MxMIndia

Category: MARKETING

  • As London-based EMM International launched in Mumbai last week, a look at whether media audits can work in India work, and how effectively?

    Can media audits improve efficiencies?

     

     

     

    By Rishi Vora

    India is in the midst of a media blitzkrieg, where advertisers are hounded by a plethora of media options. What this fragmentation has done is for advertisers and clients, is the need to be more accountable. The need to improve efficiencies. The need to be measured.

    Last week, a London-based global media auditing firm – EMM International announced its launch in India. The company will offer its services of measuring media effectiveness for national as well as international brands, operating out of India via a joint venture initiative with Indraksh Media and Management Services. Global CEO Stephen White will serve as the chairman while Yuvraj Agarwal of Indraksh Media will lead the India operations as CEO.

    Though media audit is not a completely new phenomenon in India, it’ll be apt to say that the market is at a very nascent stage. There is only one national player in Spatial Access that is playing a significant role in the market. Media reports suggest that Spatial Access audits more than 40 percent of TV spends in India and that the plans are on to expand business operations to countries within the APAC region. Broadly speaking of the Indian industry, it is only roughly about 5-10 percent of the total media spends that are audited vis-à-vis, a 30-35 percent in the UK and 60 percent in the US.

    However, the market for media audits in India is at a stage, from where it could grow rapidly in the next few years to come. Speaking to MxM India, Mr White said categorically, “India needs more than one player, surely. It needs a company that can take a different approach to challenges, bring in fresh perspectives and of course, the experience of a global company – the knowledge, the skillsets and the reputation it brings to the market.” Mr White further added, “Next three to four years is going to be a very interesting period. India will see growth in media auditing by a significant number. From currently where it stands at 5-10 percent, I see that increasing to at least 25 percent.”

    The preliminary research that was conducted by the company before official launch stated that more than 90 percent of the respondents in India feel the need of an international audit company with a local partner. The thought process that EMM is adopting is “constant improvements” and for media agencies – the need to be more open to individual assessment. The London-based company will use market insights and data to evaluate performances.

    A senior member from the media agency fraternity said that media audits do bring in value to the business, and only time will tell if EMM India is able to live up to its international reputation, whether it is successful in providing solutions that are more meaningful.

    On whether or not media audits are useful for clients, Ajay Kakar, CMO – Financial Services, Aditya Birla Group opined, “Like all audits which help to optimize, increase efficiencies and provide an external perspective; I feel that media audits are also gradually becoming more acceptable to marketers as they provide an objective assessment of the marketing investments. This is more relevant from a process and compliance point of view especially when we include marketing initiatives like BTL programmes/events/production etc and make it a 360 solutions audit rather than only a traditional media audit.” Kakar feels that the space is relatively unchartered in India with a very few players, but is likely to grow as the market is seeing more value in measuring efficacy of media spends.

    While it is clear that there is growth and opportunity for both existing players and a few more to come in the years to come. There might be a possibility where we could see big one of the MNCs enter India acquiring one of the existing businesses, if the industry sees unprecedented growth. It will be interesting to see how EMM shapes up, and of course, how the current market leader responds. It’s going to be interesting watching this small but rapidly growing niche.

  • The investment will be for new infrastructure, partnerships, brand building and sustainability programmes.

    Coca-Cola to put $2 billion into India

    By A Correspondent

    Coca-Cola India has announced that Coca-Cola System will be investing US$2 billion in India in the next five years, beginning 2012. The investment is to further capture the opportunity in the Indian nonalcoholic ready-to-drink (NARTD) beverage market. India is a strategic growth country for the company ranking among its top 10 markets in volume globally and as the largest market in the Eurasia and Africa Group.

    Commenting on the development, Ahmet C Bozer, Coca-Cola’s President, Eurasia and Africa Group, said, “India is one of our most important growth markets as we work toward our 2020 Vision of doubling system revenues and servings this decade. The opportunity in the packaged beverage segment is immense, and our efforts in India are focused on being the beverage of choice all day, every day.  If we continue to do the right things each day and at all times, it would not surprise me if India becomes one of the top five markets for the Company globally by the end of this decade.”

