KIT: Organised retail in India

Strategic tools for the practising manager

The organised retail market in India is about $18 billion (Rs 89,217 crore).

It is estimated to grow more than 40 per cent year-on-year, considering the expected infusion of over $30 billion (Rs 148,995 crore) in the next five years.

Over 20,000 new retail outlets are expected to open within this segment, giving employment to over 150,000 people.

By 2013, organised retail is likely occupy 500 million square feet of space.

The total employment to be generated from growth over the next five years is estimated at over 2 million.

NUGGETS 
Selections from management journals

Hooray for brand communities — those groups of ardent consumers organised around a brand’s lifestyle (think Harley-Davidson devotees and Playstation gamers). Brand-community members buy more, remain loyal, and reduce marketing costs through grassroots evangelism. But many companies mismanage their brand communities because executives hold false beliefs about how to use these communities to create value. For example, they believe companies should tightly control such communities.

In truth, brand communities generate more value when members control them — and when companies create conditions in which communities can thrive. For instance, Vans — a skateboarding shoe manufacturer — had long invited lead users to co-design products, fostering a strong brand community as a result. When privately owned skateboarding parks began closing, Vans supported its community by opening its own park.

Getting brand communities right
By Susan Fournier and Lara Lee
Harvard Business Review
April 1, 2009
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Uncertainty is everywhere. But little has been written about how to effectively manage situations in which data cannot offer the predictive insights that would enable a manager to make informed business decisions.

This article describes how experienced, expert entrepreneurs deploy unique strategies when confronted with an uncertain, shifting marketplace — strategies that invert traditional market research approaches.

These expert entrepreneurs successfully effect the transformation of uncertain situations into new products, services, firms and markets and demonstrate their unique approach to marketing-mix elements, such as price and place. The central implication for managers in start-ups, established companies and multinational firms is clear: In uncertain situations, opportunities cannot be found through search, analysis and selection but instead are cocreated in collaboration with partners, customers and stakeholders.

Marketing under uncertainty: The logic of an effectual approach
By Stuart Read, Nicholas Dew, Saras D Sarasvathy, Michael Song and Robert Wiltbank
Journal of Marketing
Vol 73, Number 3, May 2009
Subscribe to this article at www.marketingpower.com

Advertising that focuses on how customers experience the product produces better results than focusing on money. “Because a person’s experience with a product tends to foster feelings of personal connection with it, referring to time typically leads to more favourable attitudes — and to more purchases,” says Professor Jennifer Aaker, one of the authors of a recent study.

Does consumer happiness = Time or money spent?
By Alice LaPlante
Stanford Knowledgebase
Read this article at www.gsb.stanford.edu

Brand experiences arise in a wide variety of settings when consumers search for, shop for, and consume brands. Yet how exactly do consumers experience a brand? How can researchers and marketing practitioners measure these experiences? Does a consumer’s brand experience affect his or her behaviour? In this article, the authors conceptualise brand experience and construct a brand experience scale. The scale is short and easy to administer and can be used by both researchers and marketing managers to measure the degree to which a brand evokes an experience.

Brand experience: What is it? How is it measured? Does it affect loyalty?
By J Joško Brakus, Bernd H Schmitt & Lia Zarantonello
Journal of Marketing, Volume 73, Number 3, May 2009
Subscribe to this article at www.marketingpower.com