Siddis

University of Exeter

2010

MSc in International Management

By

Siddhanth Nair

590040997

In

Marketing Strategies in a Recessionary Environment:

An Overview Of
Jayashree Textiles
(A unit of Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd)
And
Currys
(A part of DSG International group)

Acknowledgement

I would not have been able to carry out my research if it was not for
people who supported me and help me. I would like to first thank my
supervisor Mr __________., for his contribution to my research, his co-
operation and guidance. I would like to thank Mr. Abhey Nair, Senior
Vice President, Jayashree textiles, for providing his valuable time to fill
up the questionnaire I had mailed him and his advice on how to go
about my research. I would also like to thank my friends and family for
their constant support and encouragement through out my research
work.

Siddhanth Nair

Introduction

Background

Financial crisis affecting us now started in United States of America in
the ‘1990s’. The federal reserve had lowered interest rates which led
to taking credit for homes and to pay off their earlier loans. Flow of
money increased a lot in the market as people continued borrowing
money from the banks but were unable to pay back it to the banks.
Banks were affected a lot and stocks fell down and they ended up be-
ing bankrupt. Federal reserve tried to help the Wall street but it was
too late and other economies also started being affected and no sector
remained safe. Buying behaviour of consumers changed as their pur-
chasing power decreased and they were looking for products provid-
ing value for their money. They became insecure about their employ-
ment and are stressed out and switch to cheaper goods to save

money. Industries have to adapt themselves according to the changing
environment by bringing out changes in their marketing strategies.
Nilson (1995) explained this aspect very well in his book, he men-
tioned how companies have to change according to the changing scen-
arios. Nilson stated that big companies can continue with their
strategies and slowly adapt whereas smaller companies have to adjust
quickly to be able to compete in the market. Companies must look to
increase their marketing activities and not try to cut down their market-
ing budget. Marketing Mix of the companies strategy has to be adjus-
ted accordingly to keep up with the current customer needs. If an Or-
ganisation has the strength and endurance to fight the crisis then only
can it realise the true opportunity which was hidden behind the crisis
(Chin-Ning Chu).

Problem

Literature available regarding marketing strategies in a recession is
very limited and very little research has been carried out regarding this
aspect. Recession affects both the consumers and companies. The com-
pany has to modify its activities according to the changes in the beha-
viour of the consumers. The marketing mix of companies have to be
altered. In respect of that, I will be researching on how companies like
Currys, An electrical retail business spread across Europe and Jay-
ashree Textiles, A unit of Aditya Birla Nuvo, India, have adopted their
Marketing Mix to suit the current financial scenario.

Questions

1.What effects does recession have on business?

2.How are the consumers affected by the recession?

3.What changes have to be made in the Marketing strategies and the
Marketing Mix of an Organisation to suit the consumers needs?

Objective of study

The purpose of my research is to find out what changes are required to
be made in the marketing strategies of organisations to suit the chan-
ging needs of consumers during a financial crisis. I also wanted to find
out companies from different economies adopted their marketing
strategies. So I am analysing Currys from UK and Jayashree Textiles
from India and understand how these companies were able survive the
recession.

Company profile

Currys

Currys electrical retail brand is a part of DSG International Group
which is one of the Europe’s electrical retail giant. It has many other
brands spread across Europe like PCWorld, Dixons, Unieuro, etc. It
reaches customers through multi-channels and provides excellent after
sales service. The company deals in products like PCs, consumer elec-
tronics, audio, video and communications. The company’s structure has

divisions comprising Electrical Division which includes Currys, E-Com-
merce division and a Computing division. It has 500 plus stores across
UK and Ireland. Currys was founded by Henry Curry in 1884. Online
selling is also carried out effectively by Currys.

