MBA Project: Analyzing Indo-Western Brands' Western Market Entry

This MBA project examines the factors affecting the market penetration of Indo-Western brands into Western markets. The research includes an introduction to the topic, context, philosophical position, and aims to identify and evaluate the challenges faced by Indian brands. It reviews existing literature, outlines the research methodology, including qualitative approaches like focus group discussions, data analysis, and considerations for reliability, validity, ethics, and limitations. The project investigates issues such as cultural differences, marketing strategies, and the need for strategic business management. The findings are structured around themes derived from the literature review, supported by quotes from focus group discussions. The conclusion compares the findings with the literature and methodology, addressing the research question and providing recommendations for Indo-Western brands aiming for international expansion. The project also includes an executive summary that discusses the key findings and implications of the research.

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Factors affecting Indo-Western brands penetration into the western market
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Executive Summary
Market penetration can be regarded to the numerical measure of the exact or approximate
amount with which a certain product and/or brand is adopted in comparison to the nature of
that particular market. Market penetration is so dynamic and complex in nature and it
basically seeks to explain the extent with which certain products are adopted in a certain
market. This study is basically an analysis of how indo-western brand have been having
challenges to penetrate into the western market. The factors have affected indo-western
brands penetration into the western market will be highlighted and the whole concept of
market penetration will be looked at in detail.

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Table of Contents
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………1
Context of the study…………………………………………………………………………...2
Philosophical position…………………………………………………………………………3
Aim of the study……………………………………………………………………………….4
Literature review………………………………………………………………………………5
Research Methodology………………………………………………………………………...6
Data Analysis………………………………………………………………………………….7
Reliability and Validity………………………………………………………………………..8
Ethical considerations…………………………………………………………………………9
Research Limitations…………………………………………………………………………10
Key findings from the questionnaire from the FGD................................................................11
Summary and Conclusion........................................................................................................12

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1. Introduction
This research evaluates the factors that affect the success of Indo-western brands expanding
into the West.
According to a report by Keller et al. (2014), the global apparel industry is growing rapidly
while at the same time evolving due to a number of factors including changing demographics,
effect of social media, global wealth distribution, customer expectations, and technological
advancements. It goes on to state that for brands to succeed, they need to be agile and be able
to rapidly adapt the business model to make the most of evolving markets while letting go of
traditional practices.
East Asian brands have started to expand to foreign markets with the aim of providing a
variety of both traditional and fusion fashion to their international consumers. However, in
spite of a noticeable growth, Indian brands have faced issues such as cultural problems, lack
of pricing strategies, etc. This research has tried to show the issues which are faced by Indian
designers (with the main focus on Indo-Western brands) while trying to expand their business
to Western countries.
Indo-western brands have really been trying to expand into the west for quite some time now
but their efforts have not bore any meaningful fruits (Aaker & McLoughlin, 2010 p.35).
There are various reasons behind this and some of the challenges that these indo-western
brands actually face in their verge to penetrate the west. This particular write-up is going to
discuss the concept of why indo-western brands have not been in a position to successfully
penetrate the west and in doing so certain aspects about indo-western brands and designs and
some market penetration strategies will be looked at. Due to various factors such as changes
in technology among others, we’ve seen that the indo-western brand and designs have really
been evolving. Fashion has taken a completely different turn and things are not the way they

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used to be a decade ago. Indo-western brands have really done well in various areas across
the globe such as in some developing countries such as Kenya, Tanzania among others
(Ackerman & Fisher, 2013 p.67). There has been a challenge, however, that has been noted in
the western market. Indo-western brands have not been able to do so well.
It is also important to note that this report will focus solely on Indian brands and some of the
issues that they have faced. Some of the common challenges noticed were; poor marketing
strategies, cultural differences among others. These factors will be discussed later in this
write-up.
2. Context to the study
Indian fashion brands have been trying hard to succeed in the western countries. Many areas
of the Indian businesses have done well like its technological field, medicine research and its
production and supplyand on academical fields. Even in the fashion industry Indian designers
have worked at being creative and modern in their aesthetics, styles and designs in order to
expand their brands in the western countries. This field being highly contemporary and
competitive, they have not been too successful in focusing on the demands of their western
customers when enlarging their market in those countries (Liu et al. 2016.)
Indo-western brands should learn to adapt and keep up with the constantly changing fashion
industry, be it fast fashion, ecommerce, e-tailing, the digital race or the upcoming trends.
There are a lot of opportunities in the near future. Studies shows that the fashion Industry and

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its buying power and audience, its target markets are fast shifting from the West to the
upcoming Asian ad East-asian markets (Keller et al, 2014).
The emerging middle class from developing nations are going through a huge socioeconomic
change, and countries like India, China, Indonesia etc. have started to emerge with higher
spending power in recent years (Eizenberg and Salvo, 2012).
3. Philosophical position
There has always been an argument that whether or not it is true that indo-western brands
have been having a challenge in expanding to the western market. Well, this report aims to
ascertain that it is indeed true that there has been a really big challenge in doing so. Various
reasons and factors have been attributed to this and this report aims towards establishing
some of these factors and how they have contributed the state mentioned therein (Gershon,
2013 p.77).

