Brand Management

Assignment on

Brand Management

Submitted By:

Anish Bhat Lidhoo

System & Finance

09020541014

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Brand Management

Hypotheses:

H0: Brand first; retail outlet next

H1: Retail outlet first; brand next

Introduction:

Decision-making with regard to retail outlet selection is very similar to

consumer decision-making on brands where the consumer goes through a

process starting from identifying needs to post-purchase issues. There are a

few interesting and important dimensions associated with consumer behaviour

and retail outlet selection.

Does the retail outlet have psychological implications on the target

segment?

Does selection of outlets vary in accordance with types of product

categories?

What is the sequence in which consumers are likely to go about their

decisions? Will they select the brand or the category first before

choosing the outlet?

What is the impact of the image developed by a retail outlet?

Would consumers be interested in store or retail brands?

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Retail outlets be it exclusive showrooms, malls or conventional stores having

multi-brands in the offering have special implications on the consumer mind.

Many companies branded themselves as elite brand by focusing on exclusive

showrooms like Titan when they collaborated with Timex. Many customers

wanting lower end watches felt the showrooms to be too elitist and to an

extent had a negative impact in the marketing sense, but Titan easily was

perceived to be a better brand than HMT, which was the market leader at that

time. On the same lines, ITC introduced their apparel brand, Wills Lifestyle,

targeted for the upper market segment. ITC had a chain of exclusive Wills

Lifestyle showrooms which helped it to be looked as a premium brand.

With the continual increase in the product range offering by the companies,

customers usually get caught in buying dilemma about which brand and which

product to choose. In buying a car or a two wheeler a customer may not find

this difficulty but when it comes to FMCG goods or consumer electronics,

customers may not be updated about the new offerings by a company, so they

would want to go through the offerings first and choose an outlet which would

offer them maximum brands and maximum products. While buying a TV or a

washing machine, would consumers visit an exclusive showroom of LG,

Samsung or Sony, or would they visit a multi-brand outlet like an e-zone or a

croma?

Customers are getting brand conscious day by day and the product

differentiation is getting narrower day by day. Customers don’t want to feel

cheated by choosing a wrong product of a preferable brand or a preferable

product of a wrong brand. Moreover, with hyper competition, prices are falling

and offerings are becoming even from the customer’s point of view. To buy a

car, the customer will choose the brand first and then go for an outlet while to

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buy a soap, the customer may visit the nearest store and choose the brand

according to the offer favourable to him/her. Thus wherever the capital at

stake is higher, the brand will be chosen first.

Buying a product is getting simpler in terms of paying and complex in terms of

deciding. To overcome this difficulty, customers want to be informed about

various offerings. This is the only difference between organised and un-

organised retail, where the customer gets to choose from a large variety of

products (in case of organised retail). Be it Reliance fresh or Croma, customers

spend a lot of time before choosing a product living upto their expectations.

This improves customer satisfaction and the perseverance in choosing the right

retail outlet. So the image developed by the retail outlet matters a lot to the

present customers.

Traditionally, retailers have been carrying manufacturer’s brands. But now-a-

days, supermarkets like More, Reliance fresh etc have started carrying retail or

store brands. This strategy is also carried out by Big Bazaar, Central, and

Shopper’s Stop etc, wherein store brands are also sold alongside the

manufacturer’s brands. Some examples can be summarised like Feaster’s by

More, DJ&C by Big Bazaar, Bare Denim by Central and many more. It is seen

that the retailers push their own brands as they find a higher margin in selling

these products. Customers are attracted by offering discounts, special offers

and increasing the brand image by strategic location of the store brands. This

increases the attractiveness of the store brands and thus resulting in finding

new customers. It has been seen, in the recent times that store brands are

selling at par with other brands available in the retail outlet.

Marketers need in-depth knowledge about the various dimensions which link

retailing and consumer behaviour. There is research required to handle retail

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decisions in a competitive context. McDonald's found that a major chunk of its

consumers decide to eat a few minutes before they make the purchase

decisions and hence it is building small outlets in large supermarkets. It is

providing play areas to ensure a number of families visit its outlets with

children. A few companies also operate through kiosks in airports, malls and

high-traffic areas. Sunglass Hut is a brand which operates kiosks at various

places which displays about 1,000 different models along with their prices.

