Sales & MarketZing !

Media is abuzz with the rebranding exercise by Shoppers ,a m not surprised with this , Shoppers has fast lost its sheen and direction , in an era that has seen a multitude of retailers enter the market ,Shoppers was neither able to position itself as a premium retailer or mass ,caught in between it was about to be crushed . The results of the last qtr that is q3( 07-08 ) was nothing short of a disaster , the writing was on the wall . Know it all Shoppers stop system had an element and continues to have an aura built around it , stemming from the fact that they were the pioneers in some way of the organised retail , MARKETING & OPERATIONS VACUUM ! This Retailer had some of the best Marketing and Operations brains working for them , people with excellent credentials , till say 2005 ,all have left for sure the vacuum is showing , haven't seen anything great on the marketing front , the loyalty program which was the strength , is another run of the mill program replicated by

Be it Lifestyle retail or non lifestyle retail , getting into the Women hearts and minds would be the key to a Retailer sucess story ! Maybe money is spent on researching this ,but my reading is as the follows as for the Indian She and Retailing ( without research ..but by observations ! ) She is not loyal on the store /retailer front, whoever gives her a good reason to visit ,they would find her there . Kids have major say in deciding where to spend and where to try .A Retailer with good toys section / plus say a Mcdonald s as an anchor should not have a problem ,ideally . She is still comfortable with her local small stores , organised retail or big hypermarket visits are looked as a family outing ie once in a while phenomenon , not even a monthly one . For them , the local store , like the foodworld /spencers /xyz store , still rules in the monthly visit cycle She , Would keep an eye for best offers which she will keep talking for some time , say if she has been given a rice cooker

March ie the last month was an extremely bad month for most premium retailers in India ,inflation( of late may be ) ,the share market crash , the sudden question on the Indian economy growth rates , the dollar pressure on the Indian rupee ( lower spends from the IT employees as most of them are worried abt their jobs currently ! ) has all led to a Big Worry among premium retailers in India on the following:: i) Customer Spends ::and its all evident ,speak to brands and they tell u the struggle of getting customers in to their section /stores , everyone is worried . ii) Space Spends ::there is a slow down message given by most premium retailers on space acquisition , the Indian space rush is surely slowing down , retailers are pausing and using this as an opportunity to look back at the trails created and the clean up needed .Retailers are quickly realising the need to drive operational efficiencies and saying No to the Retail space Rush iii) Change of Business model or stop ! :: Thi

With organised retail growing leaps and bounds most brands be it in the FMCG space or the lifestyle space or the Apparels space have quickly formed a Modern Trade Team to focus on the Huge business that these Key accounts would deliver . Having handled this business for sometime, in my last assignment with a MNC from a brand side and having worked in retail operations with one of Indias retailers ,I have to some extent the feel of what i think makes this piece work( am not saying have attained Nirvana on this ! ) . These are my tips to succeed in this domain , of course doesn't guarantee anything , as each brand would be doing most of the same things ! so what holds the Key ? read on ... Modern trade begins with a Lot of Info and thrives on a lot of info , its important to know whats happening at the client end , for this u need to quickly establish your moles in the system, who become your brand Evangelist at the clients end ,if the client is an important one then one standby mol