The Indian innerwear industry is on an upswing with Indian men and women opening up and being more experimental and fashionable than ever before. The intimatewear plays a vital role in building confidence and allowing people to make a style statement. Arindam Saha, Associate Director, Wazir Advisors shares insights on domestic market trends in innerwear. while highlighting the gaps and possibilities in influencing preferences and purchasing behaviour of both men and women.
For my mother, who has just retired from her government service and lives in a tier -II city of West Bengal, the variety in lingerie is restricted to just three different colours – white, black and cream. However, my niece, who has recently taken up a job with an MNC in the NCR, loves to experiment with her lingerie and is still unhappy with the quality being offered by brands. Pramila, another young woman, is busy preparing for her final examinations in M.A., while her parents are desperately looking for a Tamil Brahmin groom preferably working abroad. Pramila read about underwire bra in a women’s magazine but could never try it while growing up in a conservative joint family at Coimbatore. Her mother buys innerwear for the entire family and after washes, never even puts it outside for drying.
It is a rather difficult task to generalise the domestic market trends of innerwear category as it varies a lot with geography, psychography, age, income level, gender, etc. Typically, young girls are ready to experiment with different lingerie and their preferences vary with different outerwear. Girls living in the metro cities desire fashionable products that they can flaunt among their social circle. They love to indulge themselves with the latest trend. For women in their mid-thirties and above, ‘comfort’ is the most important factor that influences their purchase decision. Working women want a mix of fashion and functionality, which will make them feel beautiful inside and boost confidence. Men’s innerwear segment is less complicated but again one can notice interesting market trends. There is the brand head of one of the premium men’s innerwear brand, who shared his frustration thus: “It is just not possible to understand the brand of his innerwear by looking at the suit he wears or the watch he flaunts. He is ready to spend Rs. 50,000 for his suit but would budget Rs. 100 for his innerwear. Wo dikhte nahi hay na (it cannot be seen).” Youngsters, who wear low-rise denims, short-length t-shirts and keep two buttons open in shirts, keep a few pairs of briefs and vests of premium brands. They hit out to the gym in vests of latest design and love to experiment with colours. Overall, consumers in metro cities look for variety whereas in tier -II and -III cities, value for money is the most important criteria.
It is mostly a planned purchase for both men and women for replacing their old, slack or ripped innerwear. Young girls may still pick up lingerie while purchasing other garments, if they find anything interesting or if that lingerie is required for their newly purchased outerwear. Women purchase lingerie for special occasions as well, such as marriage, festival, anniversary, etc. A similar trend is observed with men too but the basket size and frequency both are less.
Indian men and women mostly visit multi-brand outlets (MBOs) for purchasing innerwear. Female salespersons and trial room facility improve the footfall for lingerie segment. On the other hand, online retail is becoming popular as it offers a wide variety, describes usage of each product in detail and above all Indian women can purchase those from the privacy of their homes. Purchasing lingerie is not a good experience in most parts of India and so Indian women wish to get over the buying process quickly. This not only reduces the basket size but acts as a stumbling block for trying new products. Although online retail solves many of these problems but size is still a concern for purchase of lingerie online. The day Indian women will be sure about it, online retail will improve its share manifold.
The role of a salesperson is critical, especially in smaller cities and semi-urban areas. Women in these areas normally visit the same store for purchasing lingerie and have a great trust factor on the sales person. Recommendation from the sales person carries high impact value on the purchasing decision. Recommendation from peer group also plays a major role in deciding the brand for both men and women. So, brands need to focus on spreading positive word of mouth.
Our domestic market is unique in many ways. Big brands are mostly restricted to selling men’s innerwear. The lingerie segment was majorly unbranded or crowded with economy segment brands even until a few years back. As more number of Indian women started getting educated, employed and independent, premium brands started entering the domestic market with varied product offerings. However, those are smaller in size as compared to their counterparts.
From the angle of communication, men’s innerwear brands and lingerie brands behave very differently. The former believes in celebrity endorsement and spends a lot using all possible mediums. Whereas, placing advertisement within the retail outlet and in women-focused magazines are the most common communication tools for lingerie brand. One will hardly find any advertisement in electronic media or even in daily newspapers. Usage of celebrity is nil till date. Surely the conservative mind-set of our society has a deciding role to play here. Lingerie is still a taboo in major parts of India and often gets related with the special moments of bedroom only. However, if one brand shows the courage to break this tradition, there will be many followers for sure and it can spell the onset of a totally new chapter. Brand ambassadors should be chosen carefully. One of the leading innerwear brands once used a basketball player of the US as its brand ambassador but was surprised to observe no effect on their sale. Later, the market researchers found that the target group of the brand could not even recognise the brand ambassador.
Communication is important and costly; hence, it should be handled with proper care.
Within the innerwear category, bra is the most complicated product both from its manufacturing and usage point of view. Most of the high-quality bras are still imported and expensive. Brands have tried sourcing bras from Indian manufacturers but have failed to achieve the desired quality standard. It is only recently that Indian women got the chance to choose different bras suitable for their different outwears and activities. This wide product basket has helped to increase the market size significantly. However, a lot still needs to be done in terms of quality, design and fit of the product. On one hand, we can blame the brands for poor quality, but lack of knowledge among the Indian women about the right size is a bigger worry. The CEO of one of the leading brands claims that eight out of 10 Indian women have poor understanding about their right size for bras. Although some of the brands are offering the measurement service in selected outlets, but most Indian women do not feel comfortable to get measured. It is a mental block, which surely will get overcome with time and generation. Consumer education will play a major role in increasing the market size of bras. Besides the size and style, it is also important to break some of the myths like underwire bras cause breast cancer. Till date there is no scientific evidence to prove the same.
As a country we are obsessed with cotton and the inclination increases further for innerwear. But brands are increasingly using microfibre, which are comfortable and have good wicking property. Usage of microfibre will increase further with the innovations by the fibre manufacturers, who are desperately working to replace cotton in all products including innerwear. In fact, manmade fibres like nylon, polyester, and spandex are now an absolute necessity for imparting the required functional properties demanded by the new-age consumers. One of my colleagues from Kuala Lumpur was very happy using 100 percent polyester-based briefs; Indians are yet to experience something similar.
Although the innerwear category has been around the domestic market since long, there are many gaps that still need to be filled. Teen bra is probably one of the major gaps in the overall product offering. Only few brands offer this product under sports category and that too majorly in metro cities. But this product can be an excellent starting point for developing brand loyalty. Two of the leading daily newspapers circulate their copies free of cost in leading schools. The objective is quite clear – catch them young and develop a taste of reading that particular newspaper. Here, I am not advocating distribution of teen bra free of cost but brands may look at the category with a similar objective. The ‘Pink Campus Rep’ initiative of Victoria’s Secret has already covered 99 schools and enrolled 198 campus representatives. Anyone ready for India?
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