branding supermarket

8/14/2019 Branding Supermarket

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Branding Supermarket

Organized retail, since its inception in India has been a matter of big discussion about

its size, its scope, its future and moreover its impact on pop and mom kirana stores

and farmers, for whom, this is livelihood. Organized retail, with the entry of big nationalas well as international players has crossed many milestones in last 3-4 years, with the

number of outlets, its penetration, volume of business generated not only for

themselves but for their vendors and number of employment created. But other than the

word Organized Retail and name of our (I am the part of this fraternity) famous

promoters, has any of us been able to create an identity, other than discounted prices,

which we offer to our consumers. Once I was in discussion with one of my friend from

rival retail organization regarding our achievements and we both were busy blowing own

trumpet, but very soon we got the point that we are doing everything similar in

completely similar way and doing so is the kirana store next to my housing society

without doing any so called extraordinary promotion, otherwise, he would have closed

down long back.

Although there cant be uniqueness in any strategy for a long time, because if a strategy

is not copied or being tried to be ecopied then its not a successful strategy, but

organized retailers need to create an brand identity based on the value proposition it

offers and consumer shopping experience. Being part of this industry for very long, I can

say that this is easier said than done. A normal convenience store is opened in the

catchment of around 4000 households based on certain cost calculations and expected

revenue. This number is significant not only for achieving the desired top line and

margins but for satisfying and retaining also, otherwise our main objective to make this

business proposition viable cant be achieved. Consumers are king and they have proved

this thing by not going to many stores opened by big organized retailers leading them toclose it down. At the same time consumers has also patronised certain stores, which has

benefitted from all the effort they have put in. If you ask any common person in Mumbai,

they will take the name of D Mart as their favourite place for monthly shopping, some

has given their heart to Sahakari Bhandar and habitats of Mulund prefer Shoprite. If you

go to Pune, then there is a loyal fan base of Grahak Peth. What extra these stores do;

may be the following:

1) Understanding the catchment and bringing in right merchandise

assortment: Peanuts features occasionally in the food habit of northern part of

India, from where I belong, but I applied this understanding when I was part of

Reliance Retail, Rest of Maharashtra team, where poha is the everyday morning

staple diet and peanut is the key ingredient. Result was disastrous and I corrected

my mistake without wasting any time. Selling refrigerator to an Eskimo may look

like a heroic job but its not right because they may buy once but will not need it.

So, it is imperative to make mass customization of assortment and make it

suitable for the catchment. Consumers may be tempted once or twice for an

aggressive pricing but will not compromise on the availability of their

requirement.

2) Product Availability: With my experience, I can easily say that consumer may

go to a store once or twice for pricing but ultimately she likes to shop in place

where she gets her entire monthly shopping basket. I have seen many consumers

leaving trolley full of products in the case of not getting even smallest of thing,whose buying they can postpone. Product availability is a convenience factor for


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them and thats why they come any supermarket, otherwise they would have

gone to any normal kirana store. So far, I dont think any organized retailer has

reached to that mark.

3) Pricing:- Approximately two years ago, I was invited by my ex-colleague to join

them in their new retail venture in Punjab, started by a big rice trading firm. To

dissuade my doubts, he took me to the visit of stores they had opened and

proudly told me that they are selling Methi at Rs.2/- Kg against the price of

Rs.12/- for the same being charged by vegetable vendor opposite the road. Like

anybody would have done, I also asked for the logic behind it and tried to know

that whether they have struck the treasure chest somewhere and answer I got

from him was, I want to kill competition. I got frightened and literally run away

from that place, without giving a second thought of their good offer to me and my

friendship. That might be sounding very macho for him that time but the final

outcome was obvious, you cant run business at loss. Vegetable vendor is still

there, the retail chain is out of business now in across country. Here the question

is , whether consumer really asked for this type of pricing? If it would have been

so, then they might have been directly banging factorys doors, which is definitely

not the case. Consumer is ready to pay for the quality, although quality is very

relative term and it changes according to their buying prowess. Thats where the

merchandisers mass customization and pricing skill comes to display. According

to the need of the catchment, merchandiser needs to create different price points

in the store, with every price point catering a segment of consumer. Also to be

taken care is the fact that there should not be big gap between two price points to

make graduating to next price point difficult for the consumer. This makes

consumer feel welcome in the store with her present buying capacity as well with

her aspirations to upgrade to next social level. Furthermore, the pricing has to be

consistent. In food retailing, price fluctuation is inherent and cant be done away,

but the inconsistent pricing not matching with market gives a wrong

communication to the consumers. It has to be noted here that only pricing cant

be the differentiator in the market.

4) In-store Execution: In store execution can be discussed in different parts.

4-a) In-store display: Store is the face of entire retailing organization. Consumer

does not see and neither they are interested to see that what you are going

through to put up what they want. There have been different philosophies of in-

store displays, some favouring rural bazaar type display and some going with

neatly arranged planogram. Whatever should be the display philosophy,

eventually it should lead to comfort for consumer in finding her requirementinside the store. She is obviously not there to solve the jigsaw puzzle or play

Sherlock Holmes to locate her stuff. Unfortunately, this is the case everywhere

and the store staffs also come with the little help. They might be having their own

reason, but what matters is attention to be given to the consumer in such a way

that it should not unnerve her and at the same time it should not leave entirely of

her own in the store. Proper signage is definitely needed to guide the consumers

towards different categories.

