LABOUTIQUE!!

While walking around in Mahabalipuram and thinking very hard upon which subject to do my marketing project; I came across a shop which I felt was very different from the rest.It had beautiful boutiques, jeweleries and small statues displayed outside . I also saw several foreigners coming out from that shop. I got fascinated by its look as well as its name which was displayed as – LABOUTIQUE. I got very curious and decided to get inside the shop and take it as my subject for the marketing project.

The owner of the shop was very polite and helpful.He was from Kashmir and he patiently started answering all my questions. I first asked him what the name of his shop meant.He answered that it was a french word which meant – the shop  and this very different name made his shop unique from his competitors.He further told that his shop was only a couple of years old.On surveying every nook and cranny of the shop I found that it dealt mainly in beautiful boutique items, jeweleries (both gold and silver) and small statues.The main attraction of the shop I felt was the beautiful boutiques, jewelleries and statues that were neatly displayed outside and which attracted one to enter there.The owner told that his potential customers were foreign tourists who came mainly for the boutiques which they carried back home.So the shop’s target customers were – foreign tourists.Although there were multiple  boutique shops in the vicinity but this had the advantage that – a. the owner communicated well with his customers as he can speak English fluently and b. his patience and humbleness made him gel well with his customers.He further told that he never felt irritated when his customers starts bargaining. In fact he expects the foreign tourists to bargain a lot.Upon asking a foreign tourist (who also happened to be inside his shop during that time) what she liked about his shop: she told that he did not shout at them or pressurize them to get inside his shop ; which she found very very annoying with most of the boutique shops in Mahabalipuram.

There were also some beautiful jeweleries displayed. They were of unique shapes and designs. He brought those from Thailand, UK and other countries.He told that mainly female foreign tourists and some women customers from Mumbai, Bangalore or Chennai bought them; however the boutiques were mostly bought by the males who used it as a showpiece in their respective homes.Another thing which I noticed about his shop was that he did not keep very large or heavy  boutique items; the reason  being the fact that the foreign tourists found it troublesome to carry along with them.

 

Getting to the point as to how he manages to make profits he replied that the foreign tourists went there with a preconceived notion to bargain.So he shoots up the existing price of his products in order that after the bargaining is done he is still able to make substantial profits.He further told that his sales are maximum during the December to February season when many foreign tourists comes to Mahabalipuram; however he did not have a linear sales pattern throughout the rest of the year.Someday his sales might shoot up to 1-2 lakhs rupees a day while for many days it went around in the range of around 3-4 thousand rupees.

Overall I got the idea that this man managed his shop quite well (he managed it alone)  and also made good profits. I learnt quite a lot of marketing skills from him.

Debanjan Rudra

FT 13421