MxMIndia

Tag: Big Bazaar

  • This year Big Bazaar and DDB Mudra West have crafted yet another motivating piece of communication

    Big Bazaar brings ‘Paper Patakha’ back with #YehDiwaliSabkiWali

    By A Correspondent

     

    The festival of light is back and so is the time to bring all the ‘paper patakhas’ out. During Diwali 2015, Big Bazaar created conversations about a safe, harmless Diwali celebration with their ‘Paper Patakha’ film. The new ad is an extension to the thought and the ongoing ‘Shubh Shuruvaat’ campaign.

     

    The intent of the film is to make this Diwali celebration inclusive of everyone. During Diwali, while every nook and corner of the country gets brightly lit and people rejoice with delicious food and merriment, there are a few who get left out. With this film, the brand wishes to invoke the deep rooted kindness we often get distracted away from and to promote the thought of including everyone in the celebration, making #YehDiwaliSabkiWali.

     

    Speaking on the campaign, Sadashiv Nayak, CEO, Big Bazaar said, “Big Bazaar’s motto ‘Making India beautiful’ is about creating beautiful memories in our customers’ lives. This year, Big Bazaar’s ‘Shubh Shuruvaat’ campaign carries its previous year’s ‘Paper Patakha’ concept forward, in order to emphasise further on the brand’s value of inclusiveness. The campaign is led by a heart-warming film that celebrates the humane side of Indian festivals. This new television commercial talks about celebrating Diwali with everyone, which we believe is the true essence behind the spirit of Diwali. The ad is touching, entertaining, and yet delivers a very important message to all of us.”

     

    Added, Rahul Mathew, Creative Head, DDB Mudra West, “There’s so much humanity and goodness that the festival of Diwali stands for. But somewhere in the cacophony of consumption brands often forget that. Which is where “Making India Beautiful” is like a guiding light for Big Bazaar. What we started last year with Paper Patakha making Diwali less polluting and more beautiful, we took it forward this year.”

     

  • Future Group's Big Bazaar is back with its popular and eagerly awaited sales across India

    Big Bazaar joins hands with the biggest brands for “Hum Taiyaar Hain” campaign

    By A Correspondent

     

    Big Bazaar (Future Group) has partnered with leading brands across categories for the popular ‘Maha Bachat’ sale. This partnership will be in the form of a campaign “Hum Taiyaar Hain” which will feature the CEOs and MDs of the respective brands communicating to the audience that they are ready with their products on stand for the ‘Maha Bachat’ sale. The motive behind the campaign is to mark the efforts of the brand partners who invest equal amount of enthusiasm and dedication to make the sale possible. Also, for the first time these brands are voicing their support for ‘Maha Bachat’. The sale will be held from the 13th till 17th of August 2016 across all Big Bazaar stores in India.

     

    The “Hum Taiyaar Hain” campaign will principally revolve around the CEOs and MDs making it loud and clear to the customers on how they’re well in advance prepared for the upcoming ‘Maha Bachat’ sale. Different print and other advertorials will showcase the brand heads giving out the message of the campaign. There are big sales, big discounts and big savings on over 300 brands across all cities.

     

    A spokesperson from Big Bazaar said, “Maha Bachat which is in its 11th year, offers incredible discounts on every product and every brand, it is an unparalleled opportunity for customers to save on everything they buy. A sale of such incredible proportion is impossible without our partners just like us, they too prepare for it months in advance and work towards the success of ‘Maha Bachat’ every year. Continuous cooperation from partners is a definitive and crucial factor in Maha Bachat’s success over the years. So let’s have a campaign that shows this partnership.”

     

  • The hypermarket chain has not only offered best prices on staples through Wednesday Bazaar, but also inspires people to try new foods through its constantly changing product mix

    Big Bazaar leans on ‘Khane Ka Samay’ to push in-store popularity

    By A Correspondent

     

    With Indian consumers undergoing massive change in their lifestyle and shopping, Big Bazaar has taken the onus of reflecting this beautiful change, which is making the daily lives of people better and more enjoyable, through its wide product range. It also reflects the journey of Big Bazaar beyond just great deals and prices into newer and more evolved ways of beautifying every aspect of the consumer’s life.

     

    The Food category enjoys the largest contribution at Big Bazaar. The hypermarket chain has not only offered best prices on staples through Wednesday Bazaar, but also inspires people to try new foods through its constantly changing product mix.

     

    The brand now wanted to reinforce its leadership stance by propagating its point of view on food. It wanted to romanticize food, its role in people’s lives and highlight its services and product offerings which enable a better life through fresh food and delectable meals.

     

    DDB Mudra West and Big Bazaar attempted to reawaken the Indian kitchen with the campaign ‘Khane Ka Samay’.

