Marketing world starts...!

Started a new phase in my life...finally out of the software world...!

New job....with new status of married and employed!

The new phase starts in retail/marketing profile in a retail apparel manufacturer!

Can you imagine from software codes to apparrel (i m staggering to spell it only..:) )? However, i think this will be interesting. I have already spent past few days in visiting various malls (as i have been doing since my MBA started..) and my roommate is already cribbing about how i keep dragging him along.

Branded Apparel from some estimate i read last time is around 9000 crore market in india, and each brand is doing a miniscule amount of it given the spate of brands in the market. And given the population advantage, young poulation, increasing incomes...(u must have read it hundred times i guess..), this market is a big opportunity. And truely so, each brand is trying to put up some presence in malls, high streets, tier II, III cities..wherever they can find a manageable rental (thats kinda rare these days...).

However, as marketing bhakt, i always wondedred how cool is FMCG to start a marketing career..but i realize now that apparel market is very tough....given the no of brands ( i heard that it was 28000 on last count in India), and the kind of least u can do in product differentiation....ppl have already tried segmentation - pricewise, genderwise, occassionwise, designbased...agewise...whats left? The kind of retail formats thru which apparel is sold are again umpteen...LFR, MBO, EBO, SIS, MOMPOP, ....And promotions? - buy 2 get 6 free, flat 50 + 20 + 5 + 3.45 + 2.657 % less (what does that mean???), a gillete on 2 trousers, .....again u start doubting am i buying the right stuff...

SO, the big question i am asking these days is that what i will do as a marketing person in apparels?? Whats left?

Lets see....how things move!