    NARTD beverages have enormous growth potential in India.  The Coca-Cola Company and its bottling partners have robust plans to capture this opportunity with investments in innovation, consumer marketing and brand building, expansion of distribution and cold drink equipment placement as well as further development of manufacturing capacity to meet growing consumer demand.

    The Coca-Cola system has already invested over US$2 billion in India since it re-entered the country in 1993, and currently it directly employs more than 25,000 people. The system is estimated to have created indirect employment for more than 150,000 people in related industries through its vast procurement, supply chain and distribution system. The current investments announced by Coca-Cola will further catalyze economic growth and create new opportunities for the local community. The Coca-Cola system currently employs more than 700,000 people worldwide.

    Atul Singh, President  & CEO, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia, said, “This investment is a part of our long-term commitment to invest in innovation, partnerships and a portfolio of brands that will enable us to grow our business in a sustainable and responsible way. In addition to our infrastructure and capabilities, the new investment will also focus on enhancing the consumer experience, building brand loyalty and contributing to environmental sustainability and community development. Our India business has been growing at a robust rate over the last five years, and our goal is to continue this growth momentum. The country’s demographics, economic and social parameters are all huge drivers of growth and we have to ensure that we capitalize on the opportunity.”

    The Coca-Cola system has a long history of partnership with non-governmental organizations in India for community development and sustainability initiatives. As a system, Coca-Cola has now achieved a net zero balance with regard to groundwater usage in India.  It is well integrated with local Indian communities and is a valued contributor to economic and social growth. The Company and its bottling partners are strong supporters of education in India through programs like the ‘Coca-Cola NDTV Support My School’ campaign, which is aimed at creating more than 100 model schools in India. The Company also supports sports programs to encourage active, healthy living such as the Coca-Cola Under-16 Cup cricket tournament, the Coca-Cola Mir Iqbal Hussain Trophy football tournament, Sprite Gully Cricket and Sprite NBA Jam.

    Worldwide, The Coca-Cola Company and its bottling partners are investing nearly $30 billion over the next five years to support anticipated growth across its system. These investments range from new manufacturing facilities to new distribution systems to new marketing investments in emerging economies.

  • For the 5th Grand Kerala Shopping Festival which opens on December 1, the State has planned unique and innovative events on a massive scale for shopping enthusiasts.

    Kerala Shopping Festival opens on Dec 1

    By A Correspondent

    The Grand Kerala Shopping Festival (GKSF), Asia’s biggest shopping festival and the signature show by Department of Tourism, Government of Kerala, is set to welcome shoppers and tourists from all over the world in its fifth edition. Turning the entire State of Kerala into the biggest shopping mall, this 5th mega shopping show in a row will open on December 01, 2011 and run through 45 days to end on January 15, 2012.

    The inaugural function will happen in Kochi on December 01, 2011. Opening the 38,863 kms of the State for the shopping jamboree, the GKSF – 5 will aim at raising the State’s profile as one of the most preferred and the biggest shopping destinations of not only India, but of the world. The Department of Tourism, Kerala has designed the festival to give a ‘Real Shopping Experience’ while awarding an opportunity to ‘Feel the Kerala’ where visitors can connect with the State and explore its rich art, crafts, culture, customs and architecture. Kerala has been the first state in India to promote such a shopping festival on a mammoth scale.

    Commenting on the festival, Dr Rathan Kelkar, Additional Director, Department of Tourism, Government of Kerala and Director, Grand Kerala Shopping Festival, said, “Our market share in the Indian tourism landscape has increased over time. With new innovative promotional properties like GKSF in place, we can raise the tourism profile of Kerala beyond boundaries to national and international markets. Through GKSF – 5, we want to ensure the best quality visitor experience and multiple community benefits and establish Kerala as a global brand.”