Consumers could place an order through these kiosks and the product is home-

delivered.

Retail outlet selection and brand selection

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There are three fundamental patterns which a consumer can follow and they

could be:

(i) Brand first, retail outlet second

(ii) Retail outlet first, brand second

(iii) Brand and retail outlet simultaneously.

A consumer wanting to buy a car may collect information on brands and

purchase it from a retail outlet based on his perception of price offered or

after-sales service provided by the outlet (typically, search for information on

brands is followed by retail outlet selection in durables). In certain product

categories, especially where `category killers' exist, consumers may think of the

retail outlet initially and then the brands (television, refrigerator and audio

products retailed through outlets like Croma or Dass in pune, could be an

example).

One more dimension may be to compare brands in the evoked set at retail

outlets which also exist in an evoked set of their own. This is highly possible,

especially in the Indian context where dealers develop a social relationship

with consumers, especially in semi-urban and rural areas. Primary research

could be used to discover the specific sequence involved in a situation of this

kind. A `brand first' dimension may need feature-based advertising and a `retail

outlet first' dimension may require a set of point-of-purchase (POP) materials

and special training to sales personnel to recognise the needs of consumers.

Further, if it is known that a number of consumers may be oriented to visit

their favourite retailer (before obtaining information on brands) in a

geographical area, there would have to be more emphasis on regional/local

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advertising which highlights the retail shop rather than regular brand-based

national advertising.

Strategies and sequences

Retail outlet first and brand second:

When a number of consumers follow this sequence of decision-making,

display of point-of-purchase material and building the image of the outlet

becomes important. The manufacturer of the brand may have to ensure that

the brand (and the variants demanded) will be available at the key outlets in a

locality. Point-of-purchase materials which are to be used at the retail outlet

may require primary research - should visuals be used, should product features

be used, should the POP material be in the regional language. There may also

be a need to monitor competition from other retail outlets to ensure that

consumers are kept satisfied in terms of service, price, promotional deals and

ambience. This is especially applicable to durables retailing in India (in cities).

Retailers attempt to increase consumer traffic by providing a number of `add-

ons'.

Brand first and outlet second:

The brand was probably thought of by the consumers because (i) the

consumers may not have developed a relationship with any retailer which is

strong enough to get into the `evoked retail set' or (ii) the brand has got into

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the evoked set because of advertising or positive word of mouth. Local

advertising with the mention of brand names which have already got into the

evoked set would enable consumers to be `pulled' to the outlet.

Primary research may be required to identify the brands in the evoked set. This

feedback may have to be provided by the manufacturers of a brand to retailers

in various regions (especially if it is a brand with a major chunk of the market

and one which is nationally advertised). Even multinational outlets could make

use of this approach and mention the brands in the evoked set (in a given

geographical area). This is likely to improve traffic to the outlet. Besides, the

evoked set could also change from time to time depending on the strategies of

brands.

About two decades ago, brands like Weston, National and Crown may have

been top-of-the-mind (in a specific geographical area) but slowly gave way to

other brands. The local advertising could be different from the national

advertising for the brand. A brand may be advertised on features nationally but

the retail outlet in may prefer to highlight the effective after-sales service

associated with the brand as this may be a priority of consumers. The

combination of `push-pull' strategy is shown in the table.

The interest generated in the brand would have to be backed by good pre-sale

services at the outlet.

Brand and retail outlet simultaneously:

When consumers think of the brand and retail outlet together, it means that

they have a certain preference for the outlet and would like to check the

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evoked set of brands there. The marketer would have to carry out primary

research to find out specific markets where consumers have a very positive

relationship with retailers. This is important because of the influence of

retailers over the purchase behaviour of consumers in the Indian context.

It may also be worthwhile to check if the evoked brands are carried by the

retailers who have a positive relationship with the target segments. This is to

ensure that the retailers who have a favourable perception among the target

segment carry the desired brands. Failing this, consumers may turn to a

different retailer, which would be to the disadvantage of a retailer who has

already won the confidence of consumers. Retail sales personnel also become

important in this situation. The prospective consumers are "carried over" to

the purchase stage by the store personnel and hence there should be incentive

programmes for the store personnel.

