Buying Sales, Hundred million at a time!

“Buying Sales” is not necessarily a bad thing unless one does it without having a clear idea about why it is being done. So, what is buying sale?

It is a term used to define very deep discounts and/ or killer deals which will by default lead to very high sales which usually also results in a loss of margins. In effect the Retailer then spends a lot of money to generate that sales, hence the term; “Buying Sales”.

This approach will obviously require deep pockets and unless there is a clear agenda for the same, it ends up as being a waste since it is not easily sustainable.

The recent hype about a eTailer’s one day sale and the resultant deluge of shopper angst coupled with the statements by the eTailer expressing happiness and satisfaction from this promotion makes me wonder about the contradiction. What was the reason and logic for this activity? Were they “Buying Sales” and if so, was it done with an objective?

These questions and also what can be the expected impact of this on eTailing and the other players have been captured in an article published in ET Retail. Click here to read the full article.

Picture Courtesy - www.gpxgroup.com

Joining the bandwagon

A few days ago I was quite surprised to see this advertisements for a fairly well known silk saree shop which has several outlets in the city. End Of Season Sale (EOSS) is by now a familiar sight in the Indian Retailscape with lifestyle stores screaming offers of up to 50% or even 70% Off.

This seems to be actually a new trend and is worth watching out for – Start Of Season Sale (SOSS) or is it a sign of desperation and this actually means Save Our Store Sales (SOSS)!

Some key elements which are worth debating about;

• The festival season kicks off with Navratri/ Dushera and extends all the way till Diwali. This is the time for large spikes in sales, especially in the apparel segment and silk sarees would definitely qualify. Why should the Retailer have such aggressive Buy One Get One Free offers along with some very steep discounts also.
• If the intent is to clear stocks, then their pitch of updated collection is misleading and is actually bound to create a negative impact in the shopper’s mind set if that is not true. This category is very high on the impact of word of mouth and such misleading information will soon spread the negative message.
• If the range is indeed updated and has new designs for the festive season, why this aggressive offer? This segment sells based more on design, colour, quality and service. In that context, why is the Retailer making it into a mass merchandise?

Too often nowadays I find Retailers who opt for the easy way out of “Buying Sales”. This means that they have offers and promotions which have no long term or even medium strategy and usually the only objective is to increase sales with no perspective about the cost of getting such sales. Which is why I have used the terms “Save Our Store Sales” (SOSS). Such offers invariably lead to conditioning the customers to start waiting out the Retailer till they offer such promotions and very soon the Retailer is forced to make this into a regular occurrence.

On the other hand, this might be a very canny Retailer who is starting off a new trend of Start of Season Sales and will try to capture a larger share of the customers festival spends in this category. However, even in such a situation the long term impact is not very positive and it is bound to become a compulsive habit not only for that Retailer but for that segment as a whole.

Apart from the EOSS trend there are two examples to validate the fact that these trends can very soon lead to a repetitive habit forming pattern. The first is the year end sale in the CDIT stores which was started by a Chennai based Retailer to beat the low sales during that period and is now a annual occurrence across this segment. The other is the “Aadi Sale” which has a similar background and now has become a default annual affair. Although these occasions are now used to clear old models and excess stocks, am not sure whether this pattern of having some sort of sales for almost half the year is a healthy trend.

Indian Retail & Social Media

When the whole world is going gaga about social media and now people are starting to talk about the possible decline of the same, Indian Retail seems to be watching this trend from the sidelines with some token presence here and there.

Big Data, the next big thing in Analytics has caught everyone’s attention but the root of this lies in being able to connect the dots across various data points of a consumer, especially their behavior and preferences expressed on social media. I wonder how Indian Retail will leverage big data without any meaningful engagement of the shoppers on the various social media platforms.

A recent initiative by a toy store chain led me examine this issue and ET Retail has published a two part article about this. 

Click here to read Part 1 which examines this in detail.

Click here to read Part 2 which is prescriptive and outlines some of the basic steps that are required to engage the shoppers on social media platforms.