Jayashree Textiles

Jayashree Textiles is a unit of Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited. It is a giant in
the Linen and Wool industry in the textile business. It has popularised
Linen in the global market though its brand “Linen Club.’ The company
was established in 1949 in Rishra, West Bengal state of India. Jay-
ashree Textiles has a wide range of products consisting of Linen Yarn
and Fabric, Worsted and Wool. The company has evolved overtime
and has changed its product line multiple times to suit the current re-
quirements this has helped the company to survive over time. The mar-
ket is spread across six continents in over 50 countries. Quality is very
important to the company and continuous improvement and innovation
is carried out.

Research methodology

Explanatory

Desktop

Applied using theories

Secondary

Qualitative

Semi structured interviews

Questionnaires

Literature Review

Credit crunch is a situation in which credit or loans are very hard to
get. It happens mostly in a recession caused by financial institutions be-
cause they are very cautious is giving credit to its customers and
charge exorbitant interest rates if the choose to lend the money. This
also happens when the government tries to stop inflation by restricting
lending to consumers and businesses. UK had been affected by the fin-
ancial downturn leading to decrease in output and rise in unemploy-
ment. This has affected the small businesses very much as loans are
hard to get for them. Consumer spending decreased a lot so did gov-
ernment spending. Competition increases and customers thrive for
value for their money.

Financial downturn affects the consumer’s psychology and they be-
come insecure about their employment and spending. Consumers try to
work harder to earn more and to maintain their existing jobs. Con-
sumers adapt their behaviour to the situation and spend less and save
more. Not only are the consumers affected by recession but also indus-
tries. The industries have to face lack of demand of their products; due
to decrease in the profits significantly companies have to either harvest
or divest their businesses in order to decrease their investment in un-
productive areas.

Companies have to face a lot of problems during a recession. The
prices of inputs increases therefore the cost of products increases
which leads to increase in price of products and consumers having low
purchasing power cannot afford the costly goods. Financially a com-
pany must prefer equity capital over debt as interests have to be paid
on debt and company cannot afford such expenditures in a recession.
This puts companies in a very bad situation, even the large ones. The
competitive strength of the company reduces, in order to regain its
market strength the company has to evolve and adjust accordingly to
the changing environment. Changes in the management have to be
made and personnel have to be let off to cut down costs. Production
has to be limited due to lack of demand for goods. Companies should
focus on entering foreign markets and must carry out exports to
achieve profitability. Changes to the company’s marketing strategies is
the most important thing to carry out, the company should aim for long
term sustainable development and should cut their spending in the
short term.

Marketing mix

Marketing mix of the company’s marketing strategies should be adap-
ted to the current economic situation. Elements of the marketing mix;
Product, Price, Place and Promotion, the 4P’s, should be adjusted for
company to achieve success and profitability.

Product

Products owned by a company which are not selling much or require
huge marketing efforts must be withdrawn from the market and be re-
placed by products doing currently good. The company must try to
make their products more functional and durable which appeal to the
consumers giving them more value for their money. Businesses must fo-
cus on research and development and try to be innovative and creat-

ive by adding more features to the existing product or introducing a
new product.

Price

Lowering the price of current products can be harmful for the company
in the long term as customers will not like to going to the former higher
prices when the recession ends and that can drive away lots of custom-
ers of the company. The business should aim for either high quality
goods on same price or high quality goods on lower price during such
an economic period and integrate the pricing element with other ele-
ments of the marketing mix.

Place

Business must increase efficiency in their distribution channel and stop
relations with unprofitable intermediaries. Business must allocate its re-
sources effectively in productive channels. Product should be with-
drawn from regions the product is losing its grip and focus should be
on the strong areas. Foreign markets should also be exploited for max-
imum result but it requires huge investments and results take time to
come, requires long term planning. Operating costs should be cur-
tailed and cooperation between intermediaries should be increased.

Promotion

Promotional activities should either be increased or maintained at the
existing level during a recession, decreasing it can cause harm to the
company. The message should be attractive and effective as consumer
has low purchasing power so products should stand out from competi-
tion. The message should portray quality, safety and durability and
should be able to satisfy the insecurities of the consumer’s psychology.
Print media and online marketing can be used.

