Page 295 - International Marketing

NPP

BRILLIANT’S Solved Questions Papers 297

control over the raw material, design and the finished products through
regular quality inspections. They now needed to walk on the tight rope,
balancing order for full shoes and ensuring purchase of raw materials to
fulfill the same.

Competitive Advantage
Designing : They came up with the latest innovative designs, which
matched the changing trends.
Customer loyalty : TSI supplied seventy five percent of its products
to the end users and had been able to retain most of its customers since
its establishment.
Technology and Product Quality : TSI used the latest technology,
though it pushed up the cost of production, TSI was able to provide
premium quality products.
Marketing : The company had serveral years of experience and an
extensive marketing network which included overseas offices and ware
houses which added value to the TSI products.
Finance : The company enjoyed a sound financial position.
In the European market, TSI predominantly sold ladies shoes since
it was found that women owned six pairs of shoes as compared to one
pair per man. In the European market their shoes were generally sold to
brands which were positioned as the commercial brands and value for
money was the deciding factor. Soon, TSI became the largest exporter
of shoes from India. Though, TSI's exports to Europe rose dramatically
and they were also able to develop an effective marketing strategy,
promoting a brand in Europe remained a dream. The full shoe market was
extremely competitive. TSI was facing competition from the large Indian
manufacturers as well as from the Indian unorganised sector. In the
European market, it faced competition from the low priced exports
coming from Far East, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Brazil and China. Availability
of low price and comparable products made the customer price sensitive.
In the year 2000, TSI did business worth ` 2,400 crore, of which the
leather division contribution was ` 300 crores. The company had a vision
of becoming a billion dollar company by the year 2004. This required rapid
growth in the garment and footwear division, which would provide them
higher margins. TSI was able to establish itself in European market, which
had always been quality, design and style conscious. But after the unifi-
cation of Germany (major market), it was observed that customers were
becoming price sensitive. Sourabh Sharma, realised that to achieve this