     

    The ad film ‘Khane Ka Samay’ is an ode to food. The visuals promote the audience to spread the aroma of food, from the kitchen across the home. It propagates the idea that food gives the tinge of newness to our relationships making food time, family time. The tantalizing food shots take viewers’ taste palates on a ride. The film tells stories of families bonding over a freshly cooked meal, of the older generation experimenting with and appreciating new cuisines, and of recipes that reflect the eclectic mix of cultures. The film highlights that food holds a legacy which passes from one generation to another and is an amalgamation of new and old, acting as a bond between the loved ones.

     

    The film is being showcased at cinema screens across India.

     

    Quoting on the film, Sadashiv Nayak, CEO, Big Bazaar said, “In India, food is culture. It is a collective experience. It’s about sharing and bonding, right from the farms where neighbours, kith & kin join hands in tilling, sowing and harvesting of crops to homes, where it is about love, to temple as offering to God. This film reinforces our belief that serving India is about winning heart share.”

     

    Sonal Dabral, Chairman and CCO, DDB Mudra Group added, “In a world of fast food and fast life, we don’t even have time for the most vital act of eating. We rush through food in our small cubicles. This campaign aims to rekindle our love for food by celebrating every bit of this delightful process, right from choosing ingredients to chopping, grinding, mixing, cooking and savoring every bite. It’s an honest attempt to make people step back from their busy lives, take out some time and enjoy their food with their families.”

     

  • The ad film features the star cast comprising of Sayani Gupta (of Margarita with a Straw fame) and veteran actress Archana Puran Singh

    Big Bazaar wishes ‘Neki Mubaarak’ in new ad campaign

    By A Correspondent

     

    On eve of the holy month of Ramzan, Big Bazaar and DDB Mudra West have etched a warm and compassionate campaign ‘Neki Mubaarak’ (Best wishes of goodness), which stays true to the brand’s promise of making India beautiful.

     

    The ad film features the star cast comprising of Sayani Gupta (of Margarita with a Straw fame) and veteran actress Archana Puran Singh.

     

    Sayani Gupta plays the role of a medical practitioner named Heena Qureshi and Archana Puran Singh plays the role of a mid-aged lady from a North Indian family. Set in the background of a small town hospital during Ramzan, the North Indian family seeks urgent medical attention for their young expecting female member. Here, Heena who works at the same hospital, steps up to the occasion and chooses her duty over her need for food, after the day’s long fasting. Witnessing this dedication is the mid-aged lady (played by Archana).

     

    The next day, Heena comes for her rounds in the ward. Appreciating Heena’s gesture from the day before, the mid-aged lady and her family arrange a food spread for Heena and request her to break her fast for the day with them. Heena obliges; while eating, she enquires about the baby’s name and the mid-aged lady expresses, “Heena.” Heena’s dedication towards her duty and the family’s sense of gratitude help them rise over their differences of religion and culture barriers, becoming one.

     

    The ad film pulls a slice from the viewer’s life and celebrates the goodness present in each one of us. This multimedia campaign is being led by the ad film and is being amplified by print, OOH, digital, on-ground and in-store & radio activations.

     

    This campaign comes as an extension to Big Bazaar’s ongoing ‘Shubh Shuruaat’ campaign and attempts to touch it’s consumers with ‘Neki Mubaarak’. The campaign further reinforces the brand’s inclusive nature and amplifies their commitment of celebrating the moments dearest to all the customers.

     

    Quoting on the campaign, Rahul Mathew, Creative Head, DDB Mudra West said, “Festivals are actually a celebration of values, but today many of them have just become celebrations. Big Bazaar wanted to use the occasion of Ramzan to celebrate the values that it stands for. Because it’s these values that’ll truly help in ‘Making India Beautiful”.”

     

    Speaking about the campaign, Sonal Dabral, Chairman & Chief Creative Officer, DDB Mudra Group said “Ramzan is a month of doing ‘neki’ and performing good deeds is at the heart of this festival. In keeping with its theme of ‘Making India Beautiful’ Big Bazaar decided to celebrate this spirit of Ramzan through a beautiful story about ‘goodness’. We are excited about this campaign and we hope in its own little way it will promote the spirit of ‘neki’ this Ramzan.”

     

  • Staying true to the tradition, DDB Mudra West has crafted a campaign 'Shuru Kisne Kiya' to announce the Big Bazaar Crazy Weekends offer

    Big Bazaar celebrates ‘Crazy Weekends’ with new campaign by DDB Mudra West

    By A Correspondent

     

    Big Bazaar, the largest hypermarket chain in India keeps its consumers attracted by offering them timely deals and discounts. What further adds value to their exciting offers is the engaging way in which they are communicated to the audience.

     

    Staying true to the tradition, DDB Mudra West has crafted a campaign ‘Shuru Kisne Kiya’ to announce the Big Bazaar Crazy Weekends offer.