Focus needed on

Focus is the key to success in the downturn. Focus is needed on import-
ant aspects like Competition, Brands, Customers and Communication.
Analysis of the competition is very necessary to understand their
strategies and stay one step ahead of them. Sales force also provides
information of the customer’s requirements and through the feedback
given by customers companies can align their strategies to their needs.
Weak brands can be acquired by stronger brands in these hard times.
The company should able to anticipate the actions of the competition
and customers; this will give the company a competitive edge. If other
companies are cutting their investments in marketing then instead of fol-
lowing those companies should either increase their investment or
maintain their existing spending.

Organisations should focus on their core brands and allocate re-
sources on strong brands because those brands will be capable of sur-
viving the recession and retract resources from sinking brands. It is not
possible to give equal focus on all brands and products in a financial
downturn. Organisations must focus on the core competencies which
made them successful in the first place, because customers have brand
associations and loyalty to these aspects of a brand so during a finan-
cial downturn companies must look to focus on their roots to help them
stand out and connect to customers. If the brands and products are
highly priced, it is not a problem unless they provide value for money
to the customers and brands must also be made accessible. Moreover,
premium brands should not lower their prices. Companies must also be
aware of competition and how they react to your actions. If a com-
pany decides to reduce the quality of its products then customers may
shift and competition can exploit this opportunity to widen their market.
For a determined focus on brands they have to be internalised, em-
ployees must be motivated and determined with a sense of security to
deliver the brand’s promise.

Customers are the most valuable asset of a company and they must be
kept happy and satisfied at all costs. Customers must regularly be re-
warded of their loyalty through discount vouchers, offers and valuable
information. Feedbacks should be taken from customers to know about
their needs and problems. Customers which are not satisfied with your
products or are late with payments should be considered to let go, as
they are not profitable to the company. Companies must also look to
shift their focus from unprofitable market segments to profitable ones.
As ‘Dove’ carried out a shift in the recession of 2001 when it shifted
from targeting high society women to a moisturising soap for all.

Communication is an essential part of the marketing strategy and
needs proper focus. Media used to communicate messages must be
cost effective, measurable and reach large audiences. Long term con-
tracts should be preferred for media as prices are low currently. To cut
down costs companies can also go for in-store marketing, because as-
sociations with the brand lasts for a long term therefore in-store market-
ing can portray the brand’s promise through stores. Testing the media
chosen is very important so as not to waste the scarce resources.

Asian Crisis

It started way back in 1997 with the devaluation of Thailand’s cur-
rency Baht. Since then all sectors are affected. Consumers have
changed their purchasing behaviour and tighten their belts. Corruption
and cronyism affected Asia, transactions were not transparent. Asian

companies lost focus on their core competencies because they ven-
tured into many unknown territories. This crisis resulted in large unem-
ployment and the rate of growth decreased. Credit was not readily
available from banks, customer demanded new things and competition
was at its peak. Asians responding by making changes in their mar-
kets, product offerings, promotion strategies, prices and distribution
and tried to adapt themselves to the varying consumer needs.

Consumers in Asia had reduced their consumption and become more
cautious in their purchasing activities. Consumers looked for informa-
tion and tried to reduce wastefulness at all costs. Consumers shifted to
necessary products rather than luxuries. Consumers just wanted to
spend less so they avoided big brands, foreign products and large
packages of products. Consumers wanted value for money and durab-
ility in the products at a cheap price. Asian companies rationalised
their promotional activities, and started to prefer informative ads then
visual ads. Discount and dollar stores were popular and more of win-
dow shopping occurred. Consumers stopped buying goods on impulse.

