Future Brands to market private labels

NEW DELHI: Kishore Biyani’s Future Brands, set up last year as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Future Group, has readied its blueprint for the first year.

The plans include bringing existing private labels of Future Group under Future Brands, rolling out four new private labels across categories such as apparel, home care, FMCGs including snacks and staples, and consumer durables. It also plans to set up shop-in-shops in leading retail chains such as Shopper’s Stop and Westside, and has allocated a Rs 50-crore ad spend.

Future Brands is currently rolling out its first private label, Dreamline home adornment, while the second private label, Buffalo jeans, is the next in line.

Dreamline is currently sold as a private label in Future Group’s home furnishings store Home Town. The company plans to position the label as a national brand and has hired Hema Malini as the brand ambassador.

Next in queue are consumer durable private lables Koryo and Sensei, which will also be positioned as national brands and sold through other retail chains, besides its own.

“Some other in-store labels of Future Group, currently being retailed through its Big Bazaar and Pantaloon retail chains, will also be converted into full-fledged, conventional brands,” Future Group MD & CEO Santosh Desai told ET.

Elaborating on the pricing strategy for the brands, he said, “Different products will occupy different price points. Not all brands will be mass-priced.”

Competitor Reliance Retail intends to price private label brands at the mass-end. Sources said the group has initiated talks with retail chain Shoppers’ Stop to set up shop-in-shops and also plans to seed most big retail chains with exclusive shop-in-shops or counters.

Meanwhile, Future Brands has split its ad account between two agencies, Publicis Dialog and SSC&B, Mr Desai said. The advertising for the Dreamline brand, which will include home furnishings and accessories for kitchens and bathrooms, will begin shortly, he added.

Future Brands has allocated an ad spend of Rs 45-50 crore for the first year, and its media buying agency, Starcom MediaVest, has set up an independent agency, FutureWorks, to exclusively handle all Future Group advertising. In the past, only one Indian ad agency, JWT, had set up an exclusive agency, Fulcrum, to handle HLL’s media buying business.