In an exclusive interaction with Medianews4U, Karthik Yathindra, Chief Marketing Officer, Jockey India – Page Industries Ltd. shares on the company’s growth trajectory, digital surge and much more.
What has been the growth trajectory of Jockey as a brand in India?
Jockey has done remarkably well over the course of the last two years. While the financial results for FY22 will be announced soon, as of Quarter ending December’21 we have clocked a revenue growth of 42%. This translates to about 15% growth over pre-pandemic period of December’19.
We achieved many key milestones this by gone year. We’ve crossed the 1000 mark in our EBO strength and expanded our footprint beyond 1,00,000 MBOs in the last year. We are today present in about 1/5 of the geography of India with specific focus in expanding to tier III and IV cities. Digital adoption played a very critical role in driving our revenue, with a significant jump in our online sales.
What is the strategy behind relaunching Jockey Move in April? What are the key features of this campaign?
Move is the active wear range from Jockey and as a portfolio was launched in 2019. The product portfolio has been extremely successful and in quick time has become a significant contributor to the brand and business.
Jockey Move resonates with fitness enthusiasts. In the active wear industry that is predominantly positioned as intense, competitive and for professional athletes, we positioned our offering to empower everyday health-conscious individuals to start their journey towards fitness. The campaign’s tagline, “Not Just for Pros,” captures this attitude, as the creatives feature fitness enthusiasts going about their daily routine.
We’ve seen a marked surge in consumption of fitness apparel, fitness equipment and fitness content over the last couple of years with peaks when markets open up. This made April an ideal time to feature this story from the brand. The campaign includes Outdoor Hoardings, OTT, Digital, Social and In-store communication.
Has the digital surge during the pandemic initiated this launch?
The pandemic invariably encouraged a broader transition toward digitization, and this shift has had a significant impact on our marketing efforts. Consumer-brand relationships underwent a massive transformation during the pandemic with digital mediums emerging as the most preferred medium for connecting with the brand. As a brand, we have had to adapt to the change in consumption patterns to modify our strategy and revise our messaging to make it more relevant to the current needs of our consumers. Recognizing the need for a more precise and focused approach for this campaign, we have adopted digital mediums and performance marketing platforms to engage more directly with our consumers.
Exclusive brand Store – Will this be a better way for the brand to target their customers?
Exclusive Brand Stores continue to be a key channel for Jockey to enhance consumer experience and build strong brand connect. Our stores branded as Jockey, Jockey Woman and Jockey Juniors give consumers the convenience of exploring the entire range of Jockey products across various apparel categories, all under one roof. We’ve focused on expansion of this channel and have successfully added to our network over 250 stores per year consistently over the last three years. We continue to expand our network across urban and rural markets as we continue our growth journey in the country.
By going all hog on social media, is the brand also reaching out to aspiring Indians in smaller towns?
Social media penetration in rural India has doubled in the past year and therefore become a key medium for reaching out to our consumers in the rural hinterlands. The demand for Jockey products, has grown multifold in Tier II, III and IV cities, so we decided to employ a combination of traditional ATL, TTL and BTL activities with digital marketing. As part of the Move campaign, we initiated an outdoor communication in over 250 cities and towns, which included several non-metro markets followed by syndicated announcements on radio and social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. At the heart of every marketing campaign for Jockey, are the interests and needs of our customers so as a brand that believes in striking a strong resonance with them, we will continue to employ a host of techniques that enable us to address the needs of our audience most effectively irrespective of the geography.
Vision as a Brand for 2022-2023?
The last couple of years in many ways has worked in favour of brand Jockey in terms of consumer demand for its products. The athleisure and active wear range has seen unprecedented growth in demand taking us a few years ahead in our business plans. We did our best in catering to this demand given the constraints in the entire value chain from sourcing to retail owing to the pandemic and its challenges.
The year 2022-23 will be a year where we can hopefully cater to the complete demand and leverage on the surge that has come about in the last couple of years. We look to continue catering to the ever-evolving needs of our consumers by creating world-class products and making them available with the best experience across our expanding sales channels. Through our products, marketing and shopping experience, it will be another year where Jockey will strive to remain one of the world’s best-loved and most-recognized brands.
