Gentle product humbly marketed
Some products manufactured in certain clusters are known for superior quality. They have huge export potential. Yet they face huge challenges in terms of marketing.
The products are known for quality manufactured from this cluster. They have huge export potential. Yet they face huge challenges in terms of marketing, since they are still under the shell of old-style and stay comfortable with whatever they find during the sale season.
An interesting search for a cluster that still remains dwarfed. The Balaramapuram Handloom cluster has a legacy of more than a century with stories of many ups and downs and without having enough attention given to it by anyone other than its inspired customers. Products are seasonal with almost eight months for sales and four months lean season.
The cluster catches the media attention during the eight months of sales season. “During the rainy four months no one comes here to ask how is your business doing,” says Mr Natarajan, the owner of Kannan Handlooms, one entrepreneur, who is third generation business man. These four months we have to work harder to build stocks for meeting the demands of eight months.
It is a big brand in the ethnic clothing segment. Balaramapuram Handloom cluster, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, where we found rapid depletion of business units, is one of the best examples. That is a potential cluster as the brand name of products manufactured by more than a dozen currently surviving units in the cluster is still broadly appealing.
