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Park Avenue ad blitz targets the Net-savvy

Purvita Chatterjee

MUMBAI, March 7

WHAT does one of India's oldest readymade brands do to revive itself in a highly competitive market? `Start Something New'. This is the new positioning line of Park Avenue, the readymade garments brand from the Raymond's stable.

Unleashing a new print and television campaign, the brand is shedding its hitherto `old' image and addressing the emerging breed of young `Internet entrepreneurs', who have the vision and courage to venture into `something new'.

According to Mr. Chandradeep Mitra, General Manager, Ammirati Puris Lintas, ``The idea was to make the brand more modern and contemporary. Research showed us there was something in people's minds which was not being articulated. There was a desire to bre ak away from the old traditional ways to start something new.''

A new `corporate Columbus' was emerging _ ``someone with vision, ideas, ability to work and the confidence to quit his job to take on a new venture''. And, Park Avenue realised it had to address this particular individual.

Though both the print and television commercials do not overtly depict an Internet or digital look, the underpinnings are there. Adds Mitra, ``That would be too literal a manifestation, so we avoided it.''

In the television commercial, the man (a Cuban model) is shown quitting his job, then walking into a restaurant to discuss new avenues, sitting by the pool and working on his laptop, and finally, entering a ready-for-sale warehouse and visualising his mo dern office. The commercial ends with a parting shot of the warehouse actually being sold.

The international look and feel of the commercial with a `start something new' jingle heralds the emergence of the global citizen. In both the print (shot in New York) and television commercial (shot in South Africa), the settings are urban enough to bel ong to any part of the world.

Even the model, though Cuban, can be taken in for an Indian with his dark looks.

Mr. Mitra said, ``Today, being an Indian does not make you a secular citizen anymore. This is a campaign for the truly global citizen with a vision which will make him succeed.''

The new Park Avenue brand personality is thus someone who revels in exploring the untrodden path, says Mr. Mitra. He is an entrepreneur at heart and is constantly seeking ways to create new and exciting things. He is a visionary and would like to define the future through innovation and exploration. A `corporate columbus', a change agent.

He is also someone who believes that his clothes express who he is and helps him make a statement about himself and his style. He likes to wear clothes which are as individual, distinct and trend-setting as him.

With statements like `the biggest enterprises today were just ideas yesterday', `set your sights on the corner building instead of the corner office' to `don't let your vision become a dream', - all of which precede the `Start Something New' headline, th e target audience the brand wants to address is obvious.

A The brand, research showed, was also treated as an authority on blazers, which is significantly driven by the Raymond heritage.

Realising it had a USP in blazers, the company decided to focus on this category than trying to relaunch itself in other crowded categories like shirts and trousers.

Experimenting with the style, cut and fabric of its range of blazers, a new range was launched, which has been displayed in its print campaign with the tagline of `Jackets _ For Office and Beyond'.

Mr. Mitra said, ``We wanted to make formals fashionable again. A jacket can be worn both at work and play. We wanted to tell that our jackets were about dressing up and can be the top end of formal fashion.''

A jacket is also something which could span both the old and generation. While the research done by the brand revealed that it was becoming old, the company wanted to make sure it now had an image which would appeal to both the aspirational mid-'20s mana ger as well as the slightly older successful entrepreneur, who had grown up wearing the brand.

After all, Park Avenue was launched in the mid-'80s, so the idea was also not to displease its first customers and give something which would appeal to them. Mr. Mitra added, ``Though our target audience is the young corporate, we also wanted to see an o lder person wearing the brand.''

Research also revealed that the older man also wanted a change and was willing to explore new trends.

A Rs. 100-crore-plus brand, Park Avenue has evolved its positioning over a period of time. Realising the aspirations of the '90s manager, in 1996 it came out with a `get real' campaign. The positioning line at that point of time for the brand was `real f ormal, real easy'.

Today, the Rs. 146-crore JK Bombay (a subsidiary of the JK group) has segregated its formal and casualwear brands into Park Avenue and Parx. The range of casualwear which existed under the Park Avenue label has been shifted to the newly-launched casualwe ar brand, Parx. This has made Park Avenue the complete `wardrobe brand'.

Researching right avenues

EMBARKING on a research (done by Pathfinders, the market research outfit of Lintas), the current perception study of Park Avenue revealed the following:

A It was seen as a strongly formal/official brand with premium quality connotations;

A Younger consumers viewed it as less fashionable and lower in status compared to its competitors (Arrow, Van Heusen and Allen Solly);

A The older, current consumers kept the brand at par and also higher on status and admitted that it was not as fashionable/contemporary as its competitors.

A It was perceived to be for an oldish consumer _ someone who was successful/achieved in life, but is conservative and conventional.