Vogue India launch set for Sept 21

In last Friday's Mint, Condé Nast India managing director Alex Kuruvilla speaks about why Vogue has taken so long to come to India. He says:

Condé Nast has been looking at the Indian market for a while now. Typically, when Vogue enters a market, it signals that the market has, in a sense, arrived—at least from a luxury and fashion point of view. A good case in point is that Condé Nast and Vogue chose to enter China only in 2005. We’re not the kind of people who rush into new markets and look for first-move advantage. In fact, we like to refer to our competitor’s move as first-move disadvantage. Because they moved here when regulations did not allow foreign direct investment in the publishing space, all of them are licensed brands. At best, they may be minority stake holders. So, if you don’t own it, you won’t invest in it. It’s a vicious cycle.

The second problem is that not all the big luxury players are here yet. Even the ones that are here are sitting on very small businesses. So people who came in 10 years ago, like our competitors, were forced to mainstream their brands and business. When you couple with that low investment, it means that editorial content and production values are pretty low. To top that, you have to build a business so you go after advertising that is more mass than you would in any other market. So the product ends up being a very generic, ‘me too’ product.

In a sense our timing has been right. It’s a bit of a cliché—about strong economic growth, and reports on the number of millionaires being added on each year—(but) there is a germ of truth in that. That is driving growth of the affluent set, which, in turn, will drive the consumption of luxury brands and that is where we are poised.

For the entire article, go here.

***

In June 2007, FashionWeekDaily reported that Gemma Ward will be Vogue India’s first cover girl. In 2005, Ward appeared on the inaugural cover of Vogue China (pictured above). The title, expected to hit newsstands on September 21, will mark the 17th edition of Vogue worldwide.