The great Reebok India story.

Reebok

I stumbled across this interesting snippet which highlights the genesis of Reebok’s Indian success story. Reebok has been a definite trail blazer in India having captured by rough estimates over half of the lucrative Indian market.

The interview is with the Reebok India MD, Subhinder Singh Prem and is dated 2005. I have had the fortune of having personally met him on account of my internship with Reebok India this summer and it was a privelege to have done so.Interning there this summer was a phenomenal experience and deserves a detailed post in its own right. But till then a few excerpts for you:

Here is Mr Singh on the painful lessons learnt:

Our short-sighted approach showed up and showed us up in another initiative. In 2003, based on our finding that most women wear their husbands’ T-shirts and trackpants, or salwar-kameez for walking, we launched a sports salwar-kameez in knit fabric.The focus groups who were shown the product praised it and even suggested changes such as a closed neckline that would do away with the need for a dupatta.But the product bombed. Indian women wanted clothes the rest of the world was wearing — and we hadn’t given hem that. It was perhaps the only product in Reebok India’s range that failed.

On new markets created not entered:

Our learnings were clear: “Ask not what percentage of an existing market your brand can achieve. Ask how large a market your brand can create by putting resources behind creating a category.”

The most efficient, most productive, more useful aspect of branding is creating a new category. Start something totally new. After all, what was the market for home-delivered pizzas before Domino’s began operations? Zero.In 2004, we began to treat our womens’ business initiative as if we were launching a new brand. We started promoting the category by opening women’s-only stores that would meet the special needs of our women customers.

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