When LOOTing is legal and fuels consumption

This article comes after a long gap - mainly due to my hectic travel over the past week to the two most important markets in the country, Mumbai and Delhi. There is something very special about these two cities, the former is the financial capital of India and the latter, the political capital. (And all the states and their capitals beleive they are "the nerve centres" to the administration of governance in the country! hic). Both cities and their suburbs have a population of over 15 million people and growing! A great boon to Retailers of all shapes, sizes and pedigrees. During peak hours, the average time taken to commute from work to home and return is approx three hours in Mumbai. Both cities have the most terrible public transport systems which makes the usage of personal commute almost a necessity. So, higher sales of cars, car tyres and car freshners - with Godrej Ambipure leading the market with over 65% share. Delhi Metro is a saving grace and the new extension to Noida has been welcomed graciously by commuters. The influx of people from neighboring cities and states is so high that there is almost no control of who lives where.

The sheer number of people is such a great opportunity for us in business. While this is not specific to only these two cities, there is something special about consumers here. Most forms of modern retail were experimented here and have only proved successful that they have been replicated all across the country. And one such format is the Discount stores. Typically in Apparel and accessories. While the format is quite famous all across the world - even Hugo Boss sells on discount at Metzingen - it is quite recent in India - probably less than a decade. While it is a bit difficult to say which Brand/Retailer first established this concept, the biggies have been on it for quite some time - Madura Garments, Arvind Mills and other popular Indian and International Brands and smaller retailers. In the fashion apparel and accessories business (including where the brand is franchised), the franchisee usually pays the full cost price and buys the products from the Brand, on which he enjoys a margin of 20-55%. After the season is over (Spring-Summer from March to Aug and Autumn-Winter from Sep. to Feb.), the products must be marked down and sold as they cannot be carried over to the next season - simply because they are usually not the fabric that could be used. That's how the End of Season Sale or EOSS came in place. The average discounting for most brands during the EOSS is as high as 35% and what remains after the sale with the retailers is less than 10% of the original stock.

These usually remained with the Retailer for sometime until they were sold out. And that's where someone found an opportunity - to create seperate stores that could sell these merchandise at discounted prices throughout the year. If they were closer to the downtown stores, then the full-price business would get affected, hence they are usually located in the suburbs or outside the city. The stores are quite basic - no air-conditioning, no great fixtures and furniture, simple lighting and minimum staff. The cost of operation is very low since the margins are also low - between 10-15%. Consumers take an effort to go all out to shop as their savings in lieu of the effort taken is well deserved. One such Retailer in India is The Loot. Founded in 2004, this retailer opened its 100th store in Bangalore in May 2009 and currently has over 120 stores across the country with plans to cross the 200 mark in a year. This retailer roped in Bollywood's infamous bad boy Gulshan Grover as its Brand Ambassador with the store resembling doors and images of a jail. And the store aptly named The Loot with a rug sack pic along the main logo.

Last week, one of my cousins wanted to buy a shirt quite urgently and it was the only store located on the way while we were driving on the outskirts of Mumbai, at a place called Thane. Not that he was looking for a discounted product though, but we ended up here. The store has special schemes - Buy one and get one for free or Buy at 40% discount, etc. The store, which appeared like a franchised one had popular apparel brands such as Louis Phillippe, Arrow and other lesser known brands, and even stocks luggage, hand bags, belts, deodarants and perfumes. While my cousin had gone with an intention of buying just a shirt, he ended up buying a matching pair of denims as well... all in span of less than 30 minutes. And we were not alone; on a Sunday afternoon, there were atleast 5-6 families shopping together. We ended running a huge bill but when we walked out, it did seem like it was indeed a loot.

There are several lessons here - In India, families shop together. So, there must be something of interest to everyone - atleast to keep them engaged while the others in the group are shopping. Next, locate the store as close as possible to the consumer. If not for anything, they would end up just because the store is closeby or on the way. Adequate parking and management - a great boon to shoppers. Last but not the least, rotate merchandise as often as possible, what we call as Stock Turn. Even if it means selling at a lower margin, atleast the cost is recovered and there is fresh cash flow for new merchandise. Afterall, sometimes such a loot fuels consumption and brings back people seeking more.

