Retail Dude

“Bollywood” is one of the biggest entertainment phenomena that rules India.

Last year Future Group came up with merchandise ‘inspired’ by Saawariya, which reflected the colour theme, tone, background, ambience and concepts of the movie, specially-created Saawariya merchandise was available across categories such as clothing, home, bed, bath (well Ummm..!!) , linen & beauty accessories for women and male apparel.

“Om Shanti Om” apart from a merchandising deal with Shoppers’ Stop (which involved almost 50-50 revenue sharing), also signed up with brands like Videocon, Nokia (which was the mobile-phone maker’s first such tie-up in Bollywood), cosmetics company Maybelline (Deepika Padukone is the brand endorser), and SIA Jewelry. These are just not brand associations but carry a lot of endorsement value with them both for the Actors and the products.

Well Bollywood merchandising is not a new concept really, yet, what is interesting is the scale that it has been/will be taken to.

From just one-off examples, which had a few corners dedicated to a particular movie’s merchandise, we will now see entire Bollywood Experience zones come up at retail stores.

Future Group and Percept have entered into a joint venture through which an initial investment of Rs 50 crore will create Bollywood cafes, theme parks, walk-ins and even museums at Future group’s retail outlets. Though the project seems to be going slow from what we see right now but still the business obviously seems to have become quite profitable for companies to create special experience zones to pull in more customers.

So, while apparels, accessories for men, women and children have generally been the criteria for forming separate zones till now, we have a new one henceforth- Bollywood.

There will be enough good news that bollywood’s association with retail will also give us in near future. Thanks to the desperate efforts of retailers to market their product differently and make it more attractive to buy. More recently for those who have seen “Ghajini” must have noticed Aamir khan wearing Van Heusen, a Madura Garments brand (which crafted a special range for the movie) and sporting Xylus(Titan) watches off and on.

 Ghajini gives you another reason to rejoice. The pic above is actually a campaign currently running and one which you can avail right away. You can get the ticket money reimbursed on the bill value of your purchase from the Van Heusen Ghajini collection. So for those who have still not seen the movie go ahead, it is paisa wasool all the wayJ!!  For those who are luckily still carrying the ticket, its still worth discount on your favourite shirt. I’m sorry for giving the information late for those who have thrown the tickets.

Happy Shopping the Bollywood Ishtyle !!

- Roli

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As per the polls, majority of people i.e. 67% thinks that Retail Destinations like Malls, Hyper Market, Multiplexes, Food Courts etc are not secured. People feel that retailers are not having check and it is very easy for anyone to carry anything inside. They feel that retailers are only concerned about shoplifting and they are ignoring other security aspect.  

19% believe that these places are secured as there is tight security. We can see that security has been tightening in multiplexes after the blast which took place once. A minority of 5% feel that these places are secured as movements are tracked through CCTV. But there are various dead places which CCTV doesn’t cover and some places like changing room, wash rooms etc where CCTV can’t be used. Even in recent Taj Mahal case CCTV are helping after the attack only.

A good chunk i.e. 14% are confused that whether these places are secured or not.

Poll 0010: Do you think that charging for home delivery will impact kirana stores?

- Team : RetailDude

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Consumers are now avoiding visits to malls for their grocery shopping’s in order to reduce their impulse purchases.Rather they are switching back to mom-n-pop (Kirana) shops. This has resulted into increase of demand and pressure on them. Kirana stores are not able to meet the demand for home deliveries of consumers. Typical kirana stores are getting almost 200-250 calls daily for home delivery. So, in order to meet their demands, kirana stores in Mumbai have decided to charge extra for home delivery and employ more delivery boys. According to them, it will help them to deliver goods in time and retain their loyal customers.

“Due to the current financial situation where everybody is seen trying to save, we too want to tighten our budget and raise extra to provide for delivery services,” says Chandrakant Gala, secretary of the Bombay Suburban Grain Dealers Association.

But generally customers prefer kirana stores because of the unique services like credit and free home delivery. So, I just hope that by doing so they don’t loose on their customers again.

Some kirana stores had already started charging for delivery. They are charging Rs. 10 for each order below Rs. 500 whereas they are delivering orders above Rs. 500 for free. And they have not seen any negative reaction from the customers, so hopefully it may work.

- Rajeev Damani

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Hello Readers,

- Retail Dude Team

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As per the report on the Impact of Organised Retail on Small Shop Owners, released in parliament by the Delhi-based Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (Icrier),  unorganised retail is expected to grow at about 10 percent per annum to reach $496 billion in 2011-12 despite the steady expansion of organised retailers.

The study made certain recommendations like facilitation of cash-and-carry outlets, like Metro, for selling farmers’ produce to unorganised retailers. It also urged for encouraging cooperatives and associations of unorganised retailers for direct procurement from suppliers and farmers. Also, simplification of the licensing and permit regime for organised retail and a move towards a nationwide uniform licensing regime in the states to facilitate modern retail have been recommended.

- Rajeev Damani

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Dear Readers,

Being committed to bring you the best of class information, here is just another very very useful read on Category Management. From being a very strong tool by retailers across the globe, category management has evovled and is now the mantra of the merchandising process in itself.

http://www.4shared.com/file/77534463/cecd9736/Category_Management.html

The slides have the basic knowhows of it. It has been shared by Mr Umesh Dhand who is a professional with over 12 years of work experience including 8 years of buying & merchandising experience in retail across lifestyle & value retailing across several categories. Currently he is the GM - Merchandising at Aditya Birla Retail Ltd, and has also worked as a Category Manager at Shoppers Stop in the past. A big thank you to him.

