The secret ingredient in MTR’s success
What does brand MTR stand for? All legacy brands boast of some timeless values. There is trust that brands can earn only through longevity. And then there are other values that were once the founder’s philosophy and then became a part of the brand’s DNA. Quality and authenticity are two such values. But for a brand to survive fickle consumer preferences, changing lifestyles and competitive challenges, ‘innovation’ is key. In keeping with this, innovation has been part of brand MTR’s DNA from its very birth as Brahmin Coffee House. However, while the identity and perception of the brand may have changed to keep pace with the times, the soul of the brand—its authenticity, purity and culinary expertise—remains unchanged, making it every family’s favourite kitchen helpmate for different occasions.
It remains the only brand that occupies the authentic Indian food space and every new product that is launched builds on this idea. MTR sees itself as a guardian of authentic Indian food. The brand’s strategy is to promote authentic Indian food by making it an easy solution for the modern Indian consumer. Staying loyal to this vision has reaped rich dividends for MTR. Finally MTR’s genuine appreciation and understanding of the needs of the Indian homemaker and career woman is one of the reasons the brand tastes success in every category it is present in.
To sum up, MTR’s core operating principles to differentiate itself as a company are based on three key factors:
1.Staying true to its Indian roots and core of authenticity.
2.Local and regional approach towards developing and marketing food products.
3.Reinventing to meet ever-changing consumer needs.
It is also important to add that in MTR’s great strides as a brand, the secret ingredient has been the development of the organization behind the brand. MTR’s transformation into a modern brand has been backed by infrastructure development, up-skilling and training of its employees and defining a clear vision.
A Series of Milestones:
1924
Started as a small restaurant in Bangalore.
1939–1945
Invented rava Idli by substituting rice with semolina.
1976
Entry into packaged food category.
1995
Entry into spices and masala category.
2000
Moved from being a regional south Indian brand to national brand with the thirty-five new RTE mixes with regional specialties from all across the country.
2002
Quality certification with ISO 9002 and HACCP certification
2007
Bought over by Orkla, a 350-year-old Norwegian conglomerate.
2010
Launched a new brand essence ‘Modern Crust, Authentic Core’.
2012
Acquired Rasoi Magic to strengthen its footprint in the north and west.
The MTR of tomorrow: Growth by befriending the housewife during all meal occasions
As Indian households shrink, disposable incomes expand and exposure increases, the needs of the consumers also change. In order to stay at the top of its game, MTR constantly adapts to the new challenges and competition. For this it taps into its in-depth knowledge of food trends as well as access to the latest technology.
Consolidate stature as national brand
MTR is looking to transform from a south Indian entity into a national player which provides modern yet authentic food solutions covering cuisines from different parts of India.
Adoption of digital
MTR continues to evolve along with its ever changing consumer needs and is looking at newer ways of communicating with them and satisfying their kitchen needs. The latest initiative of the brand is on the digital platform. MTR has recently set up a food-knowledge and recipe-sharing platform called Dishcovery (www.dishcovery.in) which it plans to use to talk about authentic Indian food.
Centre of excellence
As an addition to the new product development initiatives, a new department called Centre of Excellence for Indian Cuisine has been created. Manned by chefs, the objective of this department is to study and revive authentic foods from different parts of India and help funnel new ideas for innovation.
‘All meals occasion’ strategy
MTR wants to be omnipresent in the authentic Indian foods category and focus on the same. It also plans to strengthen its position in each category by expanding and adding sub-categories as well as having aggressive marketing campaigns to create strong awareness among consumers about all its product lines. Covering key mealtimes apart from breakfast, in which it is already a leader, MTR plans to grow in all meal occasions and be a friend to the housewife through lunch, dinner and breakfast.
India is firmly set on the path to growth; it is a nation that is rapidly changing. The second largest country in the world by population, India is also a relatively young country with 45 per cent of the population below thirty years. This new generation requires new answers and MTR continues to evolve along with its ever-changing consumer base, looking at newer ways of communicating with them and satisfying all their culinary requirements and presenting itself as one-stop food solution for authentic Indian food.
THE STORY OF A COMPLETE BRAND
From a small muted beginning in a tiny mill, this story has gone on to attain epic proportions. Over the decades, the company has grown in leaps and bounds, straddling changing political and economic scenarios in the country, to metamorphose into one of India’s textile conglomerates and the world’s leading producers of worsted fabrics.
When you think fashion you think anorexic models, unwearable-in-real-life garments, catwalks, aspirational but unachievable good looks and bodies.
Not so when you think of India’s leading men’s fashion brand, Raymond. In fact, Raymond is so real, so much a part of Indian life and legend that many people in this country would not think of it as a ‘brand’. Over the years, Raymond has ingrained itself into modern Indian culture to become India’s leading men’s fashion brand. Such wide acceptance by consumers across diverse socioeconomic groups is a rare phenomenon, and reveals how Raymond has, for many people, become a standard part of life.