Businesses in Asia started focusing on their strong brands and market
and neglected the unproductive ones. Businesses pruned their existing
products and introduced new ones to exploit different markets. Intro-
duced flanker brands to protect their strong brands. Quality is very im-
portant but not by increasing prices. Asian businesses increased the
use of print media, and sales promotion activities like discounts and
loyalty programs. Sales force in contact with customers were trained
and skilled to understand and report back the needs and problems of
the customers. It was better to sell products at a wholesale and effi-
cient and profitable channel had to be used.

Indian textile Industry

The Textile industry in india is one of the sector which contributes a lot
to the total output of the industrial sector and employment opportunit-
ies. It comprises of the organised sector and unorganised sector, ma-
jority is the unorganised but slowly it is moving towards being organ-
ised. It contributed 4% to the nations GDP and 17% to the total ex-
ports. Indian economy is growing faster than most developed econom-
ies thus leading to investors to come to India. New business have
entered the textile industry in India to reap its benefits. India as a be-
nefit of cheap labour available to them which gives it a comparative
advantage in textile. To standardised textile industries all over the
world the Multi Fibre Agreement was started in 1974 for indian textiles
to develop themselves in accordance to the world standard. Exports
count for almost 60% of the production of textiles in India, the reces-
sion has adversely affected the industry as exports have fallen due to
fall in dollar price. Advent of information and communication techno-
logy in the industry in India had been a reason for growth in India.
MIS has helped the artisans, handicraft and hand-loom sectors to im-
prove their productivity and efficiency.

Electronic Retail Industry

Financial crisis has had an adverse affect on this sector. Sector has
showed no growth in revenue in 2009 and thus industries had to resort
to repurchasing shares and cutting down costs to achieve the basic
growth. Consumer electronics sector was affected the most due to de-
crease in consumer spending so the hardware sector had to push its
units to maintain growth. Consumers spent their money cautiously and
avoided expensive purchases. PC market and video gaming market
also faced decline in sales due to fall in demand as consumer prefer
spending on necessities. The market stabilised at the end of 2009 and
growth is expected to start by the end of 2010. Increase in expendit-
ure on marketing and technology can facilitate growth. Apple is the
best consumer electronics retailer as it continuous to have cash flows
even in the recession due to its portable electronics.

UK market is dominated by Comet and DSG retail outlets. Tesco and
Asda have also expanded into the electrical market. Online sales has
also been very strong through Ebay and Amazon. The link up of
Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy is a notable news in the UK.
Carphone warehouse can now sell new and wide variety of electrical
products and it is also trying to link up with HMV and M&S. The new
linkages plus its former reputation of efficient service and tie up with
Apple has made them a tough competitor. Constant innovation in tech-
nology is driving this sector as new demands and new products keep
on coming. Environment conscious businesses will develop a good im-
age in the market.

Analysis

Currys

Problems

Currys have had to face a lot of problems due to recession. Credit is
available if so only at a costly rate and customers prefer buying goods
on credit and pay later but due to the recession customers have re-
duced or delayed their purchases due to the credit crunch. The pur-
chasing power of customers have decreased so customers do not buy
expensive products like television, laptops, etc., this has affected the
sales and profitability of the company. Rate of internet selling has also
fallen because Currys are not able to offer competitive prices at the

time of recession so customers are shifting to other brands. Competi-
tion has increased a lot recently with the advent of superstores like
Best buy, Comet etc. Company has to work harder to formulate com-
petitive strategies to capture market and maintain its standing.

Employees are a vital part of the Organization and their performance
affects the results the company achieves. Effective training is required
for employees to be efficient. Currys have been neglecting employee
training and sales people need training as they are the contact with
customers. Due to this employee loses motivation and interest and
move on to greener pastures, this led to low retention rate of 40% for
employees in Currys. Currys were also offering very low pay to its staff
without any benefits; this resulted in employees providing poor per-
formance without reduced customer loyalty. This affected the company
badly. A Master Care facility was initiated to take care of employee’s
problems but that also did not work out due to inefficiency in the sys-
tem.