     

    Campaign brief

    The brand wanted to capitalize on the entertainment seeking behaviour of consumers during weekends and showcase Big Bazaar as an ultimate weekend shopping destination.

     

    Objective

    The objective was to build anticipation and excitement towards ‘Crazy Weekends’ at Big Bazaar

     

    Idea

    The baseline to the idea was drawn from the offers itself. These ‘too good to be true’ offers are so unbelievable that when described, they sound like a lie. This thought paved way for ‘Shuru Kisne Kiya.’

     

    Execution

    The idea was translated in two ad films with a central storyline of one character talking about the deal he gets at the ‘Big Bazaar Crazy Weekend’. So good is the offer that the other character assumes it to be a fabricated story and retorts with a crazier, imaginary tale. When he first character opposes, the films end with the second character saying- ‘Shuru Kisne Kiya.’

     

    Both the films show bizarre and unbelievable tales like a plane getting stuck in a kite and a cow giving orange juice instead of milk as the response to the friend telling them about the incredible deal he got over the weekend at Big Bazaar.

     

    Client quote:

    Akshay Mehrotra, Chief Marketing Officer, Big Bazaar said, “Owning the weekend is the most important for successful retail operations. Big Bazaar promises to be the most exciting destination to visit over weekend and we are all excited to get more consumers palpitating with exciting offers in our stores every weekend. This campaign is not only built on offers to fire the market but also built around many building blocks which make shopping fun at big bazaar during weekends.”

     

    Agency quote:

    Rahul Mathew, Creative Head, DDB Mudra West said, “The campaign idea was literally our first reaction to the offers that Big Bazaar proposed for Crazy Weekends. After that, we just had to think up of executions that brought the incredulity to life in an engaging manner.”

     

    Agency Credits

    Agency Name: DDB Mudra West

    Chairman & Chief Creative Officer: Sonal Dabral

    President: Rajiv Sabnis

    Creative Team: Rahul Mathew, Manish Darji, Mayuresh Wagle, Pankaj Nihalani, Amol Annaldas, Rahul Gate, Syed Hussain

    Account Management Team: Sanjay Panday, Luv Chaturvedi, Makarand Gholba, Abhay Bhonsle, Amit Arora, Pulin Parekh

    Planning Team: Amit Kekre, Subash Franklin, Neha Kulkarni

    Films Team: Vishal Sane, Riddhi Mehta

     

  • The brief was to communicate to the audience to shop at any Future Group store of their choice, to get never-before cashback and benefits

    Adstrat: DDB Mudra West unveils 12 Months Free Shopping Festival campaign

    Future Group is India’s first and largest independent homegrown pure-play retail group. With a pan-India presence and multiple store formats, which meet the everyday needs of millions of customers in India, Future Group helps them live a better quality of life every day. The group has grown and continues to grow on a simple belief to be a part of every consumption opportunity of the Indian consumer.

     

    The Objective

    With the onset of Diwali, the biggest shopping season that India witnesses, at a time when the customers open their wallets and indulge in purchase – be it fashion, electronics, food, home fashion, kitchen goods, or even gifting, Future Group decided to bring all their different store formats from Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, FBB, Central, Ezone, Home Town, Brand Factory and ‘I am In’ into a common platform where customers can benefit from their purchase across the entire portfolio of Future Group stores and promote cross purchase between stores.

     

    The Brief

    To communicate to the audience to shop at any Future Group store of their choice, to get never before cash back and benefits. This could be encashed on a monthly basis or for the entire year at any of the Future Group Store.

     

    The Idea

    The festive season is upon us. A time for weddings, Diwali celebrations, moving into a new house, purchase new vehicles, renovating shops and what have you. In short, a time when most people in India go on a shopping spree. Future Group’s ‘The 12 Months Free Shopping Festival’ debuts at this opportune time. The creative idea then was to showcase this frenzy of shopping, which is further heightened by the exciting shopping schemes tied to this shopping festival.

     

    The Execution:

    Teasers

    The temptations of shopping during the festive season are all around us. Be it for Diwali, a wedding in the family or moving into a new home. So, the creatives depicted people abstaining from shopping or not letting others shop, in three different settings that reflect the aforementioned occasions. Because they’d rather wait till 1st October when The 12 Months Free Shopping Festival kicks-off – in order to plunge headfirst into a shopping binge.

     

    Main Films

    In the reveal films, it shows ‘The 12 Months Free Shopping Festival’ has begun, and a roving camera catching people red-handed with a massive amount of big ticket purchases. They are seen offering unconvincing reasons to the camera (in a sing-song) for doing so. A recurring chorus, however, calls their bluff throughout. Because the real reason is, of course, the exciting shopping schemes offered at this mega event. Towards the end, the shopping scheme itself is depicted with a unique Hammer Game device as seen in amusement parks. All this, set to a peppy tune.

