South Indian saree innovations; do they seem to be fancy?

Saree has been remaining as the most preferred outfit option for many Indian women not only to express Indian tradition in their dressing but also to explicit a conservative, pretty rich, and of course a comfortable look in their dressing that unique them from other women. That is why; Sarees remain as the foremost choice when it comes to traditional occasions such as weddings and religious ceremonies, overbeating the competition of Shalwars, Kurtas and other modern choices. However, the western influence in the youth dressing style has exaggeratedly started pushing any saree manufacturer towards a need of combining tradition with modern way of wearing Sarees allowing wearers to feel more comfortable too.

Some of the leading players in the South Indian Market seem to well convert this gab/need into profitable market opportunity. Sri Kumaran Chennais, which is one of the leading Apparel players in South India, has always been spotlighted for its innovation in Saree manufacturing. Sri Kumaran was first to launch the concept of  jodi-pattu’, which meant to include a shirt material coloured matching to the saree and the conception here is to allow a couple to wear matching colours. ‘Pocket saree’ is also another baby of Sri Kumaran, which just combines a functional benefit ‘pocket’ in a saree allowing wearers to keep their mobile phones and other small things safely. ‘Denim saree’ is another net used to attract some young fishes in, this meant combining traditional and modern lifestyles together and an endeavor of integrating the conservative and comfortable way of wearing into one point.

RMKV is another Apparel player, which embark in the industry with its well-known notions of innovation. This company has introduced ‘Durbar Krishna Saree’, which is promoted to spread luck among the people who wear it. This saree depicts a popular picture of Lord Krishna and outlined with Swarovski crystals. Integration of the religious impression into mass perception has made this novel concept popular in India.

Very recently, Swaramadhuri made a revolution in this industry by assimilating Apple’s latest technology ipod into a saree inclusive of eight micro speakers and a 2GB memory chip. Though, it seems bit stimulating a much fancy look and can be questioned whether is it really needed for people, this approach also can be taken as a clever move of expanding the business towards American Indians or even Americans.

Referencing to the above mentioned ideas, these companies have well-identified their market opportunities and benchmark in their businesses by adding traditional values to their unique products. However, the lacking point is that they all fail to build innovation as a solution of functionality or usability gabs providing that their focus seems to be spammed up with fancy ideas. It would be great if they do go for functional innovations that last for a long time, for an example, the latest trend in western clothing industry is manufacturing skin-friendly clothing (from materials such as hemp and bamboo) that allows skin to breathe properly, which is intended to solve allergic problems caused by some thick materials. Therefore, these companies must be convivialing real life solutions as innovations rather than focusing on fancy ideas though they do perform well in short-term.  

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Small apparel factories in Asian countries do benchmark in their niche markets by promoting CSR initiatives

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) now has become a key to promote businesses, brands and even specific business units. CSR is one best way to show others that a company really cares about its society, environment, employees, and all other stakeholders. Why do most companies fail to gain their real outcomes that they ought to get from their CSR initiatives is because they downside to use it as a mean of promotion. Whether you are in a small business or engaged in large business, moral CSR would be the ultimate point where you can serve your business towards a successful sustainable survival.

Small apparel business firms in Asian countries do practice CSR as a very effective mean of promoting their business deals among their buyers or small niche markets. In countries such as Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and China, there are enormous amount of small apparel factories. However, it will not be sensible to say that they all factories play very successful in their businesses. Most of these export-oriented firms’ prime revenue sources are the countries in Europe, United States of America and other western countries who buy from them. Since these factories are small in scale, they mostly survive in their businesses with only one or two buyers who buy from them in a temporary basis. Nevertheless, there are also very successful small apparel firms with more than thousand employees and they earn a good income. Let us try to look-into further on why there is such a discrepancy. 

Noticeably successful firms are engaged in CSR activities and for sure, it remains as one of the main reasons for their sustainable survival. ‘CSR is one of the main reasons for why my buyers are insisting with my business and when a deal comes to end, my partners (buyers) always recommend other about my business’ said Mr. Bandula CEO of Rainbow Private Limited a medium size garment in Sri Lanka. Nevertheless, it is not to say that just actively participating and promoting CSR initiatives among your niche would only let your business to go up. Do not forget that CSR alone would never work unless if your business is up to the expected quality and customers’ requirements.  

There are some interesting stories on how small apparel factories in countries such as Sri Lanka, India, China and Thailand promote their CSR initiates among their niches (buyers). Milking scheme, vegetable scheme are two interesting ways how these firms do CSR with their employees and society. Most of these firms are situated in far villages and the people who live there are poor. Under milking scheme, the company will provide cows to some specific employees and all of the employees must take care of the cows. So that there is a basis and according to that basis, each employee must provide food to the cows and the milk will be equally distributed to the employees. Vegetable scheme also work in a similar manner.

It seems really funny as well interesting and these firms really being successful as they gain very loyal customers and a loyal niche market (buyers). Most of the buyers have started to prefer CSR in their choice of selecting suppliers as they a know a firm that takes care of employees and other stakeholders would take care of its buyers or customers as well.

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