Will you pay for someone to shop for you?

A few weekends ago I coerced my kids to accompany me for the weekly vegetable buying trip, as my spouse was travelling.

Amongst the various reasons/ excuses given by my children for not coming to do vegetable shopping was that it was boring. To reiterate this point of view my college going son strongly stated that he would never go for vegetable purchases when he grows up. When I teased him about being chauvinistic, he replied with a simple statement of fact that it was boring and that most people in that age group regardless of gender would not be interested in “wasting” their time in such tasks. They would rather hire someone to do this for them.

Initially I dismissed this perspective as a youthful one. However, it has been at the back of my mind. I am now beginning to wonder if India would see a sudden shift in shopper behavior which would not only spawn new services but also lead to paradigm shifts in Indian Retail.

The reason why I am debating this is due to a study that was done more than ten years ago to understand price and value perception amongst housewife. It was interesting and an eye opener to say the least. One of the things thrown up in the study was how a housewife would readily pay a Rupee (Bear with the text till I get the new font!!) more for cleaned Rawa while she would not do so for cleaned Rice. The reasoning was that the perception of the effort justified the extra Rupee as also the fact that she anyways cleans and rinses the rice before cooking.

So, the question in my mind is;

Are shoppers changing? Will they pay and outsource functional (AKA boring) shopping? Is India heading towards a personal shopper service of a different kind?

My personal view is that as of now I don’t see the majority paying to get shopping done. I am basing this on my observation of shopper behavior and price-value perceptions. Even today an advertisement for a Rs. 149/- tawa draws a crowd! However, this could change. How soon, I don’t know!!

Please share your comments and views on this topic. I shall also explore this further and post more regarding the same.

What a Birthday present!!

Almost to the day, it has been a year since “An Indian and A Retailer” made its debut. The thoughts of this blog grew into an in-depth, experiential book about Indian Retail, titled “The INDIAN reTALEs”.

All this happened in the space of the past 365 or maybe 366 days!

And on the first birthday of the blog, I hold a physical copy of “The INDIAN reTALEs” and wish a very happy birthday to the blog.

This book has been published by Unicorn Books and is now available for purchase with an online discount of 25% at pustakmahal (dot) com. It would be available at leading book stores over the next couple of weeks.

Please start enquiring at your nearest book store about the book and get your hands on it as soon as possible.

Thanks to everyone who supported, encouraged and motivated me along this journey. Hope you enjoy reading the tales as much as you have this blog.

Delivering a memorable customer experience

This article is the next in the series on how to implement the customer experience element of basic Retail model, in the Indian context. This was published on Sept 17, 2009.

The faith and trust a customer places in a retailer is a function of his shopping experience. Unless a Retailer works towards creating a memorable experience, the chances of success is very slim. There are many ways to achieve this objective. The Kirana stores use a one on one personalised approach which cannot be duplicated by Corporate Retail. So, how should Corporate Retail manage this crucial element?

To read the whole article, please click on this link -

- Delivering a memorable customer experience

Some views about Corporate Retail

I have been and will continue to be a passionate advocate of corporate retail which enables a chain of stores. Simply because this would enable too many good things if done well; Like supply chain, development of food processing industry, employment opportunities (Most Important), better tax realisation for the government, so on and so forth.

But then I can’t be blind to the handicaps and shortcomings of this segment too.

Although I have written about the cost disparity between corporate and conventional retail, the fact remains that most conventional shop keepers have learnt fast and got their act together; whether it is in terms of self service or packed groceries! Or even adopting technology in terms of billing systems, etc as reported in Times of India recently.

While corporate retail seems to be floundering! Why?

By now countless seminars, training sessions and perhaps even blogs like mine have created a humongous information base. Media, as always, has capitalised on this craze and one gets to see a large array of magazines about retailing.

Plus there are a handful of experienced retail professionals in India who have not only pioneered Corporate Retail, but have extensive experience spanning across formats and life cycle stages.
So, why is corporate retail struggling against all the conventional ones - be it the ubiquitous kaka ka dukaan or naadar kadai or some of the larger ones.

I believe it is because of the fact that a basic principle of retail has been forgotten. This is called as “Leadership by dirtying one’s hands”. This is my terminology and this translates into leading from the front.

