How to ‘bag’ the local market

BUSINESS BITS
Portia Marie Silva

As a child, Amina Aranaz-Alunan spent all her summers working in her mother’s bag factory that it seemed natural for this style maven to take over the business one day. And in 1999, she did take over Aranaz.

But despite knowing the business like the back of her hand, Amina admits that she found it hard to identify and break into the local market because the family business initially operated as an exporter.

“I’ve always believed in our products, but we have a very select group of clients back then. The appeal it has on our foreign buyers might not work here,” she says.

As the new kid in the local bag industry and a fairly “unknown” brand at that, breaking through the mold scared Amina. “I wasn’t sure on who to tap or where to go to market our bags,” she shares.

All these questions were eventually answered in late 1998, after her brother Miguel made incredibly huge sales from selling their export overruns to his classmates in Ateneo de Manila University. The timing was perfect since her brother’s buyers were purchasing the bags to give as Christmas gifts.

So from 1999 to 2003, Amina decided to expand the enterprise and explore different markets in Manila, without necessarily having set up shop in malls and going mainstream. It was a branding tactic, she explains.

At that time, Aranaz bags could only be found in upscale Christmas bazaars. The brand had gained quite a following that at one point, they were invited by The City Golf Plaza in Pasig City to become an in-house brand.

“We want our brand to be known while remaining ‘exclusive’. In other words, we want buyers to specifically look and request for our items. Although we might come off as a little elitist, the company and the brand are not discriminating. In fact, we involve peoples from different walks of life in the business,” she says.

Indeed, Amina, together with good friend and fashion designer Rajo Laurel, has collaborated with social business enterprise Rags2Riches to help the women of Payatas. “I don’t think they have ever heard of the brand, but these women, you have to give it to them.

They are skilled,” she says. For three months, Amina conducted workshops at a design school that she co-founded, the School of Fashion and the Arts (SoFA), to hone the creative skills and educate the women of Payatas in bag design and manufacturing. The training paid off and the partnership with Rags2Riches produced an exquisite line of classy, eco-friendly bags.

The collection uses recycled materials gathered from the poverty-stricken Payatas community, incorporated with “distinctly Aranaz” pieces like wood handles, leather trimmings and mother of pearl embellishments. Amina says, “It is important to give back and help while you can. They have the talent; I have access to resources. Just do good and the business will flourish

The bag designer reveals that she is also looking into launching women’s clothing under the same brand sometime soon.

Right now, few pieces are on display in Aranaz boutiques in Power Plant Mall and Greenbelt 5 but Amina is quick to admit that she’s “not as strong a retail designer as she is a bag designer.” Her sister Rosanna, fashion blogger and co-author of www.littlemissdressup.com, does most of the creative planning for their proposed clothing line.

Amina adds, “I’m every bit of a bag junkie and a fashion lover turned entrepreneur. While I say I’m a designer first and foremost, I have learned through my years at Aranaz that creativity alone will not help the company survive. When you have the right business mindset and when you constantly innovate, then nothing can stop you from bagging it all.”