Sales & MarketZing !

L ike we had mentioned earlier in this blog sunrise industries like telecom , insurance , airlines , and retail have the same environment in terms of the work , the big low penetration story in the market :) ,the future is bright ,market is big , haven't we heard all this ! But one common factor which is bleeding all of these sectors is the low price play being ventured into by some of the players ( 1 rs travel , lowest prices , lowest premium but highest insurance ), the latest to join in this play is the telecom sector( 1/2paisa per sec ) , so how long would this continue ? Low price has helped in building in volumes and - Buying- customer market share ,and also opening up the market by getting at the " non users " all this doesn't seem to be sustainable for long --as even in retail- low cost -high volumes -doesn't mean PROFITS , so it would be a careful MIX or category play to compensate the low margins , its here that private labels come to play . Its also

Retail rentals: Revenue sharing new buzzword Theft by staff, shoplifting roil Indian retailers Indian retail is emerging wiser from the experience Reliance Retail to expand in new cities Arvind Singhal: A silent revolution in the making Luxury brands are back to wooing Indian customer Focus shifting to profitability at store, regional levels in retail Fila to set up Indian arm soon ( not an orginal post , compiled from the web )

Talk to any marketers in India they would talk about the great Indian penetration story cutting across categories ,sounds like a bit of a paradox .. i) the great middle class debate :: India has an x % of middle class population which is greater than the population off certain countries , thus the potential is big , but you correlate this to the tax payers list then there is a gap , so where is the Indian middle class? remember black money :) ii ) The great telecom penetration story , everyone says that its low and the only way it can go is UP , but what abt the denominator , is it the total population , or just the affordable population base , then the opportunity size wuld come come down for sure , for the time being this is low penetration story is getting more players and the market is expanding for sure but maybe the revenues wud not soon ! iii) The Great Indian retail penteration story :: people throw that 5 % of Indian retail is organised etc , so organised retail has its op

Private labels or store brands is nothing but term given to the retailer brands that compete with other well know brands in its category , retailers use the higher margin possibility to sell more of these brands in their mix .The private label brands have over years grown from strength to strength and also eating int o shares of more prominent brands giving them nightmares in some categories already ! Walmart is estimated to have around 40 % of its sales from private labels and Tesco a whopping 50 % from private labels .A number of Indian retailers have private labels mix between 25 % to 30 % already . But selling private labels has its own plus and minuses as if not done properly then the power of the reputed brands would be missed and the consumers might just shun your store if they don't find what they were looking for ie the famous brands . Plus quality is always a suspect with these brands ,but that normally gets offsetted by the lower prices of these brands . Private labels

Assuming that the downturn days are over and things are looking back , what are takes on the lessons for retailers from the downturn , these are takes :: Don't be greedy : The mad rush for retail spaces was just led by the sheer blind leads the blind principle and in the process has led to some unwarranted locations with brands . Remember things can be gloomy again ::straight forward lets not assume, there is no downturn again . Don't believe the media :: this one is the key just don't believe the media , they ultimately have to sell their story right , so when the say India is shining , economy is growing , consumption story etc , pls take this with the pinch of salt as we are sure that they are not sure on what they are talking or writing about . Value is in always , premium is in once in a while ::The downturn has clearly shown that if you are in the value play you needn't worry , however players in the premium segment have had nightmares and can continue to have