I recall a very poignant memory. During one of my earlier employment stints, I was with Pepsi Foods. I happened to go route riding and was faced with an irate store owner who demanded immediate resolution of an outstanding issue. After polite counter points (Please read as Bull Shit, in CAPS) failed, I had no other choice but to call the office and take inputs/ seek help from the sales head. The secretary (Obviously well trained) promptly said that the head of sales was in a meeting. While I was relaying this message to the shop owner, he grabbed the phone and said in basic Tamil – Amma, naangalla veyillae vitthathaan, aangae AC le meeting nadakum. This means – Only if we sell in this sweltering heat, can you guys afford to conduct meetings in AC rooms. Needless to say, the concerned person came on line and the issue was resolved.

There is an old Tamil folk lore of a King who had a bell which could be rung by any aggrieved citizen and once, even a cow rang it and got justice.

In a country so rich with consumer rights, why is no corporate retail chain displaying any consumer orientation?

Apart from other things like cost structure, is this crucial consumer orientation the core/ key factor which tilts the scale in favour of conventional stores?

Reaching out and creating a connect with customers is a simple thing and there are enough and more simple, cost effective ways of creating this connect. However, at a macro level the organisation needs to be aligned and honest to delivering this customer delight. That by itself would diminish the usual corporate games and enable people to work towards consumer delight.

Is Corporate Retail listening? Or rather, are they interested?

Delivering better value

An article written by me, about delivering better value, published in The Hindu Business Line.

Supermarkets should aim to become the neighbourhood contact point, touching every facet of their customers’ lives.

More value for your money’ is the oft-repeated cliché of most marketers. This favourite line is used or rather overused, more so in retail than anywhere else, because of the power of that statement. However, consumers are growing increasingly weary of empty words and statements without experiencing the same......

The URL for the article -

- Delivering better value

Shopping in a nighty; The paradigm shift!

The recent posts about the anniversary triggered off a flurry of “Do you remember” conversations. One such incident recalled was about when the head of RPG Foodworld once rather cryptically mentioned in a group that I was responsible for getting women in nighties to shop at the store! The incident and the background deserve to be shared in this forum.

We once had a group of women who were invited to share their view of shopping, where they shopped and why. There were many interesting and even startling feedback points with regards to the modern air conditioned stores as compared to the tried and tested kirana.

One very interesting comment made by several ladies was that they need to dress up and look smart if they were to visit the modern stores, whereas they could walk across in even a nightie to the kirana store. Apparently, the uniformed staff who spoke in English, the modern ambiance, etc had created a self induced sense of very high standards with regards to purchasing from the modern format stores. This obviously did not help the stores as it was seen as slightly intimidating and definitely not “my store”.

One needs to understand that in the Indian context, dressing up means precisely that and starts with a smart saree or similar attire, hair to be groomed, etc. Imagine the consequence. Even the housewife staying next door to such a store would have to spend considerable time and effort just to get ready for shopping. Thereby making the whole expedition not a very convenient choice, unless one was going out as a family outing!

It was an interesting insight and one that became the starting point for lots of initiatives which were rolled out to make the customers feel at ease and not make the store so intimidating as to be almost unapproachable.

Cut to a few years later and we were launching the chain in a new city. The recent batch of management trainees had been dispatched to participate, experience and learn from the launch. At an informal get together the then head of RPG Foodworld was asking these youngsters about their experiences when one person quipped that the customers were so comfortable and accepting of the store that a lot of them were seen shopping in their nighty. That’s when the head made the remark of how yours truly was responsible in bringing women shoppers in their nighties to the store.

Needless to say, I spent that evening explaining away this comment while my colleagues would often ask me as to which consumer attire I was working on next!

Service expectations while purchasing durables or electronics

A few years ago when we went to purchase a fridge I recall the comic confusion that the various sales persons standing at the durables store created. There were three or four salesmen standing around and when we pointed to a fridge and asked them to show us the features, first they were reluctant. Then one person reluctantly explained how the concerned salesman had gone for his tea break. While I was wondering on the absurdity of having individual salesmen for each product, another elaborated that I was enquiring about brand A while all those present were representing Brand B or C or D. Finally one person did try to at least engage us till the time that the concerned salesman returned!

I am sure most of you would have had this experience.

Later on when I was handling the marketing for a durables store, such similar experiences prompted the team to relook at the way the store staff interacted with customers and went on to become a key differentiator.

It might definitely help the durable retailers if they were cognizant of this dissonance being created by what is called company promoters as also internalize that the consumers are changing.

Typically the various brand manufacturers agree to place these salesmen or promoters as they are called. Hence, most are briefed and trained only with details of a particular brand. Of course there is a fair amount of churn within this group and it would not be uncommon to see a person be a salesman for Brand A and a few weeks or months later for Brand B. Although this and the fact that they all work together makes them all aware of the various brands, the tendency is to constantly steer the customer towards one’s brand. From a customer point of view, this is not only confusing but extremely annoying too.