  • Maruti Suzuki has trained over 10 lakh people in safe driving in the last decade in its ‘National Road Safety Mission’ which attains the 500,000 mark, and the company targets to double Maruti Driving Schools in next three years.

    500,000 milestone for Maruti Suzuki’s safety mission

    By A Correspondent

    Car Market Leader Maruti Suzuki’s flagship road safety initiative on promoting safe driving, ’National Road Safety Mission’, has attained the milestone of 500,000 trainees.

    Under the programme launched in December 2008, the company has successfully trained over 500,000 people so far. Out of these 500,000 trainees, over, 147,000 are from economically challenged sections, who are beneficiaries of this special programme. They were sponsored by Maruti Suzuki and many of them are meaningfully engaged today.

    In addition, the Company has successfully expanded its training infrastructure in the form of 6 operational Institutes of Driving and Traffic Research and over 192 Maruti Driving Schools thriving across the country. With this special infrastructure in place, the Company has in a small way institutionalized driving training in the country and brought in international best practices to the Country.

    On the occasion, Mayank Pareek, Managing Executive Office, Marketing & Sales, said, “The milestone of training 500,000 people in safe driving, is only a humble beginning, compared to the scale of the issue. The scale can be gauged from the latest report compiled by International Road Federation, which states that India loses close to about Rs 100,000 Crore every year in road accidents. In terms of fatalities, around 160,000 lives are lost annually in road accidents. As the automobile sector continues to grow, there is a need to bring in high quality training institutes, which help institutionalize high `quality training’ on road safety. This requires a 360-degree approach and involvement of several bodies. We hope to be the catalyst for other organizations to join the road safety efforts.”

    Added Mr Pareek, “I take this opportunity to thank our dealer partners, who have partnered with us in setting up state-of-the art driving training infrastructure in the country. With their support, we are successfully running over 192 driving schools in the country. Various State governments have joined hands with us in setting up IDTRs and institutionalizing driving training in the country. Going forward, we look forward to support and guidance of several other state governments to strengthen this initiative of national importance.”

    Announcing the road map ahead, Mr Pareek added, “So far we have trained over 10 lakh people through our existing network of 6 IDTRs and 192 Maruti Driving Schools. We now target to double the network of Maruti Driving Schools to 400 in the next 2 to 3 years. This will help us train more people by spreading high quality structured driving training in the country.”

    To strengthen its road safety initiatives , the Company recently, added another interesting format in the form of `Road Safety Knowledge Centre’, in partnership with the Gurgaon police. This new platform targets to enhance traffic education and inculcate safe driving habits for commuters of Gurgaon. In addition to existing driving training modules, the centre has been equipped to offer specialized training to traffic violators.

  • Mudra India has announced the appointment of Sharmila Malekar as the Senior Vice-President at Mudra West.

    Sharmila Malekar is Sr VP, Mudra West

    By A Correspondent

    Mudra India has announced the appointment of Sharmila Malekar as the Senior Vice-President at Mudra West. Until recently, Ms Malekar was the Managing Partner at Mind Mirror, A Research & Strategic Consultancy. Based out of Mumbai, she will report to Arijit Ray, President, Mudra West and will help strengthen brands on businesses like ITC, Jyothy Laboratories, Electrolux, Kalpataru, Emami, HPCL and Godrej.

    A dynamic professional with rich experience in Brand building & Consumer Research, Ms Malekar has been in the industry for 18 years. She started her career with Lintas where she worked on brands like Liril and its brand extensions viz Shower Gel, Talc; Liril Icy soap & Liril skincare soap, J&J feminine hygiene for their Stayfree, Carefree range among others.

    She has also played a significant role in Ogilvy and Mather, having worked as business head on Dove, Aviance Beauty Solutions, Tata Sumo and Tata Safari among others. She worked with Mudra DDB Communications as Vice President on the Godrej Franchise, Big Bazaar (Future Group) and LIC.Subsequently, she moved to Publicis Ambience Advertising to head the P&G Vicks and Marico portfolios.

