Theory of Retail Incubation & Propagation

Department stores in India played host to the incubation of many brands in the early and mid nineties. Debuting brands like Colourplus and new entrants like UCB and Pepe were launched in a shop-in-shop format within modern retailer stores like Shoppers Stop and Lifestyle almost twenty years ago. Such brands got to grow fast as the department stores were proliferating across the country and the brand's expansion was facilitated by dint of the sheer multiplier effect. Research in organized retail evolution shows the emergence of shop-in-shops and private labels as independent brands when they are incubated in  retail stores. St. Michael of Marks and Spencer was franchised a free-standing independent store brand (until it was withdrawn in 2000), after having it as a private label within the store for a number of years. Future Group’s John Miller was a private label within the Pantaloon and Big Bazaar stores for long until recently the brand has been expanded to have its own independent retail stores. Lifestyle’s private label Melange is being spun off as independent exclusive brand stores. Provogue (fashion apparel brand), Gini & Jony (kid’s apparel brand), Biba (women’s apparel brand) and Gili (fashion jewellery brand) in India were launched as shop-in-shops within department stores like Shoppers’ Stop and Lifestyle in the nineties and they were incubated within the stores until they became strong enough to be rolled out in free-standing retail formats. Park Avenue was incubated as a private label within the Raymond shop before it became an independent retail brand. Similarly in the footwear category, Hush Puppies in India was incubated within the flagship stores of Bata for long until the retail organization propagated its brand stores in a free-standing format in malls. Risk of failure was eliminated by taking advantage of the large footfalls of target customers the incubating stores had readily. Further, the cost of promotion and advertising also was kept low in the shop-in-shop incubation stage as the brands were riding piggy back on the store promotions and communication. These new brands also enjoyed the patronage of the loyal customers of the store that incubated them and this contributed to their successful propagation as independent exclusive brand stores. So, careful and sustained incubation of private labels gives rise to their propagation as free-standing brand stores. A retailer should not fail to incubate with care private labels and nurture them, for these can emerge as free-standing retail brands.

Every label incubated and nurtured by the retailer, nestles strong enough in the minds of its customers to become a Brand worthy of propagation as a free-standing retail business proposition and that's what I call 'the theory of retail incubation and propagation."

- Dr. Gibson G. Vedamani