Today the reality is that youngsters are emerging or rather have emerged as a significant consuming class, especially of Electronics. These consumers are well informed and usually have done some homework with regards to the products, brands, features, etc. In such a context having to face a virtual race amongst the salesmen is not the best thing that a store can do.

Secondly, there is a large group of educated consumers who are older and who typically indulge in high- end electronics and durables. Such consumers again do not appreciate pushy selling because they are looking for additional inputs, details and explanations with regards to the various features of a product.

And then you have the average consumer who is looking for functional benefits and is often technologically challenged. Yet again, not a good choice to practice hard sell. They look for some information and lots of reassurance!

So, essentially the purchasing pattern for this category of products is fast moving towards informed and knowledgeable decision making by the consumer instead of being hustled into a sale.

Most modern durables chains are aware of this shift in consumer behavior and they have the store staff to offer nonpartisan inputs and help in the purchase. However, the larger universe of small operators still relies on the company promoter route, simply because it helps defray the man power costs. What they seem to be missing out is that if the customers dry up, there would be no store and no costs left to defray!

Mobile and different; an innovative Retail Idea

The next article in my series about a sustainable retail model, focussing on the basics was published in 'The Hindu Business Line', today.

The article deals the first element of the model; A truly different store. An idea is presented for the readers to think and comment upon. Technically speaking it is not a store, but it is definitely a retail format worth exploring for India!

Click on this link to read this article -

- Mobile and Different

Please do post your comments on the feasibility of this idea.

I would be personally delighted if any corporate or entrepreneur decided to experiment with this model and will be happy to provide inputs.

Store launch is like a 20:20 match!

While watching the past few matches of IPL2 I was suddenly struck by the similarities between a store launch and a 20:20 match. Both call for enormous planning and at the end of the day the difference between a win and a loss is all about proper planning and excellent execution.

Even today with the proliferation of stores of varying types, the opening of a store is a milestone and something that the whole team works towards.

My view has been that the opening day should be a grand gala event which should attract maximum number of customers from the catchment and generate positive word of mouth. The contra view is to open the store with minimal fuss and then market it well once everything falls into place. This has its merits but also means that the retailer loses an opportunity to make his presence felt. After all once the store opens or is launched, it is no longer a secret! The launch is an opportunity to make a large number of people ‘sample’ the new offering in the catchment and then work on converting them into loyal shoppers.

In that way, the launch is definitely like a 20:20, wherein maximum number of runs needs to be taken with minimal loss of wickets, in a defined period- the day of opening.

Getting more runs -

The trick is to start with a bang. Unlike in a test match, where the openers have all the time in the world to settle down, here, in 20:20 there is no such luxury – the focus is straight away on achieving a high run rate. Similarly, the first hour or so of opening needs to set the cash tills on fire. A good range and service would influence this. But an unbeatable promotional offer limited by time is a sure fire way to get customers to line up before a launch!

The next is to ensure a consistently high run rate. Blanket offers and promotions would mean that customers would choose to shop at their convenience, which is typically in the evening. Apart from letting the “run rate” decline in the lull period, this would create an enormous pressure on the staff and store infrastructure in the evening. Often this leads to more of dissonance, instead of creating a positive word-of-mouth message. Therefore, time based, targeted offers would ensure a run rate, which does not flag.

Lastly, the slog overs - which are precisely that. The evening of the launch requires adequate planning and preparation to manage the customer crowds, ensure stocks are still there on the shelf and most importantly the staff are physically and mentally ready to handle this.

Saving the wickets -

Saving the wickets, translates into saving these first customers and generating positive word of mouth, towards building a loyal base of shoppers in the catchment. Just like how a wrongly timed shot makes the difference between a sixer and a catch, similarly, high expectation with poor customer management experience is equal to the store being declared out.

The basic expectation of a retailer is to leverage promotions to attract the customers to come and experience/ sample the store. In this context, billing issues compounded by arguing with the customer means that the store has been clean bowled, out! In all these years of store launches I have seen, there will definitely be some minor glitch at least, especially with regards to promotions. The best stand is to gracefully honor the promised promotion and resolve the accounting later on.

An LBW is also possible. “Leg before wicket” is equivalent to customers without stocks for them to purchase! Low stocks or even worse, nil stocks, especially of the key promotions SKUs, is a sure shot LBW. Customers are drawn by the promise of these products and the offers on them. By not having adequate stocks to cater to this expectation, all the money spent for the launch becomes a waste!