    Announcing the appointment, Arijit Ray, President, Mudra West, said, “Sharmila comes on board with a rich experience of overseeing a wide spread of brands in the FMCG, Automotive Entertainment and Beverages space, across few of the best agencies of the country like Ogilvy, Lowe and Publicis. We are looking forward to her experience in consolidating and building on some of our most important client relationships at Mudra West.”

    Commenting on her appointment, Sharmila Malekar said, “I am delighted to be back especially at Mudra India and look forward to doing some interesting work for our clients.”

    Ms Malekar takes a keen interest in alternative healing techniques and is also a practising therapist.

  • After quitting Grey, Bindu Sethi will be now working as the National Head Planning for JWT India.

    Bindu Sethi to be National Head Planning @ JWT

    By Shubhangi Mehta

     

    Post putting in her papers at Grey, Bindu Sethi is now joining JWT India as the National head planning. Industry sources close to the development have confirmed the news to MxM India. She will be based out of Delhi.

    It was reported yesterday that Ms Sethi has called it a day at Grey. Since then there have been a lot of speculations as to where will she be moving now.

    Ms Sethi has spent nearly more than two decades in the advertising and marketing industry. She joined Grey India in 2009 as the national planning director. In May 2010, she was promoted as the chief strategy planning officer for Asia Pacific. However, she continued to handle India responsibilities as well.

    Joining JWT can also be regarded as a homecoming for Ms Sethi, as she began her career at the Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB). She then moved to JWT where she developed and headed the strategic planning department for eight years. She was instrumental in building JWT’s reputation for deep consumer sensitivity and brand building. At JWT she got the opportunity to work on brands such as Horlicks and Maggi.

    She was instrumental in creation of JWT’s social communications division Thompson Social, which redefined the role of communications in the adoption of new health practices amongst rural and suburban populations. Furthermore, her experience extends to the marketing side of the business, where she partnered Hindustan Lever Limited as General Marketing Manager – Personal & Hair Care. There, she formulated the brand vision, strategy and proposition for Unilever’s family health portfolio comprising three brands across seven South Asia and South East Asian markets.

    With experience as diverse and rich as hers, it comes as no surprise that she won WPP’s prestigious Atticus Award for original thinking for her piece entitled Understanding India through Advertising.

  • Mudra Group wins ‘Best Corporate Citizen, India’ Award at the GABM 2011.

    Best Citizen award for Mudra

    By A Correspondent

     

    Mudra Group has recently won the award for ‘Best Corporate Citizen, India’ at the GABM (Global Association of Billionaires and Millionaires). GABM has introduced the ‘Best India Corporate Citizen Award’ program, first and foremost, to give recognition to those outstanding Indian corporations who are engaged in good corporate citizenship practices.

    GABM was founded in 2000 as a private and exclusive non-profit society of billionaires and millionaires from all over the world. They represent a group of relentless philanthropists who firmly believe that the engagement be corporations in local Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes, or donations made by individuals to local charities does not suffice in terms of good corporate citizenship, or ultimately a way to escape our collective responsibilities towards the creation of a safe and better global economy for all mankind. Considering the enormous challenges facing the global economy of today, their philosophy is that real good corporate citizens must, as a matter of course, unite in a strong international collective to actively and physically participate in intelligently designed programmes, which significantly enhance international business development of entrepreneurship, and the creation of sustainable jobs etc.

    Commenting on winning the award, Mr Ajit Menon, Executive Director, Organisation Development, Mudra Group, said, “Mudra Group has always believed in the philosophy of ‘people first’ be it employees or the society. Being a home grown agency, we realize that it is this country and its people who have helped us become what we are today and strongly feel that we need to give back to the society that has helped us. Mudra is currently engaged in various CSR activities such as Blood Donation Camps, Protsahan India Foundation (NGO), Helen Keller Institute for Deaf & DeafBlind (NGO), Himjoli (NGO) and Udayan Care (NGO), in the country and will continue to do so.”