Continuous improvement in quality and redesigning processes are an
essential part of every organization. Enhancing the value of products
and services has been a constant effort of every company but Currys
has not taking any initiative regarding this matter for the past 10
years. The business processes were not customer friendly and no effort
was taken to redesign or simplify the processes. This also contributed
to the fall in the profitability of the company. Company did not provide
goods according to the customer needs but pushed its stock to the cus-
tomers. Orders depended on stock availability, this led to delayed de-
livery of orders and disgruntled customers. The stores were organized
very poorly and in a clumsy manner, this poor display led to fall in the
sales. Ignoring the employees and customers lead to Currys downfall
in the market.

Currys did not follow any insurance policy or extended warranty
schemes for their products, this result in many customers returning
goods and refunding their money. Insurance was then forced upon cus-
tomers in spite of a warranty already provided on any defect in the
product, this increased the price of products and thus customers started
to move away. These high prices of products had an adverse affect on
Currys profits and competitive position in the market.

Solutions

Currys understood the importance of employees and focused on train-
ing its employees. The staffs in contact with customers were offered pri-
ority in training and development of skills and knowledge. This motiv-
ated the employees and helped in instilling confidence in them. This
helped in improving the customer service and image of Currys. In-
crease in the pay for the staff boosted their morale, improved perform-
ance and satisfaction. Thus a more efficient and professional service
was offered to customers led to increase in profitability and customer
loyalty. Currys also came up various benefits for the employees and
also them employee discounts.

Currys brought in a new system named ECLIPS; it was advanced and
simpler to use then the former system. This increased the company’s
productivity a lot. The stores of Currys were organized and planned. It
was made more presentable and visible. Proper layouts were used to
arrange products. Stores now were accountable for any losses made
and these were deducted out of stores revenue account. The stocks
were also stored and arranged properly in a secure location. Custom-
ers were provided necessary information about the products which
helped them to match their requirements with the adequate product.

Currys shifted to the pull strategy rather than push. They provided cus-
tomers with the products they required and took advance orders and
delivered the goods to the customers when available rather than push-
ing existing stocks on them. Importance was given to customers in con-
trast to before, which helped in increasing regular customers to the
stores and increased business for Currys. Currys invested in the deliv-
ery system and trained staff to help deliver goods to customer
promptly and smoothly. This quick delivery system made the customers
happy and gave Currys a competitive edge. The Master Care facility
was replaced by tech guys who were more professional in solving
problems of the employees and customers. This helped in reducing re-
turns of goods and helped in checking losses of the company.

Currys came up with a transformation plan of value, choice and ser-
vice in May 2008. It transformed all the old stores and gave it a fresh,
new look and made easy navigation possible inside the stores. This
pleased the customers very much and helped increase the sales of their
products. The Renewal and Transformation plan adopted by Currys
contains five focus areas: customer, portfolio, transforming businesses,
Internet market and cost reduction. In depth customer analysis was car-
ried out by DSG to find out the customer’s requirements. So accord-
ingly DSG tried to deliver choice, value and service better than the
competition to its customers. Currys increased its product range to give
the customer more choice and at an economic price. It also tried to
give customers a unique experience in its stores. After sales services
provided to the customers were increased, installations and repairs
were also provided.

DSG focused on markets which were strong like UK, Ireland, Italy,
Greece and the Internet. It aims at drawing out the full potential of
these markets. DSG also made some changes to its processes and
design to make it efficient and leaner. Even stores formats were

changed and lot of experimentation was carried out. Many new stores
were opened and unproductive ones were closed. Changes were also
made to the cost structure, stock handling and marketing activities. In-
ternet platform PIXmania used by DSG was very beneficial for the
company as it achieved sales of more than one billion for the com-
pany. DSG also aimed at cost reduction through various ways, materi-
al saving, improving processes and decision making. This plan in-
creased sales by 4% in the short term.