If a company such as LG or Videocon is dealing with a number of brands/sub-

brands, it has to ensure the availability of specific brands which may interest

the consumers. If the retail outlet is a large one dealing with a number of

brands (like Croma), a shop-in-shop arrangement may be preferable. This

model puts the brand in focus and reinforces the positive association a

consumer may have about it. A considerable amount of pre-sale service would

have to back up the shop-in-shop concept.

The shop-in-shop concept creates an aura of exclusivity. Consumers tend to

have higher expectations about the pre-sale service and the attention given to

them. A large store also is likely to stock several brands and hence all brands in

the evoked set would have to compete with each other to progress from the

evoked set to choice set. Large outlets may also have a built-in provision for a

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lower price (because of volumes) and hence may be in a better position to

clinch the deal with consumers who may simultaneously consider both the

brand and the retail outlet.

Examples:

Uninor opens retail outlet in Madurai:

Uninor opened an exclusive Company Owned Customer Outlet (COCO) in

Madurai on 3 February 2010. The outlet located at No – 20,North Veli Street,

Madurai – 1, has a floor space of about 696 Sq Ft. This is one of the experience

stores that Uninor provides its customers – a one-touch interface for Uninor

customers in Madurai. This exclusive store will provide a whole gamut of

services such as new connections, product plans, recharge, providing unique

numbers, address grievances, etc.

Uninor plans to establish exclusive retail outlets in the top 10 districts in Tamil

Nadu and expand further progressively. Madurai is a significant retail point for

Uninor’s growth plans. At present Uninor operates one COCO in Chennai, one

in Puducherry and one in Cochin. By December 2010, the company plans to

have in place another 15 COCOs in the Tamil Nadu and Kerala Hub. Uninor is

also planning on 150 FOFOs (Franchisee owned Franchisee outlets) for the

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Tamil Nadu -Kerala Hub by the end of this year. Each COCO employs 8

Customer Relationship Executives (CRE) and a FOFO (Franchisee owned outlet)

employs two CREs. Overall, Uninor COCOs and FOFOs will provide employment

to about 500 CREs by December 2010.

Wills Lifestyle plans 100 new stores, expansion of e-commerce:

It has completed a decade of operation and, with the market looking up; Wills

Lifestyle plans to expand in a big way by opening 100 new stores in the next

three years and concentrating on online buyers. Wills has 50 stores in 30 cities,

and in the next phase the company would focus on tier-two cities and open

two stores every month for the next six months in cities such as Nashik,

Nagpur and Jaipur.

Central Malls:

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Launched in May'04 at Bangalore, Central is a showcase, seamless mall and the

first of its kind in India. The thought behind this pioneering concept was to give

customers an unobstructed and a pure shopping experience and to ensure the

best brands in the Indian market are made available to the discerning Indian

customer.

Central offers everything for the urban aspirational shopper to shop, eat and

celebrate. Located in the heart of the city, Central believes its customers

should not have to travel long distances to reach us; instead we must be

present where customers frequently visit.

Central houses over 300 brands across categories, such as apparels, footwear

and accessories for women, men, children and infants, apart from a whole

range of Music, Books, Coffee Shops, Food Courts, Super Markets (Food

Bazaar), Fine Dining Restaurants, Pubs and Discotheques. The mall also has a

separate section for services such as Travel, Finance, Investment, Insurance,

Concert/Cinema Ticket Booking, Bill Payments and other miscellaneous

services. In addition, Central houses Central Square, a dedicated space for

product launches, impromptu events, daring displays, exciting shows, and art

exhibitions. Central is an integral part of the city and in the long run a City

should become part of CENTRAL!

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In a short span of its existence Central has revolutionized and redefined the

shopping experience in India. At Central, customers no longer only shop, they

get SHOP-ATAINED!

Shoppers’ Stop:

Shoppers Stop is one of the leading retail stores in India. Shoppers Stop began

by operating a chain of department stores under the name “Shoppers’ Stop” in

India. Currently Shoppers Stop has twenty seven (27) stores across the country

and three stores under the name HomeStop. Shoppers Stop has also begun

operating a number of speciality stores, namely Crossword Bookstores, Mother

care, Brio, Desi Café, Arcelia.

