Brand Revival - Bata India

Everybody in India who is in his late 30's & older remembers BATA as a brand which was synonymous with footwear. For almost 7 decades, it enjoyed uninterrupted success before things began to go awry in the late 1990s. In the preliberalization days, Bata was so pervasive in India that the brand was once a generic noun for shoes. But post liberalization, around late 90s, it suddenly lost the plot against the onslaught of international and new domestic brands which sprung up in the market. What were the reasons for reversal in Bata India's fortunes?

THE FALL

 I believe that few of the reasons for downfall of Bata India are as below:

• Crash in Consumer Confidence
• Disruption in production because of troubles with unions
• Poorly managed supply chains
• Not keeping pace with consumer expectations in design/ style
• Loss making small stores
• Poor visibility in the upcoming malls
• High costs due to excess manpower
• Quality issues relative to new players

THE TURNAROUND

Bata India realized that it needed to do something drastic to revive its fortunes in the very fast growing Indian Footwear market which is worth INR 16000 Crores pa (2nd largest in the world after China & approximately 13% of the global market).

ITS RESPONSE

Bata India took some aggressive steps to revive itself. I believe that the following steps helped them to revive its fortunes in the Indian Footwear market:

• It introduced VRS to remove flab & promoted young, talented executives
• Closed small, unviable, loss making stores - 400 stores were shut in 5 years (2006 - 2010)
• Low margin, canvas shoes made way for high margin, leather shoes
• Opened 250 "Big Format" stores upwards of 3000 Sft - these are well-lit, showcase modern furniture  & are designed to display better
• Opened exclusive stores to sell its premium brand "Hush Puppies"
• Refurbished its image by improving its collection & design of footwear - Focus on design to attract GenX 
• Launched bouquet of brands targeted at different customer segments 
• Expansion in Tier II & Tier III cities with a population upwards of 1 Lakh

WHAT IS STILL NEEDED TO BE DONE

Though Bata India has reinvented itself by turning profitable in 2007 after suffering losses for 5 years in a row, I believe that there are few things which it still has to do to complete the process.

• Focus on innovative technology & design patterns - Though a lot is done in this area, it still lags behind international players who are much better in terms of innovative technologies & distribution mechanism
• Aggressive Marketing - Bata is counting on its stores to do the job whereas hard sell & aggressive marketing is what is needed in this cut throat market
• Bring more focus on segments it wants to target - currently it is all over the place with an offering for all customer segments

The turnaround story of Bata India is a very good case study for Marketing & Branding students and gives great insights about the reasons for success or failure of a brand. Also, it once again reinforces the fact that companies/ brands have to constantly innovate itself if it wants to stay ahead of the curve.