Ebony hires Mudra to spearhead new campaign  ( August '25,2001, HBL)

THE DS Group-owned Ebony Retail Holdings, which runs the retail chain Ebony, has hired Mudra Advertising to handle the Ebony brand's advertising account. Mudra has been hired in place of RK Swamy/BBDO, Ebony's advertising agency of one-and-a-half years.

The Ebony account was won by Mudra from a multi-agency pitch which involved Bates, among a couple of other agencies, Mr Lalit Kumar, Group Vice-President, DS Group, said.

Explaining the reason for the account shift, Mr Kumar said, ``The change in our ad agency is in line with Ebony's expansion plans. Our presence had been restricted to the northern region earlier, but now that we are expanding to other parts of the country, we required the services of another agency.''

Apart from the advertising campaign per se, Mudra will also handle the Ebony brand's event management, on-ground marketing activities and outdoor publicity.

The fresh campaign is likely to hit television screens and the print media within a time frame of two months. The brand's positioning statement is currently being worked out, Mr Kumar said.

Meanwhile, in what is possibly the first of its kind advertising strategy within the domestic retail industry, Ebony Retail Holdings has worked out a performance-linked compensation package with Mudra Advertising. ``Different compensation slabs have been set up with the agency, and compensation will be based on certain internal targets being met,'' Mr Kumar said.

Ebony Retail Holdings closed March 2001 on a turnover of Rs 56 crore. The company is targeting a turnover of roughly Rs 95 crore by March next year.

As part of its Rs 20-crore expansion plan, Ebony Retail Holdings is set to inaugurate its store in Chennai around the end of next month, followed by stores in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai subsequently. ``We intend to set up at least four more stores by March next year. Our target is to have 20 operational stores by March 2003,'' Mr Kumar said.

Ebony Retail Holdings currently has six stores in the country.

However, the company has decided to put on hold its earlier decision to set up a series of budget stores across the country. Attributing the decision to two key reasons, Mr Kumar said, ``We have decided against setting up budget stores for the time being at least, keeping in mind the prevailing market conditions and the current excise policy. However, we are not completely ruling out the possibility setting up budget stores in the future.''