Shoppers Stop retails a range of branded apparel and private label under the

following categories of apparel, footwear, fashion jewellery, leather products,

accessories and home products. These are complemented by cafe, food,

entertainment, personal care and various beauty related services.

Shoppers Stop launched its e-store with delivery across major cities in India in

2008. The website retails all the products available at Shoppers Stop stores,

including apparel, cosmetics and accessories.

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Croma:

Buyers of consumer electronics products face a problem of plenty: hundreds of

brands, thousands of products, a mind-boggling range of features, which one

to choose?

You can shop for 6000 products across eight categories in a world-class

ambience.

Croma is promoted by Infiniti Retail Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of Tata Sons.

Woolworths, one of the world’s leading retailers, provides technical and

strategic sourcing support, ensuring that you buy nothing but the best.

Croma's first store opened on October 9, 2006 at Juhu in Mumbai, and it's

rolling out many more stores across India.

Bharti Airtel launches India’s first Mobile App Store – Airtel App Central:

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Bharti Airtel, Asia’s leading integrated telecom service provider, today

announced the launch of India’s first mobile applications store - Airtel App

Central. Now, Airtel mobile customers can transform their basic phone into a

Smart Phone by accessing over 1250 Apps across 25 categories for their

business, games, books, social networking and other needs. Offering an easy

single click purchase – with no credit card required – the cost is automatically

added to the customer’s mobile bill or deducted from the available talk-time.

Starting as low as Rs. 5, Airtel App Central will offer local and regional Apps for

customers across the length and breadth of the country.

Reliance:

Post launch, in a dramatic shift in its positioning and mainly due to the

circumstances prevailing in UP, West Bengal and Orissa, it was mentioned

recently in news dailies that, Reliance Retail is moving out of stocking fruits

and vegetables. Reliance Retail has decided to minimise its exposure in the

fruit and vegetable business and position Reliance Fresh as a pure play super

market focusing on categories like food, FMCG, home, consumer durables, IT

and wellness, with food accounting for the bulk of the business.

The company may not stock fruit and vegetables in some states. Though

Reliance Fresh is not exiting the fruit and vegetable business altogether, it has

decided not to compete with local vendors partly due to political reasons, and

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partly due to its inability to create a robust supply chain. This is quite different

from what the firm had originally planned.

When the first Reliance Fresh store opened in Hyderabad last October, not

only did the company said the store’s main focus would be fresh produce like

fruits and vegetables at a much lower price, but also spoke at length about its

“farm-to-fork’’ theory. The idea the company spoke about was to source from

farmers and sell directly to the consumer removing middlemen out of the way.

Reliance Fresh, Reliance Mart, Reliance Digital, Reliance Trendz, Reliance

Footprint, Reliance Wellness, Reliance Jewels, Reliance Timeout and Reliance

Super are various formats that Reliance has rolled out.

In addition, Reliance Retail has entered into an alliance with Apple for setting

up a chain of Apple Specialty Stores branded as iStore, starting with Bangalore.

Apple Store:

The Apple Store is a chain of retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc.,

dealing in computers and consumer electronics. As of December 2009 Apple

has opened 294 stores; 231 in 41 US states, 25 in the United Kingdom (21

in England, 2 in Scotland, 1 in Northern Ireland and 1 in Wales), 14 in Canada, 7

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in Japan, 6 in Australia, 3 in Switzerland, 3 in Germany, 2 in Italy, 2 in France,

and 1 in the People's Republic of China.

Bajaj Probiking:

Bajaj introduced a series of showrooms across the country called the Bajaj

Probiking. These showrooms, targeted for the youth, provided access to the

newest models from the Bajaj, Pulsar and the Avenger. Customers could have a

test ride of these performance bikes before making up their mind to buy one.

Koutons Retail:

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Koutons Retail India Ltd. is the leading retailer of readymade and fashion wear

brand in the country today. With more than 1400 outlets across India, it has a

wide range of apparel designs suited for all segments including corporate,

formal and casual dressings. Koutons aptly creates the conducive environment

for a family outing, making family shopping the best experience at an

affordable price - all at one place.