Central realigns the city...

India's largest retailer, The Future Group opened its 2nd Bangalore Central Mall recently at JP Nagar. Until a few years a quiet residential locality, JP Nagar is famous for its various attractions such as the Hanuman Temple and Woodys restaurant. The 60 feet road is abuzz with a host of retailers over the past few years with Viveks (Electronics Retail) being one of the earliest occupants followed by Big Bazaar and many other stand alone restaurants and eateries. While residents in and around JP Nagar and Jaya Nagar frequented these places, the offering was not strong enough to keep the crowds engaged for long. This is where Central has done a great deal.

CENTRAL opened its first mall in May 2004 - THE reason why I moved from Madras to Bangalore. It was the first of its kind in the country then - a seamless mall that had the usually famous brands - regional, domestic and international, all sharing floor and (virtual) wall space - this was infact the highlight of the Mall. There were no seams or walls between the brands and billing was unified across the floor. So, unlike in regular malls, there was no need to visit various brand stores and end up multiple billings. It was more than a Department store whereas not the convential mall in terms of total floor area. Right from Day One, it was a superhit. The second Mall opened in Hyderabad in Oct. 04 and the third at Pune in early 2005. As of today, there are eleven malls across eight cities.

The new Central Mall, spread over 200,000 sqft has a frontage of almost 200 feet - along the main road and is a corner property. While the entry to the mall is from the main road, the exit which curves a bit finally leads into the adjacent road. There is adequate parking space for atleast 150+ cars and a equal number of two-wheelers in the two leves of basement. The ivory colored vitrified marble makes the floor appear bigger and larger than it is and so does the main atrium that goes upto the fourth floor. The toilets are spacious and tucked away in good corners leading shoppers across the various aisles. There are many anchors and mini-anchors - PVR being the leisure anchor, McDonalds for Food, Cafe Coffee Day for beverages and the spacious foodcourt and restaurants (that are yet to open) for multi-cusine F&B. These are sure to bring in regular footfalls to the mall. The ground floor has Ladies and childrens's sections along with the usual perfumes and jewelry categories. The toys section is quite sizeable and is sure to attract chidren and those at heart. The first floor houses ethnic wear for men, women and home - yes, there is a very attractive homewear collection which already seems to be a super hit. The Men's formal wear is also nicely tucked on one side and the spread of brands is wide and fresh.

The second floor is focussed on the Youth - the teens and tweens as I famously refer; those in their teens and twenties - a very important segment for most brands today. Reliance TimeOut that offers books and music is a surprise! Cafe Coffee Day is located next to the Customer Service area - great thinking by the Mall planners to keep those waiting for various services such as alterations, membership, etc. E-Zone on the other side showcases latest offering of electronics and home-needs. The third floor houses Home Town, the division of the Future Group that specializes on furniture and home needs. There is also a Food Bazaar that completes the family shopping offerring a wide variety of Grocery and household products. The fourth and fifth floors would have PVR Cinemas while the sixth floor would have food courts and restaurants. This is the only confusing bit - and challenging to bypass shoppers into the F&B  areas as also to redirect those who have watched movies into the food-court.


The building opposite to the Mall is BIG Bazaar. I was wondering how would it be to connect both the buildings - probably with a skywalk that cuts across the road. While this surely sounds exciting, it is as much impossible due to corporation rules and regulations. The Mall in general looks like Takashimaya or Isetan in Singapore with its wide alleys, choices and selections. A refreshing look on designs and images is visible all acorss the Mall with images that nicely depict the mood and reasons to shop. With these and more on offer, this Central Mall is sure to realign the centre point of the city. Over a period of time, it is not just the residents of neighboring areas such as JP Nagar (various phases), parts of Jaya Nagar, Koramangala and even Bannerghatta Road who would visit this mall, but even those from far-off places. The Second Bangalore Central,  Mall as the name suggests, would surely become central for shopping in this part of the city.

Now, buy your favorite alien!