     

    Commenting on the campaign, Akshay Mehrotra, Chief Marketing Officer, Big Bazaar, said, “We believe ‘The 12 Months Free Shopping Festival’ is among the most powerful ideas from the Group and will form a unique and valuable year-long relationship with our customers. The festive season is a time for family shopping; our customers can shop from all our categories for every family member and get rewarded by getting free shopping benefits through the next 12 months of the year. ‘The 12 Months Free Shopping Festival’ is the biggest reward program ever launched for our customers and this campaign communicates the uniqueness and value proposition of ‘The 12 Months Free Shopping Festival’ to people.”

     

    Sonal Dabral

    Speaking about the campaign, Sonal Dabral, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, DDB Mudra Group, said, “An exciting, high energy and truly creative festival needs to have an equally creative and high energy creative communication idea. That’s exactly what we delivered with this campaign.”

     

  • Shoppers log out and step into local stores ahead of Diwali over the last weekend

    Despite e-frenzy, crowds throng malls, markets

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Malls and markets in and around Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata were teeming with shoppers scouring for Diwali gifts and grabbing the latest electronic items last weekend, bringing relief to traditional retailers facing an unprecedented heavy discounting onslaught from online retailers.

     

    Supermarkets and consumer durable companies said it is a much better Diwali shopping season — when traditionally the biggest chunk of their annual sales takes place — than last year, thanks to improved consumer sentiments, although some smaller retailers have been impacted by big online sales.

     

    “There is a good number of serious shoppers out there,” said William Bissell, managing director at Fabindia. The retail chain of ethnic garments and furnishings has seen a 31 per cent year-on-year jump in its sales so far this Diwali season.

     

    Vineet Jain, vice president for Big Bazaar in the Delhi region at Future Group, said, “Probably, Sunday is going to be the best single-day sale for us in NCR (national capital region).” Even electronics retailers reported sales jump despite huge discounting offered by e-commerce companies such as Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal, thanks to the decision of top brands such as Sony, Samsung and LG to control supply of their top models to online stores.

     

    “This weekend there has been huge rush in malls and parking spaces too are full after a long time, which is a good sign,” said Ajit Joshi, CEO and MD at Tata Group’s Infiniti Retail that owns Croma electronics retail chain.

     

    “Sales have been extremely good, especially for large appliances like frost-free refrigerators and entertainment products like televisions and home theatres,” he said. This festive season all top companies such as Apple, Sony, Samsung, LG and Lenovo have launched their flagship models, and mostly they were kept away from online stores.

     

    “Some consumers were waiting in the wings for good offers during the ecommerce discount period but since they failed to get their desired product, they are back in the malls,” a senior executive at a top electronics chain said on condition of anonymity. Consumer electronics firms have been banking heavily on this Diwali after poor performance last year when consumers shied away from making costly purchases due to the economic scenario and inflation, and marketers did not launch any big model then. Amar Babu, managing director at Lenovo India, said consumer sentiments have improved and the company expects a good season.

     

    “After last year’s Diwali, the market had become really tough but we are witnessing good demand since last 7-8 days,” he said. Sony India said demand for its flat-screen televisions have soared by 40-50 per cent over the period before Diwali last year, helped by a sudden pickup in the last one week.

     

    Sunil Nayyar, head of sales for Sony India, said the company targets 60-70 per cent sales growth this Diwali, led by heavy demand for flat-screen large televisions of 42-56 inches, which segment is expected to contribute 55 per cent of total sales. Garment retailers such as Pantaloons Fashion and Arvind Lifestyle Brands, too, said Diwali sales had a delayed start.

     

    Offline retailers feel it’s is no longer a month-long festive buying phenomenon as Diwali sales period has been shrinking each year. Less number of shopping days doesn’t necessarily mean lower sales.

     

    “While we saw delayed start to Diwali shopping this year, like-to-like sales growth has increased 10 per cent which we had aimed for,” said Shital Mehta, chief executive officer at Pantaloons Fashion. “The growth was much higher at over 30 per cent on Saturday, which indicates that the next few crucial days leading to Diwali will also be good.”

     

    In fact, while people rushed to the malls in the weekend, they have had a near-deserted look during weekdays. J Suresh, managing director at Arvind Lifestyle Brands, said, “This Diwali, there has been a contrast of sorts with low sales during weekdays and better than expected demand on weekends.” Meanwhile, some apparel and electronic retailers that had built up inventory for Diwali have been caught off-guard by the heavy discounting by e-commerce companies.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2014, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish

     

  • Move over, Bollwood. Big Bazaar is going to spend Rs 120 crore around 52 TVCs over 52 weeks

    And now the Sau Crore ad campaign

    The Big Bazaar and DDB Mudra teams while announcing the campaign to the media. Sonal Dabral was travelling

     

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    If their offices aren’t buzzing with business cards from television adsales folk, they will do so now. Future Group’s Big Bazaar and its Media AOR Allied Media (of the Percept group) will see budgets for television adspends zooming from 10 to 40 percent. Printwallahs needn’t despair: while the allocation will go down from the current 70 taka to 40, in value terms the moolah isn’t going to go down.

