Pantaloon Retail empanels Mudra and Percept H

In a significant development, retail chain Pantaloon Retail India has aligned its creative duties to Mudra Communications and Percept H. While Mudra has been assigned ‘value retailing' (that part of Pantaloon Retail which includes brands such as Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Gold Bazaar and the soon-to-be-launched Footwear Bazaar), Percept has been entrusted with the ‘lifestyle retailing' business (which includes brands such as Pantaloons, Arcus and Central, the new mall to be unveiled in Bangalore shortly). For the record, the media account continues to be with Millennium, and there are no plans to seek a new media agency, at least for now.

According to Pantaloon officials, the total advertising budget (for both for the year July 2004-June 2005 is Rs 35 crore. However, an isolated figure for the creative business alone is not available.

Mudra, it appears, was an instant hit with the retail chain. Says Sanjeev Agrawal, head - marketing, Pantaloon Retail, "We liked the ‘Indianness' of the ideas that Mudra presented. Percept, on the other hand, won the account on the basis of strong strategic management, and our old association with them. We are taking the branding effort for Pantaloon very seriously. We required partnering with agencies that are very strong and would bring on board both strategic and creative inputs. Both Mudra and Percept fit the bill."

Elaborating on how Mudra scored over the other contenders, Jude Fernandes, president, Mudra Communications, Mumbai, says, "The challenge was to stay away from urban depictions. The process of understanding the market, the consumer and the business requirements took over two months. At the end of it all, we are happy to get this opportunity to work with a like-minded client." On his part, Rajesh Pant, CEO of Percept H, says, "Percept has been associated with Pantaloon in the past. In fact, the agency worked with Mr Kishore Biyani (managing director, Pantaloon Retail India) in coining the brand name. It is a matter of great pride for us to welcome the New Year with the Pantaloon business. It is a high-profile win for us. We look forward to working with Sanjeev and his team to make Pantaloons into one of India's most respected brands."

Incidentally, so far, value retail's contribution to the company's revenue has been more than that of lifestyle retailing. But that, the company intends to correct, with equal thrust being applied to both divisions. Pantaloon Retail is expected to close this year (June 2003-July 2004) with Rs 650 crore in sales, up from Rs 450 crore last year. The company has set an ambitious sales target of Rs 1,000 crore by June 2005. Speaking about the road ahead, Biyani says, "We are growing at a rapid pace. We need to strengthen our retail brands further. We require strategic positioning for the same, and a lot more work needs to be done in both segments - value as well as lifestyle retail." © 2004 agencyfaqs!