ARTS AND HANDICRAFTS RETAILING IN CHENNAI

Lakshmi Devi of Kalpadruma, speaks to Chennaibest.com about the market for arts and handicrafts in Chennai.

Gender-wise, it is women who form a majority of the customers.  Upper class buyers, who are middle-aged and serious decision makers. Not much of the younger crowd.  We get them, but not much, as a percentage. Just a few of them for our jewellery and those kind of things.  But otherwise it is more of people who are not shopping for the sake of shopping.  People who know what they want.  We also work with corporate institutions for their gift requirements.   We have tied up with Satyam Infoway and Infosys.  That is another area that I am focussing on right now.  They all need gifts and I guess the times have changed from when we just used to gift pen stands to something more unique. People have begun to realise the value of handicrafts.  In short, a majority of our customers can be classified as discerning buyers who know the quality of what they buy.

Compared to other cities we have yet to evolve competitively.  There is competition, but not on all levels.  If we want to compete with someone, it is with the Kashmir emporia or something like Poomphar (the state emporia) or the ones in Spencer Plaza.  We are not competing directly, you know.  We do not have direct competition.  Yes, there is competition in the sense, there are a lot of emporias, lots of showrooms for handicrafts, furniture and furnishings.   But nothing on this level or size.  We are competing with different people for different segments.  For women’s wear, we are competing with the boutiques. For handicrafts, we compete with Poompuhar and the VTI kind of showrooms. And for our home textiles, we are competing with the smaller boutiques, which have a lot of home textiles.  But all together in one place, that is what makes a big difference, as far as we are concerned.

Very important.  Ambience is very often the clinching factor in the purchase decision for first time buyers and for repeat visits.  It is not like a super market where you just line up things and expect people to buy.  They have got to be displayed in the right manner and place for people to be attracted to them.  If we are selling paintings, then they should be on the wall so that the customer is able to have an idea of how it would look on his wall.  The music, the air-conditioning... it all makes a difference, which though not pronounced, is subtle.  We have noticed that in our basement when we introduced music after a break, we saw a change. Not that it jumped sales, but we could feel that people are more relaxed once they come in.  The browsing time increases and you don’t want to leave immediately.  Even if he doesn’t buy now, he may come back and buy later because he feels comfortable now.  

You have built up quite a brand following.  How did you go about it?

It just happened.  It is only now that we have got a marketing strategy chalked out.  When we opened up it was purely for the craftsmen and then I guess that people have also realized along the way that this is a place where they can get good quality workmanship in crafts.  It is very important, because in crafts you can get any quality. You can get the same thing for Rs.100/- or Rs.1000/-.  I guess it is for the discerning buyer who knows what s/he is buying.

For this market as such, the strength is the craftsmen... their hands. I mean that there is no limit to the creativity that can come through if it is not threatened by the things that happen around us.  Like the Gujarat earthquake for example, we have lost lots of craftsmen there.  We do a lot of our sourcing from Kutch and it is a real pity. It is going to take a lot of time for them to come back to normal. 

The weakness would be that it is a very disorganised market.  You cannot get things on time. 

The threat is that a craftsman’s son is not taking up the same profession. He is changing his career.  Another big threat is the people who try to pass off low quality stuff or duplicate the crafts.  Like what is being made in Swamymalai (made of pure bronze) is now being cast in brass in Aligarh.  You can’t make out the difference.  The cost is almost less than half.  That is also a threat for us. 

Opportunities are there, but I also hope that India is projected in the right way.  Not just as the land of snake charmers.  You know that is what all the guides and Lonely Planet talk of India.  If we can do a bit of more marketing and put in place better infrastructure for tourists to come in India, if we can make something of an all-India effort instead of isolated efforts like how Kerala is being promoted, we will grow as a nation and all our craftsmen across India will get equal exposure.

The Chennai customer is not a splurging type of customer.  There are people who just buy.  These are things that I have noticed when I have gone to Delhi or Mumbai.  I just stood and observed people as they entered a shop.... they just bought on impulse.  Over here, there are discerning buyers.  There are not many browsers.  Just five to ten, at any given time.  But mostly, people have already made up their mind.

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