     

    The purse of Rs 200 crore on adspends is going to expand by another Rs 75 crore. Rs 100 crore is going to be spent on the TVCs alone, with another Rs 20 crore on allied activities around the expanded purse of Rs 275 crore now earmarked for TVCs.

     

    Inspired by Swedish homestore Ikea’s 365 ads in 365 days campaign, the Big Bazaar bosses commissioned its creative agency DDB Mudra to craft a strategy which the agency’s Group CEO and Managing Director Madhukar Kamath says is the biggest ever marketing campaign he has seen in his near four-decade-long career. “We were commissioned five weeks back, and produced the commercial within days,” said Kamath.

     

    For Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani, the attempt is to adapt to changing times. He isn’t fazed by the extra marketing spends with Rs 120 crore on this year-long blitz. “The increase in sales will take care of the enhanced spends,” he told MxMIndia. Added Sandeep Tarkas, President, Customer Strategy (Future Group) and CEO (Future Media): “We hope to see sales grow by 20 per cent on the back of this campaign.” Until now, the hypermart thinktank’s strategy has been on tactical advertising, but this 52-TVC campaign which goes on air on March 24 takes one product every week from Big Bazaar and through them demonstrate how these products are making the lives of Indians more beautiful. The campaign will be backed by outdoor, radio and in-store visual merchandising. Print will not be a part of the campaign, though.

     

    Each TVC is a light-hearted commentary on the changes that are happening in Indian society, and make for interesting stories of the role that products play in making people’s life more beautiful and enriching. Added SonalDabral, Chairman & CCO, DDB Mudra Group: “In terms of tonality, we have kept it real because that’s the voice of Big Bazaar. These are not ad films they are closely observed 52 sparkling stories of the small changes Big Bazaar and its products are bringing to everyday India.”

     

    Added Mr Kamath: “It is a unique, never done before and a brave campaign which can only come from a leader like Big Bazaar. The brand has been at the forefront of innovation and leading change. This campaign redefines the step-change that Big Bazaar is making in its relationship with its current and prospective shoppers. It will further establish Big Bazaar as a company that sells products which enable and inspire every Indian to make their world look beautiful on the outside, as well as on the inside.”

     

  • Big Bazaar Direct marries the reach of the neighbourhood store with the weight of the Big Bazaar brand and the convenience of technology to home-deliver goods and discounts.

    Will Big Bazaar Direct hurt mother brand ‘Future Group’?

    By Kala Vijayraghavan

     

    Five years ago, the elder daughter of India’s retail man Kishore Biyani, had an idea to take all the promotional and discount deals offered by Big Bazaar, their flagship retail store, and pack it all into an outlet in areas not serviced by organised retail.

     

    Thus Future group, led by Ashni Biyani, set up a 600 sq ft store called Big Bazaar Best Deals in Mumbra, a suburb of Thane in Maharashtra, and started offering deals—in store, through a catalogue and via online retailing. That idea did not gain traction, but it has spawned another idea five years on: Big Bazaar Direct, which marries the reach of the neighbourhood store with the weight of the Big Bazaar brand and the convenience of technology to home-deliver goods and discounts.

     

    Kishore Biyani

    At its launch late last month, Kishore Biyani, CEO of Future Group, said: “If it works, it will be bigger than Big Bazaar”. The operative words here are two: ‘bigger’ and ‘if’. Big Bazaar is a Rs 11,000 crore operation, the mainstay of the Future Group, and the new business is essentially looking to leverage that brand name.

     

    After spending much of the last 18 months on defence, selling pieces of his debt-laden retail empire, Mr Biyani is back doing what he knows best: playing offence, testing another retail format. “I am confident about this one,” he says.

     

    “We are venturing into this after making most of the mistakes in the world.” Big Bazaar Direct (BBD) is the first of its kind, at least in India. Even competitors are admiring it for intricacies and ingenuity. They are watching keenly, but holding back judgement to see how it is execution unravels.

     

    “The idea is very solid, ambitious and very interesting,” says the CEO of a competing food and grocery retail chain, not wanting to be named. One man who has seen it from closer quarters, even shaped parts of it, is Damodar Mall. Till mid-2013, the chief customer strategy officer of Reliance Retail was in the Future Group.

     

    Mr Mall was a close aide of Mr Biyani and he even worked with 28-year-old Ashni on the Big Bazaar Best Deals concept. “If one gets it right, it can be very right,” he says. “But if it goes wrong, it can hurt the mother brand.”