Product Price Place Promotion
Increased their Reduced Introduced Used internet
product range prices and of- new stores marketing and
and stocks fered online and closed up word of mouth
rebate and unproductive to reach cus-
free delivery ones tomers

Jayashree Textiles

Analysis of the Questionnaire

The questionnaire was filled by Abhey Nair, Senior Vice President of
the company through email. Jayashree textiles is a unit of the multi-bil-
lion dollar Aditya Birla Group. I asked ten questions having content
ranging from their business, recession, pricing, marketing strategies,
etc.

First question is about the business the company does, the company is
engaged in Wool and Linen business. In wool, they are the 4th largest
combers in the world. Jayashree textiles imports greasy wool from
Australia and process it themselves. Some wool is spun there and rest
is sold as wool tops to Japan and Europe. About linen, flax fibre is im-
ported from Belgium and France. They spin, weave and process it into
fine fabric for Domestic as well as International brands.

Second question is about the future objectives of the company. The
company currently has the number uno position in the Linen market
and would like to retain it in the future. They want to expand their pro-
duction capacity to reach 15% of the world market of linen. In the
wool sector they want to integrate vertically and attain the top position
in wool combing.

Third question is about the financial downturn and its effects on the
company. Their business related to international market was in nose
dive, but their strong footing in domestic market is what saved them
from the impact of recession. International buyers had cut down their
orders or asked for low cost import thus affecting volume as well as
profitability by 30-35%.

Fourth question is about the measures they took to fight recession.
They aimed at correcting their in house efficiency first by several brain
storming sessions. Individual productivity was reviewed and revised.
Travel, Entertainment costs were reduced and the workforce was ratio-
nalized. Focus was on the domestic market and to increase their hold
on the market as it was not affected much by recession. All non per-
forming assets were disposed and employees had to undergo counsel-

ing. Continuous interaction with buyers were carried out and this all
helped them pass through the phase of downturn.

Fifth question is about the competition and how the company differenti-
ates itself. Product range has been regularly changed over the past
years which indicates continuos improvement and innovation. Technol-
ogy and soft skills are also updated. Target niche market with linen
which gives them exclusivity. The product is complex so its difficult to
manufacture and market it. Linen is considered as a summer fabric and
India is the best place to sell this product all year. In wool, they use the
least manpower in the world.

Sixth question is pertaining the customer and new offerings. Customers
is considered very important and treated next to God. All products,
creations, services, logistics are designed to the consumers’ require-
ment. Customers are all treated equally whether they be international,
domestic, big or small. They have an efficient product development
team and a design team which is up to date with the knowledge in
fashion forecasts, colour, style as well as seasonal presentation. They
feed on the taste of international brands, culture and climates. Soft
skills are European professionals.

Seventh question is about the message its spreads to its audience. The
company aims to keep the customers confident in their products and
services. They assure customers of a high quality, competitive prices
and on time delivery. They don't sell textiles they sell lifestyles. They
carry out advertising on a large scale. They have exhibitions, fashion
shows and other sales promotion.

Eighth question is the description of their selling process. They have
selling agents all around which help them connect with buyers. It is
business to business selling. They have healthy relations with the
sellers, wholesalers, buyers and other stakeholders. They have proper

logistics and after sales service. They have showrooms all around India
for their retail selling.

Ninth question is about product quality and its relation with cost. The
company has learnt from their experience over the years that automa-
tion plays an important role in cost cutting, sweating of assets, elimina-
tion of non productive activities, quality of workmanship, minimise re-
work, doing it right the first time. Good technology is also required to
produce quality goods. Cheap Raw materials used of good quality
help in getting good quality finished goods at an economic price.

Final question dealt with the pricing aspect and influence of competi-
tion on the price. Jayashree textiles price their goods rationally and
give no scope to competition thus they are the leader. Greed and high
profits attracts competition. China is coming up with much cheaper lin-
en with high volume and keeping their profit margins very low but Jay-
ashree follows low volume and high margin for profits.