Happy Learning!

Sudip

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Shakespeare aside, we know that “what’s in a name” does matter when we talk of brand loyalists and switchers alike. Private labels have been in the recent past a force to reckon with when it comes to organized retailing. Till very recently, private labels where just another showcase in the apparels category mostly belonging to designer wear. But for now, you name it and they have it. Be it Food, Toiletries, Home Care or Electronics, retail houses have churned the shelf space to their very own brands to increase their bottom lines. Historically it came as a shocker when Pepsi’s Frito Lays had negotiation problems with Food Bazaar and thereby refused to supply welcoming the birth of Big Bazaars own brand Tasty Treats. For them, they say it has almost captured 16% of the markets.

Renowned retail chains have created brands which are sold from their own outlets along with the other national brands—but are up to 40% cheaper. They might not just cause envy but certainly saves precious cash from your wallets, and at the same time prove mighty beneficial to the retailers as well. “During financially tough times, people don’t mind picking up an in-house brand, particularly in the FMCG category,” says Harish Bijoor, CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc., a private label consulting firm.

The retailers then take the necessary expertise of local manufacturers in some categories like food and grocery which has in fact given them a reason to smile. And since necessity is the mother of invention, local suppliers and manufacturers try out innovative products and ensure proper delivery of goods just to make sure they don’t loose a client. “In food, private labels are 25-40% cheaper than national brands, whereas in apparel, they are 15-20% cheaper,” says Atul Takle, head, corporate communication, Pantaloon, Future Group.

But doesn’t that necessarily mean that they are of inferior quality. Actually retailers are now offering guarantee and have after sales services to their brands as well, just to shake up that myth of quality. So if it’s more of product value and quality, in-house brands provide you with more choice and a lesser hit in the pocket. It also provides a strategic advantage to the retailer (unique products, pricing, demand control), since it can control movements and play with the cash available. The private labels are not advertised, which gives much more breathing space, which gives you an idea why are they cheaper. For instance, in apparels, a national brand spends up to 35% on manufacturing, about 7-20% on advertising, 6% on distribution and the remaining on sundry costs, besides retaining a margin of up to 15%.

The brands Stop from the department chain Shoppers’ Stop, and Fresh and Pure from Food Bazaar have become fairly strong labels. And by the same token, manufacturers might attempt to invade the retail space themselves as Raymond has in garments, or even set up their own channels for the consumer as Unilever did with Sangam, an online grocery service. So we never know that Private Labels can splinter up yet another revolution with the manufacturing firms themselves. Rest assured that the common man is again the gainer.

His insights into the private label way of retailing can be found in this presentation which was delivered in a PLME conference in Dubai last year. The presentation has great insights. Please find it here. http://www.4shared.com/file/77514158/e398cf6/PLME.html

The emergence of organized retailing has definitely made Private Labels a reality; however there are greater need to knowing the role and timing of these in-house labels. From across formats to the retailer push to promote them, there is a galaxy of things that can be done.

But certainly “What’s in the name” if we can save a few greens uncompromisingly.

Wish all our readers a Merry Christmas!

SUDIP 

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The Brand Gap is one of the most highly read books on branding, written by  Marty Neumeier. The book deals with the essentialities of branding. The book is a real good read, when you want to know and simplyfy the strategic decisions of branding to the actual work. The presentation deals with the issues discussed in the book. Its one of the most wonderful depiction of concepts through imagery. One of my favourites. This is just a remake of the original slide, but was worth enough to share it. Please find the presentation here https://cid-c651926f6a1fb45f.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/Brand%20Gap.ppt

Cheers!

- Sudip

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Hi

I wish to congratulate all my Team Members to help create this new job section at a time, when we are all looking down a barrel.

The news is thats the section is no more “Virgin” as one of my team mates had quoted earlier . New jobs have been posted, and would like all our readers to go visit the section and spread the word for Retail Dude for the same.

Thanks for all your cooperation. Keep Reading!

Cheers

Sudip

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And now, George Bush is the new proverbial ‘boot dodger’. The newfound proverb applies on a person who gives a last shot at saving his a** after making false promises and fake pretense. The surprising fact about ‘boot dodgers’ is that one can find them in all walks of life be it cricket, politics, business et al. Though, the concern for us, retail professionals, remains the increasing number who belong to this category.

Some of us might be able to relate this concept to the ‘Gap Model’ under retail marketing. For those unaware, the gap model constitutes four types of gaps viz

• Knowledge Gap
• Standards Gap
• Delivery Gap
• Communication Gap

All but the Communication Gap pertain to the internal loopholes within any organization. Communication gap more about the company’s positioning in the consumer’s mind. Simply put the communication gap means the gap between what the retailer advertises and what he offers. A boot dodger situation arises when the retailer makes big promises, about his service/quality et al, without having the sufficient resources to fulfill them. Though, he does manage to generate a few footfalls, but in the deal causes consumer’s disappointment, which can cost him plenty in the longer run. So in order to revive his sales the retailer gives a last shot at regaining the lost consumers with the age old trick – ‘discounts’. For some it does work, but for most it’s too late, as someone has already taken the retailer’s hot seat by then (pretty similar to what happened in the Bush case).

Moral of the story

For Retailers - Honesty is the best policy

For Consumer – Identify a ‘Boot Dodger’ well in time

- Vivin Wason

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