Poor crowd management is No-No. In the early days of supermarkets, temporary cash tills were deployed to handle the expected rush. In fact a few were deployed at key locations near the exit to facilitate the customers. Today one has several IT led solutions to manage crowds and for queue busting, the favorite being a mobile POS. I will detail more about this in another post as this has several other benefits apart from only being used during a launch.

There are a whole host of things and detailed action plans that are required to generate a large number of walk-ins and subsequently manage the same successfully. But, I shall leave you with these basic things, which if done well should help win the match on the launch day.

Home Improvement - The illusion of low labour cost!

We Indians are a DIFM (Do It For Me) type of customer when it comes to any kind of home improvement project. DIY (Do It Yourself) is an alien concept given the over abundance of labor in the Indian context. However, is it sustainable?

Traditionally the majority of urban Indians require an electrician to replace a blown fuse and therefore obviously the support of a plumber, carpenter and so on. Hanging a picture in the house is a major project because we need a carpenter for that! Why is that?

First and foremost, we are not taught even the basic skills required for some of the home related repair and maintenance work. And we don’t take the trouble to acquire these skills because of the existence of the neighborhood electrician/ plumber, etc. Therefore, we also don’t have the tools required to even do simple things like changing the fuse!

Secondly most neighborhoods have a hardware shop which has a resident plumber and electrician. These people are not employed by the store. They just use the store as their base of operations and a contact point. In return the sales generated due to the work they do is monopolized by that store. So, it is mutually dependent and creates a self sustaining cycle between the customer, the skilled worker and the store.

Lastly, given the cost of a proper tool kit, hand drill, etc., and while balancing it against the occasional repair needs as also the on-call low cost labor, most Indians prefer DIFM.

This is fine when paying a few hundred rupees to do minor stuff. Recently, the capacitor of one of the ceiling fans gave up. To replace the same we paid Rs. 75/- to the electrician who had come plus the cost of the capacitor. Even assuming that the price of the capacitor would not change, if I had changed the same, there is a savings of Rs. 75/-. Why did I not do that? Urban dwellers increasingly trade off money for time (Read this article about this concept - http://www.blonnet.com/catalyst/2003/05/08/stories/2003050800080200.htm). So, in my view the cost of the electrician’s time was far less than the value of my time and the required effort for this.

But, this also leads to conditioning and repetitive behavior. Even if I knew something about home improvement, I soon lose touch and my dependence on the skilled workers increases and thereby my latent need and dependence on contractors also grows, for larger home improvement jobs.

Now, imagine a slightly larger in scope but simple enough home improvement work. Painting your home or even one room! It is actually a simple enough job. One needs to sandpaper the walls and then paint the same. It becomes ridiculously easy of one were to use a roller instead of a brush. Yet, we usually ask a contractor to do this job.Ask anyone who has had to manage even such a simple job and there will pour forth a litany of complaints about how the painters usually did not come on time, made a mess and often left without cleaning and so on. If one were to calculate the cost of the time and effort required to follow up, supervise, clean up, etc., one would realize that the actual cost of the job was far more. Therein lies the irony of the supposedly low cost labor and completely undermines our main rational for being DIFM instead of DIY.

Customers are predominantly honest!

In continuation of one of my previous post about shrinkage and in defense of customers, I would like to share this interesting incident.

Going back to my favorite period of reminisces, the early days of Foodworld, we were constantly trying to figure out why customers still preferred the neighborhood kirana store as compared to the air conditioned and more convenient supermarkets. After talking functional issues like pricing, the preferred quality of groceries, home delivery, etc., we were still unearthing some interesting insights.

One such insight was the comfort level that the housewife has in being able to send back stuff she is not happy with. In one of my earlier articles, I have mentioned how shopping is a habit, especially given the fact that we do not have adequate inputs for making truly rational purchases. In that context, the comfort that the store would take back/ replace something is a significant cushion for the housewife. I can’t say that the same holds true of today’s consumers. But that is another story.

A program was initiated to popularize the replacement policy, wherein anything excepting razors n similar personal items could be replaced/ returned with a defined number of days. No questions asked.

Surprisingly, the resistance to the program came internally from the store team. At the briefing meeting they were vehement in their protest and the biggest argument was how this would be grossly misused by customers. And so a pitched battle ensued between marketing and operations.

Finally the then head of Foodworld stepped in and mandated that the program should be given a chance. But, to be fair to the operating team we would meet again in a month and review.
The program was rolled out. Lots of banners all over the place, posters at the store, shelf edge material, etc. Basically, no customer could miss that message.

