Sales & MarketZing !

Here is the Latest Update on Indian Retail ....... Parliamentary panel also studying retail biz - Livemint Organised retail can be an ally in promoting food security for the - Hindu Business Line Subhiksha is India's most Trusted Retail Brand for 2008 - Moneycontrol.com (press release) Videocon plans major global retail foray under `VC` brand - Business Standard Reliance Retail close to break-even !- Livemint Indian retail market to be 6th largest by 2012 - Merinews Tata, HUL battle for branded tea mkt leadership - Financial Express Lee Cooper mulls 24 new stores - Financial Express Westside hums franchisee tune for stores expansion - Financial Express Reading the fine print of retail boom in India - Financial Express VF Corp not to buy out Arvind's stake in joint venture - Hindu Business Line Rel Retail in talks with food MNCs - Economic Times Enjoy !

.....how many times have you been attracted to your neighbourhood retail store and ended up buying extra or MORE than what you had planned for , you walk in for a cold drink , you get a couple of chips packets ,get a shaving razor , get attracted to the latest deo , so a 50 Rs bill would have touched 200+ ,or maybe more if the shaving razor is Gillete Mach 3 ! What was a very organised phenomenon , wherein our mothers would plan and do the monthly buy , the only other major shopping occasions were festival led ,has all changed to random and on demand shopping , thanks to our friendly neighbourhood retail outlet, our purses are surely getting lighter each time we make a visit .Organised retail in one way is surely increasing consumption Don't think Brands are cribbing , for if someone has walked in for cold drinks and bought a shaving razor or vice versa ,as long things sell it should be ok ! so how does this work , here is my take on why are we going thru this , ie on WHY DO

Of late , we have seen a flurry of launches in the e retail space , so why are businesses gungho about web space ? Context ! Post the dotcom bust , yes u are left wondering how did people dream of dotcom 6 years back with such poor Internet backbone available in the country . The estimated broadband figures in the country is just at 3+ million ,ie reported , this number would be slightly higher if you were to add the cable Internet , and operators that take bandwidth from others and bill subs etc , the numbers reported of broadband subsrcibers addition last month was at close 3.5 lakhs , which is insignificant when compared to Mobile subs additions , however it will not be long with the advent of Wimax in certain markets the numbers would swell ,soon ,well almost everything cud get done thru the net ! isn't that good news for lazy bums ,like me ! So you see with the future looking exciting , and with PC prices crashing , there is a flurry among business houses that have got into e

Have listed down some very interesting blogs & site , Enjoy ! http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/ http://www.marketingsherpa.com/ http://www.marketingprofs.com/ http://brandautopsy.typepad.com/ http://brandchannel.com/ http://www.indianstoryboard.blogspot.com/ http://brand-ad.blogspot.com/ http://indianbrands.blogspot.com/ small business blog Spotlight Ideas Stupid Marketing Super Brands http://www.ramabijapurkar.com/ http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ http://harishbijoor.blogspot.com/ http://marketinginindia.wordpress.com http://marketingchitchat.wordpress.com/ http://blog.searchenginewatch.com http://www.seobythesea.com http://adage.com/adages http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog http://wendy.kinesisinc.com http://www.frederiksamuel.com/blog http://www.adage.com http://www.pronetadvertising.com http://www.adverblog.com http://www.toprankblog.com Retail Blogs :: http://survivingretailbook.blogspot.com/ http://retailstrategyblog.blogspot.com/ http://www.eindiaretail.blogspot.com/ http

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