  • moneycontrol.com unveils Master Your Money – An online investor event

    Online investor camp from moneycontrol.com

    By A Correspondent

     

    moneycontrol.com, India’s No1 financial portal, has launched an online investor camp starting 6am on November 16, 2011. The day-long event includes a host of investment experts answering queries from investors all over India.

    Master Your Money brings a unique opportunity to investors in India to go online and connect with leading experts, and get answers to their investment queries online. It provides a resource to millions of investors currently confronted with falling stock markets, high rates of inflation, skyrocketing real estate prices and the exploding value of gold.

    Master Your Money is open to all kinds of investors, from buyers of fixed deposits, government bonds and insurance, HNI stock and mutual fund investors, individual traders and corporate finance professionals. The unique online event covers stocks, bonds, insurance, gold and real estate.

    “As a leading national portal dedicated to serving investors in India, we conceptualized Master Your Money to provide knowledge to the entire community of Indian investors,” saidJoyson Thomas, COO, of Web 18, the company that owns moneycontrol.com”. Mr. Thomas added that this is the 2nd edition of Master Your Money and the first event attracted investors from all over the country.

    “As owners of the No. 1 financial national portal in India, it was logical for the leader to protect the interests of our audience,” said Mr Thomas.

  • With so much bad news around the Kingfisher Airlines business, we ask experts in what ways it could impact the brand.

    Brand Kingfisher in the red

     

    By Tuhina Anand

     

    The King of Good Times is battling bad times, and all eyes are waiting to see how much the whole bailout issue will cost Brand Kingfisher. Right now, the airline business of Kingfisher is under deep scrutiny and the media focus has only heightened the negative atmosphere. Public memory, of course, is short and all ‘bailout’, ‘bleeding’ and ‘those who die must die’ phrases will be forgotten once Vijay Mallya is able to arrange the corpus to manage the airline’s functioning. Remember, Jet Airways employees’ protests against job cuts some years ago didn’t do much harm to the brand in the long run.

     

    Kingfisher, known primarily for its beer, is unlikely to be affected. The brand has been there for a long time and people vouch for it. Even in this scenario, it’s the airline business that is under the scanner. The airline business is diversification of the core business, hence the impact on Kingfisher the brand would not be much. But when it comes to Kingfisher Airlines, people – especially frequent flyers and privileged guests wooed with the airline’s promise of an extraordinary experience – would stay away, considering flight cancellations and the consequent inconvenience.

     

    Expressing his view, Harish Bijoor, brand expert and CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, said, “Kingfisher is a dominant brand in the Indian context. The brand for a start is a beer. And from there on has developed the brand equity of brand Kingfisher Airlines. To that extent, the recent sets of issues in aviation tends to hurt the equity of Kingfisher Airlines more than the beer. The airline is a service brand that touches the lives of hundreds of people. The beer is a product brand. To that extent there is less of an issue there.”

     

    “The negative publicity that hits Kingfisher airlines is really about the pains of the traveller more than anything else. A traveller faced with flight cancellations at the last minute is impacted the most. This is where the biggest pain point of Kingfisher Airlines’ brand equity vests,” added Bijoor.

     

    So at one level where the crisis has hit most is the frequent travellers, but that is more of a short-term problem. In fact, the brand has taken a beating but not as much. Even V Balasubramanium, Director at RainMan Consulting, is of the opinion that the brand would have been affected if the issues were that involving ethics or credibility but something like a ‘bailout’ and being cash-strapped will not impact it long-term as people already know that the airline industry is bleeding and the same goes for Kingfisher Airlines. So while the issue has not come as a surprise, it’s true that the rumours about large-scale layoffs or the airline shutting operations don’t exactly help Mr Mallya’s case.

