A Comparative Study of Marketing Practices of Knitwear Export Units in Punjab and Tamil Nadu

Abstract

The present study was conducted to compare the marketing strategies of knitwear exporters of Ludhiana (Punjab) and Tirupur (Tamil Nadu). An exploratory study was conducted in which thirty knitwear export units each from Ludhiana and Tirupur were selected, and information was collected using a questionnaire. In Tirupur, only 3 percent of the units had their brand, while in Ludhiana, 60.00 percent of the units had their brand. Out of the knitwear units in Ludhiana, which did not own a brand, 91.67 percent worked with buyer's brand or other private labels, while in Tirupur, 58.63 percent of the units were not interested in owning a brand. The first rank was given to seminars, workshops, and international trade shows, which were used as a source to get information by knitwear export units at both places (Ludhiana and Tirupur). One-third of the units in Ludhiana acquired ISO14000 certification, while in Tirupur, about two-thirds of the units got OekoTex Standard-100. It was also found that 46.67 percent of the units in Ludhiana spent less than 5 lakh rupees, and in Tirupur, 30 percent of the units spent more than 15 lakh as promotional ? budget. Nearly half (53.33 percent) of the units in Ludhiana and 36.67 percent of the knitwear export units in Tirupur spent 3-9 percent of total export sales on marketing research.