Peter England: Denim Brands' Profile

Peter England etched its beginnings in the latter half of the 19th century, when the foundation for a five-storey building was laid in Londonderry, Ireland, in the summer of 1885. By the turn of the century, the British war ministry placed an order with Peter England to outfit the troops being sent to fight in the Boer War. This marked a turning point in the history of the brand. The order meant that the highest quality apparel had to be delivered at a good price, a challenge that Peter England met with outstanding success. Charged with the honourable duty of outfitting British troops for battle, Peter England was born, donning the soldiers in the finest khaki. Since then, Peter England''s popularity has filled chapters of clothing history, by offering excellent quality at honest-to-goodness prices. Today, Peter England is the largest menswear brand in India with over 10 million garments in sales.

Core value, mission and vision of the brand:

The brand's vision is to become the most loved apparel brand of India offering clothes and accessories of unmatched value, to help young consumers realise their full potential. Its core values lie in its goal to be its consumers'' preferred choice while being the country''s most trusted as well as the most exciting brand to be present in the retail sector.

The brand's USP:

Peter England, specifically PE Jeans, is imagined and built on three basic philosophies: sustainability, fusion and fashion. Peter England sensitises fashion and evokes an emotion that truly symbolises the brand as most exciting as well as most trusted amongst consumers in the readymade apparel category.

First to the brand's credit:

In its journey of 17 years in India, Peter England has registered many firsts to its credit. Peter England was the first mid-priced menswear apparel brand in India. The brand was one of the first to introduce wrinkle-free shirts and trousers with adjustable waistbands. English Cottons, one of Peter England's first signature collections, made up of premium cotton blends, found immediate acceptance with consumers. It is also the only brand in India to have a design patent for one of its own products — Cordeans, by PE Jeans. Cordeans is a hybrid between corduroy and jeans. This is indeed a ''first'' not only to the brand's credit but a first in the retail industry as a whole. Peter England's innovative Oxygeans saves 80 litre of water during its production phase and it has several awards and accolades to its credit.

Razor sharp is a hugely popular shirt from the brand''s stable. The product is a formal shirt with extremely sharp and crisp stripes like none other. This sharp nature of stripes is achieved by a special technique of weaving. Among others, the brand has at quick intervals launched innovative products for specific occasions, such as Aqua Tech shirts (it keeps the wearer cool and comfortable due to a unique enzyme wash), Smart Pants (a collection of trousers with smart features like anti-wrinkle, water resistance and anti-microbial wash among others and N9 finish on jeans (which keeps the jeans free from odour and microbes).

Awards and achievements registered by the brand:

The brand started 2014 with 3 consecutive wins at the most prestigious awards in the retail industry. These included Gold for the ''Best Store Front'' and ''Best Store Front Signage'', along with a Merit 2 for ''Western Fashion Apparel - Specialty Store'' at the visual merchandising and Retail Design (VM&RD) awards, 2014. The brand was also awarded winner of the ''Images Most Admired Fashion Design Concept of the Year'' for its innovative product ''Oxygeans'' at the Images Fashion Awards 2014, held in Mumbai. Peter England was also awarded the most trusted brand award by ET for 6 consecutive years and the most exciting brand by ET for 2 years in a row.

Target consumers:

As the brand has a diverse range of products in its portfolio, they meet the needs of a wide variety of audience. The target audience of the brand would stand as:
PE Jeans & Casuals: They are between 18-25 years.
Peter England Traditions & Ethnic: It is for the 25-30 years customers.
Elite & Elite Sport: This targets 30 years and above customers.

Product assortment:

It provide its customers a diverse collection along with unique innovations. Championing the concept of ''Young Formals'' — smart and stylish formalwear for young men in the early years of their career — Peter England has collection that comprises a diverse range of casuals, semi-formals, wedding and ethnicwear (suits and blazers, and partywear) among various others. In addition, Peter England''s Elite and Elite Sport collection is a range that exudes confidence and authority and is meant for the suave and the sophisticated.

Most iconic collection from the brand:

One of the most iconic collections from Peter England is the Oxygeans collection, which is an eco-friendly line of jeanswear that saves approximately 80 litres of water, per pair through indigenously developed washing methods. The same product was recognised as the winner of the ''Images Most Admired Fashion Design Concept of the Year'', earlier this year.

Top advertising campaigns from the brand:

Peter England has been associated with quite a number of celebrities ever since its launch in India. Parvin Dabbas and Shiney Ahuja were among the first faces of the brand in the country. Since then, the brand has formed associations with MS Dhoni and the team of Chennai Super Kings and Siddharth. Kareena Kapoor Khan was also associated with Peter England when the brand launched the suits for the first time in early 2004.

Total no. of EBOs:

The brand has over 600 EBOs currently.

Total no. of MBOs and LFS:

The brand has more than 2,000 MBOs in its network. The brand also has presence in over 300 shop-in-shops in key large format stores like Max, Reliance Trends, Central, Pantaloons and family-owned large format stores.

Online retail:

Peter England market their products through their in-house fashion portal trendin.com; and through leading portals like Myntra, Flipkart and Snapdeal. The brand inspires visitors on the online space with PE styling and showcases the best of PE products on the medium. The brand has strengthened its social media presence engaging and conversing real-time with customers and creating and fostering inspirational stories. It has been conversing, engaging and educating customers about what Peter England is all about.

Furthermore, with brands constantly looking for ways to connect with their target audience and engage with them. By actively involving their consumers on social media, Peter England has been able to create a two-way communication system, which connects the brand with its target audience in a better way, resulting in an enhanced consumer experience. The perfect example for the above is #TweetaGoal where Peter England invited fans to play the world''s first game of football on Twitter.

A platform where style met passion, the concept was so unique and engaging that it started trending on trendsmap within a day itself! With double fun and excitement, this contest showed that by thinking out of the box one could really get people to connect and engage with the brand on a different level. Following an initial buzz about the campaign, a micro site was launched that gave the details on how to play besides telling about winning goodies and the list of winners.

To stimulate the actual intensity of a football match, ''on field'' rules were replicated on the online space as well. This activity received overwhelming response from the audience and the brand successfully used this medium to win over its target consumers across the country. The brand went out the extra mile to c;reate a real life experience, which truly was a ''goal in one''! The site saw a high level of interest and involvement from the audience as a total impression of 26.7 million and a total reach of 5.17 lakh was reached.

The love and enthusiasm that was received by the fans was overwhelming as the virtual presence of the game was so lifelike, that people felt they were actually playing on the field! Export markets for the brand include many Middle East countries like Dubai, Bahrain, Quwait, Doha, Saudi Arabia as well as SAARC countries like Sri Lanka and Nepal. The brand has about 50 shop-in-shops in these markets.

Market share and future aspirations:

The brand sells about half a million denims per year and it plans to take it up to a million in the next 2-3 years.

Green initiatives:

Peter England was one of the first brands in the country to create ''Sustainable Jeans Fashion''; its Oxygeans has been a part the portfolio for over 5 seasons now. It sold 62,748 Oxygeans in 2013, and saved 13,26,101 gallons of water, making it a one of a kind of achievement.

Expert take on the Indian denim market:

The denim market specifically is growing at 50-60 per cent year-on-year and is a category that continues to expand. As the market increasingly moves towards casuals and denims, PE Jeans has helped reach out to the younger working professionals of India. At Peter England, the team believes that jeans is not only the most exciting but the fastest growing lifestyle evolution.

Trends for the upcoming season:

The Autumn-Winter ''14 collection is built around the theme ''Young India'' or ''India Cool''. With its cool and refreshing look, the collection promises to be as quirky, fun and original as the brand itself.