A month went by quickly and we were reviewing this initiative. I had not heard of any major incident of the program having been misused. But, I had also not heard any positive feedback of acceptance from the store team and was looking forward to what would be mentioned.
Finally when we discussed this program, it was a bit of an anticlimax. If I remember correctly there had been a few cases of misuse including a lady who brought back a half eaten can of cheese with fungus on it!

When compared to the total number of customers, the percentage of such instances was miniscule and the benefits of creating this kind of trust far outweighed the few cases.
Having said that, in most countries where retail is mature customers also evolve. Or rather people who want to misuse the systems and processes also evolve and therein lies the challenge for a retailer today.

To trust or not to trust!

Will leave you with this experience of mine at Makro, UK. While at the customer service desk I was aghast to see the lady staff accept a supposedly defective hand drill for return/ replacement. When I pointed out that the drill could be working, the lady drawled in her Manchester accent, “It could be working, luv. But if I were to check and got a shock the company would pay far more than what the drill costs. Also luv, why would anyone want to return a working drill”!! Is it any wonder that we get to read how some people purchase a nice dress on Friday and return it on Monday, after the weekend party!

Shrinkage and Shoplifting

I recently read a letter posted on a site by a lady about how she was traumatized when store staff suspected her of shop lifting and gave her a hard time. This set me thinking, especially when I read in another report that India has topped the Asia Pacific region in the Annual Global Retail Theft Barometer-2008 survey. Shrinkage is one of the bigger headaches for a corporate retailer and sometimes is the tipping point in making a store viable or not.

Very simply put shrinkage is the difference between the actual volume & value of the products in the store Vs what is being reported in the system.

There are various reasons why this happens and shoplifting or theft is one of them. There are various other reasons that contribute to this such as, wastage, improper billing, wrong receipt of goods, etc. I would focus on shoplifting in this post.

Most retailers tend to believe that customer theft is the largest contributor to shrinkage followed by employee theft.

How true and valid this is, is anyone’s guess. The reason I am skeptical is that just a few years ago, there have been reports of Employee theft being the single largest reason followed by customers. I find it funny that the trend has reversed, unless these very customers are being hired as staff nowadays!!!

The most common items for shop lifting are the obvious culprits. Expensive and branded products like perfumes, etc. or small impulse items like razors, blades, etc.

Now, the moot point is, Why do people do it? There is a small percentage of people who pursue this as a criminal career and also another group who are compulsive shoplifters or kleptomaniacs. But the majority is simply normal people who have succumbed to a moment of temptation coupled with an inability to pay.

On one hand I have seen our store staff apprehend a large group of women who would wear voluminous dresses and come to the store in Hyderabad as part of a well organized racket to literally cart away products after buying a few small items. On the other hand I have also witnessed an elderly man almost cry after he was intercepted for trying to take away a deodorant. His simple explanation was “I depend on my son and daughter-in-law nowadays and she says I don’t need any fancy products for my use. I sweat a lot and am miserable about it, plus don’t have money. It was just too tempting.”

Self service is here to stay as a retail concept. However in light of such instances, is there a social and human angle to keeping tempting products out of reach and behind a counter? If not, can we train the staff to differentiate and handle shoplifting differently, depending on the context?
Lastly, I also remember a lady who was intercepted with a few expensive cosmetics. Out came her phone and her spouse lands up. Incidentally he was a cop and surprisingly embarrassed by this instead of displaying the usual public servant bluster. No prizes for guessing what happened!

CRM in a Kirana's Context!

What is the service that the Kirana delivers that constitutes value? He caters to our whim and fancy; literally and figuratively. By sending even a small item to our homes, taking orders even at 9.30 p.m. and so on. And also by remembering the exams of our children, remembering to ask how your backache is, being contrite when something is not good and so on.

And what enables him to do that? CRM. Not the customer relationship management that one usually reads about. His CRM is Care, Respect and therefore the Motivation to shop with him.

There are two parts to this; His ability to recognize you and your family members, remember your shopping habits and more importantly your monthly spends. Then his brain analyses and generates business intelligence in the form of your lifetime value to him.

I used to stay alone in Bangalore for work and there was the ubiquitous Kirana near the apartment complex. I went and introduced myself and was promptly given his telephone number with a promise that I can call anytime for anything. A few days later I called for some soft drinks as I had guests. He was apologetic but could not come as his delivery boy was not there. As I was coming down in the lift, his delivery boy entered the compound with some things to deliver, obviously not for me. What had happened? He must have done his homework and determined that my lifetime value to him was not worth the trouble!