In summary, the core thought is that social media needs to become an integral part of the Retailer’s strategy and cannot be limited to SEO efforts only.

Image courtesy - slashgear.com 

Are you Buying Sales?

The SALE season is upon us!

Every Retailer, especially those in the lifestyle space routinely announce and execute the “End Of Season Sale” (EOSS). Advertisements, posters, etc., scream varying percentages with the word “Upto” mentioned in small print - for example “Upto 70% Off”.

Although the intent of these EOSS offers is to clear stocks and shelf space for the new products, lines and styles, this is becoming counterproductive in many cases. Shoppers have started expecting such offers and their timing has become a well known fact. As such, the customers tend to often wait for EOSS to make their purchases. Ironically Retailers have realized that and are beginning to feed this habit by planning for special EOSS stocks which defeats the very purpose of this activity.

The reality in Indian Retail is that most promotions by and large are run without much thought and no clearly defined specific objective. Most promotions are being planned to increase sales and then every category jumps on to the band wagon to leverage the increased customer walk ins. EOSS is also going down that road and this is definitely not a good trend.

For starters this trend is clearly conditioning the shopper against the regular pricing being offered at any store and skews the sales trends heavily. In the case of mass merchandisers, the skewed sales trends do affect the inventory levels, forecasting, etc. Even after normalizing the sales for promotion impact, the data cannot be completely trusted because there are similar promotions on the same brand being offered by other stores and this also skews the data.

This brings me to the ago old debate of Hi-Lo promotion led pricing Vs EDLP or discounted pricing. Although EDLP offers consistency and its resultant benefits, promotions bring in excitement which has its own set of benefits for any Retailer.

Am I proposing that Retailers do away with promotions and only follow a discounting model?

Not at all. My view is that promotions are not only tactical but also a part of the Retailer’s strategy. As such promotion planning needs to be done in a structured and well planned manner. Let me elaborate on one aspect of structured promotion planning which is setting objectives.

When asked why that particular promotion is being run on that SKU or category, the inevitable answer is either about increasing sales or because competition is doing the same. In other words a well defined and specific objective is missing.

I say so because sales is not an absolute and insulated phenomenon in Retail. It is actually composed of three elements –

• Walk ins or Footfall
• Number of Bills
• Average Bill Value or Ticket Size

Any promotion must be structured to deliver a result which will clearly impact one or more of these three elements. This is important because different categories and varying promotions impact each of these three elements in a different manner. For example impulse or low involvement categories are great to increase footfalls but would require a very strong offer.

Execution is the next important factor to ensure that the promotions deliver the desired results. Whether it is with regard to having adequate stocks or having the proper signage and promotion communication, every execution element plays a vital role and cannot be ignored.

Last but definitely not the least is the store staff briefing which can in some cases make or break a promotion.

Let me share an example. An apparel store was offering a gift voucher linked to particular slabs of bill value. When the cashier was billing my purchase I noticed that I had become eligible for one such gift voucher and wanted to use the value of that voucher against the remaining purchases. Therefore reduce the total amount I was paying.

When I mentioned this to the cashier, as expected, he became flustered and called the supervisor. I was surprised to find that the supervisor was well briefed and he checked my purchases and briefed the cashier to bill the products as I had requested as also capture the gift voucher number against the second bill.

There are two take aways from this incident.

1. From a shopper’s perspective the majority of cashiers and supervisors would be flustered in such situations and take the easy way out by saying that it is not allowed. Briefing the staff helps the customer get a clear communication which build loyalty instead of making them frustrated.
2. However, from a Retailer’s perspective this seems like a waste of promotional budget. Neither is it bringing me back to increase their footfall nor did it make me buy more and therefore increase the average bill value. Why did that Retailer throw away that margin?

Very clearly promotions are not easy to plan and manage. To be able to achieve the right balance between positive business impact as also happy shoppers, the Retailer should have planned the promotion with a lot of thought, data and a clear objective.

