This local tudung brand sells its products in staggering numbers with fans and collectors firmly supporting their favourite label, writes Syida Lizta Amirul Ihsan
IT’S 9am on a Monday morning at the Aidijuma office in the heart of the city and I am sitting in a pseudo garden carpeted by artificial grass. The sofa is in pastel pink and the chairs are in soft shades too.
It’s not just the furnishing that’s in that hue. The tea set in the waiting room is also flower-printed and I suddenly feel an overpowering aura of all things girly. For someone who doesn’t even like print, the surrounding is quite dizzying.
It’s as if I’m in a world that’s a cross between Laura Ashley and My Little Pony and Friends, with an overdose of pinks, pastels and pretty things all in one room.
But it is exactly this world, this girly-cutesy-feminine universe that Aidijuma is known for, that has made this tudung bawal brand one of the most popular tudung labels in Malaysia.
With images of ice-cream and balloons, Eiffel Tower and macaroons, Aidijuma has won the hearts (and pockets) of fans since it was established five years ago.
The volume of tudung this brand sells is mind-boggling. Every month, it releases 30 designs from a variety of ranges, with each design coming in 10,000 pieces and almost everything is sold out soon after hitting the market. That’s about 3.6 million tudung sold in a year!
On top of its whimsical designs, price plays a big part in Aidijuma’s success. Priced between RM10 (for an entry level printed tudung) and RM39 (for a satin square tudung), Aidijuma is to tudung what H&M is to clothing — fast-moving, trendy and cool.
Its founder, Datin Norjuma Habib Mohamed, 36, who shot to fame when she won Pengacara Jemputan Nona in 2002, had conceived Aidijuma to be as such — a fast-fashion tudung brand which students and working women alike can afford.
“You don’t have to save up for months to buy an Aidijuma and I think that’s what makes us relatable to customers.”
It was her experience in university that led her to take that business decision. Back then, she and her friends would pool money to buy tudung bawal from fellow students who brought them in from Kelantan.
“We’d go through our wardrobe and see which colours we needed. We’d hang them in the living area so we could use whichever ones that were ‘free’.”
The economics graduate from the International Islamic University Malaysia took that experience a step further before starting the brand. She went to universities during convocations and sold tudung bawal there. They were snapped up, and that was when she realised there is a big market for these simple, cotton tudung.
“I think of this as a business venture, first and foremost. I keep the production cost low so even after profit margin, customers don’t have to fork a lot for my products which I think they appreciate.
“People typically spend 20 per cent of their salaries on themselves. If you earn RM2,000, that’s about RM400. If my tudung cost RM200, how are they going to afford tops, pants and make-up?”
COLLECTION OF PASSION
Such consideration is ideal for collectors who are not only attracted to the designs, but the concept of affordable luxury the brand promotes. One such collector is administrative staff Norazidah Abdul Rahim, 38, whose collection runs by the hundreds that she has lost count of them.
She started collecting them in 2014 because she was attracted to the designs.
“There are some I still have not worn,” she says, adding that her usual shopping haunt is the Aidijuma concept store in IOI City Mall, where she would buy seven or eight pieces per visit, depending on how she fancies the collection.
“It’s affordable and the designs are pretty,” she says. She is also in a WhatsApp Group where there are 100-odd collectors who collect these tudung and are looking for vintage ones which the company doesn’t produce anymore.
Norazidah says she has the full collection of the Paris range, where the motifs depict images from the romantic city.
“I can’t really describe the feeling but I feel like life is complete when I look at my collection. It just makes me so happy.”
For Norjuma, who single-handedly designs the tudung, designing them throws her new challenges. For every season (that’s every month), she needs to come up with designs that customers love at a low production cost so the price points can be maintained.
“When you hire a designer, he or she usually works according to his or her own creativity. But this is a business and cost is something that needs to be managed. That’s why I handle design myself.
“The cost is different for different number of colours and designs. The lower I keep them, the more I can deliver to customers.”
Norjuma is also very in tune with customers’ spending patterns. In the early part of the year, she says, customers are quite cautious in their spending, so the brand rolls out more entry-level priced tudung.
“More expensive lines are released in March, when consumers are more or less settled with new expenses and are more willing to spend,” she says.
“By June, those who started work in January would have been confirmed and people are gearing up for Hari Raya and are even more willing to spend,” she says.
Norazidah says last month alone, she spent about RM400 to expand her collection, which she treats like precious commodity. She hangs them neatly on clothes hangers, 15 to 18 pieces per hanger, and irons each piece before it is stored so that she can just choose one to wear in the morning.
“All my family members wear Aidijuma and although I have hundreds of them, I don’t feel it’s hard to choose what to wear,” she says.
Her only fear (and excitement) now is if the brand will expand its Paris collection. Since she has a full collection, she would want every piece.
“If that happens, then I have nothing else to say but there goes my money,” she says with a laugh.
In the meantime, she says she’s trying to curb her spending, which is not easy to do when she sees cute patterns of polka dots and roses, pastel balloons and rainbows, inviting her to the pastel-coloured universe the brand has successfully curated.
LESSONS IN BUSINESS
A seasoned player in the tudung industry, Norjuma talks about counterfeiters, the Aidijuma personality and the challenges of building her own company.
COUNTERFEITERS
“Aidijuma’s fully printed tudung is RM10 per piece, and it takes around 20 days for counterfeiters to copy the design, by which time we have already released a new collection. That’s how I deal with counterfeiters. I don’t want to get the authorities to raid places where they sell counterfeits, because the next week or the next day, they will continue selling fake items. Why drain out my own energy?”
NORJUMA AND AIDIJUMA
“These are two different personalities. As a person, I am almost invisible on social media. I am not active on Instagram or Twitter because I find it uncomfortable to share my movements with the world. As a brand, Aidijuma is more open and interactive with customers and fans. I have my staff handling all social media accounts relating to my business.”
FINDING A SPOKESPERSON
“I want to find someone who reflects the brand and not someone who reflects me. While many people relate to the brand because I am its face, in future, I’d like to find a person who emulates the character and personality of the brand.”
BUILDING A BRAND
“Previously, no one wanted to work in a scarf company. But I think now, selling tudung is no longer viewed as a side business. I think my challenge is growing my staff and learning how to manage junior staff and senior staff which is quite hard.”
OVERSEAS EXPANSION
“I hope to expand overseas and maybe, in a few years, have a store in London. I want Aidijuma to build a footing in the UK, not merely getting Malaysians there to sell to fellow Malaysians, because once they return home, what will happen to the business? I want the brand to serve global Muslim consumers and for that, some design tweaking needs to be done. Malaysians like printed tudung, but Muslim women in Europe prefer plain ones in dark colours.”