Product Price Place Promotion
Regular change in No change in New retail outlets Heavy advertising
the product line. price, has all across the do- Fashion shows
Linen monopoly in the mestic market in Sales promotion
domestic market India.

Recommendations

Economic downturn hits the marketing function very badly in any com-
pany as marketing budgets are cut down before any other budgets in
a financial crunch. The fittest can only survive the recession, 60% of
the big companies have already cut down their marketing budgets.

Traditional marketing is being replaced by internet marketing and dir-
ect marketing is being preferred to spend on then branding. Small
companies instead of having reduced their marketing budgets have in-
creased it; this may be because they are at their growth stage and re-
quire investment in marketing. The trick of not reducing marketing
budgets is to decrease your overhead costs and investing the saved
funds in media, internet marketing and advertising.

Direct marketing is being carried out during the financial crisis as it is
less expensive and its results can be measured, and during a recession
short term targets are followed so the results are needed to be meas-
ured instantly. Some marketers feel budget cuts are very harmful for a
company, they suggest to continue or increase investment as the com-
petitors might be cutting down on their marketing budgets, this
provides an opportunity to target markets. Business to business sector
has not been affected much by recession but the business to consumer
sector has, to improve this marketers have to be specific in their advert-
isement and messages. Customers have to be given utmost importance
even though consumer spending has decreased. Customers should be
regularly sent direct mails and emails. Focus should be on the existing
customer rather than new customers. Firm’s are now lengthening their
sales cycle to fight recession but there has to be good understanding
of the business processes for that. Online marketing like direct market-
ing is cheap and its results are measurable, so companies are carrying
it out instead of other options available to them.

Companies that do well in the downturn are able to understand cus-
tomer needs and current market requirements and act upon it accord-
ingly. Currys and Jayashree Textiles have both carried out these activ-
ities and both survived the recession and now prospering. It shows it
does not matter whether you a company in UK or India, if you follow

the basics and act accordingly success is possible. Companies must
listen and pay heed to what customers have to say as it helps them to
serve them better and increase their product ranges. Customer re-
sponse acts a yardstick for measuring company’s performance and
helps them to align their activities according to the needs of the mar-
ket.

Organisations should have a clear vision of the future and communic-
ate it to their employees and customers. The sales representatives
should relate to the problems of the customers and give them practical
examples. This helps is gaining customer trust and confidence. The
company should also have diversified products and markets, its risk
should be spread across its markets and products. This helps industries
during times of recession but only large firms can carry it out. In the
textile industry working for niche market and making products for a se-
lect few and thus can follow differentiation strategies. But it requires
huge finances to carry out such a strategy.

Conclusion
Consumers are affected a lot by the financial crisis and their spending decreases.
Organization thus face a problem and there is no demand for their products as
consumers desire value for their money and security. Organizations then have to
mould themselves according to the needs of the consumers and bring out about
changes in their marketing strategies, mainly in the marketing mix. Each element of
the market mix has to be modified Price, place, product and promotion. Investment
in marketing has to be either increased or maintained if a firm has to survive a re-
cession, cutting down marketing budgets can prove to be fatal for the company.
Our research questions have been answered properly. We had to study mainly
three aspects and its relation, that is the recession, consumers and the organiza-
tion. Thus we see instability in the economic macro environment causes changes in
the demographic factor and accordingly the company has to realign itself accord-
ing to the needs of the current scenario.

Limitations
•More in-depth analysis of the working of Currys could have been carried out but
due to shortage of time and funds it was not possible to I had to stick to secondary
data collection methods for its analysis.

•Academic literature available is also very less which limits the extent of the re-
search.

•Due to shortage of time a more detailed interview with other people of the top man-
agement could not be taken.

•Even though there were problems the research has been conducted very well to the
best of my ability.

http://www.economywatch.com/business-and-economy/textile-industry-
growth.html
http://www.zacks.com/commentary/12985/Consumer+Electronics+Stock+Re-
view+-+Industry+Outlook
http://texmin.gov.in/

Siddis

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