In the absence of adequate thought and planning for any promotion, the Retailer is only buying sales!

Retail Trend; Shoppers can and will experience the product before purchase

Showrooming was a concern when shoppers used to come to the physical stores, check out the products and then purchase it online because of a better price. Just when this was becoming a cause of concern the exact opposite happened for several categories - reverse showrooming. Here shoppers would do extensive research online and then come to a physical store to experience the product and make the purchase. Needless to say smart Retailers have developed strategies to counter showrooming and to encourage reverse showrooming.

The next step would be to combine the power of technology and the shopper’s need to experience the product, without even having to come into the store. This trend is going to only increase especially in lifestyle and high involvement categories.

The IKEA initiative for their catalogue is an apt example for how Retailers can leverage technology to encourage reverse showrooming; more importantly, deliver shopper value which is not limited to price alone. 

As you can see in this video IKEA has used an augmented reality app to enable shoppers to not only experience their products before hand but also create wonderful memories.

Now to address the question I am invariably asked - is this possible in India and will it be worth it?

Yes, it is very much possible in India and it is definitely worth it because the Retailer will create value for the shopper which is not limited to price. Also, such experiences will have an emotional impact on the customer as also trigger word-of-mouth publicity which is fantastic.

CLICK here to like my facebook page

Retail signage idea

Recently I saw a promotion signage put up by a small stand alone apparel store. The signage grabbed my attention and would like to share it as it can be easily replicated by other Retailers.

 

 

The rough and ready look and feel stands out amidst the digital printed signs one sees everywhere nowadays. My guess is that this store has used some old flex material and spray painted the message. It is a great idea as the urgency comes across very well. Especially when the "Hurry" seems to have been added on in a hurry (pun intended). 

 

A few suggestions to make this even more effective –

• Use red paint for some of the key words like shown in the edited picture below.
• Reduce the text. Use “3” and “1” instead of words.
• Make the font size of “conditions apply” smaller. I do not mean make it miniscule, just smaller!

Indian Retail - Point & Counterpoint: Great ideas are a waste of time without execution focus

A few days ago I woke up to see a half page advertisement of a national Retail chain which was trying something new and interesting. They had affixed a scratch card to the advertisement and I am guessing that they were hoping that this would trigger curiosity and drive walk ins.

Sadly, the scratch card had been already scratched out and the offer was visible which completely defeated the very purpose of a scratch card. The other evident lack of execution focus was that the scratch card had been affixed upside down as you can see in the picture. (Retailer’s name has been masked)

 

 

A good idea and this is in line with the basic Retail focus of generating customer footfalls and then focusing on conversion inside the store.

However this good idea did not factor in some basic ground realities. Namely, that a scratch card which has already been defaced will have absolutely no impact on any potential customer. The other reality is that anyone will be tempted to scratch and see what is in such a card, very similar to the universal fixation of breaking the bubbles of a bubble wrap sheet.

So, another great idea which sounded fabulous when being presented seems to have fallen by the way side.

How could this great idea become very effective?

Very simple, factor in the reality that news paper agents will have access to these and if they can insert pamphlets in a paper, they can definitely scratch and see what is hidden.

Just print a random number sequence on a card which is stuck on the advertisement. This card can be shown while billing and the offer pertaining to that random number can be accessed from a data table which is uploaded in the billing software. The curiosity value is retained and the idea becomes effective.

Lastly, there could be one more perspective. In Tamil Nadu there is a ban on lottery or what is called as game of chance. This is one reason why coupons always have a slogan and then gets defined as a game of skill and not chance. (A leading ice cream brand had to withdraw a national promotion only in TN, a few years ago due to this reason). Maybe, the scratch cards were defaced deliberately. In which case why spend so much of money in making these cards and getting them fixed onto the news paper advertisement.

A distinct lack of execution focus seems to be coming through and that is a big NO, NO in Retail.

CLICK HERE to join the discussion about “Execution Focus” on my page and share your perspectives and examples.