     

    BBD invites people — anyone from shopkeepers to insurance agents — to become its franchisee by paying a deposit of Rs 3 lakh. Say, your local chemist becomes a franchisee. At your calling, the chemist will come home with a tablet, which has a listing of Big Bazaar products that have deals on them.

     

    You can see the deals and the chemist enters your order on his tablet. Instantly, this is transmitted to the BBD back office, and you receive an SMS. You pay the franchisee cash for the order, which is also acknowledged via SMS. The franchisee’s job ends there. Your order is now with Big Bazaar, which home delivers it in three to seven days.

     

    “We have realised that, even today in India, human intervention is required in e-commerce,” says Mr Biyani. Daughter Ashni calls it “aided e-commerce”. The BBD model, thus, is tying to join many dots by making it a win-win-win proposition. The customer, sitting at home, gets goods from Big Bazaar, at its prices and discounts.

     

    The franchisees earn a commission on sales for simply going door-to-door and punching orders on a tablet. The company gets a new sales force, one that capitalises on its local knowledge and contacts, and adds ballast to the Big Bazaar engine without the burden of organising working capital.

     

    Mr Biyani is leading this project himself, along with the Future Group’s start-up team. Flanking him are Vivek Biyani, his nephew, and a panel of five entrepreneurs who have worked with Mr Biyani closely over the years. Rakesh, Mr Biyani’s cousin and the other senior promoter, is involved in the project to the extent that the technology piece reports to him.

     

    According to Mr Biyani, a central thought behind BBD was their reading that Big Bazaar, today, has a greater mind share than market share. In other words, more people know about it than who visit it —primarily because a store is not in their town or is not close enough. BBD aims to bring Big Bazaar home.

     

    “Big Bazaar touches around 35-40% of the Indian population today,” says Mr Biyani. “BBD will be able to touch at least 70% of the population.”

     

    The new partners

    The franchisees will have to enable that touch. BBD has launched in Nagpur (where Big Bazaar has its national warehouse) and Amravati, both in Maharashtra, where it signed up 15 franchisees. Next up: Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Mumbai and the National Capital Region. “The fulfilment should be checked in one market first before the scale-up happens,” cautions Mr Mall.

     

    BBD is currently inviting franchisee applications. According to Abhay Kumar, one of the five entrepreneurs, the applicants include kirana stores, homemakers, chemists, insurance agents and beauticians. But it’s not as if anyone who pays Rs 3 lakh will become a franchisee.

     

    The group of five entrepreneurs will vet and decide. This group is also selling BBD. So, for instance, it has targeted an interaction with 4,600 prospective franchisees in October across BBD’s upcoming markets.

     

    After the interaction and initial screening, this team meets with applicants in their operating locality to get a sense of them, their business and customer profile. “The biggest criteria we are seeking in our franchisees is entrepreneurship, their ability to collect customers,” says Abhay Kumar, a fabric distributor and garment manufacturer who has been doing business with Biyani for 27 years, and is part of the group of five.

     

    According to Mr Biyani, five things need to fall in place: product, brand, franchisees, technology and supply chain. The most critical and the biggest challenge, he adds, are the franchisees, who stand to earn 7-9% of the value of the goods sold through them. “They have to buy into the idea…and I am banking on them to sell the idea,” says Mr Biyani.

     

    “And believe me, the entrepreneurs who come and meet me ask a million questions about the venture. Their sign-in is not that easy.”

     

    The flip side

    Harminder Singh of Wazir Advisor, a retail advisory firm, feels the “biggest flaw” in the BBD model is the franchisee strategy. “Big Bazaar is not a business that has high margins. So, a partner may get impatient quickly,” says Mr Singh, founder and managing director, Wazir.

     

    “The partner is an individual with a mind of his own. To have control over one’s business model is a better idea.” Hasmukh B Rambhia, president of Mumbai Suburban Grain & Provision Dealers, a group of kirana stores in Mumbai, seconds that thought.

     

    “Maybe some years down the line, when modern retail distribution becomes stronger, it will make business sense to partner big retailers,” he says. “Today, local players have to play to their strengths, of the convenience of buying daily grocery products.” While a Big Bazaar store stocks, on an average, 30,000-40,000 products, BBD will offer 1,800 products in several categories, including non-food, apparel and accessories, furniture and home furnishing, packaged foods and electronics.

     

    It plans to keep adding products in time, and also offer foods and grocery, the back-end for which it is working on. It is also looking to reduce delivery time, the eventual aim being same-day delivery. While the sourcing team for the store and home delivery formats are the same, there are two separate teams on the supply side. “What deal entrepreneurs get will depend, to a large extent, on the supply chain and service levels,” says Mr Mall.

