Think Something New

Shoppers Stop has changed it's logo under a campaign called 'Start Something New'. It has a heard-it-somewhere-before ringtone. I think thoughts like - Start Something New work better in action than in image. So will reserve judgement till the next store visit.

I find the new Ray & Keshavan logo quite bland and sans character...In fact I like the older logo. Maybe they should have asked all their customers before changing the logo. And the gold/ platinum card customers could have had veto rights...LOL

You can read the story at afaqs here...

The Changed Face of the Angrezi Dawakhana

Was at Asian Chemist(Bandra)last week. Have often wondered how the once clinical interiors of the medicine shop now give competition to the grocery store...

At the muhalla level, the chemist shop shelf space has morphed beyond recognition.
Diapers jostle for space with Digene,
Gilette with Gelusil
and extra large packs of KS with Crocin!!

And the good ole 'Angrezi Dawakhana' has become 'Angrezi 7 Eleven'!!

Last Mile Stories 2

Kapil had shared this loo photograph of the Novotel Hotel in Bangkok...Smart LMI(Last Mile Idea:-)

On the subject of last-mile interaction, I feel the humble post-it can be put to great use. Many companies(especially the small retail stores) can gain immensely by using post-its at the Last Mile for instant feedback. Instead of giving those boring, lousy feedback forms...What say?

Of course. Agreed, you can't process the feedback quantitatively. But do we always need to process data quantitatively. Often I feel a combination of experience, gut feel and random but in-depth feedback from a few passionate shoppers serves the purpose just as well!

Last Mile Stories

These days many agency conversations are about the last mile...Many theories, some obvious stuff power-pointed as 'gyan' by last mile experts and lots of CRM and technology...

But in the end last mile in retail is left to the store managers, the sales staff, the durbaan and the stink-quotient of the store loo:-)

Some last mile experiences I had in the last one month.The first was this message in the loo of a home decorations store in Andheri...A small detail but it lifted the last mile score(LMS)to near 100!!Next was this 'saunf' and 'chat-pati goli' tray at Papa Panchos. After an otherwise very ordinary lunch, I was willing to give an LMS of 70! As a culture, I have experienced Indians to be quite forgiving whenever bad service meets genuinine apology.(Lesson- you can get away with bad food, as long as the saunf/ pan/ meethi goli is great!!)And this was an LCD screen at a bar in Singapore(Pink Elephant or some such name...) which kept on displaying sexually loaded jokes( some good, some PJs)a brilliant idea but since the number of looped jokes were limited, it became a blind spot and an irritant after some time. LMS = 35!!

Mental note: Keep collecting these last mile samples...Will come handy one day:-)
Anyone, any last mile experience to share??

McTV with McMUJRA

Was at McDonalds Linking Road last evening. Saw this McTV sprout over the steps to the first floor. Playing McMUJRA(fully faltu item number on one of the SONY channels).

While the marketer/ agency/ OOH house was right in placing this LCD to get all the 'climbing kid eye-balls', it's a dangerous place to put a screen(the paranoid father in me thinks...)

Any McThots...

The Irony of Choice

A while ago I bought our new refrigerator. An LG frost free 330L from Vijay Sales.

However it was the most unsatisfying durable purchase ever!

There was plenty of choice and yet all of them looked alike! Tall, grey and handsome...LG looked like Samsung which looked like Whirlpool which in turn looked like Godrej...

Finally after 10 minutes of point-less comparison, we settled on LG. I wasn't convinced...But then we had to be back home in time for little Neo.

Rewind to 1997, when I bought my first Kelvinator in Chennai. A real beauty - 180litres of quiet direct-cool mechanism! I still miss it...It had character, a distinct identity( with its cherry red colour) and no post-purchase disonace!!

And I have been having these pre-and post purchase dissonance in almost all my white and brown good purchases in the recent past.

- I never know whether I have made a good/ best choice.
- When it comes to last mile differentiation, brands/ companies are relatively inept.
- There is a perennial fear of obsolescence at the back of the mind!!

