Why This Kolaveri F di ! ! !

Thanks to FDI policy debate the ministers got a reason to quit the parliament session and give their gyan to the common public about how everything will be destroyed once FDI in India is allowed. I wasn't really interested on reading more about the FDI as i strongly believe that FDI will be allowed in India soon as most of the Bills follow the same method like this

Step 1 : Propose a bill which will benefit the common man

Step 2 : Opposition frames this policy as a dangerous one

- Call for a Bandh

- Newshour debate with the Politicians

Step 3: one fine morning the bill is passed by a small majority.

It happened to most of the controversial bills in Telecom sector, Insurance sector, IT and even the L.P.G which was according to most of the politicians the end of Indian economy and another round of slavery but this same policy change has brought millions of high earning jobs to India. I simply don't understand why our rulers don't learn firm these experiences.

I think FDI in Retail would bring

• New Jobs for both the skilled and unskilled workers
• The Kirana wala's will get smarter and better service
• Farmers will get a better price for their produce.
• Customers would get better goods from all over the world
• Politicians will earn more money atleast the Ruling government and for sure even the opposition would make some money out of it.

The Benefiting stakeholders of FDI would be

Farmers :

• They get better margins for their porducts
• Reduced dependency/exploitation by the Middle man

Consumers :

• High quality goods at economical prices
• Better Shopping Experience
• Reduced inflation.

Don't we think about the kirana walas is the Big question ? I don't think so we should worry about them as the baniya has survived and will survive no matter whether its Walmart or Tesco. He would beat the competition by better service and convenience.

Jo Dikhta Hai Wo Bikta Hai

It fizzy and It Sucks ! ! !were the words of Varun after he had the first sip of the bottle.

How did Varun decide to buy Orangeon ?

Browsing through the store a unique bulb shaped bottle caught his attention.Varun was more excited about the new drink than the producers of the Drink . It was priced high compared to other drinks in the shelf at Rs 30 ,,later he realised it was made out of the orange peel, reluctant to abandon it Varun suggested everyone on his way for a sip and every one had the same reaction as of his...

In the refrigeration shelf of the store there were many drinks both national and regional brands battling for consumers attention. Strategically located where the drinks from the two Major brands Coke and Pepsi. But there were many regional brands out there which the retailer was selling, Brands which never heard of like Bindu jeera Masala soda, Rani,Sip on etc

Bindu Jeera Soda and Sip On are brands from the Shankar group. The group is into the beverage business and has mineral water,milk shakes,aerated drinks,and soda in its product line. Many in the campus have tried Bindu jeera soda. reasons are the unique name of the drink. The name is funny to many and jeera soda is a traditional drink Indian drink loved by many, Bindu is the first packaged jeera soda and the marketing wing of the group has done a smart thing, Instead of using traditional media like the mass media which many cola companies do, Bindu jeera soda is not advertised any where instead the company concentrated on the 3 P i,e PLACE (Distribution) they have a strong distribution network, they have flooded every shelf in the retail store and they are tapping the channel partners to sell these products. and if you think why will the retailer sell Bindu jeera soda, when he has brands like pepsi and coke which provide the refrigeration equipment and also manage regular stock.. The only reason is better Margin, huge cola brands cut on the retailers margin as their brands have a better pull (demand)from the customer. this is not the case with Bindu jeera soda as they are paid better.

The group has leveraged on the Bindu brand and has made extension into mineral water and other product. Distribution networks/ channel members are very important for a brand success as they influence the decision of the cosumer and research tells that 1/3 of the buying decision are made inside the store.hence most of the regional brands use this 'P' place to sell the products of the shelves and Bindu is such example of it.

If you own an alto, the higher is the probability that you'll land up at Big Bazaar

As part of the retail course we were supposed to study two different formats of retail in the food segment. we chose Big Bazaar and Spar both located in Bangalore which share a similar format.
Both the stores are located in the same trading area consisting of many corporate offices and residential houses with individuals having enough disposable income.
A Retail format has different offering and a value proposition, this value proposition is based on the format type, whether its a convenience store,discount store or a category specialist. depending on this value proposition the process of segmentation is carried.
Ex: If you are a high value retailer offering high discounts then the segment you would be catering would be the value conscious customer who wants to spend his hard earnings but looks for discounts as he buys.Retailer/marketers looks for finding unique characteristics of the target segment to better understand these customers, and this is done by knowing their demographics(personal information like age income,sex,marital status etc) the other way of segmenting is by classifying customers according to their behavior pattern(how they shop,behave,lifestyle etc)

one interesting observation which we made today was that the segments which Big Bazaar and Spar were targeting were completely different. we could identify this by the behavior and lifestyle pattern of the individuals visiting the store.

Spar had customers who were looking for value, now value for a spar customer would be huge variety,availability of national and international brands. and value for big bazaar customer would be the best prices and high saving deals and big bazaar was able to do so with the retail mix it had a collection of in-house brands and minimal services which helped Big Bazaar to push down its costs and pass it on to the customer.
segmentation can be done by studying any similar pattern among the group of customers, we tried segmentation on the basis of their ownership of vehicle. It helped me to understand the customer lifestyle and spending pattern. now if you are wondering what am i saying ? think why a person own's an SUV(huge in size)??? as it enhances his image or helps him project the image of a powerful person. At the spar hypermarket were the powerful sedans and Muscular SUV's zooming in and out contrast to it in the big Bazaar parking there were hatchbacks, the entry level segment cars mainly from the Maruti stable. these are the customers who would be looking for value deals and this could be concluded from their choice of cars. It would be justified saying that both of them cater and satisfy their customer needs and are able to deliver their value proposition