     

    One view that also emerges is that whenever UB has tried to diversify and move away from its core business of alcoholic drinks, they haven’t really succeeded. Ramanujam Sridhar, CEO, Brand-Comm said, “The next two to three months will be critical for Kingfisher, and how they manage to emerge out of this crisis and do damage control. There will be close scrutiny and overcoming this will be a challenge. There is a negative undercurrent especially among those who have raised eyebrows over the extravagant lifestyle and now the financial mess. I think it’s a wait and watch policy and the next couple of months will be make-or-break as far as the Kingfisher Airlines brand goes.”

     

    As it stands, the Kingfisher brand which is primarily associated with liquor will not be impacted in any case, as it will have its loyal followers, but for the airline business, which is actually a brand extension, it’s time to be cautious and move carefully. “Kingfisher needs to get off the pedestal and talk and emote with its users and those sitting on the fence with reference to its usage. It’s important to be transparent and admit folly where folly lies. In reality nothing succeeds like success. I do believe this is a temporary blip in the brand equity fortunes of Kingfisher Airlines. With some degree of fund infusion, it will be business as usual,” concludes Bijoor.

     

    Image: Grab from Kingfisher Airline TVC

  • Without a proper and systematic research analytics strategy, brands, irrespective of size, will find the going tough, writes V Balasubramanium

    The Anchor: 7 reasons to never ignore research analytics. Ever

    By V Balasubramanium

     

    The word “dynamism” has left a strong impression in the mind as we, like other consumers, have also embraced “dynamism”.  We experience the pace of this accelerating dynamism on a continuous basis. Dynamism in consumer behaviour as a result of a plethora of factors leads to the dynamism in the market. Given this increased pace, any brand – whether small or big, weak or healthy – needs to monitor its performance not only on a day-to-day basis but practically minute by minute. This monitoring and thus implementing quick course correction as required by changing consumer tastes is the biggest catalyst for any brand’s sustenance and growth. Research analytics come into play at this juncture. Without a proper and systematic research analytics strategy, brands, irrespective of size, will find the going tough. Thus the reasons for not ignoring research analytics are mainly connected with the word “dynamism”.

    #1 Consumer needs are evolving. Thanks to the increased exposure of the consumer to the globe through media, or through increased affluence, the attitudinal shift is the main driver to this ever-changing need. The resultant effect is tuning the mind for more brand messages, increased trial, and reduced loyalty.

    #2 The market is getting filled with more and more brands with varied offerings along with evolving needs. This crowding will lead to a greater effort by brands to gain increased consumer connect. Too many brands thus try to get consumer mindspace through various mechanisms.

    #3 Increasing knowledge of brands for the consumer. Consumers in this dynamic society try to get more knowledge of brands and switch decisions without any lag. This leads to expansion of the consideration set basket and reduction of loyalty.

    #4 Media is proliferating. Increased choice of connect points leads to more information being provided to the consumer, thus expanding the consumer’s knowledge base and aspiration levels. This results in increased brand trials.

    #5 Innovative distribution strategies of brands lead to more consumer brand interactions that influence changing brand choices.

    #6 Given all these complexities in markets and consumer behaviour patterns, marketers are increasingly looking for not only marketing RoI estimation but management of effective marketing RoI, the resultant benefit thus in monitoring the bang for the buck behind brands.

    #7 Static is an old word now. All brands are passing through this dynamic phase. To constantly gear to new challenges and create a proactive strategy for the win, brands need to look into present and past trends. Without proper ongoing marketing research analytics, brands of any size will find it difficult to face a new challenge.

     

    V Balasubramanium is the Director at RainMan Consulting.

  • Reliance Retail has big plans with retail with big-box hypermarkets

    Reliance Retail set to go big with big-box hypermarkets

    By Sagar Malviya & Chaitali Chakravarty

     

    RIL-owned Reliance Retail is buying real estate in 20 towns and cities to build big-box hypermarkets, moving beyond its earlier model of leased properties and small formats, as the conglomerate turns the spotlight back on retail under the new operations team hired from Walmart China.

