A ‘Sharp’ strategy

Urmimamla Banarjee

SLOW and steady wins the race. Well, this seems to be the mantra of the retails brand blackberrys that has slowly consolidated its position in the indian retail market. It has also come out with a new TVC campaign created by MWG TAG Ideation. B2B speaks to Yogesh Tiwari, VP, marketing and sales, Blackberrys, to know more about the new campaign.

Growing by the years
The journey has been fantastic. We started off with a small store in Delhi way back in 1991 and now we have more than 100 stores across India. Initially, we were only a suit/jacket brand, but later branched onto khakis, cotton trousers, formals and shirts. We are evolving at every stage. Our motto is whatever we do, we should do it well. We also believe in innovation and value for money.

The ad concept
We came out with our first TVC in 2001 and this is our second TVC. We decided to choose TV advertising be Cause the story of a fashion brand doesn’t come out well in print. The tagline of the new TVC is Go Sharp. The word ‘sharp’ reflects attitude as well as fashion. It fits well into the space of formal clothing. We added the term ‘Go’ as it’s connec ted to the youth, who form the majority of our target audience. The music track created by composer Ashu has also caught on with the youth. We have tied up with mobile networks so that people can download the ringtone. The initial response to the TVC has been great.

Survival of the fittest
The clothing market is getting increasingly segmented. I think the brands that focus more on audiences’ exact requirements will survive better in this intense competition. You must understand the need of the customer you’re catering for. We have expanded rapidly in the past couple of years. We have around 140 stores now, and hope to open 20-30 more stores for the next two- three years.