Creating Unsustainable Expectations

Waiting at the billing counter has always been a touchy and sensitive point with customers. They are at their irritable best if there is even the smallest of delays. In fact this factor is now one of the key drivers for customer to revert to their trusted neighborhood store for basic/ functional purchases. Make a phone call and be done with it.

So, it was refreshing to see an Indian hypermarket take the bull by its horns and tackle this issue head on. They released advertisements about the “No more long billing queues” and branded it as the Green Line revolution.

Quite frankly I thought that they were quite ambitious in their claim and was watching to see how this would pan out.

I shared this advertisement in several of my classes and invited inputs from the students in the context of customer service and customer satisfaction. Initially the feedback was very positive with most students mentioning how this was a welcome move and they would try this store just for this service factor.

Cut to a few weeks later. This campaign has been on my mind and I was keen to see how successfully this Retailer had managed this service issue and what had happened.

In order to maintain objectivity I asked another class of mine to do a field visit to various stores including this hypermarket. They had not been showed this advertisement and there had been no discussion in this regard in the class.

The feedback was rather shocking although along expected lines. The Green Line initiative was highlighted as a positive and the message registered well with the student customers. Although under the negatives for that store long lines and a long wait for the billing was highlighted. The net take out was that the claim was not supported in reality and was a huge disappointment.

Obviously this Retailer might have ended up irritating more customers than winning them over with this initiative and the fact that this is no longer mentioned in their advertisements seems to validate my point of view.

So, what went wrong?

It was creating unreasonable and unsustainable expectations. Service delivery is not only ensuring great service but also setting the right expectations. In this case the customer expectations would have far exceeded the delivery that the Retailer was prepared for. This is not uncommon and I see this often enough.

In fact the reality is that most customers might have not even registered the word “long” in the advertisements. They would have registered the message as no more queues.

This just another case to the point that Retail marketing is a 360 degree exercise and starts from the home where customers get some communication from the Retailer. Wrong or misleading communications like “Upto 50% Off”, with “Upto” lost in the small print or claims which are not sustainable will hurt more than help.

In Retail everyone should get a first hand feel of the store reality by spending time there and ideally working at the store often. Then they will be wary of such actions which are not sustainable. Remember, Retail is all about execution, execution and execution. Brilliant ideas conceived and presented in meeting rooms counts for very little in the reality test of how the customer actually experiences the same.

Are Chain Stores promoting Cherry Picking?

Increasingly I read about promotions which make no sense. Some even border on the ridiculous. For example, many apparel stores offer promotions like buy 3 and get 5 Free or get 50% off and then 40% off.

Either the merchandiser is completely lost and is drowning in inventory and therefore desperate to liquidate stocks or someone forgot to tell them that promotions are very powerful tools and each type of promotion has a specific purpose. For example a bill value based offer is supposed to increase the overall average bill value and needs some thought and date to fix the optimum slabs. Recently I was reading about a promotion where there was an offer on a particular category’s purchase value coupled with an overall bill value and then additional discount for a specific credit card and so on. Does this make sense?

Absolutely not!

Promotions are tools to drive walk ins and also build loyalty through repeat purchase. One of the cardinal rules for promotion planning is that a single SKU cannot have multiple offers.

The other cardinal rule is the selection of SKU itself, especially for advertisements and other public communication. Today, I saw an advertisement for a leading supermarket chain. The communication highlights refilling the groceries and home needs. In other words it is trying to capture the monthly shopping of the household.

In such a case the core products and KVI is mandatory because that is what the customer will relate to immediately and it will also deliver the message of a better price.

Consider this advertisement, which does not feature Rice, Toor Dal or Sugar - some very important KVIs. Oil is featured but a 5 litre jar whereas the average consumption of oil in Chennai Households is 3 litres. What it does feature is Basmati rice, Slice and 7 Up. It does have a sweeping statement about groceries being available at prices expected by the shopper. Such statements rarely have any impact and I shall detail why in a subsequent post.

To be fair, I have seen other such bright advertisements which ignore core SKUs and highlight offers on SKUs which might not influence the monthly shopping decision.