Lifetime value of a consumer - This is the intent behind most loyalty programs. But how many deliver?

Why was the sales low yesterday?

Since 1996 when the first Foodworld store opened, a regular query to the store staff would be, "Why was the sales down yesterday?"

Over the years, regardless of the format, I have heard some really interesting reasons for that question. And the fact of the matter is that, in most cases every last one of these have some element of truth. Some of the memorable ones are;

1. It started drizzling at 5.30 pm and so the customer walk ins were low (Coupled with reason 2 or 4, this becomes a bit of an oxymoron!!).
2. It was the India- Pakistan one day international sir. (Unsaid - Are u a moron to even ask?)
3. The latest Rajni film was on the cable! (Now, thats something one can't question when the city of Chennai itself appears deserted!)
4. It was the world cup finals sir! (The 'moron' comment running in the bakground again!)

Now, why this post.

With the start of IPL, especially planned to coincide with the prime time shopping, I definitely expect walk ins to drop in by as much as 25%. How will this affect the sales of Indian Corporate Retail, remains to be seen. Already there are announcements of promotions to leverage the overseas IPL. But, given the downturn, is not the IPL a great excuse to keep the family at home and save some money and yet have a great time!!!

However, the guys who would come out laughing all the way to the bank is the fast food guys as also the neighbourhood Kirana. After all, they do deliver at home when you run out of soft drinks or snacks.

Lastly... Go, Go, Chennai Super Kings!!!!

Collection boxes for charity

The coin or collection boxes placed by charitable organisations/ NGOs in most retail outlets is a common sight. To the extent that I feel that they have become blind spots in most cases. Would like to share a few thoughts about these.

1. I dont see this in most corporate retail chains. Is it that they do not support such charity or is it that getting permission is too difficult. Whatever the reason, this seems to be missing in these stores.

2. These boxes are an excellent way of fulfilling corporate social responsibility and can also be leveraged to overcome the lack of change. Instead of handing out toffees and chocolates, the cashier can have a small pre-printed slip of paper which has space for Name, Bill Number and the amount to be donated. The change due to the customer can be mentioned as the amount and dropped into the box, with the customers signature. Individually these might be a few paise each. But imagine the overall total when you apply the power of collective effort! All the charity would have to do is hand over these slips with a statement to collect the money.

Of course the truly evolved way of doing this would be to enable the customer to pay the donation at the cash till along with their bill and the charity gets the amount every week or month.

Hopefully someone would think about this and we should be able to channelise the change towards deserving people instead of taking toffees home!!

Query from a reader about Indian Consumers

Query from Mr. Ginil George - Why are Indians as consumers gullible? Is it because we are not mature shoppers despite being around for close to 5000 years?

An interesting question and something I always speak about when talking about retail marketing.

None of us are qualified to be consumers! A provocative statement, but true.

At best we can read the labels on some of the packaged products and make some informed decisions. But when there are no labels to guide us, we are lost and rely on someone else’s professed capability. The basic fact of shopping being a habit is largely driven by this reality. Over a period of time we tend to stick to a store because we trust the store to sell us the right products. The best example for this behaviour is the fact that most of us would ask a medical store person to suggest medicines for some of the simpler ailments. Chemicals that we are adding to our human system!

This trait is also one of the key drivers of brands and loyalty to brands. Over a period of time brands stand for trust and faith. As consumers we trust the claims of brands because we trust. If one were to be truly rationale would one buy water enriched with Oxygen? After all water is H2O. So, when water is enriched with oxygen, would it become H2O2?? Or does it become an aerated drink?

In that context not only Indians, every consumer of the world is gullible. But is that truly being gullible? I would prefer to think that the consumers are trusting. Does not trust create great brands? As a marketer I would be devastated if consumers lost this capability to trust.

Abraham Lincoln said “You can fool some people for some time. You cant fool all the people, all the time”. Same is the logic with regards to our trust as a consumer. When the trust is let down and done obviously, consumers move on. A famous tea brand which was almost generic to the category started losing share and sales started dropping. When a qualitative study was done to determine why loyal customers were switching, the reasons all resonated with a single thought; “I felt let down when the quality dropped. I had trusted this brand so much”.

Population Pressure

Standing inside the lift going to the ground floor, I have often been faced with a barrage of a human wall on the ground floor. Rushing to get inside the lift!!! And similarly in an airport transit bus, where everyone gets in and crowds around the entrance or rather the exit!

I have mentioned 2 instances to showcases very different scenarios.

