TIKTAULI DE CORPS CASE STUDY

(BRANDING STRATEGY – PRESENT AND FUTURE)

BY

AKUNURI SAI VISHNU KANTH

GROUP 6, PGPMex APR_A’21

Tiktauli De Corps was founded by Mr. Sanjay Singh on 2012 as a casual wear apparel
brand. They follow a “House of Brand” strategy for its three brands - TDC, Fieldgear and
Koolho. However, even after six years of business, these brands were able to attract only
exclusive consumers and a huge market was left unattended.

Still, the success of TDC nurtured the confidence of Mr. Sanjay Singh and he started to
think about taking the brand to international level. In this study we shall discuss about the
branding strategy of TDC and how it can affect the growth of TDC.

v CURRENT STRATEGY

At present, Tiktauli De Corps has three business lines in their plate. They follow “House
of Brand” strategy for each of these brands which means each of the brands are not
interdependent on each other. Each of these brands generates their own sales and profits
and funds their marketing strategies and other financial liabilities.

Although, the business was more biased on the brand TDC whose main ethos was built
around the music influences and their prime targets were youth aged between 14-24 years,
Tiktauli De Corps also catered to fitness enthusiast and mass customers with their other two
brands.

The business is bifurcated into two verticals – B2B fulfillment and Company Owned
Brands. After being six years in the business, the profits for each company own brands stand
as below –

Source: Company documents

IDENTITY: The UVP of this brand was its inspiration from music. All the products were branded and
marketed around the theme of “EDM Spirit”.
MEANING: The TDC brand was positioned as a super-premium brand and the products were
categorized as “party wear”, “lounge wear”, or simply “relaxed wear”, but definitely not “street
wear.”
RESPONSE: The brand was marketed so that the target customers get to know the brand’s
philosophy of “Trend-Setting” fashion apparels and accessories. They captured the mind of
consumers who liked to belong to the community of “swaggers” by offering niche and fashion
statement making products.
RELATIONSHIP: The targeted audience could easily relate with the brand because of their
involvement with music. They usually had a great desire for being unique and stand apart from the
crowd, especially among the younger generation.

• FieldGear - This brand marketed Sports Apparels and Equipment.

IDENTITY: The UVP of this brand was “Fair Price Technical Sports Performance Wear”

MEANING: This brand stood for athletic apparel and equipment for fitness freak consumers

RESPONSE: FieldGear became the official outfitter for various national sports league in India to boost
the confidence of consumers about this brand

RELATIONSHIP: After TDC, this is the highest profit gaining brand. The product range of fitness gears
and sports accessories have positioned themselves in the mind of fitness freak consumers.

• Koolho - This brand sold affordable yet premium quality apparels.

IDENTITY: The UVP of this brand was “isse sasta aur achcha kahan?” (where can you get it cheaper
and better?)
MEANING: This brand offered ambitiously good quality products but at much cheaper price from
the market
RESPONSE: The goal of this brand was to let the consumers have good quality products at very good
prices

RELATIONSHIP: Though aimed to be a value for money brand, the sales and profit of the brand were
far less than the other two. The prices and products were excellent, however, the consumers
couldn’t be attracted.

v BRAND ASSOCIATIONS

The base of TDC’s products is EDM. To strengthen the relationship with consumers,
TDC sponsored different events involving celebrities, college events and collaborated with DJs
and choreographers. The level of customer engagement and business growth resulted from
 DJ collaboration was phenomenal and the influence lasted throughout the life of the product
line.

For Fieldgear, TDC pursued collaborations with league controlling bodies and participating
teams. Some noted collaborations were with Pro Kabaddi League, Chennai half marathon and
wheelchair cricket tournament in Bangalore. Agreements were even done with foreign teams
from Kenya and Iran and with Amercian Kabaddi teams.

v “HOUSE OF BRAND” vs “BRANDED HOUSE”

As the team is in dilemma about the future branding strategy, let us have a look of
advantages and disadvantages of both brand architectures.