While this was the most spoken topic among the advertising and marketing fraternity for over 6 weeks during and after the IPL 2009, the concept still lingers on in our mind. I am referring to the Vodafone Zoozoo – an alien like creature that made the most of the recent Indian Premier League (IPL) 2009. IPL was the brainchild of serial entrepreneur and cricket fan Lalit Modi, who hit upon his goldmine idea based on the various leagues and clubs that play different games, mainly football and soccer in the west. Team Franchises are thrown open for bids and usually, the rich and famous buy them for increasing their popularity and wealth, while also increasing their Brand/firm presence. Team members are then chosen/ selected/ bought after committing several thousands of bucks by their respective franchisees. The first IPL held in 2008 was a runaway hit in India, while the second edition in 2009 was mired with controversies – due to the elections for choosing the new Parliament, and security reasons, the franchisees decided to move the show to South Africa as the former Government refused to promise fool-proof security for the events.

Since the IPL was played outside of India, the excitement levels among fans and viewers was much higher – the viewership also surged quite a bit compared to the previous year, thanks to higher penetration, bigger marketing budgets and adding new viewers. Various Indian brands paid large sums of money while fighting for screen-space and mind-space. Among them, Vodafone stood tall and popular. Vodafone entered India in 2005 after acquiring a major stake in the former “Hutchisson Essar” that was owned by the Ruias of the Essar Group. Since then, the former trade name “Hutch” was slowly replaced with “Vodafone” all across the country. The advertising campaigns showed a humble Pug – with their most famous tagline “Wherever you go, our network follows”. This campaign also had its share of controversies – from animal lovers to organizations that support the cause of cruelty to them, (have you ever heard of prevention of cruelty to humans, children of sex-workers, orphaned/ handicapped children, etc. !!??!!) the rich, the famous, the unheard of and the wannabes, all trying their best to gain scores on their popularity charts.

For the IPL, the creative teams at Vodafone and their agency Ogilvy wanted to send a different message with a basic question in mind – how to increase ARPUs or Average Revenue Per User. This is the fundamental measure of the telecom companies and with an existing price of Re. 1 per minute for calls made across the country, each player was trying newer ways to increase their revenues. VAS or value-added services is an important source for these companies and that is what Vodafone and Ogilvy decided to focus on. And thus was born the concept of Zoozoos – an alien like creature that has a big fat potato body and egg-shaped head with similar features as a human – that could walk, talk, sing and cry. Through this, they were trying to convey the same emotions as a human would. These low-cost production ads (that cost approx INR 3 Crores) had no celebrity endorsements – a variety of telecom operators have always used and during the same time, Airtel was using Madhavan and Vidya Balan while Idea was using Abhishek Bachhan. When the new Zoozoo ads hit the screen, it was refreshing – the young and the old took notice of what was being conveyed (mainly in the urban areas while their counterparts in the rural/semi-urban areas found it difficult to comprehend). There used to be times during the second week of the IPL when viewers were so glued to their television sets that they were actually waiting for the new Zoozoo ad!

While the campaign did extremely well, sources say that it did well in terms of collections too. A friend of mine who works for Vodafone conveyed that in the 8 weeks following the commencement of the new campaign, VAS incomes increased by over 150% in the top 4 circles that the operator is present. Quite an achievement.

While the faithful pug remains so, the Zoozoo was given special preference – that they would be used in the form of Merchandise and would be sold. Shoppers Stop, India’s largest Department Store chain has got the exclusive rights to sell the Zoozoo merchandise at its outlets. While the deal was announced a month ago, the merchandise have already started arriving at the stores and could also be purchased online. At prices starting INR 299, this is one sure-shot hit among shoppers – of all age groups. And I am sure this is going to attract newer footfalls into the stores! Usually, when a new campaign commences at Retail stores, footfalls increase by 30% on an average. Am not sure about this one, but am sure it would only do good in the near future, for Shoppers Stop and fellow retailers inside like Café Coffee Day!

So, rush to your nearest store to grab the merchandise – whether to wear to college or to work on a Saturday, or to the tennis academy or simply to stay put at home!