Tiktauli De Corps (TDC) case study

Introduction:
Tiktauli De corps was founded in India in August 2012. Founded as a casual apparel brand in
2012, TDC had grown rapidly into multiple product categories featuring three main business
lines, namely:
• TDC which marketed EDM inspired apparel, footwear and accessories.
• Fieldgear which sold sports apparel and equipment.
• Koolho which provided affordable good quality apparel.
• There is a fourth brand which TDC plans to launch namelyTiktauli Air which will be an
online music channel.
Apart from these company owned brands, TDC is also engaged with B2B fulfilment and TDC
was able to support company owned brands with the B2B fulfilment business.
TDC’s brands growth:

250

200

150 TDC
KOOLHO
100
FIELDGEAR

50

0
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Product-item contribution to total sales &

profit
% CONTRIBUTION TO SALES & PROFIT

30.00
25.16
25.00 20.62
20.00
15.00 12.41
10.05
10.00
4.07 3.95
5.00
0.00
TDC Koolho Fieldgear
PRODUCTS

Sales Profit
It is evident from the above charts that both TDC and Fieldgear were seeing growth in sales
and profit. The overall percentage of sales and profit of Koolho is very less and this shows
that the product performance was very low.
However, TDC’s company owned brands had low hanging revenues for smooth running of
the three brands. TDC solved this by supporting the company owned business through the
revenues generated from B2B fulfilment for big brand e-commerce retailers.

Business Profitability (in INR Millions)

160 150.96 160
143.6
140 140

TOTAL PROFITABILITY
120 67.12 120
63.5
100 91.62 100
80 80
60 63.49 35.6 39.14 60
40 7.7 7.55 40
20 4.9 20
36.8 37.15
23.23
0 0
2015 2016 2017

TDC Koolho Fieldgear B2B Fulfillment Total

Major share of profitability for TDC is from B2B fulfilment and it has been showing increase
year on year. Fieldgear and TDC are showing increase in profits every year whereas Koolho
has shown a dip in profit from 2016 to 2017.
Based on our assumption, taking BCG Matrix into consideration, TDC is a Cash Cow,
Fieldgear is a Star and Koolho is a Dog.

FIELDGEAR

TDC KOOLHO

BCG Matrix
 Marketing Spend (in INR Millions)

172.35
200

160.72
175

150

125

100

75

39.57
35.9
30.22
28.72

50

22.91
18.32
18.05

17.65
14.36

14.36
9.45

9.35
9.16

9.16
7.18

7.18
4.58

25
2.29

0
0
0

0
0
Digital Event Sales Sales force Loyalty DJ Retail Others
marketing sponsorship promotion expenses programs sponsorship activation

2015 2016 2017

The marketing spend across all the programs has increased but the company has not
concentrated on loyalty programs. The company should focus on loyalty program in order to
retain customers and attract new customers. Through loyalty programs the company owned
brands can become popular and this can be a way of making the mother brand also known
to wider consumers.

Branding strategies in Marketing:

House of brands Branded House

In House of Brands strategy individual In Branded House the parent company acts
products and services have the freedom to as the cornerstone and all products act as a
create its own positioning, have a unique sub-brand under the brand sharing the same
voice and personality. look and feel to their sub-brands.

TDC’s current branding strategy:

TDC has been following a House of Brands strategy for its three company owned brands,
with three of them targeting separate target customer segments.
 A comparison of pros and cons of both branding strategies for TDC:

House of brands Branded House

Pros: • Pros:
➢ TDC has varied target segment of ➢ Branded House strategy will save cost
customers for each of its company for TDC by not having to manage three
owned brands. House of brands separate brandstaking its low hanging
strategy will help TDC to target each revenues in consideration.
segment of its customers by tailoring
strategies that are specific to a target ➢ Customers are more accepting of new
audience. products that come under the same
brand umbrella which might be
beneficial for TDC’s three brands.
➢ House of Brands strategy will provide
TDC more elasticity in terms of brand
positioning, communication and
audience targeting and allocation of
resources by understanding each
brand’s position.

➢ Koolho can be seen as a weaker brand

against the other two company
owned brands. House of Brands
strategy will help TDC minimize risks
because if one brand suffers, the
other company owned brands will not
affected. Cons:
Cons:
➢ A one-size-fits-all strategy might not
work for all the three brands of TDC as
➢ Managing differentiated brands can
each of them has a separate target
be expensive for TDC following House
audience.
of Brands strategy as TDC has low
hanging revenues from the company
➢ The company owned brand, Koolho,
owned brands. The low revenues
has not been performing very well,
might make it difficult to run three
failure of which might create problems
separate brands
for TDC if they follow branded house
➢ The company owned brands of TDC strategy.
cannot rely upon the main brand to
bolster its reputation using House of ➢ TDC’s growth has not been spectacular
Brands strategy. which raises questions on its
popularity amongst customers. The
➢ Customers can get confused about low recognition will be not be favor of
the parent companies’ true identity in TDC if they follow Branded House
House of brands strategy. strategy.
Branding strategy for TDC for the future:
Looking into TDC’s situation, a House of Brands strategy is the most viable as:

TDC can tackle the funding

requirement needed to run the
three brands from the large
revenue generation that it gets
from it B2B fulfilment. Or TDC can
look for external funding also.

TDC has niche and varied target segment of

customers for each of its company owned brands
and House of brands strategy will help TDC to Taking BCG Matrix into
target each segment of its customers with varied consideration, TDC is a Cash Cow,
marketing strategies. The house of brands Fieldgear is a Star and Koolho is a
strategy design helps to provide a clearer Dog. With the House of Brands
position on a brand’s functional elements, strategy TDC will be able to cut off
enabling niche segmentation (Aaker and Koolho brand if needed in the
Joachimsthaler, 2000) within the category future without harming any of the
other existing brands.

House of
Brands
strategy

Conclusion:
House of Brands strategy is the best strategy for TikTauli De Corps (TDC) as the mother
brand is not well established and the popularity of the brand is less among the consumers.
The company owned brands are all segmented, targeted and positioned differently. With
House of Brands the product lines would be given more freedom to expand their ideas. Till
now only one company owned brand has been established and if it is brought under the
umbrella of brands the failure of one brand would affect the mother brand. In House of
Brands each brand can use their own strategies and marketing techniques based on their
consumer analysis, this would help the brand to establish and bring more revenue to the
company.

References:
Aaker, D. A. and Joachimsthaler, E. (2000). The brand relationship spectrum: the key to the
brand architecture challenge. California Management Review, 42(4), pp. 8-23.