Executive Summary

Aarong (), the heaven of Bangladeshi handicrafts means a village fair in the Bengali language. It is an enterprise of BRAC, the largest non-governmental development organization in the world. Though it is produced and marketed in Bangladesh, it maintains the international standard. Their strong competitors are Banglar Mela, Kay Kraft, Aborton etc. Aarong also plays the role of protector and promoter of traditional Bangladeshi products and designs. It houses an extensive design library where remnants of our rich craft heritage, such as Nakshikantha art and Jamdani pattern. They started their journey in 1978, since then 4ps are successfully used by Aarong.

a. What needs does this product/brand fulfill?

Aarong is nationally recognized brand in Bangladesh. The first step of marketing is to understand the needs and wants of the customers. They have been doing it successfully from the beginning. This is an era of modern clothes like t-shirt, jeans, skirt, and so on, so there were needs of indigenous clothes as well as the dress or things which can keep our traditional custom alive. They are one of the first brands that have been successfully fulfilled our needs. Their products include deshi (indigenous) handicrafts like hand woven clothes, jewelry, bags, nakshi kantha, pottery, candles, terracotta and a wide range of indigenous products of metal, bamboo, wood, jute, paper, ceramics.

b. Who would buy this product/brand?

We all know cultural, social, psychological and personal factors affect consumers buying behavior. As their products include all sorts of indigenous handicrafts their target customers are almost everyone. Aarong suits rich and upper middle class peoples life style, status and personality and the perception of the product in the customer mind is really satisfactory, so upper, upper middle and upper class people buy their products. Although their target customers are mostly women, they have a huge clothes and accessories collection for boys and men.

c. How much the marketer charge for the product/brand?

Initially their objective was to attract a large number of buyers, so they followed market penetration strategy by keeping their price low. As they are delivering high quality products their price is bit high now. They charge according to the product, the cost of production, competitors price. Sometimes they add extra value to a product to make it more unique. They do not follow the segmentation pricing strategy, the price is same everywhere. They give discount during Eid, puja and pohela baishakh and they have their special discount coupon that one can get after buying a minimum amount of product. Here is some products price: Product Saree Shirt Fotua Punjabi Shoe/Sandal Price 1200-7000 300-2000 200-600 600-4000 250-2000 Product Jewelry Bags Handicrafts Home accessories Milk Price 50-1000 150-800 75-500 150-1000 50(1 litre)

d. How is the product/brand placed by the marketer?

They are providing more benefits at a lesser price at different place around the country. At present Aarong have 10 domestic outlets across the major metropolitan areas of the country - in Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Sylhet. They have placed their products successfully in order to reach near to the customer. They have their main store at dhanmondi, dhaka. They have their other outlet at gulshan, wari, moghbazar, uttara, in Dhaka and at GEC, Halishahar in Chittagong.

e. How is it being promoted?

They have been determined the market size and spending big amount of money of capital for promotional activities. Its being promoted throughout the country by ad in paper, TV, radio, magazine, poster, billboard etc. They are trying to pay attention by saying that they are one of the few groups who are selling indigenous products. To make Aarong the best in the world in providing a unique Bangladeshi lifestyle experience to empower people and promote Bangladesh while protecting our environment. Today, Aarong's reach has spread beyond Manikganj to the rest of the country. It has grown into a thriving international enterprise. From a single shop, Aarong has grown into one of Bangladesh's biggest retail chains.

f. Recommendation

As they are successful in their field, their decision and ideas are quite satisfactory, so in regard to the above situations I would have done same thing in most of the cases. But in order to become more successful I would have followed these strategies: 1. As there is a price war between the competitors so, I would have changed the price by reducing the cost of production and therefore lower middle and middle class people could buy this product more conveniently. 2. As they have leading brand reputation I would have tried to capture more market share
3. I would also conduct different promotional activities in rural fairs and

socially responsible promotional activities to attract rural consumers.

4. I would promote Aarong in biggest events in our country by creating a

small store at the place.