The retail industry in India has evolved at a fast pace over the past decade. Today, it has become one of the most important markets in the world, where almost every international player worth its salt wants to invest. Brand Access is one such company that works in the domain of facilitating new entrants in the retail sphere. Arka Dhar, MD, Brand Access, talks in detail about how their company helps the new retail players in finding their foothold in the Indian retail market.
Please give a brief description of Brand Access. What led to the formation of Brand Access?
Brand Access is a retail innovations company. We specialise in identifying powerful brands to match customer requirements and experience. We are constantly building tools and platforms to collect, analyse and execute on the learnings from big data to highly optimise a brand’s performance in the local market. Brand Access invests in building three key resource teams in the company. One, a team of local market experts that helps brands first decide if they should look at entering a particular market and in case they do, the team develops a holistic market entry strategy at a granular level. The second team is a cross-disciplinary team of business intelligence experts, who strive to develop technological tools to enable seamless data collection and analysis. The third is the operations team, which is responsible for building and operating a particular brand in the market.
How does it help a new brand to enter the retail market?
There is a two-step process to a brand entry:
Step 1: Our ‘local market expert’ team is mobilised to work closely with the brand to understand its positioning and to identify if a significant market is present for the brand’s products. We go deep into understanding the brand, for example we will go as far as to understand what is the exact product line that will be imported (if sourced internationally) and what will be the customs requirements on it. Of course, price points, brand equity value in local market, and competition analysis is also done in a very structured and scientific manner.
Step 2: If both Brand Access and the brand itself are convinced, the brand can either decide to enter the market themselves, or with us as a partner (be it JV or a master franchise arrangement) and then it is passed on to the operations team for expansion.
What all groundwork do you do for a new brand or for those looking to start their retailing venture with your company?
Brand Access has a data-driven approach to every decision that is made. We bring in a brand only when we are certain that they are the best fit for the market. Price-points, brand positioning, inventory and replenishment frequency, and how technologically advanced their retail operations are, all play an important role in that decision. Once the initial points are checked off, we do an internal due diligence where we delve deeper into the other factors like legal compliance (in India that would mean RBI factors, etc.), custom duties, and possibility of fast growth. Our passionate team is generally able to complete this process within the time frame of 4 to 9 weeks.
Do you help international brands to enter India? What all facilities do you provide to these brands to make their entry easier into India?
We help them understand the market, measure its potential in the market, and then help them build a full strategy for market entry. If they are on board, we can even explore a JV or MFA partnership opportunities. We have launched our first brand ‘colette by colette hayman’ in India so far.
Do you only make a blue print for brands or also help them in marketing or promotions and at the business development, legal and operations levels?
Absolutely. We are not a typical consulting firm in any aspect. Our team is hands-on and we want to see all the way through with a brand. On top of building plans around market development, business development, legal, etc., we ensure that all of those things are happening seamlessly in sync with the brand’s expectation. The operations bit comes in only when have a JV or MFA arrangement with the brand.
How quickly do these brands break even, especially the ones you help in launching?
We have an aggressive target of break-even of less than 1.2 years for most of our brands. We avoid investing in brands that take a longer time period than that.
How quickly should a new brand enter Tier-II and -III towns and cities? Are these cities really important?
Again, it depends on the brand. If Brand Access research shows a brand will probably do much better in a Tier-II or -III city (for example, better rent to revenue ratio), we will draft a market entry strategy based on that. There are some brands with a brand equity positioning, which requires them to appear in high-end locations first. As long as we are well aware of the repercussions of this (rent could be very high and the revenue may not be so healthy) and we take a well-educated decision keeping everything in perspective, we are good to go.
