2.3.A STUDY ON RETAIL BRANDING STRATEGIES

K. Jegan1 , Research Scholar, Sathyabama University, Chennai 600 119

Dr.N.Kannan2, Supervisor, Sathyabama University, Chennai 600 119

AbstractRetail brands have gained its popularity in the past few years. Moreover the retail brands are closer to the consumer. There is the morepossibility of communication between consumers and the physicalshare space where one to one marketing is going on. Retailers canable to identify from their store and brands. Generally retailersare silent as the product brand depends upon the liking ofconsumers. There is a direct relationship between the retailers andthe consumers because they are the best person to know theconsumer's choice. As trust is the major component in retail busi-ness, there by good relation builds good foundation of the totalsystem that will enhance long term relationship with a sense ofloyalty. The aim of this study is to identify the impact of Brandingin "Retail Industry”) of India. The study is basically the analysis of retail branding strategiesadopted by the retailers in India and how this strategy becomes animportant part for the development of this retail sector. This studycovers literature from various sources to identify the essence ofthe booming retail sector and to concentrate the status and powerand opportunity of retail branding in India.

Key words: Retail Branding, Strategic concept, Foreign Direct Investment

Introduction

In early 1990s, after liberalization, India opened its economy toforeign competition. There were strict rule in certain sector toallow any foreign investment to protect the interest of the domesticplayers. Those sectors include insurance, retail, domestic airlinesand telecommunications. These sectors were regarded as sensitive

1 Marketing Manager, Chennai2 Professor & Head, MBA Department, St.Mary’s School of Management Studies, Chennai

industries and protected for long period. Telecommunications andinsurance were the first of these sectors that were gradually openedto foreign direct investment (FDI)'. The domestic airlines enteredinto it in the last two years. The retail sector is protectedagainst FDI. However recently there is significant development inthe Indian business community. One such sector is the Indian retailsector which has tremendous new development in the recent years. TheIndian market is valued at US $200 billion and is projected toincrease substantially in size over the 10-15 years. In India theorganized retail or the well established retail chain comprises ofonly US$8 billion. The rest is by 12 million neighborhood outletsand mom and pop shops I. So having such a huge current market andfuture potential, the retail giant like Wal-Mart, Carrefour andothers have an eye to enter into the Indian market. Recently theIndian government allowed joint ventures (JV) in the retail sectorwhere by a foreign company can set up a JV with an Indian company.Again the Indian company will be the majority shareholder in theventure. India's leading mobile phone company which has manydiversified interests, Bharti Enterprises, has entered into a jointventure with the biggest retailer of the world, Wal-Mart. Theventure is still in its early stages. [t is reported that Bhartiplans to invest up to US$2.5 billion in setting up organized retailoutlets across the Indian landscape I. As per the government policyany such foreign company in a JV with an Indian company cannotretain its name for its operations.

The present structure associate customer interaction and branding ofthe stores which will the essential part of Indian company. The backend consists of procurement, logistics, and inventories will be thepart of Wal-Mart. In Indian market, although there is the presenceon, Wal-Mart, but Indian consumer will not see the Wal-Mart name anyof the retail outlets· A paternalistic regime of control manifesteditself in licensing laws that restricted the production of consumergoods and regulation that limited the size of manufacturing plant. Alack of incentives held back investments to develop new products.Multinational companies were kept out, and import was throttled bytariffs often exceeding 200 percent. The result was that Indians

could buy any car as long as it was a Morris Oxford or a fiat, anytoothpaste as long as it was Colgate, any watch as long as it camefrom HMT and any radio as long as it was produced by Philips.

Now, however market liberalization and increasingly assertiveconsumers are showing the needs of a retail transformation that willbring bigger Indian and multinational operators on to the scene.Although the rewards might not be instant, there are tremendousopportunities in such a huge market, worth a total of $20 bn a yearin India's four largest cities-Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta, andChennai(in descending order of size)-and $180 bn overall. A numberof Indian and international retailers are entering this nascentmarket. To do so, they are being forced to build their supply chainsform scratch and to spur consumer interest in products that aren'tfamiliar to many Indian shoppers. For example, McDonald's, which hasspent more than five years developing a supply chain and devising anon beef menu, is now emerging as a force in the fast-food market'.