Looks like the irony of the choice economy is here to stay!

Flash Promos Ki Khareed Mein Samajhdaari Hai?

When Flash Brands/ branding is here, would flash promos be far behind.

Flash promos are single day promotional(invariably price-off) offers. Often they might last for just a few hours!

I guess they stoke the growing acquisitive and impulse-led buying patterns in much of urban India.

Shopping for a small part of cash-rich urban India is now an acquisitive sport. However, under intense time constraints, there is no stamina to do a 'Lalitaji' kind of detailed 'samajhdari' purchase.

Instead, there is just enough time for a quick McPuchase. Enter the flash promos. When they are from trusted brands. They reassure quality. They entice with their slashed prices. And their 'buy-now-or-regret-later' proposition gives it the veneer of 'samajhdaari'.

Last month, I was almost pulled into one such offer from HP. A heavily discounted flash offer from HP on a Laptop + Printer combo. Even though I had no real need for the printer!

But for the lack of a convenient physical demo of the product, I would have been a victim of the Rs. 39,999/- flash offer!

It's just as I flipped the Mumbai Mirror today, I once again saw the HP flash offer -'Hurry, offer valid between 8am and 8pm today only':-)

But I am becoming 'Flash Smart'!!

Luxury Jeans - A Cross Over Canvas

They sound like two ends of the scale! Therefore, I was curious to read this India Today article(Feb 19 issue) under Society & Arts fashion.

Like elsewhere in the world, India is ready for designer jeans. Looks like the days of jeans-as-only-workwear is fast getting over! Even though, most people still care less about the label and more about the fit!

Even Indian designers are fast catching the luxury jeans band-wagon.

Rocky S, the Mumbai designer was the first to launch a jeans label Rocky S in 2002.
Designer Arjun Khanna's - 'Rockstar in Morocco' was a success!
Though even now, only a very small section of the buyers can afford to shell out 8K or more for luxury jeans.

Levis has its own Diva line endorsed by Sushmita Sen and the Redwire DLX jeans that are iPod compatible. There are also talks of a Levis-Manish Arora collection...

Wrangler has it's own 'John Abrahan by Wrangler' collection at the top end.

Designer Narendra Kumar Ahmed is set to showcase his signature jeans at the Lakme Fashion Week in March.

Then there is the Sevens brand detailed in Swarovski and the Jap-gone-global brand Evisu's hand painted jeans and stuff from Diesel!

I guess 'Luxury Jeans' would be yet another example of 'Massclusivity' - the marriage of 'mass' and 'exclusivity'!
I also feel jeans is the perfect canvas for cross-over adventures in India where...
East meets West
Denim meets Designer
Casual meets Party-wear
Blue/ Mostly White-collar meets Pink/No-collar
Ubiquity meets Fashion/style statement

Luxury jeans(and its various mutants/ avatars) would see an increasing rise in popularity as it would also in a way fall in the category of 'personalised' stuff. The growing digital, connected and participative world loves 'personalised' themes - be it a $20,000 car or a blog or a 'personalised' jeans!

And therefore I think the timeless blue denim has once again re-invented itself for the next decade!

Or am I reading too much:-)

PS. Images sourced from gettyimages.com & India Today

The Net Effect

John(Grant) is doing a workshop on 'How has/will the internet transform marketing and retailing?'. On his blog he is looking for thoughts, POVs, foresights...

Here's my 'chawanni' of thoughts...
1. With increase in internet penetration, will the www become one giant Superstore?

2. Will there be a global homogenisation of wants? Like everyone wants an iphone at the same time. Then a neo-moto...Essentially global fads...Glocal fads...

3. Since the sellers connect with buyers, would we need marketing at all?
Does marketing need to be obsessed now with only authenticity, how to make the sale interesting, tone of voice and ensuring that technology keeps its complexities out of the way!!

