Colour & Design?our USP

Outfits play a vital role in addressing a woman’s style and personality. Madame, the renowned apparel brand, wants to set itself apart from the other apparel brands through its exclusive merchandise. It also discusses how right ambience and customer service attract customer loyalty.

Avinder Batra(AB): Tell us about Madame, the wide range of product portfolio and the price range. Who are your target customers?

Bipan Jain (BJ): The inception of the brand took place in 1993 with its flagship store opening in 2002 in Lokhandwala, Mumbai. Madame’s focus is entirely on Women’s Western Wear and the brand caters to all product categories related to feminine pursuit. The price ranges between Rs. 445 to Rs. 3,999 for summer range and from Rs. 595 till Rs. 8,999 for winter collection. The target customer for the brand is 13-31 years and the USP of the brand lies in its special offering to the customers whereby MADAME can dress a woman five times a day as per the occasion and mood of the customer.

AV: What type of retail presence you cater to in the Indian market? How many exclusive stores are operating at present? Are there any further expansion plans?

BJ: Madame is present in the format of company owned Exclusive Brand Stores, Exclusive Franchise Model, Outright Supply Model and Shop –in- Shop concept with LFS Stores. The brand is exclusively present in more than 50 cities in India with major chunk of 69 stores being taken by the company owned format and in more than 120 cities with the Multi Brand format.

AV:Which specific channels Madame is looking forward to?

BJ: We are basically concentrating on -Exclusive Brand Stores, Multi Brand Stores, Large Format Stores.

AV: How much revenue generation the company is expecting in this fiscal?

BJ: We are targeting to surpass a T/O of 85 Cr

AV: With so many apparel brands present in the country, how do you distinct your merchandise and other services from other apparel brands?

BJ: Colour and Design is our USP. Moreover, store locations, product placement and the right merchandise mix always give us an edge. Our unique SCM system ensures that the right product is at the POS at the wishful time. Our integrated loyalty program gives customers the confidence to be a shopper at MADAME.

AV: What about the store experience. How do they stand apart from the other brands?

BJ: The store stands apart from the others in terms of Ambience and Customer Service. We also provide SMART Training to the franchisees.  

AV:What are the challenges you are facing in the present apparel market? How do you plan to overcome them?

BJ: Indian Apparel industry is quite un-organised as most of the operations are HR centric/ manual and that makes it challenging to handle logistics. An integrated ERP system helps us analyse the bottlenecks and overcome challenges.

AV:Are you into franchising? What is the size of the store and the minimum amount of investment required?

BJ:  The size of the store has to be between 700 sq feet to 2,000 sq feet. An expected investment is in the range of 25 to 40 lakhs per store.

AV:What kind of promotions and schemes you have introduced to reach out the audience?

BJ: The mightiest is the WOW MADAME – a customer loyalty initiative with a true national character and lots of different programs from time to time to keep people chipping in with respect to merchandise promotion. Moreover, a number of CSR activities take place to the tune of earning shopping vouchers, holidays etc.