Spruce up Window Display

When was the last time you actually stopped by a window display to carefully look at trends in fashion, or a new technology gizmo, or even some jewellery designs.

Gone are the days, says Paco Underhill - the retail expert, who specialises in studying shopper behaviour, when passersby took time out to inspect a window display to understand fashion trends and be informed of the new brands on sale.

The reason as he explains is quite interesting. These days owing to high traffic conditions - both human and vehicular, there is always a cluster of people waiting/ moving at traffic signals (and on roads). This cluster is dense in some patches and sparse in others, and moves with a steady momentum. Any member of the cluster who might wish to go the other way or change tracks is likely to end up bumping, brushing past, or getting pushed around. So it is unlikely that people moving in a cluster will stop short in their track to look at a window display unless ofcourse it is eye-catching.

Most displays today, are cluttered. The intent of most shop-owners being to display all brands/ wares in the two by two ft space available. Paco observes that to make display truely eye-catching, one could use it to display social messages, jokes which could have brands as part of the message. A better idea than cluttering the space with merchandise!

Brand Sluts

This morning I was reading an article by Marian Salzman, the lady who popularised the term Metrosexual.

The new word doing the rounds - "Brand Sluts". A slut, as we understand, is someone who changes her sexual partners constantly with little "loyalty". A brand slut does something quite similar. (S)He changes brands at quite the same pace as a slut changes partners.

I have often wondered, when people talk brand loyalty, whether it does really exist. This article only made my doubt about its existence even stronger. How could a consumer be Brand Loyal when there is a slew of brands available to him/ her today. There is so much choice in terms of product offering, price and promotions. Why on earth would anyone exercise Brand Loyalty ? While in India there were close to ~15,000 brands in the late 1990s, today there are atleast over 1,00,000 of them.

Infact I remember whilst I worked at one of the firms, Loyalty was defined as willingness to repurchase or use more or recommend strongly a particular brand. Does it really work that way? If I decide to purchase an LG refrigerator primarily because the Company has a promotional offer which will help me exchange my older LG refrigerator for a newer LG one, then is it because I am Brand loyal ? or is it simply because of the promo offer ?

As Jean Noel Kaepferer writes in a Business Journal "Brand Loyalty can no longer exist because the very intrinsic nature of the definition of the term is contradictory to the actual relationship between the producer and consumer. Brand loyalty implies a type of matrimonial relationship based on EXCLUSIVITY and this relationship is impossible because the producer does not reciprocate the relationship" and our society is premised upon fluidity of choices.

People in the pro Brand loyalty camp would argue that it is not JUST the product offering, price, promo offer that matter....it is the experience...with the brand, the people servicing the consumer.

It is easier to believe the first theory than the next. Don't you think ?

Competitive Advantage

What if your competitive advantage is easily replicated. Does it still remain one?
I read an interesting piece which said that the best competitive advantage lies in providing a unique customer experience. It is so easy to replicate a product, price off, promotional offer with the current technologies....but it is definitely not the same with customer experience.

An interesting example is that of a Harley Davidson. The product can easily be replicated, but what Harley sells is the sheer experience to dress in leather, ride through rough roads and not so frequented areas, with people frightfully looking on and STILL get noticed!

Reaching brands to rural India

A few days back, a friend mentioned that he would like to help rural India progress. His idea revolved around creating a device which helps the small retailer in rural India to place an order through the device, the order gets financed by a microfinancer who is linked to the device, and executed by the Company whose product he orders. The intent was to ensure credit availability to the small retailer in rural India and reach of brands to the end consumer.

This came back to me today whilst I read an article. Companies are now tapping Fair Price Shops in rural areas to service the end consumer. The intent is to develop these FPS into rural malls. Companies like HLL are also willing to pay higher margins to utilise this network. These swank rural malls would be used to vend not just the usual grocery items but also sim cards and other fmcg products. The minimum requirement from these FPS would be an area of 300-400 sqft.

Quite an idea!.....so instead of tying in with the retailers, how about tying in with the FPS outlets?

Face of the industry

The Market Research industry is just about Rs.490 cr, with a growth rate of ~30%. Of late a lot of business is being outsourced from overseas. The increased business from overseas can be attributed to a booming Indian economy, looking hard one would see that it is primarily due to India figuring among the "researched countries".

With expanding markets, there is a need to gauge the growing demand and understand sentiments, attitudes of people, thereby India figures as one of the countries which is under the magnifying lens. And also an age old advantage of a growing economy being less expensive than a developed one. With manday rates much lower than that found in most developed countries, most overseas set-ups prefer to use India for key process outsourcing.

High attrition rates, to the tune of ~30%, lend to its similarity to the IT or the ITeS industry. Sadly however, although the attrition rate matches up to these industries, the remuneration does not. And although agencies claim that they are introducing processes to make their companies employee friendly, the pressures to meet the bottomline are far higher than the need to ensure work-life balance.