Koutons was born in 1991 as Charlie Creations and are now Koutons Retail

India Ltd. Koutons started primarily as a denim brand but are today

manufacturing and selling complete men, women and kids wardrobe under the

brand name Koutons, Les Femme and Koutons Junior respectively. Another

brand from the stable of Koutons is Charlie Outlaw, which caters to the teens

of the country with apparels including jeans, T- shirts, jackets etc. Koutons

Brand is catering to the Upper & Upper Middle Class of Society with a vast

target age group between 18-60 years.

"Value for Money and High on Fashion" being their USP, Koutons has given the

brand an extension delving into specific consumer segments. The garments are

made keeping in view the overall need of the niche market and the

basic/fashion demand of the Indian masses. Our product range also caters to

the tastes of all segments. Our Brand is placed as the most dynamic brand of

India.

Cafe Coffee Day:

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Café Coffee Day is a division of India's largest coffee conglomerate,

Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company Ltd. (ABCTCL), popularly known

as Coffee Day, A Rs. 750 crore ISO 9002 certified company. Coffee Day sources

coffee from 5000 acres of coffee estates, the 2nd largest in Asia, that is owned

by a sister concern and from 11,000 small growers. It is one of India’s leading

coffee exporters with clients across USA, Europe & Japan. Its different divisions

include: Coffee Day Fresh n Ground (which owns 400 Coffee bean and powder

retail outlets), Coffee Day Xpress (which owns 895 Coffee Day Kiosk), Coffee

Day Take away (which owns 12000 Vending Machines), Coffee Day Exports and

Coffee Day Perfect (FMCG Packaged Coffee) division.

The Mobile Store:

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The MobileStore format is a one stop mobile solution shop that provides, multi

brand handsets, accessories, connections, repairs, VAS etc all under one roof.

The MobileStore currently has more than 1050 outlets and the vision is to have

a network of 2500 stores by 2010 across 650 cities, thus covering virtually

every major town in every state across India. The MobileStore outlets are in

three formats: Large - 1000-1500 square feet, Medium- 800-1000 square feet

and Corner-150-200 square feet, with smaller formats located primarily in

large malls. Key thrust areas for the retail format are: Comprehensive Product

Range, Knowledgeable Store Staff & Interactive Environment, Competitive

Prices and Handset Repairs.

The MobileStore caters to the Indian consumer's choice of the widest and most

comprehensive range of mobile phones with special offers from all the key

brands available across the globe. The MobileStore offers complete telecom

solutions right from handset purchase to the choice of service operator and

miscellaneous services like monthly bill collections etc., the stores also offer

connections (pre paid and post paid), accessories and VAS including the latest

ring tones, wallpapers and gaming and prompt after sales service, available not

only in the city of purchase but in all The MobileStore outlets across the

country.

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All the above examples are corresponding to the organised retail industry, but

in India, the unorganised retail accounts for close to 98% of the total retail

industry. These unorganized retailers generally consists of mom and pop

stores, kiranas, sabzi mandis, hole-in-the-wall shops, counter stores, street

markets, roadside peddlers etc. Most of these traditional retail outlets are

family run stores characterized by lack of quality in inventory and retail chain

management, low standards, and essentially operated by anyone who has

something to sell.

Textiles sector with companies like Bombay Dyeing, Raymond's, S Kumar's and

Grasim first saw the emergence of retail chains. Later Titan successfully

created an organized retailing concept and established a series of showrooms

for its premium watches. The latter half of the 1990s saw a fresh wave of

entrants with a shift from Manufactures to Pure Retailers, e.g., Food World,

Subhiksha and Nilgiris in food and FMCG; Planet M and Music World in music;

Crossword and Fountainhead in books. Post 1995 onwards saw an emergence

of shopping centres, mainly in urban areas, with facilities like car parking

targeted to provide a complete destination experience for all segments of

society. Emergence of hyper and super markets trying to provide customer

with 3 V’s - Value, Variety and Volume Expanding target consumer segment:

The Sachet revolution - example of reaching to the bottom of the pyramid.

Driven by the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and apparel segments, the

Indian retail market which is currently estimated to be around US$ 350 billion

is expected to witness growth by nine per cent annually touching US$ 521

billion by 2012.