In this context I wonder what the objective of the merchandising and marketing team is. Do they wish to have people looking to buy only Slice and 7 Up come searching for the offers on such SKUs or do they wish to increase the share of monthly shopping baskets in the catchment?

Something does not seem right.

To be launched soon...

March 20th, 2009 is a memorable day as that is when I started the blog “An Indian and A Retailer”. It was actually started suddenly on a whim and before I knew, it had gained a life and momentum of its own. A whole lot of people saw the blog, wrote to me and commented on the posts. Very soon, it was being quoted by Retail and Strategy consultants during their presentations.

I came to know about the widespread popularity of the blog when one such consultant referred to a post during their presentation regarding supply chain. Several members of the audience were my good friends and ex colleagues. Obviously they wasted no time in calling me up and congratulating me.

The blog has been receiving a steady viewership and the walk-in counter is set to cross the 12,000 mark soon. Indicating that on an average 1,000 odd people view my blog every month. 30, persons a day. Not bad for something I started just like that!

My sincere thanks to all those who have steadily viewed and supported the blog.

This support and motivation was voiced to me by several visitors to the blog in the form of a suggestion. Why not write a book. Their contention was that given the depth and detail of Retail information and knowledge available, why not expand on the same and publish a book. It would reach more people and benefit them.

In June 2009, I started acting on this suggestion and worked on putting a book together while contacting publishers. March 2010, this dream effort is ready to see the light of the day. Just ahead of the first anniversary of this blog.

Presenting - “The Indian reTALEs”

The book should be published shortly and for now the cover and an overview can be viewed on @ unicornbooks (dot) com.

Look forward to a similar support to the book. Please do spread the word; Post on your Facebook profiles, Tweet about it, mail your contacts, etc. Please help propagate the news of “The Indian reTALEs”.

Retail = Fast reflexes and foresight

I appreciated this Retailer who has reacted by leveraging the budget. Although they do not lose anything because the stocks would have been invoiced at existing prices, this preemptive strike is very good for the following reasons –

• Customer trust and loyalty: Customers would increasingly trust this Retailer because they demonstrate responsiveness. A key factor in building loyalty.
• An opportunity to increase sales and liquidate stocks: Especially in a format where stock holding value is high and any opportunity to sell is welcome.
• Vendor respect: Such a Retailer would stand tall in the eyes of the vendors who would then increasingly cooperate instead of having conflicts.

All in all, a smart move and well worth emulating.

Now, advertising is not a simple business. One needs to have the artwork ready, media space booked, the material sent in advance and so on. So, how did this Retailer react in less than 24 hours?

Simple. It’s all about Foresight.

Book media space. Give a material. Meanwhile have two artworks ready. One talking about how the prices are reduced from today (If the budget led to price drop) and another about holding the old prices in the case of price increase. The budget speech ended post lunch yesterday. An hour or so to decide and send a new artwork to the publications.

Sounds simple isn’t it? It is. But involves a lot of planning and thinking and hard work. That’s Retail Marketing for you.

Can someone explain the math to me?

News paper advertising charges are nowadays on a per square centimetre basis. The advertisement shown is actually of a fairly small size. However, repeating the message, using modified language seems like colossal waste. Or is it that this retailer thinks that the customers are so dense that they need the message dinned into them in two different ways?

A simple way to make this communication effective would have been to increase the font sizes and make it more eye catching.

Why social networking sites are not being used by Indian Retail?

Twitter, the micro blogging site is gaining strength each passing day. Yet, I don’t see this being leveraged by any of the Indian Retail Chains, leave alone the Indian businesses. This has the potential to become a great sounding board for customers as also an information source for retailers. I would leverage this medium in myriad ways, starting from the following –

• Create a followers base of all regular/ loyal customers and tweet all promotions and offers details.
• Leverage this medium to increase the followers’ base by offering some exclusive powerful offers only to twitter followers with a unique alphanumeric code. They need to show this tweet at the cash-till wherein this is captured for audit purposes and the promotion is extended to the customer.
• Leverage the power of retweet to increase reach and the number of loyal customers.
  Create a database of potential part time employees who can be sent tweets in times of special promotions where extra man power is required.
• Conversely, customers can tweet their feedback/ suggestions and complaints which can be directed to the respective department with a date and time stamp to track closure and measure reaction time.

