Khadi Brand Perception:

In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi brilliantly spun khadi into a people's movement for independence

and self-reliance. So even though mostly consumers relate to a patriotic notion when it comes

to Khadi, this unique product of India has enormous business potential, even internationally.

All this time, in the eyes of the consumers khadi has been synonymous with the staid

government-run Khadi Gram Udyogs and Khadi Bhavans of the Khadi and Village Industries

Commission (KVIC) and not as any other brand of clothes they purchase.

However even today a large portion of the consumers are not aware of the products Khadi

brand offers other than clothes. To many, khadi means the Indian fabric and clothes made out

of that fabric.

But khadi over the time has become much more than that and are going places now.

Even so, there is very less awareness among the youth of India. For this assignment we did a

basic research by asking 20 of our acquaintances about what they think of khadi.

According to maximum of them khadi is a government initiative to “some hand spun cotton

clothes” and about 5-6 knew about other product lines that khadi offer.

A research paper on Customer Attitude and Preference towards the Brand of Khadi and

Village Industrial Products in Coimbatore District reveals that out of total 300 respondents

61% of the respondents buy KVI products moderately, 34.7% whenever they come

across it, 2.3% buy frequently and 2% are not interested in buying KVI products.

69.3% of respondents perceive that KVI products are good, 20% feel they are average

and 10.7% of respondents perceive that the quality of KVI products are Very good.

88.3% of respondents are satisfied with KVI products and 11.7% are not satisfied

with the same

48.7% of respondents feel that the quality of KVI products are good, 43.3% perceive

it is moderate, 5.3% feel it is excellent and 1% of respondents perceive the quality is

bad compared to other market items

60.7% of respondents perceive the packing to be moderate, 32.3% feel it is not

attractive and 7% perceive it to be attractive

45% of respondents are loyal towards a specific product and 55% of respondents are

not loyal towards a specific product.

19 % of respondents came to know about the KVI product through Newspaper, 27%

of the respondents through fellow worker/ friend, 23% of the respondents through

relatives and remaining 31% of the respondent through government

81.3% of respondents‟ have revealed that KVI products are available all over the city

whereas 18.7% of respondents tell that they are not available.

The paper concluded that khadi products are found to be reasonable and affordable by the

customers. Khadi has gained worldwide appreciation as it is handmade, durable, long lasting

and organic in nature. The fabric is produced by the masses for the masses. It is associated

with Gandhian philosophy as well as makes a fashion statement. Through the medium of

khadi weaving, the weaver expresses art and designing by the spindle and loom. It is widely

accepted in the Indian fashion circle. Leading fashion designers now include it in their

collection by designing clothes with khadi material. There is huge demand for it in

international market, especially in western countries.

This study also reveals that the overviews about the products manufactured by the KVI are

satisfactory. The Customer Attitude towards the purchase decisions are influenced more by

the way of trust worthy, service, price and quality. It is an attempt to study the KVI product

and its awareness and preference towards the KVI products is being surveyed to make this

study complete. As a result, it has been observed from the respondent that the KVI products

are qualitative and pricing is reasonable and affordable. But the customer also expressed the

need of improvement in packing.

Brand identity:

Brand identity is not what the customers identify the brand as but how the brand portrays

itself as. Khadi is all in all the ‘’swadeshi’’ fabric, the nation’s fabric, originates itself more

than 5000 years ago and believed to be from ancient India. ‘’Khadi is not a product. It is the

philosophy, the philosophy of freedom.’’ Gandhiji once said. It was Khadi that became power

of nation and brought independence to us.

‘Khadi the brand’ reflects freedom and pride (value propositions), which is about setting the

trend and become trendsetter particularly for the young generation.

Khadi is an eco-fabric. It portrays itself as a fabric that can help saving environment, and by

purchasing Khadi we can also help building a better environment. Khadi is harmless to our

skin. Khadi ties the whole nation with one thread. Khadi became a mean to unite people of

different religions and class.

