Brand merchandising, a billion dollar game

Brand merchandising industry internationally is a multi-billion dollar Industry that is a force to reckon with, says Upkar S. Sharma, Founder of CREA, in conversation with Retailer media.

Tell us about your brand?

Established in 2008, CREA has graduated from being a 2-person business with a desk in a tie share business centre to a multinational sourcing agency and a manufacturing enterprise serving over 400 clients in 18 countries, 4 continents and 7 different time zones. CREA is a domain expert and firmly believes that merchandise should be indicative of the brand ethos. CREA, which originates from the Hindi word meaning process is an ever-evolving enterprise that is pushing its boundaries by crossing the prescribed threshold.

Right from sourcing the raw material to manufacturing and exporting and importing it, CREA seamlessly integrates all the aspects of a true brand merchandiser in it. With over 7 years of experience in serving the requirements of corporate gifts, promotional merchandise, conference gifts, employee appreciation awards, uniform and corporate apparel for our esteemed corporate clientele, we have developed high quality and cost consciousness superior levels of customer service, proactive approach for solution providing and a sound logistics setup.

With a pool of over 400 clients and numerous case studies that each depict a story of its own, CREA has embarked on a journey of turn key projects creating great products that resonate with the brand Ethos of our clients.

What are your views on the Brand Merchandising industry?

Brand merchandising industry internationally is a multi-billion dollar Industry that is a force to reckon with. It is organised, with industry bodies, lobbyists and frequently held trade shows and conferences.

In India however, in spite of an industry size of 2 Billion USD, it doesn't have an industry status or a national body to protect its interests or establish guidelines for stakeholders. Being in the industry for almost a decade, I have witnessed that the industry has grown in size but not evolved. The common excuse is that buyers or brands don't realise the value of taking brand merchandise seriously, instead, they just treat it as a poor cousin of events and activations, almost an afterthought. That in itself is simplistic argument as people involved in the industry have made no effort to form a pan-India body; no effort has been made to establish SOP or guidelines for operating in the industry. It's a collection of manufacturers, traders, wholesalers, importers competing against each other and institutional sales teams of various brands, refusing to collaborate, co-create and evolve out of insecurity of losing whatever little business they have by the virtue of being at the right place at the right time.

What are your differentiation strategies? How do you plan to compete with other contenders in the segment?

We are the only company in India, in the arena of brand merchandising to have an in-house design team, along with an international sourcing, manufacturing and marketing setup in 3 continents. The principal attribute of taking merchandise projects on turnkey basis and managing every step in the process, from conceptualisation to last mile deliveries in 4 continents, sets us apart from all competition.

As brand merchandising and licensing go hand in hand, so which all brands have you partnered with?

So far, we haven't really directly partnered with any brands as we have not ventured into licensing, but as we are establishing our airline and movie merchandise verticals, we are in talks with a few luxury brands and movie studios along with a few globally known sporting brands to launch a line of merchandise covering these industries. Year 2015-16 is going to be an important year for us in the licensing arena and we are looking forward to it.

How do you plan to expand your brand?

We are already the only Indian company competing with European suppliers in Europe and the Middle-East and we intend to take the fight into their backyard, before we touch the shores of the U.S (the biggest brand merchandising market of over 22.5 Billion USD) in 2017. We are working on bolstering our product designing, prototyping, manufacturing and sourcing capabilities to provide substantial innovation and cost advantage to our international buyers. We are not sitting around, waiting for the Indian market to mature to take our next big leap. We want to be well equipped to change the way Indian market functions, by competing with the Global elite in their home turf and bringing home learning and international exposure that will help us serve our clients better.

Do you have plans to introduce more product categories?

We have an industry focussed approach, so far we are channelising all our energies to cater to 4-5 industries which globally are heavy spenders in brand merchandise. Over the next 3 years, we intend to be the best and assume pole position in at least 2-3 out of those 4-5 industries.We are constantly looking to introduce innovative products that have synergies with our customer's brands and that remains our primary focus.