Raymond: From 'the complete man' to an 'incomplete' man?

There are many established brands over the decades that have their own value in the minds of consumers. These brands tend to become bigger than the individual or the organisation they come from and one such brand is Raymond. Surely the current events will and have impacted the market value of the brand from a business perspective however very often with such a well-established brand like Raymond the customer value may not deplete as fast as the business value. 

A CMD or CEO of a company is the face and primary brand ambassador of the organisation. The person at the helm is expected to behave in a manner that is consistent with the brand image of the organisation. We have seen how investors punish stocks as well as brands for behaviour which is perceived as inconsistent with expectations. This can impact even more when it comes to family feuds, which may have an impact on the ownership. A stock price is essentially the perceived value of the company, and perception plays the most important role in investor sentiment. In Raymond’s case, its advertised image is that of ‘the complete man’, but in Gautam Singhania, you have a CMD, who seems quite distant from this image.


Prathap Suthan, co-founder, Bang in the Middle

I don’t think this dispute,  however acrimonious, will affect the brand Raymond and 'the complete man'. To the buying public, there is no link to the brand. No equity is linked to the brand. Namewise especially. If it was Singhania Suiting, maybe. Even otherwise, a feud in the owning family doesn’t really rub the gloss off the brand. The brand and the tears are two unconnected stories to the normal buyer, and I doubt if they have even heard of the fight and divorce and the book (An Incomplete Life: The Autobiography by Vijaypat Singhania) and every other detail of the house of Raymond.



Ambi Parameswaran, independent brand strategist 

'The complete man' campaign, the way it was conceptualised by Nexus in the 90s is not the way it is run today. It is no longer true to the original ethos of a person who has human values and who spends time with his family and all that. So the campaign also has kind of got diluted today to depict a very well-dressed man but without much emotional gravitas. So I don't think that's an issue.
Finally, it's a B2C brand that stands right on top today and it doesn't really have much competition. So I don't think all these managing director shenanigans are going to have much impact on the brand image of Raymond to the average consumer. Every brand may have a core essence but the first purpose the brand has to serve is 'value for money' and to deliver the product. If because of all this boardroom drama, the quality of the suiting goes down, or the quality of service they offer in their outlets goes down, then it's different. But otherwise, I don't think it's going to have a huge impact.

For the large part, I don't think Brand Raymond will get shaken up much for the lay consumer of the product. Primarily because most will not associate the family affairs with the brand - they are far too distanced. The corporate brand will, however, be impacted for certain.