The race to stay ahead

Inspiration behind

"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars" – tells the story of launching sportswear and footwear brand Tracer.  "This is the quote of my life. Right now, I am amidst the stars searching out a way to reach out to the moon," says Nitin Kohli to define his present state of mind and business status. It's not a smooth sailing always. As narrates Kohli, "All of this did not just happen with a flick of fairy's wand. The stature has been reached after so many minds put together at work, so much time spent in unison, a great deal of hard work and inexplicable determination to reach up to the level. Started with an amount of not much value, but the hope with which we put that finance into action turned the tables. YOU INSPIRE, WE ASPIRE."  The success was achieved through hard work and perseverance. In Kohli's words – "We toil barefoot because we know that the best lessons one learns of life is when you are connected to the real world. That's what we believe in. Before enjoying our salaries, we check the suggestions left for us, so that we can combine last month's reward with a new month's resolution to improve on certain matters." The company's major concern lies in quality than quantity, feedback than feast, brand image than personal luxuries. "Not that we don't consider it our brand as personal. This attitude of unity yet dignity comes from nowhere out of the world. It's the personnel recruited who feel a sense of satisfaction when they prove to be of use to the company," says Kohli to describe the belongingness of the employees that speaks volumes about the brand.

The touch points

Tracer's network is spread all over India, through a number of distributors, retailers and EBOs. The company has three tier distribution networks, wherein the product changes three hands before reaching the end customers. At present Tracer shoes are available at 25 exclusive outlets and around 6000 other touch points. "We have our strongest presence in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi, besides other states.  We are targeting pan India for our expansion," reveals Kohli.

Franchising nitty-gritty

The company has founded its base on franchising business model for rapid expansion. The basic parameters for franchising are a showroom space of 800-1200 sq ft. It should be located in a market place with a good footfall rate. And the prospective franchisee should have the capacity to bear an initial investment of up to  `25 lakh.

A franchise model can be successful only when two like-minded persons ally for common business interests, who are equally passionate about dreaming big with a thorough well planned strategy to realize it.  "We prefer that the franchisee must have the knowledge of doing business and also have relevant skills for handling the shoe business. Having said this, we always welcome new faces who want to work with us and make a career out of it," says Kohli.

As far as training is concerned, the company deploys a well-developed professional management team for handling the training of franchisees. The team trains the franchisee about the products of Tracer and also about the software that is used at Tracer, which is very well connected across all branches.  "Our team on regular basis keeps on meeting the showroom managers and salesmen to keep them updated on our products as well as better customer care techniques.  We support our franchisees by marketing our products through news papers, hoardings and other platforms," confides Kohli.

Dash towards mass audience

At present the promotional activities for Tracer are comprised solely of ATL activities like hoardings, media advertisement in both print and other media forms.  "Apart from this, we also focus on word of mouth publicity and are also developing a strong customer base online through our facebook and twitter pages.  The endeavour is always there to reach out to the mass audience," reveals Kohli.

Online presence

Today's aggressive growth of e-retail, with the advantages of less capital investment yet building up a wide consumer base, is redefining the overall retail experience. Brands now understand that staying away from e-commerce league will only push them backward.  Online visibility and availability is imperative in today's context. Tracer is not lagging behind in this race. As Kohli informs, "Customers can reach us by logging on to our site www.tracerindia.com.  They can follow us on facebook and twitter and also shop for our products on our website and on ebay, at our very own shop, tracershoes. Online retail is a very good concept and is catching up worldwide. We are monitoring its growth very seriously, and at the same time, we are negotiating with our major online retail players for selling our products on their portals."

Working for customers' comfort

The company has its own R&D team which is constantly working on different aspects of shoe manufacturing like comfort, durability and designing.  Commenting on this, Kohli informs, "For us, our customers' feedback is our greatest R&D and we make sure that we incorporate the suggestions of our customers in our products to meet the needs of the customer. Apart from this all our retail outlets are linked with us online, to fulfill our customer demands as quickly as possible. Our manufacturing facilities are located in Jalandhar and Taliwal. We manage our own online software for better supply chain management."

Take on the government's policies

Kohli sounds not so optimistic about Goods and Service tax (GST). "I feel that is not going to make much difference," comments Kohli. However, he feels there are opportunities galore for modern retail. "With just 7% of organised retail, there is a huge opportunity to tap the market. This will bring healthy competition in the market and the one providing best quality will survive, so it goes in the favour of the customer", opines Kohli. 

Future expansion plan

Tracer is eying the markets across India and gradually building up a sustainable plan towards this. "We are trying to expand in terms of network by opening up new outlets in various cities and are working on a target of 100 showrooms across the country in the next two years. As far as the future plans are concerned, the long term plan of the company is to mark its presence in various parts around the world like North America, Europe, Australia and Middle East," divulges Kohli. Tracer believes growth cannot be restricted, it's ever expanding. But, aggressive growth should not ignore customers' expectations or compromise on quality. Once this zeal for quality and growth mix well, there forms the concoction of success.

 Interviewed by Suranjana Basu