Sales & MarketZing !

What's on your consumers mind is it on the shelves ? is a good question to always ask both at a marketing front and on the operations front in retail , or any other consumer product business . Brands spend crores in driving awareness and desire , when the consumers come seeking in for the product , its a sheer waste when they dont find what they have come looking for .This is what the blog would term as "mind1 shelf0 "(tm) phenomenon ( where on the mind gets 1 , not on your shelf gets 0 ) So why does this happen always , yes its a historical issue but never is addressed ...here is this blogs take on the why piece i) Too many variants ::most of the problems occur due to the brand's great desire to satisfy everyone , thus the great urge for more skus 'which could take the shape of too many colors ,sizes , contents etc , so more the variants more the chance of "mind 1 shelf 0 " phenomenon ,take a max of two winning variants , with proper de...

This diwali was about brick and mortar retailers vs online retailers for the share grab of Indian consumers ,for the first time we guess in full force ,the battle was fought . The flipkart mega sale, pre diwali took the winds of some retailers for sure ,while brick and mortars have put up a brave face and have tried to combat this with their own online sites .The sheer power of advertising spends of online players ,backed with deep discounting ,must have hurt for sure ! Online platform is here to stay ,so how does the traditional player counter this ? i) play along with them in online space ii)negotiate extra from brands ,which are not available online ,say xtra period of gurantee period iii)wait and watch till price normalcy returns . iv) counter online with a campaign on why everything cant b bought without touch and feel . v)improve experience at the stores to nxt levels ,cut down losses by closing loss making stores this is going to be tough act ,thankful...

In continuation with our previous post about the AND approach to business of share and profitability . here is our take on this AND principle getting implemented in retail . retail dynamics ,is not about getting walkins alone but in doing walkins AND the more per customer act too! so the game is like in most business is to get more customers and more per customer ! here is the simple equation of retail business growth. sales = cash memo size (cms) (x) number of converted custom (converted customers =bills cut /number of customers ) cms (cash memo size)= sales/number of bills cut sales going up ,is dependent among other things ,on the "upt" factor ,upt is nothing but units per transaction .higher the upt ,normally means higher cash memo size too. This is how businesses can use this dynamics ... so if walkins are falling ,and the cms is growing ,along with upt growing ,with conversions holding then you should be ok . if sales needs to go up ...

Writing after a long long time – Must say the world has changed, our prediction of ecommerce boom has just taken shape or is just taking shape , its another matter at what cost or profits currently . are operators  buying share from the market ?  As a  marketer , the only thing  that matters most is customers and what they are experiencing  with your product/ service ,and how do we leverage this to get more new consumers  , but most of us  get carried away with the need  off share more than the experience  part , in any product category , share does matter , but how much of this comes in what cost is the issue . Can a brand garner consumers thus share and then change the business model  when it suits them ?  or it depends on the category , for instance in ecommerce it will be difficult to change the model as stickiness to a platform /firm might not exist , plus price warrior competitors would be still around to mop up .You cou...

Come to think most brand marketers work on demand generation and that typically consumes 80 % of their time , this post makes an attempt to rethink this age old principle /ways , in the sense from a pure demand generation play marketers need to work at driving consumption ,which according to this blog is the key for -if no consumption then the demand itself would not there in the first place ! (consumption )^2 , is a term that we are using to denote the process of driving consumption to newer level and how the rules need to change from pure demand generation to consumption drive by marketers ,lets look at some known consumption driving measures induce trial - the small sachets phenomenon which was a shampoo domain,has seen categories like pickles,hair oil , biscuits ,jams , on this bandwagon , the method is self explained change the product - guess you must have heard about toothpaste brands had increased consumption by changing the dia of the orifice ! smart move -- add diet coke or...

Convenience wud soon,if not already , be as important a driver of business growth ,along with the normal imperatives like customer service ,distribution ,talent etc ..think about it ...convenience is a key factor among consumers for brand and service switch . Convenience USP is basically derived from strong consumer insights ,convenience backed with innovation would be a potent tool which business can leverage for the period that it doesn't get replicated ! The biggest risk of convenience plank is that it's easy to replicate in most cases and involves some extra costs which can be offsetted off if volumes go up due to this . However there are numerous examples to prove ,that prove that it works ,some classic ones are below :: NEED ::the am pm stores ,the 7 /11stores which work on convenience of being open when u need them ! SPACE :: stores which get more traffic due to the fact of them having more parking spaces DELIVERY ::convenience off getting the consumers thru various cha...

Modern trade has evolved as a key channel for all major brands , however its interesting to note that a lot off brand switches among consumers is getting triggered at this channel on per second basis here's why the consumer is on his or her own to take a decision at a modern trade store , to start with ,unlike the old traditional outlets where the shopkeeper wud dictate which brand to take or will not have a whole range to showcase ~ help the consumer in making the choice ,in an easy manner consumer , loyalty is very minimal these days across categories , except maybe in toothpaste or hot beverages category so if the customer likes what she or he sees and feels , the switch is done .~ Getting dressed is the key ~and be visible backed this with some combo offers and discounts the switch factor is matter off seconds ~ shud be part of your game plan Multiple choices spoils the consumers for sure , and sometimes does confuse the consumers and in that state the switch does happen ~ on...