India is the last Asian economy to liberalize its retail sector: InThailand, more than 40% of all consumer goods are sold throughsupermarkets, convenience stores and department stores. A similarphenomenon has swept through Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand andIndonesia. Even in china, more than tenth of all consumer goods aresold through modern retail formats-a proportion that growing rapidly(Exhibit I).

But in India, the development of organized retail industry wasstymied by the "licensing raj." The grocery business, for instance,has been dominated by small father and son stores with prices set bymanufacturers under government direction. In no category was therescope for an organized chain to develop any advantage whether ofprice, range, or services-over the unorganized competitors thattypically operated with family labor on their own property. Theimpact of regulation on choice and quality was evident in theencyclopedia shopping lists that family and friends presentedIndians going abroad. The lengthy request meant that they traveledlight going out but exceeding heavy coming back, weighed down by

toiletries, medicines, perfumes, underwear, chocolates, and Scotchwhisky'.

It may soon be possible for Indian vacationers to travel light inboth directions. The quality of local goods is improving as Indianmanufacturer's upgrade their production for exporter markets.Customs duties are developing and there is a shift from quota-basedto tariff- based systems. Import restrictions aimed at multina-tionals have been removed in nearly all sectors, letting in Sony andSamsung in durable goods and Kellogg in consumer goods, to mentiononly a few of the contenders. Categories such as biscuits, dairyproducts, juice, and personal-care products are following suit. Asurvey by the Operations Research Group, an Indian researchorganization, found that 19 consumer goods categories, with 1,378brands and 2,579 individual products, entered the Indian retailmarket from 1990 to 1996. In contrast to the rest of Asia, whereinternational retailers are welcomed, India hasn't made developmentof its retail sector priority. Foreign investment doesn't receiveautomatic approval, and retailers must show that they are addingvalue-by, say, making some products ill India rather than justbuying and selling good there. Lobbying by small retailers hasperpetuated this barrier. III addition, regulations restrictingreal estate purchases remain, along with a tax regime that favorssmaller retail business

Retail sector’s in India fall into three categories. The first,"ready-to-go", comprises several subcategories in which determinedretailers can build positions immediately because ease of sourcing,and consumer acceptance have reached a level that permits theexploitation of advantages of scale and range. These ready-to-gosectors include dry groceries (grains and cereals, packaged foods,toiletries, and household items), electronics, certain kinds ofmen's clothing, boo's and music, and shopping malls.

Dry grocery is particularly attractive because the proliferation ofbrands and products has helped improve retail margins on two levels:package-goods companies must alter retailer’s better terms to obtainshelf space, and retailers can trade consumers up to goods higher

value. Up market supermarkets such as Food World are seducingcustomers with frozen foods and a superior range of goods; discountsthey can offer because of their increased margin spread.Collectively, these kinds of stores have captured nearly 20 percentof dry grocery retail market in southern city of Chennai since 1997

The 2nd category of retailing, "shape/adapt", includes livesgroceries (see box "fresh groceries"), women's clothing, do-it-yourself products, fast food, and furniture. Retailers in thesesectors must invest substantially to shape the supply chain andpersuade consumers to change their buying behavior.

The 3rd category of retail segments, "wait and watch," comprises theundeveloped sector that provides no immediate opportunity forretailers. Pharmacy products and retail liquor products are twoexamples of such sector. Low level of over-the-counter drugpurchases and complicated regulations make pharmacy chainsunattractive. Liquor retailing will not take off, because of thestringent and varying regulation of alcohol in each Indian state

Objectives of the study

To study the present retail branding strategies adopted by Indianretailers.

To analyze the components which are necessary for a perfect retailbrand.

To study the effectiveness of various intermediaries involved inretail sector.

Retail Branding is the most strategic solution for a retailer. Itcenters on uniqueness and dramatic difference in services providedby retailers.