The origins
At the turn of the century, in 1925, a gentleman named Wadia, prompted by the demand of the Indian Defence Forces for clothing for soldiers, decided to build a small woollen mill in the wilds of Thane, 40 km away from Bombay. Perhaps the spot was selected on a whim, or else he was gifted with prescience, for Thane was to become a prime industrial area over the course of time. However, Wadia Mills was not destined to remain with Mr Wadia for long; it found a new owner in E.D. Sassoon & Co., a prominent industrial family of the time. The mill acquired a new name too: The Raymond Woollen Mills. The next twenty years went by with a steady rhythm. The little mill turned out a modest quantity of woollen blankets and fabrics, the greater quantity of which was supplied to the armed forces; and its future seemed secure, if unremarkable.
Meanwhile, in a different part of the country, another entrepreneurial family, the Singhanias, riding the industrialization wave, was making rapid strides in multiple fields. It set up the J.K. Cotton Spinning & Weaving Mills Co. Ltd that supplied high quality cotton cloth and yarn to clothing manufacturers throughout India to meet the tremendous demand from the defence forces. Even in those early years, the Singhanias realized that industrialization was the path to self-reliance, the only means of bringing about economic stability in the future. This inherent pioneering spirit of the family propelled it into multiple ambitious ventures in fields as diverse as cotton, jute, sugar, steel and oil, with splendid successes in each new venture—the J.K. Oil Mills (1924), J.K. Jute Mills (1931), J.K. Cotton Manufacturers Ltd (1933) and J.K. Iron & Steel Co. Ltd (1934).
The Singhanias, focused on expanding their empire, entered into negotiations with the Sassoons convinced that Raymond Woollen Mills held and had the potential of becoming something infinitely larger. This turned out to be one of those decisive moments
in the history of this company. Three years before India became independent, in the winter of 1944, the J.K. Group became the proud owners of Raymond Woollen Mills. Lala Kailashpat Singhania (one of the three Singhania brothers) took charge of this fledgling enterprise, and thus began the Raymond saga.
Product perfect
No brand can dream of achieving Raymond-like stature without an impeccable product to begin with. In the eight-plus decades of its existence Raymond has consistently stayed ahead of the curve by modernizing its manufacturing technology.
Continuously striving for loftier standards, Raymond is a company that has come a long way, from a mill manufacturing coarse woollen blankets to becoming the creator of the world’s finest worsted suiting fabric ever (the Super 250, which is made of wool approximately one-fiftieth the diameter of human hair). This transformation is testimony to Raymond’s globally acclaimed textile manufacturing strengths. Over the decades, Raymond has taken its place among the few companies in the world who can deliver a complete solution right from fibre to garment and has become the largest integrated manufacturer of worsted fabric in the world.
Adapting to the times
Raymond has always prided itself on staying ahead of the curve and being quicker than its competitors when it came to spotting fabric and fashion trends, consistently delivering contemporary blends and cutting-edge design.
»As early as 1958, Raymond launched India’s first new wool-blended yarn ‘terool’ which turned out to be a breakthrough in the wool industry, providing a lightweight fabric that made for cool and comfortable wear.
»Raymond went on to develop Merino wool of extraordinary quality, produced indigenously by rearing Merino sheep from Australia, an initial batch of which was gifted by the Prime Minister of Australia, who was impressed by the exceptional effort in this venture.
»When synthetics became a more practical choice for the working individual in the late 1980s, Raymond responded by making forays into commercial production of polyester filament yarn (PFY) with a composite woollen division set up with the latest equipment and sophisticated processes and international technological expertise.
»With the economy opening up in the 1990s and the Indian consumer being exposed to fine fabrics from major Italian brands, Raymond countered the challenge with its Lineage Line collection of fine, all-wool fabrics using premium fibres like cashmere, angora and camel hair (Super 100s to Super 140s), to which there was overwhelming response.
»Soon after, with denims becoming a rage, Raymond added a new dimension to its textile-manufacturing capabilities with the launch of its denim division to fuel the escalating global demand for the fabric. The company was a pioneer in launching speciality ring denim in India, and is amongst the top producers of denim fabric and jeans in the subcontinent today. It has become the preferred source for global premium brands, producing 20 lakh pairs of jeans a year.
Today, the Raymond Group is vertically and horizontally integrated to provide customers with total textile solutions. Few companies globally have such a diverse product range of nearly 20,000 varieties of worsted suiting to cater to customers across age groups, occasions and styles.
Raymond’s product positioning can be summed up as ‘premium at every price’. This is an assurance that every consumer will receive a quality product, regardless of the price he pays (from ‘200 a metre to ‘5 lakh for a suit piece). It is the result of investment in product development, which is evident in the number of ‘firsts’ Raymond has in the Indian textile industry.