Sceptics would debate about the penetration and awareness of such applications amongst the Indian shopper, especially the India Housewife. All I can say is that there are lots of net savvy housewives and individuals in India today and these initiatives will only create further impetus for others to take to this. I recall a news report way back in 2007 which talked about how housewives are increasingly doing online trading in shares! I rest my case.

Similar to Twitter is Facebook. Why can’t Indian Retail leverage it the way ZooZoo’s of Vodafone did? Create a group, invite fans as also invite feedback and suggestions. Create interesting messages to be shares and propagated. Simple things like wall papers, screen savers of interesting advertisements, automatic updates.

In fact several consumer review sites like mouthshut.com are being ignored by retail marketers, assuming people are even aware of the same! This site has close to 90 listings each for one of the corporate chains and similarly significant number of reviews about others. I wonder if this is being even seen or tracked by anyone and reverted to? At least is someone aware that such a thing is there on the net and I am talking about only one such site. Word of mouth advertising is the most powerful toll for a retailer and ignoring such public feedback is not going to help the lakhs and crores of marketing spends being indulged by these retailers.

In summary, there seems to be a serious dearth of creativity in Indian Retail with regard to maximising the marketing efforts and budgets available. What has been done since the mid 90’s in terms of product and price communications, using red and yellow seems to be a clichéd, repetitive pattern. I for one do not believe in knocking the old, tried and tested methods. But I also do not recommend being blind to new developments and not exploring every such new opportunities, especially low cost and high impact options.

Leveraging another brand!

I saw this interesting advertisement by Amul that has leveraged the current craze of Zoozoos unleashed by Vodaphone!

It is always interesting to see one brand leverage another and raises many points in the mind of a marketer, such as which brand actually benefits. Would I recall Amul better because of the Zoozoos or have the Zoozoo’s just got some more incremental exposure. Of course, it could very well be that this is a collaborative effort! But, one thing is clear. Obviously the Zoozoos have become a craze and Amul - in their usual style of leveraging current trends have featured this.

Retail advertisements always feature other brands; but that is to inform the customers about the range and choice available. It helps build the retail brand as range is an important element in the value proposition. However, Private Label is emerging as the alternative to the brands. That’s another topic and shall deal with it later. (Someone, please remind me of all the topics I have promised to deal with later!!!)

I am reminded of another such advertisement, which was not a collaborative effort and was a pleasant surprise when I opened the paper to see it!


This advertisement for Yellow Pages appeared in Bangalore in 2002/ 03. The obvious message was the enormous consumer franchise that the stores had built up - strong enough for another brand to leverage the same. Did Foodworld benefit or did Yellow Pages garner more advertisements; I don’t know!


Personally, I treasure this advertisement as the best certificate or award anyone can give me for my role as the marketing head for RPG Foodworld. In fact, I have this advertisement framed and put up. This is a valuable part of my memorabilia. It would be remiss, if I did not mention here that this became a reality because of the pioneering team which worked like a well oiled machine, in which I was a cog. In that sense, this is a public acknowledgement for the team which built the first successful and sustainable supermarket chain of India. Never mind what it is called today!!! :-)

Seeing Red!!

When the Foodworld stores started in Chennai in 1996, there were posters with a specific design predominantly in yellow and red. Obviously the kirana store operators realized that this has some impact on customers and started copying it. Last heard a small store in coastal Andhra had copied this poster including the logo of the chain stores!! Imitation is surely the best form of flattery.

So, what was the effect that led to these posters to be copied? Its all about colors and the sub conscious impact they have on all of us.