I recollect an incident where I called out loudly “Hey guys, this building does not have a basement. The lift stops here. Unless we get off, you can’t get in”
Increasingly I reflect on this incident as also my various interactions with people from out of India who wonder about this phenomenon and have come up with this theory called “Population Pressure”.

As a race, we Indians or rather people from Asia which comprises of a large population are conditioned from childhood to push, shove, elbow, barge in... In short fight for our place in the good ‘Ole Earth.

In the presence of such overwhelming numbers, we can’t afford the niceties of holding a door open or waiting! If one does not MOVE, they are left standing. I remember reading about the Tokyo Metro system, where you have staff to push people inside the compartments so that the doors can close!

What is this population pressure?

Conditioning.

Growing up in an environment where there is nothing called as personal space and the least amount of space will be willingly taken up by another human being, the tussle between social grace/ manners and the pressure to get something out of life is an ever present reality in our lives’.
- Rushing into a lift
- Driving in the wrong lane, even though we want to turn right.
- Vehicles blocking the free left turn lane
- Elbowing into a line
The list can go on.

Is there a solution to this?

Not really, because the population explosion that continues is driven largely by people who cant and don’t read blogs. Or rather, can’t read at all. Period!

Is there a solution? NO. This is a social phenomenon and will take its own course to correct/ change/ morph.

So, what does this have to do with retail?

As a customer we don’t mind browsing and shopping for s long as we want. It could be a few minutes or a few hours. But, the billing counter is a barrier to freedom. Ideally, from a psychological perspective we would like to browse, pick and choose and walk out with what we have taken. FREEDOM, in its absolute sense.

Although the self service concept panders to this inherent whim in our minds, the Billing counter is a reality check. A barrier to be crossed. (I shall write about this in detail later)
Going back to the population pressure theory and linking it to this perceived barrier, is a CRUCIAL factor for any retailer.

Typically a cashier faces challenges, such as –
- Customers lining up and a customer’s bill is taking too long, because many products are not found while scanning! One needs to actually manage a cash till to understand the dynamics. Forget, “If looks could kill”, in a line at the cash till, it’s more like “If thoughts could kill”. And the cashier is not immune to it.
- Population pressure kicking in – Regular customers or someone who has purchased a few things, try to elbow themselves out of this barrier by requesting to be billed first.

As a retailer what can one do?
- Make the staff aware of this reality
- Discourage people from line jumping
- Train the staff to manage “Population Pressure” which is all the more evident during the evenings and weekends.

Successful retail is all about creating, managing and meeting expectations. The key being creating the right level of expectation. That’s another topic for another day!

Have a great weekend.

Call the cops!!!

Hope you all had a great weekend and a greater still start to the week. At least the stock markets were on an upswing and it is a historic day for every Indian. 'Nano' was launched. A promise made was kept and as an Indian, it swells my heart.

My post to start the week has been prompted by one of the comments wherein it is mentioned that the staff did not even know the name of the product. This is a common enough occurrence and a huge problem for any retailer as also the customers. This is definitely due to the expectation that is created in our minds the minute we walk into an air conditioned, brightly lit store. The root of this issue lies in a variety of reasons, the least of which is the reality that most staff come from a very economically challenged background. Shall delve into that later this week.

This challenge has led to several awkward situations in a store, many of which were outright hilarious, like what happened in this incident.

One of the new staff at a store was very excited and enthusiastic. They had just attended the training program and the "wish the customers" rule was fresh and being actively followed. Suddenly this person rushed up to the supervisor who was busy checking something and stage whispered "Madam, please call the police immediately. It is urgent". The supervisor was initially alarmed, but decided to enquire as to what the matter was, before reacting.

Upon enquiring, the young staff, wide eyed and in a louder stage whisper said; Customer is asking for drugs!

The poor lady who turned out to be an elderly person had been asking whether brown sugar was available; for BAKING!

The supervisor in charge of the store later narrated this incident to highlight how one has to learn and improve continuously as training cannot be like in the film "Matrix"; load a disk and they get to know everything!

Will write more about this and some ideas that have worked. Have a great week.

Understanding the customer. A true life experience

Organisations spend huge sums of money in market research to understand the customers. There is a whole industry involved in what is called customer analytics and profiling where customer behaviour is dissected in every possible way. The ultimate objective being, a more competitive offering which the customer wants. A friend of mine who used to manage a store once told me a story in this context and said how all these reports cannot substitute an hour of standing in the store.

In that context retail is the most interactive and customer insightful industry. One can get instant feedback and make corrections if they choose to.