RETAIL: A CORNERSTONE OF THE RAYMOND SUCCESS STORY
Raymond, not content with simply making the finest fabrics in the world, also wanted to take them directly to consumers. Hence retail assumed paramount importance, and great thought was given to establishing a wide network of Raymond shops all over the country and beyond. The management ensured that the franchisees were given appropriate training, so that the brand value remained undiluted. At a time when most businesses were run on practical learning and gut instinct, Raymond looked ahead by investing time and effort into training staff at each level. There were product-oriented programmes for Raymond dealers and retail shop managers, macro- and micro-level training modules for the sales staff as well as management development programmes at Harvard for departmental heads and managers.
Building enduring bonds
The Raymond distributor-dealer-agent-franchisee meet at regular intervals every year, and the brand and the network discuss trends, on-the-ground market intelligence and consumer insights. Some of the retailers have worked with Raymond for four generations. This smoothly running, interconnected system has stood the test of time and of competition from other brands, and will continue to do so.
All successful relationships are two way, and that’s exactly what Raymond invested in. On one hand it trained and built a strong consumer-facing front-end retail experience and on the other hand it used the same front end to gather consumer and market intelligence.
Made to Measure: Another innovation by Raymond
Raymond has introduced a unique garmenting service that gives a perfect fit with an impeccable finish. Tailored outfits often lose out on the finish of machine-made clothes. The Made to Measure service allows a discerning customer the opportunity to style a personalized garment while at the same time getting a factory-finished, customized fit. It understands the consumer’s need for perfection as well as the desire to express one’s own personal sense of style. The detailed process includes advice from experts on choosing the right fabric, the appropriate style and matching embellishments and a measurement process that is unique to each person.
Today, there are over 700 Raymond stores in 350 locations across India, from bustling cities to Tier-V towns, and 40 in overseas locations, and its products are available in over 20,000 multi-brand outlets. This ensures the brand reaches more people, before the competition, and in a way allows Raymond to advise consumers on fashion.
The Raymond Brand
Having built the perfect product backed by state-of-the-art manufacturing and an enviable distribution footprint, Raymond, over its long history, never compromised on its deliverables, the foremost of which is the quality and performance of its products and services, not only to its customers but also to its stakeholders. This image as the provider of the best quality product in the market is what has made the Raymond brand consistently stand out. Raymond enjoys the trust of all its stakeholders—customers, shareholders, suppliers, trade partners and employees.
Raymond’s heritage value is indeed compelling. Few brands, not just in India but across the globe, have existed and flourished over such a long period. The Raymond brand—with trust, excellence, quality and leadership as its hallmarks—has always been the most important asset of the organization, with its preservation at the core of a lot of its decision making.
The greatest strength of Raymond is that it is a heritage brand that is still fresh, and the advertising is targeted towards maintaining that.
With eighty-five years of experience, Raymond is one of the only brands that could be considered to be in a position of authority to share its knowledge on fabric, style, colours and accessories with the consumer. The Raymond customer has an emotional connect with the brand. It can straddle different segments with ease—a 22-year-old and a 55-year-old can both relate to it. The customer actually owns the brand and it is this sense of ownership that makes Raymond such a powerful brand.
Raymond campaigns through the years
In India, western wear signified stature and sophistication. The brand too had to espouse these codes and appeal to the elite. So the first logo featured a chess king, which symbolized the brand’s emphasis on a sharp and sophisticated attitude, and helped the brand win over a certain segment of society. The first two decades of the advertising featured this symbol as a motif and represented the brand’s focus on a premium and upwardly mobile mindset.
In the 1970s India began to undergo a cultural shift which was best depicted
by Bollywood. Popular culture started to rally around the ‘angry young man’ and, realizing this huge shift, Raymond moved its product and advertising away from the elite, sophisticated man to focus on the common man.
The 1980s saw the launch of the ‘Guide to the Well-dressed Man’ campaign that moved beyond the mood of the ‘angry young man’ stereotype. In 1980, Raymond decided to add another dimension to the Raymond Man’s personality by celebrating achievers in various fields. One ad even featured a ten-year-old football wizard, with a tongue-in-cheek message: You don’t have to be a Raymond man to be a Raymond man.
This 1980s theme gradually changed to ‘Celebrating Life’s Moments’, where the communication was fine-tuned to connect people’s celebration of certain moments in their lives to the brand experience. Following this was another set of ads which suggested: ‘Never Say No to Life’.
The first three decades had thus created a foundation of aspiration, connectedness and leadership to make the leap into the 1990s with ‘The Complete Man.’
The Complete Man
By the 1990s India was changing again; liberalization had set in, the economy had opened up and there was an upbeat sentiment. People, in their hearts, felt something good was around the corner, but not many were vocal about it. They were still conditioned by the tough environment of the 1970s and 1980s where the ‘angry young man’ dominated people’s imagination. In the 1990s, Raymond decided to break away from the past and launched ‘The Complete Man’ campaign.
The portrayal of ‘The Complete Man’ not only broke the conventions of fashion advertising, it also went against the definition of masculinity— because ‘The Complete Man’ was not your classical knight in shining armour. He was real—With emotions, a sense of humour, sensitivity and even a hint of vulnerability. In an era when the ‘angry young man’ still ruled the silver screen and men’s imagination, it was labelled by most as a risk.
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