Zeb and Haniya among the loyal clientele of Ego

Ego could be the biggest fashion retail success story in Pakistan this decade.
Instep takes a look at the retailer that has grown steadily since its inception to become a brand with a celebrity following.

By Saba Imtiaz

Despite not using conventional advertising, Ego has found its designs on Coke Studio billboards and the LSA red carpet, via their celebrity clients, Zeb and Haniya.

Crowds of shoppers flocking at a store. Women complaining that all their favourite designs have been sold out. Beelines to the ATM machine. These could be scenes at a shopping mall or high street anywhere in the world; but this is an everyday occurrence at the Pakistani retail chain Ego.

Ego is the retailer success story of the decade in Pakistan. From a low-key opening in the overcrowded lanes of Zamzama in Karachi in 2006, the store has had a significant impact on how women shop in just a few years.

With an increase in women heading to the workplace who didn’t have the time (or the patience) to blackmail tailors and bargain at fabric stores, a huge need emerged for office wear, leaving hundreds of women standing in front of their closets everyday, faced with the dilemma of ‘what do I wear?’ . Ego rose through the ranks as ‘the’ store to head to for a one-stop solution, selling affordable ready-to-wear clothes that were appropriate for the workplace and trendy to boot.

Since its launch, Ego has consolidated its market share, leaving behind retail stores that also opened up around the same time. Today, it has a total of 11 retail spaces in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, has done seven exhibitions in the US and plans to do 60 more across the world from Bombay, Delhi and Colombo to the UK and US. It has become a brand in its own right, has the female singing sensations Zeb and Haniya among its loyal clientele, and has more recognition than any of the new designers who have launched their first ‘prêt’ collection with couture price tags.

Ego’s success as a retailer finds its parallel in how fashion has evolved abroad in the past year. When the chill of the global economic recession began to set in, couture houses like Christian Lacroix found themselves out of business, and stock at high-end retailers gathered dust. Retail buyers and magazine editors focused on showcasing affordable designers who made classic pieces that a shaky consumer base would buy regardless of the financial crunch.

But customers defied the recession and caused riot-like scenes at the Topshop opening in New York, the worldwide launch of H&M’s Commes des Garcon collaboration line and the Sana Safinaz lawn sale in Karachi, proving that the tide has turned irrevocably in the favour of affordable fashion that can make the transition from daywear to evening wear.
Perhaps that’s why Ego has survived and grown steadily. But they have plenty going for them, including a solid retail foundation and a strong customer focus. A visit to one of the Ego workshops located in Defence is a revelation. The door to Adil Moosajee’s office – the jovial man who runs Ego – bears a note with customer feedback: “a reminder to do better”, says Adil. But more so than the pride Adil and Ego should rightly have in their success is the pride they take in their employees. Ego works on a unique model where they have outsourced manufacturing to their own employees who are given units to run. This develops an in-house line of suppliers that manage their own operations and can expand.
“One of the things we’re really proud of is the people that we’ve pushed forward. The guy who used to do our printing has his own press; the embroidery worker has his own facility. Four of our employees who used to make 7000 rupees a month now make 30,000 a month because they handle their own units… so they’ve really grown,” reveals Adil.

The customer is king
Ego has eschewed normal forms of advertising in favour of the Home Express newsletter and the social networking website Facebook. Ego’s page on Facebook is a one-stop look at everything the retailer is doing. They upload new designs at a remarkable frequency and hundreds of comments pour in everyday as well as customer complaints. The page has 14,266 Facebook users listed as fans of Ego.

This is their platform for directly interacting with customers and getting valuable feedback. And Ego relies heavily on their clientele to promote them as well. “We believe that no one can market Ego better than the people wearing Ego,” Adil explains. “If you’re wearing it and you tell people its Ego it speaks for itself. You don’t have to say ‘I like it’ because you obviously must like it, that’s why you’re wearing it!”

Designer drama
As far as design goes, Adil is extremely content with how Ego is operating right now. They produce 15 to 20 new designs every month, which are designed by Adil and Amir Tariq (who work on a permanent basis), with a rotational team of people who work for different periods of time and put in their design input.

But one wonders whether Ego could follow the examples of retailers abroad who have collaborated with high-end designers to make affordable street wear with a designer tag, but it is met with an emphatic no. “This is one of the times that you’ll hear me sounding cocky, ” says Adil, “but nobody can do what we do better than us. So it’s not going to happen.”

I press further. Look at the impact of designer lawn sales that someone like Sana Safinaz has, that name does sell. Couldn’t it have the same impact on Ego?

“It could work for some people, its not going to work for us. Our line is called Ego, for crying out loud! (Laughs)”

“Truthfully, I really don’t think anyone can do what Ego does. After all, we don’t claim to do bridals better than Rizwan Beyg or anyone else. Secondly, we don’t want to. If we’ve taken help from anyone to come up with ideas or improve or design, it’s the customer. The customer has come back to us over the years and given us a lot of feedback and helped us create new styles.”

Fashion Rocks!
Despite not using conventional advertising, Ego has found its designs on Coke Studio billboards and the LSA red carpet, via their celebrity clients, Zeb and Haniya.

“People like Zeb and Haniya have not just helped us market us but have given us incredible confidence,” says Adil. “I didn’t know them at all. They walked in to the store one day and left their CD and said ‘look we really like Ego, listen to our CD, if you like our music, and let’s strike a deal where we promote each other’. We heard their CD and fell in love with them, and now they wear Ego everywhere.”

The duo performed at a concert Ego organized for their opening at The Forum in Karachi, a tactical move that brought in more potential customers to the store than any of the usual launches. Haniya told Instep at the concert, “When we walked in, I told Zeb ‘hey, that’s the kind of stuff we wear!’

A heritage of retail
Ego has all the retail basics right, from restocking (a sore point with multi-label stores and designers) to stock turnover and store management. Ego has a strong background to learn from: Adil hails from the Moosajee family that owns the retail brand that is synonymous with quality menswear and suiting – which his family owns. “Moosajee’s plays a huge part,” says Adil. “Moosajee’s has been in business for a long time. We have their support in terms of structure, finance, administration, how to hire and manage people, dealing with inventory, logistics etc. The confidence of the fact that we’re good at retail… It’s very different in terms of markets and the design element, but the retail mechanism is the same.”

That confidence has been bolstered by the customers, who have flocked to Ego for their affordable price tags (ranging roughly between 1000 – 3000 rupees). “So Ego’s pricing…with the state of the economy…” I venture to ask. Adil laughingly replies, “Have you NOTICED how ridiculously cheap we are? It’s CRAZY!”

So how is Ego surviving? “We’re happy,” says Adil. “The numbers work for me, it’s not huge amounts of money, but it’s good money.”

Source: INSTEP Magzine