This article marks the second chapter informative series: ‘What woman want’. This 6 article series will capture the insights of the Indian lingerie market and consumer trends besides noting the dynamics witnessed in this category – as a result of nation wide research by Horizon Consulting India.
Here as a part of giving our readers a new flavour regarding the realities of the Indian Lingerie market, we have started a column direct from the expert’s pen. With an experience of more than 20 years up his sleeves, Nischal Puri a veteran in the apparel and retail industry today, has begun his own consultancy firm, Horizon Consulting India. After seeing many notable lingerie brands to their glorious present, Puri has now decided to add another feather to his cap and an intent to spread his extensive knowledge and understanding with the industry, he has taken up to penning down the same for us. He is a successful entrepreneur and an established thought leader and consultant. He can be reached at npuri@horizonconsultingindia.com
Funneling down the plethora of research data into certain definite trends in not only an arduous task but also entail some significant amount of re-analyzing and sculpturing the facts. While setting the tone for the second in series “what women want” article I should convey my thanks to a lot of lingerie retailers, distributors and brands to have expressed their desire to get insights on some specific areas.
One of the area of common interest that emerged was the trends in the colours in brassieres. Over the years historically, the lingerie brands have focused on three colours only White, Black and Skin. Historically black has been the largest selling colour for most of the brands followed by white and skin .
There has been substantial resistance amongst brands to experiment with colours. Testimony of the fact that the brand marketers were not focussed on identifying what the consumer wants or how the consumer preferences are moving. The market has moved substantially in the last 5 years. The consumers have become more vehement about their choices and are more vocal regarding their preferences. The brands have successfully captured the new consumer insights and the lingerie offerings have become more colourful and more stylish.
The changing face of the bra colour palette :
The colour palette in the lingerie segment has witnessed visible change over the last 5 years. From dominant 3 colours, new colour tones have been successfully experimented. Survey of top 5 brands in the category have also revealed interesting data points:
( Sale in 45 leading lingerie outlets across 5 top selling brands )
Colour family % sale
black 23%
white 21%
skin 18%
pink 10%
beige 02%
red 03%
maroon 04%
blue 04%
turquoise 02%
yellow 01%
orange 0.5%
green 1.5%
printed 07%
others 03%
When mélanges rule the game :
The colours being offered in the lingerie has widened, though there are 7 colour families in which lingerie is being offered. However brassieres in mélanges also seems to be gaining some ground. Grey mélange and blue mélanges have emerged as most popular melange colours.
But the top 3 colours still dominate 62% of the market, however the trend towards other colours is expected to diminish the share of the traditional nomenclature as safe colours. Skin colour is expected to relinquish maximum share to other colours and black colour is expected to retain its share in coming years.
Market for printed brassieres is perhaps the most recent phenomena in the category. The printed brassieres though was introduced in the market in the premium ranges have over the last couple of years got relegated to the economy segment. 65% of the retailers committed that the printed brassieres does not have satisfactory sales and almost 40% of the retailers expect to discontinue the printed brassieres range with in the next 2 seasons.
Mature woman shopping for Lingerie
Colours for every season :
Another healthy trend that is slowly emerging in the lingerie category is the increased sensitivity of the retailers towards seasonal colours. Retailers have mentioned that consumers are positively reacting towards brands that are launching season sensitive colours. The shade of the red in winter is more on the darker side than in summers. This trend though in its infancy is surely worth keeping a tap on for future range planning. Consumers are being offered season specific colours in outer wear and they are expecting similar service from the lingerie brands. The brands have to plan their ranges keeping the seasonal sensitivity as the consumer demands are gaining decent decibel levels.
The success of online retail in lingerie as a model though is still awaiting the success nod, the online retail has indeed enhanced the consumer’s information about the colours that are possibly available. Semi branded and non branded offerings in the online retail space is giving birth to an interesting trend in the lingerie category, the consumers during their show rooming activity have been demanding vibrant colours too.
The ‘colourful’ sales figure :
Discussion on colour trends in brassieres will be incomplete without analysing the polyamide / polyester fabrics. These specialized colours entered in the domestic brand market roughly 4 years back. Polyamide and polyester fabric with their unique ability to offer florescent colours were always considered with lot of skepticism by brands a decade back, however some bold moves by some international brands 5 years back added freshness in the colour palette and the same was lapped by other players. Today almost all the leading brands in the category has polyamide/ polyester fabric in brassieres. The use of such fabrics even though is restricted to the padded bras, still the trend is worth a mention. The off take from the shelves for these fluorescent bra is not too encouraging but the retailers are keen to stock them at least for the sake of offering width of choice to the consumers.
Growth in the color pallet in the brassieres also deserves to be analyzed from the role it plays in enhancing the growth of the segment. As reported by retailers the propensity to purchase has increased by a good 65% when consumers does the selection of the garment on the basis of colour. In earlier years the choice between black, white and skin was always on the basis of the style of the lingerie and colour played no role in consumer buying decision. However with a wide range of colours available, likeness towards a colour is emerging as a important variable in framing the consumer’s buying decision. With 3 colours of the same style being picked by a consumer, this is an evidence of the fact that greater colour depth leads to more purchases by the consumer.
Overall it wont be erroneous to comment that the Indian brassieres category is at the cusp of some very interesting and path defining trajectory. With consumer preferences evolving faster than the brands are able to internalize them it will be an interesting battle field and the best bet will be to create an agile and flexible brand that can carefully listen to the whisper of the consumer demand and with the speed of though execute the same in a commercially profitable way.