70 % of the artisans involved in the process of Khadi production are women. Khadi

production is a labor-intensive industry, with a scope of providing more employment with an

investment of a very small capital especially in the rural areas. India’s national flag is made

of Khadi. Khadi enables full development of locally available raw materials and human

resources.

The Khadi and Village industrial products are to develop the rural and urban marketing. So

the government is mainly concentrating in the KVIC to develop the rural marketing. This will

help to provide employment, producing saleable articles and creating Self reliance amongst

people, building up strong rural community spirit.

It is the only fabric where the play of texture is so unique that no two fabrics will be

absolutely identical, thus lending it exclusivity and inimitability in terms of feel and texture.

Khadi is among the most progressively modern of all textiles, one that not only has desirably

material possibilities but also consonance with the native ecology and sensitivity to the

human condition that sustains it.

Bridging the gap:

The very first step is to create an inimitable and aesthetic brand building program for the

fabric~ ‘Khadi the brand’. On-target positioning is required for the brand to hit the target

audience and the target market.

Khadi’s unstoppable and magnanimous USP’s like ‘’eco-savy’’, ‘’Gandhi-Khadi

relationship’’,’’ importance in history’’, can be utilized properly to capture the market. All

the above three USP’s can be hit one by one with the certain time period to aware the market,

creating the interest, establishing and maintaining the brand personality and brand image with

integrated 360 degree branding (covering almost all the mediums). The idea is to associate

the brand with the consumers by impacting the strong message of ‘’pertaining the freedom

and prestige of India’’, ‘’contributing and adapting the green challenge for India’’ and

‘’recollecting the Gandhiji’s Khadi philosophy’’.

Since, Khadi is truly the nation’s fabric (the swadeshi brand), we can comfortably apply

credentials here. Huge publicity would enhance great consumer attention and consumer

involvement to confirming the authenticity of the brand.

On-going BTL and ATL activities to cater the market, featuring them the significance of the

Khadi and its core values.

Fashion shows, trade shows, ad campaigns and so on for sustaining the identity for the Khadi

brand, carrying the target audience, advertising message, nature of the product, and the

particular medium.

Once the on-target positioning has been established within the USP’s parameters, then

aggressive marketing (branding+advertising) techniques and PR activities are required to

generate the hype and endorsing the brand of Khadi. Testimonials and inspirational figures

can also play immense part to promote the brand. Those figures can be politicians, film

fraternity, fashion designers, activists and social servants etc.

Steps being taken:

According to a report in The Statesman, on August 9, 2015, Khadi, has seen a rise in

its sales since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal for its greater use last year,and

would now have Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan as its brand ambassador.

KVIC launched a new range of khadi denim products from jeans to T-shirts and

jackets in June to popularise Khadi among youth. Levi's launched khadi jeans this

August to tap the youth market - with every garment in the collection displaying the

name of the weaver and where it was produced.But hearteningly, Indian designers

were first off the mark on that score with Rajesh Pratap Singh creating a bespoke

khadi denim collection in Rajasthan that's hand-stitched and hand dyed with natural

indigo, in addition to being handspun and handwoven! Indeed, Indian designers have

been upping the premium profile of the fabric at fashion weeks here and abroad. Not

only has Hyderabad-based textile designer Gaurang Shah showed his khadi line at the

Berlin and New York fashion weeks, khadi is becoming a fixture in most collections.

Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) Chief Executive Officer Arun

Kumar Jha said they intend to take sale of khadi from Rs 1140 crore in 2014-15 to at

least 1600 crore in 2015-16.

There are about 7,000 government-recognised Khadi outlets in the country. Jha said

the the aim is to take the number to 20,000 by 2017 through franchise agreements.

Last year Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented Chinese Prime Minister Xi

Jinping a specially commissioned khadi waistcoat and US President Barack Obama

with a khadi-bound copy of the Bhagavad Gita, comes an indication that the Centre is

mulling a trademark for the freedom fabric too.