     

    “The machinery will have to deliver reliably given that it is a hi-tech business.” Adds Wazir: “If there are inconsistent supplies in a form that the Sahara Group experienced, customers will stop shopping.” And, as Mr Mall says, the resultant backlash could even hurt the mother Big Bazaar brand. The CEO of a rival firm quoted earlier says it will be an execution challenge to have several hundred diverse entrepreneurs buy into the same idea. “But then that is Biyani’s approach right from day one,” he says. “He hasn’t been afraid to take risks at all.”

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2013, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish

     

     

  • Behind every great commercial is super strategy. Every week, MxMIndia will bring you the brief and the strat as given by the client and whatever else that went into creating a winning ad

    AdStrat: 6 Days Mahabachat

    Anand Karir, Senior Creative Director, DDB Mudra

     

    Name of the Campaign

    6 Days Mahabachat

     

    Brief

    Mahabachat as a property was conceived in 2006 to spur consumption around the Independence Day holiday, offering great savings across product categories. This year the challenge was to instil confidence into the property promise of big savings at a time when persistent inflation was dampening consumer spirit.

     

    Research insights

    The consumer reality revealed that they harboured a sense of helplessness towards inflation, with no solution in sight. Over the years, the effect of inflation had moved beyond the kitchen and even impacted their purchases of fashion, education, fuel and entertainment, leading to an overall increase in the cost of living. At the same time consumer aspirations were also on the rise, resulting in an overall state of dissatisfaction.

     

    The thought process behind the creative

    As a solution to the consumer’s angst, the attempt was to empower consumers with a concrete solution throughout the six days of Mahabachat. The resolve of victory over inflation by participating in Mahabachat was brought alive through the optimistic clarion call of ‘Mehengai pe Halla Bol’.

     

    Media vehicles chosen

    TVC, Press, Outdoor, Radio, In-store and Digital.

     

    Key issues kept in mind while executing the ad

    The clarion call of ‘Mehengai pe Halla Bol’ was not an agitation or a morcha against anyone but the joy of having found a solution against inflation at Big Bazaar through the ‘6 days of Mahabachat’. The mood was that of celebration and freedom.

     

    Does the treatment do justice to the brief?

    Yes.

     

    What is the differentiating factor about the ad?

    Every Indian detests the inflation of the last few months. Our TG, the middle class Indian housewife, is feeling no different. Her budgets have not grown in proportion to the inflation and this is somewhere tying her hands and giving her a feeling of being helpless. Of not being able to do enough for her family. She wants to do something to change this and vent her feelings. We just gave her feelings an expression – ‘Mehengai pe Halla Bol’. She knows that Big Bazaar has always understood her needs and brought stuff within her reach. Mahabachat 2012 is yet another chapter in that epic.

     

    The TVC first mildly touches upon her and her family’s day-to-day encounters with inflation and then introduces ‘Mehangai pe Halla Bol’ as a positive cry, during these testing times, asking her to reach out to her friend Big Bazaar and grab everything she and her family wants and deserves, in abundance. Simple poetry narrated in the background subtly sets the mood and puts the point across without letting the harsh reality hit her in the face, which was a very important objective that we wished to achieve.

     

    Compiled by Shubhangi Mehta.

     

  • This year the challenge was to instill confidence into the property promise of big savings at a time when persistent inflation was dampening consumer spending

    Big Bazaar’s new Mahabachat campaign

    By A Correspondent

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-bo9pTou5I[/youtube]

    Big Bazaar is the pioneer of organized retailing in India and has been successful in creating many new consumption occasions, which offer unbeatable value to the Indian middle class. One of such landmark properties is Mahabachat, which has been designed to spur consumption around the Independence Day holiday.

     

    This year the challenge was to instill confidence into the property promise of big savings at a time when persistent inflation was dampening consumer spending.

     

    The consumer reality revealed that they harbored a sense of helplessness towards inflation, with no solution in sight. Over the years, the effect of inflation had moved beyond the kitchen to oil prices, fashion, education and entertainment, leading to an increase in the cost of living. At the same time consumer aspirations were also on the rise, resulting in an overall state of dissatisfaction.

     

    As a solution to the current consumer angst, they empowered their consumers with a concrete solution of Mahabachat. The resolve of victory on inflation by participating in Mahabachat was brought alive through the optimistic call to action- mehengai par halla bol. The TVC worked to build an atmosphere of collective hope and confidence. The campaign was supported by TV, print, radio, outdoor and digital medium.

