Volume XXXVI • Number 7 • July 2007

An Empirical Study of Compatibility of Advertising Channels and Product Categories

Dr.Karunesh Saxena
Director
Pacific Institute of Management
Udaipur,Rajasthan

Dr.Pramod Paliwal
Associate Professor
IIMT,Oxford Brooks University
Kolkata

Pooja Tripathi
Research Scholar
Pacific Institute of Management
Udaipur,Rajasthan

Malls are called gigantic concrete amusement parks for the middle class in metros. In 2001, there were just three shopping malls in India. By 2007, that figure is expected to grow to 343. According to KSA Technopak’s white paper prepared with ICICI Property services, it is estimated that about 18 million square feet of mall space will be developed by 2006, in 12 major cities. As the estimate goes there are about 40,000 and 85,000 footfalls on an average in the malls like INORBIT, in Mumbai and FORUM, in Bangalore respectively. It is also expected that the retail sales of consumer goods will rise from Rs. 15,02,900 Crores in 2004 to Rs. 27,20,400 Crores by 2007, (i.e. an average annual growth of about 17%). The data available estimates that the Indian Consumer spent about 41% of their disposable income on groceries, in 2003 (India Today, Nov. 21, 2005, 2).The malls have revolutionized the concept of retailing and they pose a serious competition to their conventional counterparts in terms of service, ambience, price, access to the brands etc. Furthermore they have created a niche in the minds of consumers through a perception of innovation, style and status.

 Dr.S.C.Panandikar
Mumbai Educational Trust's 
School of Management
Mumbai
email:scpanandikar@gmail.com

 Prof.Rajiv Gupte
Mumbai Educational Trust's
School of Management
Mumbai
email:rajivgupte@rediffmail.com

Competitive Promotional  Tools & Retailing - The Game where you differentiate or Die

The recent trends in India demonstrate that retailing is emerging steadily as an organized sector, with a variety of big business players trying their kismets in this part and thereby expanding into retailing. The best instances are Tatas, Reliance, RPG, Adanis and the list persists. This sector appears to grip a major place in the economy of the country in the future to come. Retailing is the final movement in the value chain of the product that is noticeably classified to be a service. The Indian retail Industry is shaped of with retail players like Food retailers, Health and beauty goods retailers, Clothing etc. Also it gives the organized retail formats in India like Hypermarket, supermarket, specialty retailing stores etc.The competitive promotional tools include all the tools starting from the Advertising, Sales promotions, Direct Marketing, Personal selling, Public Relations, Publicity, Interactive marketing, and point of purchase marketing. The study focuses on three Retail chains viz. Big Bazaar, Adani and Star India Bazaar.

Prof.Sharif Memon
Lecturer & Core Faculty- Marketing Area
N.R. Institute of Business Management
Ahmedabad

Ambient Media Advertising - A New Era of Creativity

The field of marketing communication is very dynamic. It keeps on evolving. As a result of this it is a highly demanding area. Every time there a thirst for something new which can attract the audiences and satisfy their hunger for something new and innovative and at the same time it must be cost effective. In this regard advertisers have coined a new way of advertising and it is some what a revolution in the field of advertising. It is “Ambient Advertising” highly creative and highly unusual both in its message and location where it appears. This paper deals with ambient advertising. Its meaning, characteristics and how it is doing in India.

Shweta Tanwar
Lecturer
Amity Business School
Jaipur

Impact of Emotive Ads

Our emotions play an important role throughout the span of our lives because they enrich virtually all of our waking moments with either a pleasant or an unpleasant quality. Cacioppo and his colleagues wrote that “emotions guide and enrich our life; they provide meaning to everyday existence; they render the valuation placed on life and property” (Cacioppo et. al. 2001), which also illustrates that the relationship with our physical world is emotional. It therefore doesn’t come as a surprise that consumer researchers have found that emotions evoked by products enhance the pleasure of buying, owning, and using them (Hirschman & Holbrook 1982). In addition, it has often been argued that the experiential or emotional quality of products is becoming more and more important for differential advantage in the marketplace because products are now often similar with respect to technical characteristics, quality, and price. In some purchase decisions, emotional responses may even be a decisive factor. Clearly, the ‘fun of use,’ i.e. the fun one experiences from owning or using a product, belongs to this affective rather than to the rational domain. The difficulty in studying affective concepts as ‘joy of use’ or ‘fun of use’ is that they seem to be as intangible as they are appealing. Even more, rather than being an emotion as such, ‘having fun’ is probably the outcome of a wide range of possible emotional responses. Imagine, for example, the fun one has when watching a movie. A person will experience all kinds of emotions, such as fear, amusement, anger, relief, disappointment, hope, etc. Instead of one isolated emotion, it is the combination of these emotions that contributes to the experience of fun.