     

    “We want to be a strong Indian retail player. The largest retail company in China is not Walmart or Tesco. It is Sun Art, a strong local company which owns around 200 hypermarkets,” said a senior company executive who added that the company has no plans of inducting an overseas partner even after foreign direct investment is allowed in the multi-brand retail sector.

     

    The focus on large-format stores of 60,000-80,000 sq ft, nearly the size of two football fields, and building stores on its own land, marks a shift from the company’s earlier strategy. When Reliance Retail had launched in 2006, it had signed up hundreds of properties for small-format stores – supermarkets and convenience stores – on lease. But, due to a combination of factors ranging from high real estate costs to supply chain issues, it had to shut more than 100 stores over the next few years.

     

    The company under the leadership of two retail veterans from China – Mr Rob Cissell, former chief operating officer of Walmart China, and Shawn Gray, former vice-president in-charge of store operations of the same company – has now for the first time decided to buy real estate and go for big-box formats. Typically, hypermarkets give consumers a choice of buying everything from soap to furniture.

     

    “We are buying land wherever there is scarcity of ready space, especially for our large-format stores. It will help in the long run as we don’t have to depend on rent inflation and its fluctuations,” Reliance Retail President Mr Bijou Kurein said without commenting on specific land deals.

     

    Six more hypermarkets by March:

    Reliance Retail has bought land parcels in Mumbai, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Pune, Mysore and Madurai in the last few months, each measuring 1-1.5 acres, a person involved in the land deals said. The first big-box hypermarket opened at Santa Cruz in Mumbai last month and 10 days later a second one was opened in Pune. The company plans to open six more hypermarkets by March next year.

     

    The retail company at present runs around half-a-dozen hypermarkets under the Reliance Mart brand. But the company executive said the scale, the range of products, and the consumer experience in the new big-box stores will be totally different from the existing ones.

     

    “Big-box stores generate volumes and considerably higher realised margins. Reliance’s small-format model was unattractive as it was heavily dependent on fresh fruit and vegetables. It is not possible to manage the entire supply chain from the farm to the stores,” said Mr Harminder Sahni, MD, Wazir Advisors, a retail consultancy

     

    The Indian retail sector is growing 15-20% annually after a temporary lull of 2008-09 when the global meltdown slowed down growth and demand. Rising incomes, a growing young population and the scope to penetrate deeper into tier 2 and 3 cities are prompting many Indian and foreign players to enter the retail sector. Hypermarkets seem to be the best bet because they offer Western-style shopping experience, a wide variety of products and great deals to the consumer.

     

    After a slow beginning, Reliance Retail has now emerged as the country’s second-largest retailer after the Future Group with annual revenues of Rs 4,833 crore. Over the past few months, Reliance has accelerated store openings, brought in a management team from Walmart China and launched its first cash and carry store in Ahmedabad in August.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2011, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

  • Not jst for mktg stuff; SMS msgs go a long way in giving u info abt products n services.

    The Anchor: 5 ways a marketer can use SMS to his/her advantage

    By Ravi Sundararajan

     

    #1 Acquisition of customers. SMS is a great tool to connect with new customers, and a marketer can leverage this medium to use it to target and acquire new customers.

    #2 Engaging customers. According to their area of interest, SMS can be used effectively to engage customers.

    #3 Retaining customers. It can also be a potent tool to retain customers by keeping them informed about promotions or information that might interest them.

    #4 Service Transaction. SMS also works well when one needs to give customers service-related information such as regarding bill payments or cash transactions.

    #5 Building infrastructure. There are many who don’t have infrastructure to set up communities or a mobile infrastructure service company. That’s where a company like ours can help marketers create such companies for others in the industry.

    Ravi Sundararajan is the Vice President Marketing at SMS GupShup.