HOUSE OF BRAND
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Reach - As all the three brands had different Designing and managing multiple marketing
target audience, branding them separately strategies for each brand is time consuming
was better to reach the aimed customers. and expensive
Low Risk - Having three different product Having different product portfolio often
portfolios have helped TDC to understand the creates confusion about the image and vision
need and affinity of customers. of the parent company
Safety - As TDC was new into the market, TDC as parent company is not familiar in
House of Brand strategy could have shielded market and doesn’t have much power to
the company’s reputation in case of negative influence the individual brands
publicity of any brand

BRANDED HOUSE
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Efficiency - TDC can follow one marketing If one product category doesn’t do well, the
strategy for all three product portfolios which entire brand has to take the heat of the same.
will be time efficient and inexpensive The perception of customers can force them
compared to the House of Brand Strategy to take “all or nothing” approach
Ease - Image of the parent company could be If the parent brand (TDC in this case) is
protected and competitions could be avoided underperforming or becomes weak in coming
by taking the Branded House strategy days, the other two brands (TDC Sports and
TDC Lifestyle) will also fail no matter how good
or innovative their offerings are
Evolution - As TDC was drawing most of the Consumers will be confused about the ethos
crowd towards its category, renaming the of the brand. Is TDC a music influenced
other two under TDC’s umbrella would gain apparel brand for youngsters or it’s a brand for
customer’s faith on those brands and help to fitness freak people or it’s for common
increase sales for Fieldgear and Koolho. consumers who are searching value for money
products. Each of the line offerings are so
different from each other that consumers will
struggle to find out the core vision of the
brand.
v OUR RECOMMENDATION

Although TDCs started the business as front runner by overpowering the other two
brands, Fieldgear has started generating business very well in recent years. Infact, Fieldgear
suppressed the profit of TDC in the year of 2017. In this scenario, it has become very tough to
judge whether following Branded House strategy by keeping TDC in the core will be beneficial
for Tiktauli De Corps. Rebranding Fieldgear as “TDC Sports” may dilute the identity Fieldgear
established in the recent years.

Further, the target customers of these three “company owned” brands are very
different from each other. TDC caters to young, music enthusiast customers and Fieldgear
targets fitness freak people. Koolho on the other hand is trying to capture a position in “price
sensitive” customer’s mind. If we bring all three under TDCs umbrella, customers will be
confused about the ethos of each brand and existing customers may also move out.

Finally, Tiktauli De Corps doesn’t have any legacy to attract customers. Being a new
player in the market, it is very difficult to understand the pulse of the market and customers.
Shifting to “Branded House” strategy will be risky because if one brand fails, the entire
company has to face backlash of customers. Needless to say, fast changes in market and
customer requirements makes new brands vulnerable.

Keeping all these points in mind, we will recommend to stick to “House of Brand”
strategy as of now. Although a disadvantage of this strategy will be Tiktauli De Corps won’t
be able to push Koolho aggressively as all the brands will be funding their own strategy with
their own money. Still, seeing the current scenario, “House of Brand” strategy seems to be a
safer bet for Tiktauli De Corps.

v CONCLUSION

It is difficult to figure out the correct branding strategy for any brand, especially when
its product portfolio consists of such a wide variation. Both of the brand architectures bring
some benefits but there are also a significant number of disadvantages. But when the brand
strategy is crafted well, it helps to align the brand positioning and value propositions
appropriately. It will also improve the clarity of all the stakeholders to decide on the next
course of action like introduction of new products and extension of existing product line.
Overall, it will make the brand more vibrant and consistent performer in the market place.

We hope Tiktauli De Corps will figure out the correct branding architecture for them
keeping all the advantages and disadvantages in mind with the co-operation from its strong
workforce, led by Mr. Sanjay Singh.

v LEARNINGS

This entire study helps us to understand the importance of Branding Strategy. It is very
important to figure out a perfect branding strategy for your brand because that can make or
break any brand. Both of the brand architectures have different advantages which suits
different types of business models. The marketing strategy should revolve around the
branding strategy to make a brand successful.

Also, even though a business was started with a particular branding strategy, it can
change the strategy based on the need and response of the market. The wisdom lies in
recognizing the requirement of such changes as early as possible so that the business
encounters minimum impact.
v REFERENCES

Apart from the case study, we have taken references from the below two articles –

1. Willow Marketing : Branded House vs House of Brands – URL :

2. Brand Matters : Brand Architecture Models – Branded House or a House of Brands – URL :
[Link]