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4. Aim
To identify and evaluate the factors on the challenges faced by Indian brands while
expanding in Western countries. The research will also highlight the lack of strategic business
management by Indian brands in order to expand to the West.
Objectives
1) To critically evaluate the existing literature on overseas expansion by the East
Asian and Indo-Western brands to shed light on the different factors responsible
for the growth of these brands in the western fashion market.
2) To apply the qualitative approach method to assess the perspective of the broader
target market with the help of focus groups. This is to mainly analyse issues
preventing Indian (Indo-Western) brands from expanding to Western countries.
3) To develop recommendations for Indo-Western brands that aim to expand
internationally by informing them on how to make their brands sell in the west.
5. Literature review
Overview of the study
The fashion industry is known to be one which is always in flux with the customer’s
preferences which is ever changing, and old trends being replaced by new emerging ones.
Within this environment of constant change, designers, and brands must always keep
themselves up to date on what consumers want, and how their tastes will change in the near
future. This changing landscape creates many opportunities for entrepreneurs to come in and
fill in the gaps in the market which are created by being innovative and satisfying demand.
With this constant competition in mind and the never ending desire to thrive in such a huge

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global market, Indo-western brands and business have been attempting their best strategies to
tap into the international fashion market.
The literature review will aim to evaluate the current state of the fashion industry and discuss
the trends and factors which have helped as well as hindered Indian fashion brands to flourish
in foreign countries. Moreover, it has analysed major challenges such as cultural diversity,
economical status, language barrier etc. which has all been challenges for expanding Indian
brands into the Western countries. According to Cayla and Eckhardt (2007), in spite of many
challenges, the emergence of Asia as a growing force in the international stage, and it’s
recognition in the west presents a big opportunity for modern Asian brands to find their feet
and make a mark in western markets. In order to take advantage of these opportunities, Das
(2007) advocates that Indian brands should leverage their existing strengths, and formulate
strategies for international expansion by looking at the route which has been followed by
brands which have successfully made this transition.
India, in the current international market is a very successful brand or a tag very much in
fashion. Like everything else in the current world stage Indian culture has also become a
saleable commodity (Sarulatha, and Sasirekha, 2017). But in terms of the global market ,
when it comes to becoming a staple for the average fashion junkie, India still has not
provided anything significant. Being a global manufacturing hub, India has always been
production oriented. They are still a developing nation and do not have the sufficient
resources to create a sustainable fashion industry, thus its influence in the global fashion
industry is also limited. Their factories are mostly outsourced to international brands like
Levis and Nike. The products of these brands are too expensive for the Indian middle and
lower classes, and most of their own markets are flooded with Chinese mass produced goods.

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The conceptual framework below will explain and help the reader understand the reason and
importance of this research, and how it intends to find gaps and opportunities, and bridge out
the differences and create platforms, literature support and common grounds for Indo-
Western brands expansion internationally to the right international markets.
According to Hellman (2017), Indians consider both Indian as well as western dresses/outfit
son many occasions.
The origination of fusion wear has modernized the Indian fashion industry to a high extent. It
is assessed that top-notch brands focus on different elements in their collection. It still has a
long way to go while considering the market potential for fusion wear in India in the near
Past. However, in contrast to this, BOF (2018) stated that the ethnic Indian wear genre is used
in current trends. It plans to lead the way for women’s wear in India. Indo-western brands
have been tracking the dynamics of ethnic fashion in malls, as well as in standalone stores
recently. Among the current generation, it is evaluated that fashion is starting to become a
major concern for Indian individuals. Further, fashion is determined by the western dresses
via social media influences and cross-cultural influences. It has also been analysed that India
has begun to follow and be influenced by Indo-western culture wherein they consider
traditional as well as western ensembles in their culture.
Kazi (2018) evaluated that the expansion of Indo-western wear is proving to be a boon for
ethnic fashion in India. Since, customers are willing to consume and experiment products and
it could lead to great demand for Indo-Western brands. This is a key reason that ethnic brands
are generating a wide range of alternatives that a customer can explore for attending special
functions.
Conceptual framework
The conceptual framework will look to outline the issues and challenges faced by the overall
East Asian, Indo-Western/Indian designers while selling their products to the western