The study of the effect that colors have on humans is called Color psychology. This is used extensively in most retail environments to create an overall ambience that fits in with the value proposition and imagery that the brand seeks to establish.

Ask a roomful of people for their favorite color and the majority would vote for Blue. Is it any wonder that many brands tend to use blue. Blue being a very calming color and actually helps release calming chemicals in our body definitely has a role in this. It has been proven in studies that this calming effect increases performance and there have been studies where weight lifters have been able to lift more weights in a blue background.

On the other hand Red is the color of energy. It has been studied that in a red environment the heart beat and breathing increases. It is said that because of the physical impact people tend to veer more towards riskier behavior such as betting big. Is it any wonder why casinos have red carpeting and seating?

The other color used extensively in retail is Yellow. The color associated with brightness, sun and optimism. However this color also increases ones metabolism and there have been studies that show increased discomfort in an over powering yellow environment.

Most fast food outlets use red and yellow extensively. Apart from being powerful, dominant colors which are very noticeable, their effect on increased metabolism stimulates appetite and gets more sales. This combination makes people hungry as also vaguely uncomfortable and hence they quickly eat and leave. More customers eating fast, equals more business.

In retail these color applications studies have tremendous use and are used extensively in Brand, designing the interiors, customer communication, etc. Although there are differences in color associations across countries and cultures, a few common effects make this a very important tool in retail design.

Using the color red to communicate offers and freebies is directly linked to its impact on us. In a manner of speaking bulls are not the only animals affected by a red flag!

Where is the banner/ Balloon rice!!

In the early days of corporate retail, with limited budgets I had to think of every kind of gimmick to stretch the marketing budget. One innovation (Thanks to a Hindi Pop Concert!!) was the large format drop down banner and the large gas balloons. This became such an identification sign that, customers would walk in asking for the Banner or Balloon rice!!

P.S. - Thanks to a concert in the indoor stadium at Chennai, where large format drop downs were noticed by my team mate Usha and myself, this became SOP for launches for some time, leading to the term - Banner rice!

P.S.2 - The large gas balloons were as effective as dangerous. One had to get all kinds of permission and be very careful when using them. In spite of all this care, a balloon flew off during a launch. Last reported; some flights were being diverted to Chennai or Madras in those day! Because, the passengers wanted to purchase the balloon rice!!!!

Please allow me into the store!!

One of my most memorable and early memories of modern retail in India is the launch of the first Foodworld store in Hyderabad (or was it Secunderabad!!!!) in the late 90's.

Anyways...

It was around 7 p.m. and the 3000 sq. ft. store was just about ready to qualify for the record of "most people inside a confined space". The operating team of which I was a member of, decided to request customers to wait and not enter the store and if possible return the next day.

After all customers had to move out before anyone could come in...

My very dear friend Saurabh, the business head and myself decided to man the entrance and announce to the customers to wait or return the next day. While we were battling the crowds and explaining to the various customers why they cant enter the store immediately, our worry was that the glass door should not break and injure anyone!

While grappling between the crowds and the glass door, a person slowly pushed his way towards us and held out his hands to us for a hand shake. We politely shook his hand and were explaining that he would have to come back the next day or wait till the crowd lessened, when I had to suddenly pull my hand away, as something was being pressed into my palm.

At that point, the customer became hysterical and said "Please take 50 or 100 rupees and let me into this place. I have come from far to show this place to my children and cannot come again". Obviously we could not not do that and we tried explaining that to the customer while keeping the entrance barricaded.

Finally that person left. Convinced or dejected, I do not know, till this day.

The incident had a great learning for me as a retailer and a marketeer. Don't create expectations, which you cant meet and ideally surpass. In subsequent store launches we planned it like a 1 day match to manage customers. But, that's another story for another day.

Today when I think about that incident I wonder if that person even bothers to go to a chain store for his regular shopping, let alone a new store launch!!!

Do you have Eggs?

Wrote an article which was published in Business Line, about the current customer experience and the possible reasons for the same. Please look up the article and share your views.

- Do you have eggs?