This is during the early days of mobiles and one mobile company had tied up with a chain to give a hand set free as part of a contest. Needless to say the interest was high and I remember filling in the various forms I was eligible for hoping to get the phone. One such elderly lady like me was also hopeful of winning the phone, excepting that she expected or rather was waiting for the phone to be given to her. The store manager would be asked every time if the contest was over and when can she collect the phone! She claimed that God has told her that she was going to get the phone.

It was a Saturday and I was shopping at the store when the store manager informed me that someone else had won and the message had just come from the office and he was to display the winners name. He was hoping that he would not be around when the elderly customer came to the store and found she was not the winner. Just as he was telling me this, an elderly lady walked up to him and asked when she can get the phone!

As diplomatically as possible, the manager explained that someone else had won and better luck next time. The customer suddenly became abusive and hurled the choicest of abuses and not content with that made a gesture of spitting to indicate her disgust. I watching this and almost expected the security to lead the customer out.

To my surprise and appreciation the manager walked up to the lady and calmly apologized for disappointing her and gently asked why she was so upset. It was after all only a contest. The lady calmed down, broke down and told her story; Her husband was very critically ill and they had applied for a landline phone which was getting delayed. When she heard of this contest, it was like a sign from God and she had started believing that if she won the phone, her husband would get well as they could summon medical help whenever they wanted.

I was very touched by the story and wondered how often we react to anger with anger, when it actually hides sorrow and fear. Kudos to the manager for understanding customers with more insight than any report can provide.

Retail trivia – Almost every contest works on a probability theory and the prizes are planned for assuming only a certain number of people participating. Also, they are usually a method for data collection, to be used for future marketing efforts. Next time you fill in a coupon remember that apart from the prize you could also get a lot of calls and mails!!

-- This article is part of a series, I wrote for "The Hindu, Retail Plus".

The lure of a Freebie!

FREE! What a powerful word. Among the most used, recognized and acted upon words in the world. The power of free!

One really does not know when the practice of freebies started. But suffice to say that this has become one of the more powerful promotion tools for any brand owner as also retailers. Many a times the consumer makes a final choice on what is being given Free. Many brands have created fads and cults with their freebies and a good example is the craze for Tazzos which was triggered by a potato wafer brand.

I have seen many situations where the power of free is on display. Children insisting that their parents buy something because a toy is free with it, ladies purchasing a personal product because an utility item is free and so on. However, the power of free was best demonstrated when I witnessed the following incident.

It was yet another opening of a swank, new modern supermarket. Offers and more offers made customers queue up and wait in the sun. Once the store was ‘inaugurated’ the mad rush began. I was a part of this crowd and suffice to say that I was carried into the store with minimal effort, thanks to my co-shoppers excitement. Soon my trolley was full and I rushed to pay and get out before getting caught behind a long line.

I emerged victoriously clutching my bill which said that there were so many interesting Freebies I had to collect. As I waited in the counter where they were handing over these free products I noticed a very upset middle aged lady. She was smartly dressed and was addressing the counter staff in excellent English and not sparing them. After observing the scene for some time I could surmise that she had purchased for a particular value which was almost twice the limit for a promotion and was demanding an additional freebie. Given the intensity of the debate, I got interested in case I had missed out on this offer. The staff were explaining that the free was not only based on the value of purchase but should also include some specific product.

I guess after some time the staff thought that it is better to give one more freebie and avoid the scene as also the ire of customers who were waiting for their turn. I was curiously waiting to see the freebie, which was the triumphant result of the lady’s efforts. To be frank, I was a bit disappointed when the staff handed over a medium sized ordinary looking plastic bucket, to the lady.

The lady picked up the bucket, thanked the person and turned to imperiously hand over the bucket to a smart uniformed person, who I noticed was standing in the side, saying ‘Keep it in the car’. This particular incident intrigued me more than the reality of someone insisting and getting a bucket as free. With growing amazement I watched the lady march towards a gleaming black, imported luxury sedan and get into the car. The driver dutifully placed the bucket in the boot and off they went!


Retail trivia – Many a times we would have asked that the price of the freebie adjusted as a discount and we are told that the discount offered would be a fraction of the price of such a freebie. Its might be puzzling as to why we don’t get the full value as a discount. The reason is very simple. These freebies are sourced in bulk and purchased at a fraction of their stated price. Hence, only that amount can be given as a discount if any customer insists on it. Its better to take the freebie and gift it to someone than lose out on the value by insisting on a discount!



-- This article is part of a series, I wrote for "The Hindu, Retail Plus".