Sales & MarketZing !

The old cliche ! Consumer is the king , queen , and the lord in any industry holds true still as there is no business without consumers ! , but customer loyalty is as good as gone these days , with more choices available and all firms running a me too loyalty program , the consumer is a free bird and he or she decides what to buy where to go , depending on his or her moods and various other factors , thus the factor of driving loyalty to a particular place for shopping is an old fad , we feel , the customer is no longer bound to you thru a loyalty program . The customer decision cycle these days follows these pattern according to us type of purchase , ie say furniture , apparels , food ...1 value for money deal where ? ...2 convenience of parking , time taken to reach ...3 word of mouth ( someone has recommended ) ...4 ( this cud be higher ) loyalty program... 5 ( can go up higher if some good scheme given to the members ) food joint or some other attraction ...6 Thus the good old loy...

Over the years based on experience in working in some serious service oriented firms ,has made one thing clear that one of the ways ( other than marketing , engagement , loyalty etc ) to build up a coterie of consumers who become your brand ambassadors , is to make a consumer service recovery . One doesn't realise that during the worst service crisis and in all the attempts to resolve the issue , we actually end up getting closer to each other we mean the brand and the consumer , and its always noticed that the toughest of the situation and effort to delight the consumer is always a sure shot win , for instance a ticketing mistake on an airways leading to a irate consumer , and after some heated arguments if one were to sort the issue and say if available update the consumer to the business class , wud be a sure shot way of winning the consumer for some time if not for life ! The next time you have a tough customer recovery case which gets sorted out , check it out it cud be a beg...

...have been thinking off late what happens in India is amazing , lets take the old black & white tv sets that one were so used too , a majority must have hit the scrap yard ,but surprisingly we are sure black and white tv's still wud be ON , in most village households , with prices not being 400-500 rs plus new b&w tv's wud be still hot , No waste ! Think of apparels , after launch of a new collection , the next season would see the merchandise go on discounts , post that if not sold still might go to the brands second store , if no luck there too , then out it goes in a rural bandwagon , and gets consumed , thus a say 1000 rs shirt , gets sold for 100 to 200 rs ( say ) finally , No waste ! Think of good old bangalore as city that was abundant with Luna's say 15 years back or maybe less , where have all the Luna's disappeared , some say Rural , some say scrap , we tend to believe in the later , again , No waste ! Why look further ,look at our homes itself , ...

Since we are seeing some signs of recovery in the market , post the recession gale that hit , there would be some consumer behaviour changes for sure for sometime till things change maybe , here is our take of what would happen or must be already happening :: consumers would be willing to look at cheaper options rather than the premium positioned ones ,could explain a drop in some premium FMCG brands prices in which switches can be easy say detergents or water Debt would be a on the gun point decision only as stability of jobs and emi payment is the question Savings and Mutual funds should be back again in fashion Spending would be more thought thru and not " for the sake " spend stuff which happened in the hey days Consumers would do a lot of peer check or web based info check before hitting a shopping mall / or store Value for money deals were anyways a hit ,might be a Bigger HIT , SALE ,SAVE , would be good four letter words for the consumer , like always one might say ..b...

Saw the latest TVC for Tropicana fruit juices , they seem to be positioning it as a breakfast supplement which we think is a great Idea considering that when staying in hotels ,fruit juice forms part of ones breakfast , so why not at homes , lets wait to hear on how this shift works for the brand , we also managed to get from the web some great consumer insights based winning moves :: here we go Folgers Coffee ::Until the "Best Part Of Wakin' Up" came along, we all thought that the ability to brew a good-tasting cup of coffee for our annoyingly picky friends was an effective measure of our self-worth. But then the people at Folgers uncovered a simple, obvious, but nevertheless earth shattering insight: Coffee is mostly about waking up, and we wake up to the smell of the coffee before we even get to take a sip. This insight drove the business from a 17% to 36% market share. Oreo Cookies ::How do you increase sales volume for what is already a national institution? Well...

after a long time , the signs of buying seems to be back in the market , retailers are talking about double digit growth on like to like store sales ,like to like or same store growth is a great indicator for actual growth and operation efficency , this has been backed with a growth in margins .Thus retailers results have been good too , with Shoppers stop , Pantaloon all going to town about the sign of good times . With the economic story of growth and a stock market that's holding ,we seem to be slowly trudging back to good old times .This economic buoyancy should hit a peak for retailers by Diwali , unless there is a U turn in the great US of a economy etc , remember we are coupled or decoupled ,whatever ! Also in between this up and down cycle , there has been a new medium which retailers have started using to judge and evaluate trends , ie the great Social networking vehicle ...Fashion brands are increasingly using peer-to-peer networks like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Orkut,...

In the euphoric times , we were left wondering with how some products /services have almost killed some categories , there mite be many , but the biggest one must be mobile services , take a look at the categories that have been bruised , wounded or killed by it :: greeting cards /torches /fm radio /music player /cassettes & cd's /wrist watches /land line phone/camera /credit card ( mobile payment ) /alarm clock /laptops /video camera /maps /newspapers /Dictaphone /gaming consoles / calculator /bank( brick and mortar ) /TV , phew !! there mite be more , come to think of it what sounds a great idea currently always has a BIG threat of substitution and something like a mobile service is a good example of how one move can close or hit a current category , retailers need to look into the horizon and keep an eye on the trends and spot them early !