitude etc. However, besides this the brand also segments customer
based on their style, example: trendy, classic, modern, grunge.

Targeting:

It basically means picking the appropriate segment for the product. The segment that the firm
should select as its target market, assumes utmost importance.

Stradivarius is a fast fashion brand and targets sophisticated, trendy and contemporary women,
age 20-35 year, possessing monthly income of INR 2Lakh to 5Lakh and belonging to the upper
middle class/upper class. The brand Stradivarius treats its fashion products as disposable with
a max 3-4weeks sell by period (Harbott,2011). This indicates that Stradivarius customers are
impulsive and are likely to buy a product in case it is no longer in stock, the next time they visit
the store.

The underneath table shows that how the brand has segmented and targeted its market on the
basis of the following factors:

Types of Segmentation Stradivarius Target Audience

Segmentation Criteria
Geographic Region Spain, Asia, UK, France, Germany. Basically, the brand
is present in major cosmopolitan and economically
developed countries (Winckel,2013)
Density Urban
 City Size Major cosmopolitan areas, stores in high population and
traffic areas.
Demographic Age 20-35 years
Gender Core Target Audience is Female.
Life Cycle Working woman, graduates, post graduates, married,
Stage newly- wed, socialites, unmarried woman
Occupation Students, Homemaker, working professionals
Income INR2 Lakh to 5 Lakh (per month) (Thompson,2005)
Behavioural Personality Carefree, impulsive, trend conscious, independent,
extrovert, ambitious
User Status Middle to high income
Psychographic Lifestyle Reading, Instagramming, reading vogue and Elle
Magazine, attending fashion shows, travelling,
socialising
Attitude Free Spirited, Shopaholic, always want to emulate the
VIP look.
Socio-cultural Cultures and American, Roman Catholic, Christians, Jewish,
Religion Buddhism, Muslims, Berber and Arab, Coptic
Christians, Vietnamese culture, Shinto
Social class Upper middle/ upper class
Family Life Bachelors, Young, Married, full nesters
Cycle
Psychological Needs Shelter, safety, security, affection, sense of belonging
Motivation
Personality Extrovert, sociable, outgoing, seek novelty and
excitement.
Perception Moderate to high risk takers, as they constantly
experiment with latest fashion trends.

Positioning:

Positioning refers to the image of the brand in the customer’s mind or how it is different from
the products available from competitors. ‘’ Usage based’’ positioning strategy is followed by
the brand (Winckel, 2013). The brand also follows a ‘’Customer Centric’’ approach; the
brand is aware that the customer wants new and updated products.

Stradivarius has its wide assortment of products and equally varied pricing. They have
positioned themselves as a ‘’Fast Fashion Brand’’. They have a wide variety of product
assortment for the woman who are trend conscious and are impulsive buyers. As far as the
price is concerned the brand is cheaper than its competitors in India. The brand is positioned
as a high style and low-price brand. But they have always maintained their unique selling
proposition of hunting down the latest trends (before their competitors) and coming up with
perfect looks for every occasion that are both feminine and youthful.

Conclusion
“According to my analysis India is the ultimate shopping destination for fast fashion with a
large customer base. India has a population of 1.2 billion and the target market will of course
be wide than expected (Kalbag,2017)”
“Whereas people want to look fashionable and Stradivarius perfectly fills in the need gap by
providing clothing that is high on quality and affordable. The brand is well suited for fashion
conscious youth, as we can infer from the financial data that the brand is performing
exceptionally well in all countries and has tremendous sales record by achieving high sales
every year.”
“Therefore, we feel that the brand Stradivarius will be a good fit in the Indian market and we
wish to bring forward this brand in India.”