Classic Polo, the popular menswear brand is looking to position itself as a complete men's wardrobe solution provider. It’s now re-looking at lunching men’s innerwears. As Usha Periasamy, VP Operations and Brand Head, Royal Classic Group
(Classic Polo) explains, “The entire industry is expanding and our brand is also a part of the same wave. The company will also invest and explore options to expand and diversify to build a strong brand equity.” As a part of its product expansion plans, it will add men’s intimate wear to its range along with lounge wear and sportswear.
Periasamy
says they are planning to launch intimate wear for men as a part of their long term expansion plans. “Intimate wear is a very delicate market where the USP should be comfort and nothing else. There are brands like Jockey and many international brands are coming in. But there is a huge vacuum in terms of market share and potential. Hence, getting into men’s innerwear segment was a logical expansion for us.” Although the company had launched a separate brand called ‘Smash’ for men’s innerwear it now plans to leverage the existing brand equity of Classic Polo and build it further rather than starting from scratch. As Periasamy says “We have already established a brand equity for Classic Polo. Smash will get into a hibernation mode for the time being. However, under Smash we had a limited set of garments but we would like to expand this further. One of the reasons for this decision is that instead of building a separate brand and working the brand equity around it, the management feels we must extend this category in the name of Classic Polo so that we can make the best use of the brand equity already created.”
Periasamy points out that the brand has already has a set target audience and by launching men’s innerwear through the existing distribution network of Classic Polo it will help the product gain momentum. She further adds, “We have the distribution setup for Classic Polo, we have an existing target group, so this is just exposing the new product to the existing group so that there will be a direct and quick acceptance of the new launch. And growing from there is definitely an exercise and that’s going to happen but the quick acceptance that at least will be of help when we launch we need not struggle from scratch.”
The company is looking at launching the men’s innerwear this April. And to start with, they are planning to go sell it through their EBOs in priority markets like metros and Class I cities. According to estimates the lingerie and undergarments category is worth Rs 18,000 crores and is growing at 18 percent per annum. Of this, men’s innerwear segment is estimated at Rs 7,200 crores, while women’s is the rest Rs 10,800 crores. Only 60 percent of the category is organized and according to Periasamy the branded market segment is growing and people do realize value for money and are more open to branded apparels.