4. Will all shop facades have the signage www.allshops.com?
www.bademian.com, www.ruddalsamosa.com(my school canteen), www.fabindia.com...

5. Will parking rates at malls drop(incentive schemes) and real estate become cheaper?

6. Will payment gateways be the next giants?

7. Will RSS mean ‘really simple shopping’?

8. Will mobile internet > internet through PC

9. Will Google sense my needs(though my search/ click prints), take intelligent orders and do home delivery.

10. Will ideas be traded? Will more services like Yahoo Answers come up on the internet?

11. Will it be cool/ a lifestyle statement to be off the 'net' for small/ long periods? LOL

Its fascinating to think about the future today. Since all of it may come true sooner than we think. It may not have the same shape though:-)

Trial Room Pitching

For a middle-age, middle class(okay upper middle class) couple week-ends are increasing about 'Mall Crawling'. There in the glitz, glass-facades, you tend to(momentarily)forget the week's hard slog, the guilt of having not spent quality time with your only son and wife.

Malls are middle class/urban India's attempt/short-cut at buying happiness straight off the shelf! It's also an island of 'India Shining'. It helps one forget much of the chaos, drudgery and poverty all around. It filters out butt-brushes with only our kind of people(the right SECs)...

Sorry, I am in a foul mood(for no particular reason). Forgive me, Christmas is a time for merrymaking and stuff like that! Over to my planner/ marketer/ the world-as-a-commercial-ship mode:-)

Anyways, the point I was trying to make was that with odd exceptions, I have found most trial rooms to be virginal white and pure - devoid of commercial messages...

This is one place which needn't fret about permission bombarding...The guy is already in a mood to splurge and is trying to lose some wallet-weight. A little nudge ain't all that bad...Yes, I understand we don't want to put too much clutter in the mirror, but still it's worth a try!
Remember, in space-starved Mumbai, this is 4X4 square feet of quiet time(the queue outside notwithstanding)

How about...
1. Diet/ weight loss/ wellness/ fitness companies unfolding their packages while you unzip your pants LOL

2. Grooming salons and makeover plans for the gentleman and ladies?

3. How about perfume sniffing-strips and pitching that Hugo Boss one has been dilly-dallying for much of summer...
4. How about reminding to buy a shirt for your father? Ride on the guilt of buying for oneself alone.

I am generally not in favour of push-in-your-face-marketing but the trial room ain't the sanctum sanctorum and deserves better usage...Maybe, I am not that well-informed. And marketers of different hue have already raided this space. Do share your experience of trial room pitching!!

Related Post: Buyers, Shoppers, You and Me

Buyers Shoppers You and Me

Some days ago, there was an article in agencyfaqs by the CEO of MASH, the new shopper marketing division of Sam Balsara's Madison!

I can understand that the article was his way of PRing the new entity, but the hard-sell on the 'shopper' as being a totally new animal was a bit difficult to stomach!

The trouble with American style retail science is that it heavily jargonises common sense and is largely scientification of the obvious...And the MASH CEO appears to be a sucker for it!

My rant on some of the points raised in the article:

1. With the growth in organised retails, there has been a shift from 'consumption' to 'purchase'.
Frankly, I don't know what he meant by this...At any point of time, all of us desire some stuff, buy many stuff, consume the stuff that can be consumed, shop for self and others. It's just that the pace, the place and the range and array of brands available have changed dramatically in the last few years!

And more new categories are now becoming impulse categories.But that's about it!

2. We need to figure out if the 'shopper' is shopping for self-improvement, reward, adventure, relaxation, socialising or just replenishment?
Again, this is a meaningless question. We are all shoppers at different times and for all the above motives at some time.

And these motives have existed from the time of the earliest bazaar and haat! They are not generated by the likes of Big Bazaar or Wal Mart!

3. At some point the question is raised that - How is the retailer going to ‘Attract-Arrest-Acquire’ the 'shopper' from the point she enters the store to when she is moving around and checking stuff out to when she actually picks up and puts the product in her basket?