     

    Chief Creative Officer: Sonal Dabral

    Office Head: Rajiv Sabnis

    Creative Head: Vinayak Nayak, Anand Karir

    Creative Copy: Neh Rathi, Anand Karir and Fazal Syed

    Creative Art: Binal Parikh Gharat, Sunil Petkar

    Account Planning: Amit Kekre, Gitanjali Saxena

    Account Management: Sanjay Panday, Rajiv Wadhwa, Makarand Gholba, Abhay Bhonsle

    Films: Mahen Solanki

    Production House: Whodunit Films

    Director: Sujay Shetty

     

  • In recent weeks, the retail industry has been abuzz with speculation that the Future Group was in talks with India's richest man Mukesh Ambani to sell stake in its flagship Big Bazaar hypermarket network

    Kishore Biyani not to sell stake in Big Bazaar & Food Bazaar chains

    By Chaitali Chakravarty

     

    Retail magnate Kishore Biyani said that he is not in talks with anybody to sell stake in Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar chains because his Future Group has sorted out its debt crisis after three back-to-back deals in the past one month.

     

    “We are not in discussions with anybody. I don’t want to divest my core retail business now. I want to run it,” Mr Biyani told ET. “Our debt levels are very comfortable and divestment, if any, will only be in non-core assets,” the Future Group chief said.

     

    In recent weeks, the retail industry has been abuzz with speculation that the Future Group was in talks with India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani to sell stake in its flagship Big Bazaar hypermarket network, which contributes almost 65 per cent of revenues of Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd, the listed entity of Future Group.

     

    Reliance Industries operates a nationwide network of retail chains under Reliance Retail and Mr Ambani sees this segment as one of the engines of future growth for the conglomerate.

     

    A Reliance Industries spokesman denied any negotiations with Biyani. “We deny that Reliance Industries has ever been in talks with Future Group or Mr Kishore Biyani for any stake sale,” he said.

     

    A person aware of developments in Future Group, however, said Reliance Retail and Future Group had explored the possibility of a partnership about three months ago. But the talks did not proceed because the AV Birla Group moved faster and agreed to buy Pantaloons department chain, helping Future Group improve its precarious financial situation.

     

    “At that time the priority was to bring money into the company and the Pantaloons deal addressed that issue,” the person said.

     

    The Future Group, which has been in an aggressive expansion mode, ran into a crisis with consolidated debt of Rs7,800 crore that weighed on its profitability. Pantaloon Retail has been spending more than Rs100 crore in interest over each of the past three quarters. This started to pinch as consumer spending slowed. That was when Mr Biyani started looking to sell assets to pare debt.

     

    Last month, the Future Group sold a majority stake in Pantaloons department chain to AV Birla Group’s Aditya Birla Nuvo for Rs1,600 crore that included Rs800 crore of debt transfer.

     

    Then, last week, the Future Group announced sale of its 53.67per cent stake in Future Capital Holdings to US-based private equity firm Warburg Pincus for Rs4,250 crore, which included Rs450 crore of cash payout and Rs3,800 crore of debt transfer. Pantaloon Retail also raised Rs 200 crore through a preferential share allotment last week.

     

    “In the past one month, Biyani has managed to reduce his debt by Rs 6,000 crore. Now, he is in no hurry to sell any of his core businesses,” the person close to Future Group said. A senior official of a rival retailer, however, said Mr Biyani will ultimately get a partner for his value chain. “The only question is if he will tie up with an Indian company or wait for foreign direct investment to be allowed in the sector so he can find an international partner,” the person said.

     

    Meanwhile, Mr Biyani plans to sell more non-core assets in a bid to make the Bombay Stock Exchange-listed Pantaloon Retail debt-free by March 2013.

     

    He plans to raise Rs1,650 crore by October by offloading shares in his insurance and stationery joint ventures, the consumer electronics chain and home furnishing network. This would include raising Rs1,000 crore by divesting stake in Future Generali insurance. This will help prune Pantaloon Retail’s standalone debt, which stood at about Rs5,500 crore at the end of March.

     

    The group also plans to shed 40 per cent stake in the electronics retailing business eZone when it merges it with Noida-based InTarvo Technologies, which specialises in providing technical support to large corporations and retailers. InTarvo could not be contacted for comment despite repeated attempts.

     

    Mr Biyani also plans to sell a minority stake in home furnishing and do-it-yourself chain Home Town network for about Rs 300 crore in the next two months.

     

    He said his group’s May deal to cede controlling stake in Pantaloons chain to AV Birla Group was a one-off transaction. The company will only sell minority stakes in any future deals in its core retailing business and will maintain majority stake in such ventures, he said.

     

    Mr Biyani added that he doesn’t want to touch Future Value Retail, which operates Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar, as the group’s debt situation can be controlled.

     

    The only way he wants to touch Big Bazaar is by undertaking some tweaking in the profitable 150-strong chain by introducing improved services and consumer-centric approaches, underscoring with a new tagline ‘Aapki Sewa Mein’ (or, ‘At Your Service’). Big Bazaar is changing its tagline months after it adopted ‘New India’s New Bazaar’.

     

    Source: The Economic Times
    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved