“We Would be Spending Approx. 60 Crores in Events and Engagements” — Jiten Mahendra, MAX Fashion

by  Shantanu Jain Marketing | July 12, 2017 | News

Max Fashions India Elite Model Hunt

Max Fashion in the recent years has emerged as not only one of the most credible brands in the world of fashion, but also the most experientially active brand as well. In an exclusive interview with EVENTFAQS, Jiten Mahendra, Vice President Marketing, MAX Fashion India talks about the marketing strategy of the brand and the importance of experiential for it.

Max Fashion is one of the most popular apparel brands in the mid-affordability segment today. How is the brand marketing itself to stay ahead of its competition?

There are two things that make up the heart of the marketing strategy at Max Fashion, one is the experience part and the other is engagement part of it. We ensure that whatever we do have an engagement effect to it. If you look at the marketing structure internally, it has been divided in such a way that each room is responsible for quality communication and execution part of it.

So, it's not that the brand communication has one brand manager and everybody else would be executing it. We are liberal in our communication channel and here we are trying to create as many initiatives as we can. So, every shop right now is going to have seasonal launches in the month of July for the Monsoon. There is the Elite Model Look which is happening as a brand property, there are new stores getting launched so, what we ensure is that there is a copious amount of freshness in what we communicate or the initiatives we undertake from the customer point of view.

It's not about doing one big thing, it's about doing different things that really engage the customers and the key aim is to make a marketing initiative more relevant to the customer and not just bombard them. So, for us, customer engagement is critical than just having our brand seen.

Being seen is not good enough with context to our marketing strategies. In fashion, every product and trend change every two months, unlike other industries where the product remains common and the communication strategy remains the same. It's all about freshness, being relevant and communicating as much as possible in the right context. That's the key for Max Fashion's marketing.

How has Max used Experiential Marketing in its overall marketing plan? How have properties like MAX Elite Model Hunt helped?

If you look at experimental marketing, there are two things to it. One is the environment and engagement aspect and the other being the authentic part of communication. Let's take an example of Elite Model Look. It's a perfect for experiential form of communication because when someone attends the various events associated with the project they will see the set up for finale or the level of grooming that we invest in for the contestants, even the fact that the judges like Marc Robinson who are putting in their efforts to groom the models into the right direction to shape up their careers and also the association with Elite Modeling agency which is operating in around 65 countries.

Putting all these elements together gives us a case of a hardcore experiential and authentic communication model at the heart of it. So, if someone wants to be a Model, Elite Model Look comes out to be the most preferred choice not only because it's being advertised a lot but because it’s actually serious about the cause. This is the fourth year that we are doing this, so there is a lot of dedication and commitment towards this and there's a team only handling this brand property. We will be moving around 7 cities for the coming two months. So, it's a long-drawn calendar exclusively being carried out and being professionally done. So that whatever we do, right from the model who wants to participate or someone who wants to see the show, both must feel the experience of being a part of the brand and engage accordingly.

What is the marketing budget Max allocates to on-ground events and experiences?

For on ground activities, 50% of our Marketing spend is dedicated to engagement and events for the customers. We have a brand experience team and a brand property team who work exclusively on on-ground events, engagements, and associations. We would be spending in the range of around 60 Crores in the initiative of events and engagements. Digital platforms play a pivotal role in promotions. If you take a look at Elite Model Look, we will be spending approximately 10 Crores on this particular property. Out of which 30 to 40% will be spent on digital marketing for creating content, engaging bloggers and the fashion community. So, the digital platform is important to us as we are looking at a larger trend to not only buying but it influences on digital life which is the research online and purchase the offline pattern. This is going to be 60 - 70% in the fashion apparel space and the brand is gearing up for it.

Do you look forward to create your own fashion event properties in the future?

Although we are a licensee in India for the Elite Model Look event, it is our own fashion event because we are driving it completely in it. I think more than owning a fashion entity, it is about creating a platform. Right from people who want to participate to people who want to view it, so for us making Elite Model Look larger is going to be the key agenda than creating something new right now.

Share some of your latest experiential campaigns and how did they help the brand?

We recently did the Father's Day campaign in the digital space. We tried to tap Twitter and Instagram with a different interpretation of Father's Day. We saw good response in terms of the campaign and the creatives. We had a new agency on board who worked on it. It was well received by the customers. Also keeping mind, the past fashion & the ultra-fashion, we are working on various campaigns on the digital space which brings in the fact that client capture part is more positive than the brick and mortar format.