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Retail companies in India are seeing their margins from FMCG companies go up

from 14-15 per cent to 17-19 per cent as they compete for shelf space with

retailer’s private labels. Some FMCG companies say that as retailers acquire

scale, they also deliver supply chain efficiency and organized scale. The Indian

food market, which at US$ 182 billion accounts for about two thirds of the

total Indian retail market, has seen the entry of Yum! Restaurants which

announced it will invest up to US$ 150 million (about Rs 700 crore) in India

where it will compete with companies in India such as Nirulas and Haldiram in

the country's organized food and beverage retail sector.

Shopping malls have mushroomed all over the major metros of India,

spreading its tentacles far and wide, like the proverbial hydra. Gurgaon, Noida,

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and a few other satellite townships in the NCR (national capital region) of

India’s capital city Delhi, have been standing witnesses and silent partners to

this mall mania. Called as the Shopping-mall capital of India, Gurgaon has been

a focal point of the this rising tide, with monolithic glass structures, colossal

trade towers and a lot of glitzy skyscrapers manning the entire length and

breadth of this erstwhile urban village. Many others have followed suit, as they

jump into this bandwagon of a modern India, cashing in on the rising spending

potential of the great Indian middle class.

Retail companies in India have missed the woods for the trees, as the trend in

the market shows that there has been a complete mismatch of consumers and

brands. It’s true that the foot-falls in most of the major malls have been great

and phenomenal, matching those in any developed retail markets; but, not all

footfalls generate business. Other than the few multiplexes and the fast food

chains, most of the retail endeavours have run into big troubles. Not everyone

who enters the mall is a prospective consumer, as majority of them come just

to hang out, and indulge in window shopping in an air-conditioned

environment for free. With high real estate cost, many of these retailers have

failed to break even, and business has been abysmally low, even non-existent

at times.

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Conclusion:

From the above study, we follow that consumer behaviour does depend upon

the selection of the brand and the retail outlet. A consumer may take any of

the three paths discussed earlier, but what mainly influences him/her in doing

so is the type of product he/she chooses.

In our study, we also discussed the Indian retail industry in very brief, which

mainly compromises of the unorganized sector. The Indian organized sector,

mostly in the urban areas is catching up with the unorganized sector at a fast

pace, although the gap to be bridged is too large. There has been an increasing

trend in the opening of new malls and exclusive retail outlets of various

brands. The consumers are getting more brand conscious and thus look

forward in choosing a right brand, suiting their personality. So, most of the

companies are focusing on opening their own exclusive retail outlets on

franchisee basis to increase brand loyalty and brand recall. Moreover, we see

almost all the brands having a shelf space in the malls and other retail outlets.

The only exception of brands having their own exclusive stores is the FMCG

companies which mainly depend on the unorganized retail outlets and the

supermarkets. So in their case, the consumer may not follow the path of

selecting a brand first but choose the product after selecting a retail outlet.

Thus our initial hypothesis: brand first; retail outlet second holds true in

sectors like the apparel stores, consumer durables like notebooks, automobile

showrooms etc. In case of these, the consumer does an extensive research

about the product to be bought and selects the brand. After the brand is

selected, the customer chooses any feasible location to get the product from.

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Our alternate hypothesis: retail outlet first; brand next holds true in FMCG,

consumer durables like the mobile phones etc, and shopping malls.

In support of the alternate hypothesis, we can also take the case of the

booming Indian economy, with which the per capita income has increased and

people have more of disposable income to spend. We see a typical urban

Indian spending his/her weekend at the nearest mall or a shopping arcade or a

place which he/she does not pre-plan. So, most of the people go for a

purchase at a retail outlet without planning about the brand to be bought. This

can be seen in case of the apparels, FMCG, consumer durables etc.

So from the study, it is clear that our initial hypothesis holds well in the

traditional markets where the consumer knows what he is buying. This can

mainly be because of the influential brand endorsement or brand loyalty. But

as we have also studied the recent advancements in the retailing

methodologies, like the coming up of the mall culture and the companies

focusing on exclusive showrooms, our alternate hypothesis easily gets more

weightage than the initial hypothesis. Although we can’t totally neglect our

initial hypothesis, but we conclude by saying that RETAIL OUTLETS FIRST;

BRANDS NEXT is the future.

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