CULTURAL SYMBOLISM & AN

ENTREPRENEURIAL BRAND
– THE INDIAN CONTEXT

Group – 13
Ashwani Kumar 18PGP037
Nishant Yadav 18pgp135
Sarvasuddi Akhila 18PGP170
Sumit Suman 18pgp195
Utkarsh 18pgp206
 Sales
INTRODUCTION-
 Inscape: The Furniture Shoppe - 1998 - 2 residential areas of Bangalore Striver
s;
 High Quality furniture
3.30%
 Turnover of Rs. 75 Lakhs
Seeker
 Limited Budget for promotional activities s;
 Middle class customers categorized as 33.07
%
Aspirers
Seekers Aspirer
s;
Strivers 63.63
 Three time phases %

 The Post-Independence Phase

 Sixties to Nineties – “The Era of Cinematic Influence”
 Post nineties – “ The liberalized era ”
FURNITURE INDUSTRY-
 Market growth Rs.470 billion by 2012 ( CAGR- 10%)
 Unorganized Sector - 92.5% of total market
 From 2013, growth of 17% to the increased sales of branded furniture
( CAGR - 5%)
 Godrej & Boyce leading player - “interio” stores - specialized furnishings
with international tie-ups
 Upgradation of products to keep with customer preference by Indian
furniture manufacturers is major challenge
ABOUT INSCAPE AND TARGET
SEGMENT-
Inscape
 Mid sized furniture assembler

 Procurement from various local & International Manufacturers

 Customization

 Target Segment – Upper middle class

Probing into Consumer Mindset

 Urban household of young married couples
 Age group (27-36Years)
 Annual Income (USD 6500 – 20000)

 Urban unmarried youth

 Age Group (20 – 27Years)
 Annual Income (USD 5000 – 11000)
TYPES OF VALUES
 SELF ORIENTED VALUES- Reflect the objectives and approaches to life that
the individual members of society find desirable.

 ENVIRONMENTAL VALUES- Prescribe a society’s relationship to its economic

and technical as well as its physical environment.

 OTHER ORIENTED VALUES- Reflect a society’s view of the appropriate

relationships between individuals and groups within that society.
 OTHER ENVIRONMENTA
SELF ORIENTED
ORIENTED L ORIENTED
VALUES
VALUES VALUES
Active/Passive
Individual/Collective Cleanliness
Sensual
Youth/Age Performance/Status
gratification/Abstinence
Extended/Limited Family Tradition/Change
Material/Nonmaterial

Hard work/Leisure
Masculine/Feminine Risk taking/Security Postponed
Competitive/Cooperative Problem solving/Fatalistic gratification/Immediate
Diversity/Uniformity Nature gratification
Religious/Secular
 VALUE EXTRACTED FROM
UNMARRIED SEGMENT-
SR. NO RANGE OF STATEMENTS STATEMENTS STATEMENTS
AVERAGES DEPICTING DEPICTING DEPICTING
SELF ENVIRONMENT OTHER
ORIENTED AL VALUES ORIENTED
VALUES VALUES
1 1-2 0 0 1
2 2-3 2 10 1
3 3-4 6 7 0
4 4-5 2 1 0
 VALUE EXTRACTED FROM
MARRIED SEGMENT-
SR. NO RANGE OF STATEMENTS STATEMENTS STATEMENTS
AVERAGES DEPICTING DEPICTING DEPICTING
SELF ENVIRONMENT OTHER
ORIENTED AL VALUES ORIENTED
VALUES VALUES
1 1-2 0 0 0
2 2-3 2 7 2
3 3-4 7 11 0
4 4-5 1 0 0
VALUES FOR BOTH MARRIED
AND UNMARRIED-
 From both the tables, Self oriented and Environmental values comes out to
be most significant
 But range of averages has changed
 For unmarried, 2-4 is the most significant range
 For married, 3-4 is the most significant range
VALUES FOR BOTH MARRIED
AND UNMARRIED-
Unmarried-

Self Oriented
 They started being active and nurturing

 Leaning more towards achievement orientation

 extremely conscious of materialism

 update themselves with the new trends

Environmental
 importance to social recognition & Tradition

 taking risk

 adaptable to the current changes

SELF CONCEPT/INNER-SELF/EXTENDED-
SELF TO THE SEGMENTS-
We shall take the exhibit data and divide it into the different dimensions into
segments of self-concept/inner self/ extended-self and take the mean of those values
of dimensions and see how it changes with the two categories of Married and
Unmarried categories.
 Self concept – Contemplating one’s lifestyle items, Expression of taste, Self-
identity, Symbol of foreignness/COO effect, Symbolizing as a memorable gift, One-
upmanship over friends and colleagues
 Extended self – Visual hedonism, Reference group aspiration, Loveable possessions,
Expression of fashion trends, Symbol of social status, changing professional roles
 Inner self – Preference towards ready to assemble furniture, Shopping pleasures
associated with it, symbol of accomplishment, traditional vs contemporary view,
materialism, sense of belongingness, nostalgia
 Segment \ Self Concept Extended Self Inner Self
Dimension (Mean) (Mean) (Mean)
Unmarried 3.512 (I) 3.412 (II) 3.306 (III)
Married 3.315 (I) 3.184 (III) 3.251(II)

As we can see here the values of self concept, extended self and inner self all
take a hit in married segment. We can also observe that Inner self also takes
more precedence in married life rather than extended self. We draw application
from the data presented here from the exhibit and focus more on the inner self
aspect for Married couples while we can focus on extended self aspect for
unmarried customers. This is of course after we have focussed on self concept
as we can see that self concept takes the fore-front regardless of marriage
status.
SWOT ANALYSIS FOR
INSCAPE-
For deciding a marketing strategy, we first perform a SWOT analysis of Inscape to understand
the current situation.

Strengths
 Large product portfolio with a wide range of customizable furniture offerings

 Located in two residential areas situated at two corners of Bangalore

Weaknesses
 Limited budget for promotional activities and market research

 Difficulty in creating a brand amidst the presence of a dominating unorganized sector and
multinationals with established brands
Opportunities
 With larger disposable incomes consumers becoming more brand conscious,
expressing themselves through their possessions
 Bangalore had a huge urban middle class population (target market)

Threats
 Competition from unorganized sector players
 Competition from established brands
MARKETING MIX (4PS)-
From the findings of the consumer behaviour survey, the following marketing mix
can be recommended to the company:

Product:
 Identify new design trends (by conducting surveys) and adopt them to create
new differentiated offerings
 Involve consumers in the designing process to better understand their self-
concept which is reflected in their symbolic behaviours (lifestyle, preferences,
etc.)
 In the long run, create a sales team dedicated to provide consultation service,
helping the customers in decision making as per their needs
Promotion:

 Use customer testimonials and word-of-mouth as the primary sources of promotion

 Provide seasonal promotions by providing free customizations, installations, etc.

Placement:

 The company should position itself as a provider of “living room solutions” for
furniture requirements to differentiate itself from unorganized players

Price:

 Pricing should be higher than unorganized players and comparable (or lower during
the promotional period)
 Charge extra for customized offerings
THANK
YOU