All I can say is that I find it increasingly difficult to convince even my 3 year old son to do anything against his wishes...then how the hell is it possible to 'Attract-Arrest-Acquire' the shopper...

Having said that it is possible to suggest, influence, excite, engage, encourage the person into trying, buying, experimenting, coming again, etc.

Minus the hype, retail 2.0 is not much different from the way we have always bought stuff...Of course there are differences.

1. Shopping is no longer for needs. It's for wants. And even JLT. For no particluar reasons.

2. With lack of open spaces and our tropical climate, the big AC malls are the new play-ground for the urban middle class.

3. With the break-down of joint families and the drop in the large social circuits of nuclear families, malls are the new social outing.

4. When kids pester, we mall; to fight week-end boredom we mall; when our diasporic extended familes arrive, we mall and so on...

5. Shopping is the new stress reliever, not just for women but for busy rich executives, for DINK couples, for single men/ women, for the elderly with heavy wallets and kids in the USA and others.

6. And as I said earlier, the boundaries between impulse and durable goods, between monthly necessities and luxury brands are blurring!

7. Design - of the mall, the brand experience and packaging, architecture, and sensorial marketing/ branding is on the rise...

8. However, expectation levels of the consumer will always rise to surge ahead of the latest service and product offerings.( Read a related post - Hedonistic Treadmill and Customer Service)

9. Having said that, the fundamentals haven't changed. People will find the stuff they want, stock up in a sale, avoid unpleasant mall/ brand/ service experiences, and generally stay a step ahead of the marketer...

The Buyer is the Shopper is the 50%-Discount-sale-Gate-Crasher is the VFM-Seeker is the Luxury-Brand-Buyer is you and is me!

But that's under 5% of India to put things in perspective...

The One Way Street of Loyalty Cards

With orgainsed retail taking a lot of the print, TV and mindspace, there is a lot of talk about loyalty cards! including a piece in today's BS Strategist...

However, I feel that though the cards are catching up( I have about a dozen of them), the nuances of relationship marketing are not understood by most and ignored by the few who may have the understanding.

Before I discuss the subject of loyalty...let me share this brilliant book by Isabelle Szmigin( a senior lecturer in marketing at the University of Birmingham) called 'Understanding the Consumer'.

My take on the loyalty card jhol( togther with scoops of gyan from Isabelle)...
1. Invariably when we talk of customer loyalty, we mean a captive allegiance.

2. The customer is merely manipulated. Encouraged to think that there is a relationship, when actually there is none.(Isabelle)

3. In reality, Loyalty Management is CRM for the store/ company, loyalty is profitability management for the company, loyalty is increasing the foot-fall strategy. The consumer in reality is the last person whom the marketer really wants to benefit.

4.Why aren't we honest and up-front. Lets just call it a convenience card or incentive card...or any other more authentic nomenclature!

5. All relationship marketing takes a passive view of the consumer. The relationship is 99.9% shallow and is never nested in an understanding of their social context and evolving goals.(Isabelle)

6. There is also a more sinister aspect to these loyalty cards as they move into schools and colleges to influence the taste of children with a view to form relationships at an early age..(Isabelle)

7. Do we honestly believe that in an age where families are breaking down, divorce rates are high, instances of multiple relationships(parallel and not just sequential) is on the rise, we can actually build loyalty through plastic and reward points!!

8. If the store staff is not helpful, if the AC in the store invariably never works, if you fail to recognise the customer whenever she comes to return a defective item, if you never suprise or delight your regular customers....a piece of plastic is never going to build any loyalty for your brand! Its just a 7 letter jargon...

9. I feel as marketers and communication guys, we are getting de-sensitised with the reckless use of concepts like customer engagement, customer affinity, loyalty, reward...We must not abuse them as gimmicks or mere words...sans any meaning or intent!

Let me end the post with a quote I found in Isabelle's book from a letter to the editor of NYT.
"Dear Sir, I have seven loyalty cards. Does that make me more loyal or less" :-)