Dr.Sabina Mahapatra
Assistant Professor
Indian Institute of Management- Indore
Madhya Pradesh
email:sabita_mahapatra@yahoo.com

Exploring the trends of retail formats in India - A study of shopping malls

The study puts focus on how retailers are designing organized retail formats to keep pace with the changing moods of the shoppers. These organized retail formats are at a paradigm shift in India and the need of an hour is a place where the consumers are seeking the convenience of one –stop shopping which can be catered by none other but Malls. In past few years there has been a shift in India from individual retail outlets owned separately and managed distinctively to professionally managed retailing. Things changed primarily because of rising expectations of Indian Consumers and Corporate in turn responded quickly to the needs of consumers. This paper assesses the recent trends in the changing scenario of distribution in India with specific reference to the growth of large retail stores and their private labels. It dwells deeper into the performance of private labels and its implications to national brands in their marketing strategy. The retail formats commonly analyzed are stores located in the malls. The Apparel market is growing rapidly and changes are occurring across the industry, which has positioned itself as attractive destination. The study addresses how factors within and outside the stores affect store-level shopping decision. (This design was used to produce a picture of factors retailers consider important for shoppers while purchasing apparel with mass merchandise). Preference for certain retailer attributes differs by shopper and these preferences are reflected in store choice Therefore, several retailers’ attributes as reasons for store patronage.A questionnaire was designed to investigate store patronage relative to importance and perception of selected attribute of the stores. The data was collected from retailers. Respondents were asked to describe their perception of store on the basis of various attributes. These attributes were then treated as variables / indicators in the study. The six main indicators on the basis of which retailers decide to go for specific type of retail format consisted of Price, Sales Personnel, Quality of Merchandise, Assortment of Merchandise, Advertising, Services and other Convenience Services. The data was collected from 100 retailers.

Prof. S.L.Gupta
Head, Department of Management
Maharaja Suraj Mal Institute
New Delhi

Tripat Kaur
Sr.Lecturer
Department of Management
Maharaja Agrasen Institute of
Management Studies, New Delhi

Buying Behavior and Promotion in Textile Retailing in Kerala

Retail outlets are the main source of purchase for consumers. Around 80 percent of the customers buy goods from retailers, while 20 percent goes to the wholesalers and manufacturers. Textile retailing in Kerala used to be a business that earned huge profits with less investment. But today the situation has changed. To earn a meager profit huge investment is needed. Earlier the customers were not bothered about the ambience of the shop and display of goods, but now the urban customer considers these facts and the retailers are forced to give importance to these, and huge investments are needed for this. Also, the preferences of customers are changing rapidly. Thus retailing has become a difficult task, as they have to keep changing their product lines and modify products according to the changing trends.Nowadays retail business is not an easy job. The shops are trying hard for surviving, and sustain the same turnover every year. The main problems the retailers face today are financial crisis, lack of investment, less margin and competition. This is a vicious circle. Due to financial crisis the retailers are not able to invest more into their business as the customers are going for cheaper goods. And cheap products are available in plenty. So margins are very low due to stiff competition. Earlier, customers used to give high importance to the quality of their products. But now customers are very price conscious and are willing to pay only less for more. So the new generation retailers stock more of low quality goods to give goods at low prices. But still there are some people who go for quality goods.

Dr.Moli P.Koshy
Reader
School of Management Studies
Cochin University of Science & Technology,Kochi
Kerala

Suresh N.
Textile Wholesaler
Ramakrishna Textiles
Ernakulam
Kerala

A Study on Retail Store Service Quality Dimensions in Select Retail Stores of Chennai City

Retailing is a constantly changing industry as ultimate customers’ change themselves. In a way, Retailing is a fascinating world. One industry, which has made a phenomenal impact on our daily lives, is retail. It touches our lives, as end consumers. Retailing has been in our blood-as a shopkeeper or as a shopper.India is a nation of around 12million retailers. The total value of the Indian retail sector is estimated around Rs.9,00,000 crore, of which the organized sector accounts for 2% percent. Retail business in India, contributes 10-11% of the GDP and employs 7% of the workforce in the country.India has the largest retail density in the world with 12million retail outlets for a population of over a 100million, though as much as 90% of these are smaller than 500sq.ft.in area. This means that in India, the per capita retailing space is about 2sq.ft, compared to 16sq.ft, in the US. On the other hand, organized retailing in India is relatively a new phenomenon which is witnessing a high growth. Retail is swinging across India; Retailing represents a huge business opportunity as it is in a transition phase as well as favorable deliberations in favour of allowing foreign direct investment in retail sector. Hence, it is likely to open up the door for the entry of global retail giants, like Walmart.In the light of the above, this research has been undertaken to assess the customer service and the retail store service quality dimensions as prevalent in the leading stores of Chennai city.Moreover, customers often look at something more than the assortment of goods, in this context, the importance of a well-thought out customer service strategy becomes critical. In other words, the total customer service or the total experience that a customer gets in the store can stay unique. Very often, in retail, it is not what you sell that counts, but how you sell it does matter. Hence, this research focuses on the customer service being provided by the leading stores is brought under the present study.

R.Tamilarasan
Assistant Professor
Department of Management Studies
Aalim Muhammad Salegh College of Engineering,Chennai