4-b) In-store Price Communication: Another important point in-store price

communication. Almost all the organized food retailer follows different pricing

strategy for different product. They sell some of the items on the maximum retail

price printed on it and sell some on far below MRP. Pricing strategy and prices

changes in the corporate and zonal office and so in the system, but


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communication of the same goes missing at the store floor, where it is equally

required. It adds the confusion and deters consumers from taking the buying

decision. Indian consumers are normally of shy nature, who likes to shop in crowd,

so that nobody recognizes her/his buying capacity and at the same time aspires

to upgrade her buying to the next price point. A proper pricing communication

gives this confidence her confidence to be of her own, a freedom fromdependency.

4-c) Staff Knowledge and Etiquettes: Very important point is knowledge of the

staff about the product they are selling. As we discussed in the point no:3 and 4-b

about the importance of pricing and price communication, every consumer comes

to the store for product at certain price point according to her budget and at the

same time she also aspires to graduate to next price point. But before doing so,

she wants to doubly sure that the quality and features of the product which she is

aspiring to buy with hard earned family money is doing justice with the price or

not, and this role of convincing her is completely on shoulders of store staffs. So,

it is very imperative for the Category Managers to train the store staffs about the

features, benefit and value proposition of any product. It will help them to engage

consumer in conversation and convince them. Similarly, the staffs should be polite

and warm to the consumers. It sometimes becomes difficult when consumer

becomes abusive and offensive, but they have to handle it tactfully. Retail is 24 X

7 job and when entire world enjoys holiday, retail staffs are standing in the store

to welcome shoppers. Continuously standing in the store for hours, and in the

case of food retailing, unloading the vehicle, taking the stock to the store floor,

unbagging and placing it in the shelves tires them a lot. So, Store Managers need

to rotate the duties address the physical work issue of store staff. Management

also needs to

4-d) Queue at Cash Till: Even I also agree that this is the most painful part ofthe shopping experience, standing in the queue and waiting for your turn. This

problem is a bit more in food retailing part, where there is quite a possibility of

one products different unit having different MRP. At the POS level, cashier finds it

very difficult to pick the correct MRP quickly, because once he scans a product

many MRP gets flashed on the POS machine. So, internally supply chain as well as

store staff are required to maintain FEFO(First Expiry First Out), Category

Managers and IT team are required to keep only those MRPs in the system, whose

stock is available. Anyways, retailers are using this time to push the sales as well

by keeping impulse items like chocolates near the Cash Till.

5) Private Label: Almost all the big retail organization in India are run by bigindustrial houses and these industrial houses far more bigger than the Indian arm

of FMCG giants and their name is famous in remotest part of India. Its good that

these stores are selling different branded products from their stores, but doing so

are the local kirana stores. Putting it in the different way, if a consumer wants to

buy a Close up toothpaste, she can go to either local kirana or a supermarket, but

if she wants to buy a AU79 range of mens grooming products, she will have to

come to more. Supermarkets or Healthy Life range of food products, then she will

have to go to Reliance Fresh only. To pull consumers towards private label, there

has to be sustained effort from everyone from the organization, because its

quality, features and quality proposition will bring in more footfalls and work as

differentiating point between kirana and organized retail. This will not only work

as differentiator but also help in improving financial health of the company.

Private label is the biggest brand builder for the retailer. Once the product gets a


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place in consumers mind, then she will automatically remember the place where

she has to go to get it.

6) Home Delivery: Yes, this is one topic which is widely being followed and

important tool to win consumers loyalty, only glitch here is the timelines. Retailer

has to ensure that product purchased by the consumer is delivered at the time

agreed.

7) Loyalty Benefits- We become friends or get into a relationship with somebody

purely on the basis of what we are getting in return. Consideration may be

different for everybody, emotional, physical, financial etc. A consumer can go

anywhere to shop their monthly requirement. If she is coming to particular store

continuously, the she needs to recognized and rewarded for that. The reward may

be in any form but needs to be measured in terms of money and social status.

8) Feedback, Evaluation and implementation: Since retail is about direct

dealing with the consumers, their feedback needs to instantly recognized,

evaluated and addressed. Why I am writing so, because every successfulsupermarket gets between 500-1000 footfalls everyday and every consumer is

entitled to have their own opinion on certain things. Once their opinion is

recognized and evaluated from the business perspective, it has to be

implemented without delay and the consumer should be informed about the

progress. It will make her/him feel important person for the organization.

While taking the relieving letter from one of my previous organization, I met my

Reviewing Officer (boss of my boss) that I have put so much of effort in the location,

where nobody wanted to go and I gave better business than anybody else in that

segment, met more people, out placed competition, created a brand for the company,

but I was not duly recognized and rewarded. My Reviewing Officer wished me luck for thefuture but cautioned me for not being good salesmen for myself. He said, You made

companys voice audible in outside market and did excellent job, but at the same time

you did not made your voice audible to the decision makers for your career growth. In

any dynamic organization or market, you will have to make your voice heard, otherwise

everybody has got different priorities.

All the good work a retailer is doing has to be communicated to all the stakeholder,

communication medium may be discussed later. It will create an identity of the retailer

based on certain qualities, which will create a better shopping environment for the

consumers, and result in loyalty from their side. Branding will never be one time exercise

of creating a logo or picture, it is relentless exercise to provide consumers what has been

promised to them continuously, without fail. If you are caught winking, then somebody

will replace you. As I said earlier that a strategy is good strategy when either it is copied

or tried to copy or if none of two has happened, then its not a strategy at all. So, your

strategy may be copied, but remember you may be the first one to do it. Everybody

remembers Edmond Hillary and Tensing Serpa, because they were the first one to

climb Mount Everest. After them many more has achieved these feet, but how many of

us know. You will always have first movers advantage.

branding supermarket

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