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consumers. There is also a lack of quality research done within this area with most research
papers focusing on international brands expanding to India rather than the other way round.
These can be considered as gaps in the current literature. In order to address these gaps, the
current research framework has focused on the issues experienced by Indian designers while
expanding their brands in Western countries. This paper aims to address these gaps in the
current literature by undertaking a comprehensive research on this topic. Previous research
within this field has focused on the positive factors of expansion of Indian brands into
western countries. Moreover, they have not thoroughly discussed or defined the challenges
faced by Indian brands while expanding to the West.
For many Indo-western brands and businesses, it has been a trial and error process, in terms
of expanding into the West.
The main challenges have been that many East Asian designers lack creativity and modernity
in their designs, their lack of contemporary and creative Western-oriented design thinking
ends up creating unfamiliarity of the western consumer with these brands.
Lack of accepting modern approaches towards designing innovation in the Indian Fashion
industry is a huge drawback for Indian Fashion Brands. Indian designers who have been in
the spotlight in the international market have mostly stuck to designing Indian Fashion.
Though it is justified to stick to one's roots and feel pride for one's culture, it needs to be
understood that sticking to one particular idea restricts the audience towards Indian
sensibility. Indian fashion designers need to blend their Indian influences with current fashion
inclinations to create more successful products that can create an interest in the international
market.
Though working with international influences may seem like an easy way to broaden one's
sensibility the real story is something else. A recent survey has mentioned that 91% Indian
designers have tried presenting their portfolio regarding their brands in order to expand to its

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foreign counterparts(Todd, Leask &Fyall, 2015). However, they failed to do so because of
the lack of materials, creative and contemporary ideas.
Besides, Indian brands have tried to making Public Private Partnership (PPP) with western
brands in order to expand their market in foreign countries. However, cultural diversity is a
big issue for them due to which designers have experienced communication gaps with their
consumers as well as their western partners. The purchasing behaviour of customers and their
attitude reflected on the selling of Indian fashion accessories. In context of Bombay
Selections Private limited has been noticed that the company has earned only 5% profits
within its foreign market (zaubacorp.com, 2018). The reason behind it was that the company
had produced sarees and the western consumers were not familiar with the ensemble
completely. This indicates that the Indian designers failed to analyse the fashion preferences
of Western customers. This also shows lack of market research and good PR marketing skills
before promoting a product into a new market.
Designers have faced issues due to the huge price of their brands in foreign markets. As per
the arguments of Roll (2015), the designers have purchased materials from foreign countries.
These in turn have increased their production cost and as a result the prices of the products
are high in the market. In such a case, western consumers preferred their local brands for its
low price and the Indian designers incurred loss. For example, the Indian company Lakme
organized a fashion week in USA where they were only able to sell around 13% of their stock
(lakmeindia.com, 2018) due to its unfamiliarity with its foreign market.
Foreign brands are more familiar to their own local or western brands, rather than Indian
brands according to the relevance of its style and designs. Their own local brands know the
tastes and preferences of its Western customers which to a greater extent is unknown to the
Indo-western brands at times. Though now, the new generation Indo-western designers and
brands are making a better effort at learning and merging themselves with their international

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market. The earlier years of expanding businesses and brands into the fashion industry has
been a big challenge.
According to Hellman (2017), some of the key factors holding back Indian brands from being
successful globally are the lack of trust in Indian brands in the global market, lack of
innovation
Among Indian brands, and them not being customer focused. This view has also been
expressed in other articles (Srivastava, 2016).
The fashion industry has maintained a uniquely crowded market globally with all countries
participating and competing in it. With such huge competition in the race there are setbacks
and losses for few businesses which fail to reach up to the high standards cut out for
international expansion.
In spite of all the challenges, situations and experiences the Indo-western fashion brands face
while trying to expand internationally, there has also been breakthroughs and positive
outcomes with factors that have been responsible for the popularity and growth of Indian
brands in the West.
The Indian fashion industry is just hitting maturity. In the last few Centuries, along with
every other part of the Indian culture, Indian Fashion also suffered monumentally under the
British Raj. Thumbs of workers in textile factories were cut off to prevent them from
manufacturing ‘Muslin’ one of the finest fabrics known to mankind. As a result ‘muslin’ has
now become an extinct commodity (Roy, 2018). This is just one example. The textile
industry of India was decimated with the British importing factory made clothes from