Ekmatra store at Lodhi Colony, New Delhi

Ekmatra, a line of khadi apparel, that launched its second concept store in New Delhi, has taken the luxury route to attract the young and environment conscious consumers.

Launched by Sarvodaya Ashram, a non-government organisation, the apparel line boasts of a blend of western designs and Indian fineness of fabric and are priced between Rs 1,000 to Rs 6,000.

The NGO hopes to open 25 more Ekmatra stores across the country in the next three years. Noida, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Mumbai are high on priority. Apart from India, Ekmatra has plans of expanding to international cities – New York, Milan, Tokyo and London too.

Partho P Kar, trustee at Sarvodaya Asram said, “At Ekmatra, we have picked up the essence of the lifestyle that khadi is and created a brand with new inputs so that it appeals to the modern generation.”

On asked if Ekmatra would compete with Fab India, another premium khadi store, Kar said, “We are not competing with any of the other brands. We want to take up the boutique element from some of the known labels and combine it with the distribution element of a store like Mango.”

Ekmatra aims for a turnover of Rs 30 crore in the coming three years.

The brand plans to play on the emotional quotient of the consumers by harping on eco-friendly and economic development element.

According to Kar, khadi has been producing fine products but has suffered due to the lack of marketing initiatives. He doesn’t want this characteristic to seep into Ekmatra, and thus aims to have an aggressive marketing campaign for the brand. Ekmatra hopes to spend 20 per cent of its turnover on marketing.

High on the radar is the social media – Facebook and Youtube along with search engine. Another channel that the brand will use is print – both magazines and newspapers.

The marketing for Ekmatra banks upon all the 4Ps of marketing. The product, i.e the fabric is differentiated from other khadi stores in terms of the way its fabrics are processed and the designs are used. The pricing has been done in a way that it is neither the highest in the market nor the lowest. Place, in terms of location has been pre-determined to be limited to metros and mini-metros only.