Today's market is very dynamic and increasingly competitive. In amarket crowded with brands, models and multiple options, how couldone create a difference this is a challenge faced by many retailersin the Indian market. The focus on brands and the importance ofbrands is a growing trend amongst retailers and business managers inIndia. This is hardly surprising, because a strong brand is an asset

for any retailer generating income and creating services value. Theglobal market plays is littered with selection of brands that diedtoo soon. The Indian market is no exception. Management thinkerstoday strongly believe that the customer is the king. The importantjob in the management is the job of creating and retaining acustomer. Many research studies have proven that the best way ofcreating and retaining the customers is by building strong brands".

A brand is more than just a logo or a name, it is a complex anddynamic set of consumer beliefs entrenched in consumers' hearts andminds. Building a core brand requires understanding consumer needsand developing a point of difference that is meaningful andsustainable in generating customer loyalty.

A strong brand takes a lifetime to build but It can take moments todestroy. But properly executed, it helps built trust and apreference for a specific retailer. A customer who trusts and likesa certain brand is more likely to buy additional products orservices based on loyalty alone.

Fundamental characteristics of a Brand

Recognizability: A true brand is instantly recognized andidentified. The brand name passes into everyday use (Nike's Just doit') or becomes satirized ('don't be such a Duracell') orappropriated ('make a Xerox of this document'). Indian retailerslike Shoppers Stop, the RPG Group's Food World and Music World havealready earned national recognition. Subiksha in Tamilnadu and'Margin Free' supermarkets in Kerala are household names in the twostates.

Meaning, story, value: This is the second characteristic of a brand.The brand must have a value proposition. It must stand for somethingand one of the most effective ways is to have a story to transmitthose values. Examples abound of effective leaderships that havehelped to build corporate brand values in other sectors, but fewretailers have succeeded in building a Story to carry brand meaning.When they do so, their power will increase.

Legitimacy: The meaning of the brand should be obviouslyappropriated by the target customer group. Legitimacy rests onauthority, earned by the brand and granted by the customers. Lessonscan be learned from social organizations like Greenpeace, Medicinessans frontiers, CRY and Help-age India. In this case, legitimacyrests on moral authority.

Consistency, alignment: A brand story should contain no internalcontradictions and should be appear to be consistent over time. Itshould be applicable across the business and attempt at total brandintegration.

Proximity: The brand building process should culminate with assuringthe brand's proximity to the consumer. The brand's definition getsexpanded by opening stores in a number of locations to make itconvenient to the consumer

Retail branding Versus Product Branding

A great difference between product branding and retail branding isthat in many cases products have an anonymous or even fictitiouspresented whereas in retail, consumers come in direct contact withthe company and/or product. A Cadbury's Dairy Milk (CC\1) chocolatebar for example, is a product made according to a set recipe in afactory that is not open to the public. In addition, the people whowork there never come into contact with the consumers 'because theretail channel lies in between. And those who do sell the 'CDM' tothe end-consumer (the retailers) do not have very much to do with itby virtue of their function. Therefore it is possible to conceive abrand identity for the product, establish it for a specific targetgroup and then fix it in the minds of consumers. Compare theidentities of 'Five Star' 'Perk', 'Gems' and 'Temptations': all verydifferent, yet they come from the same manufacturer.

Contrast this with a store like Food World, for example. Because ofits direct contact with the end-user; if must effectively live up toits brand reputation in ever)' aspect, every day. It is impossiblefor retailers to escape the need to continually sustain the storebrand. In a store, the entire retail organization is revealed and

the true nature of a company can be experienced. A retail store, assaid earlier, is the container that holds the entire formula. Allthe elements of the formula (including the elements of the marketingmix) come together in-store. The formula should be deliberatelyshaped from the standpoint of identity (the 'brand' of the retailorganization) with mutual coordination of the element beingimportant. Here the issue is not of retailers selling brands butbranding the retail business itself, like the grocery supermarketchain or the fashion store. A hypermarket or department store, mayoffer several well-known brands, but in today's competitive worldcannot afford to rest on its strategic product assortment andpricing initiatives to bring in the customers. A retailorganization, like any other corporate company will have to ensurethat its own brand includes the characteristics of product brands.Retailers need to work on three dimensions to achieve this:

Brand value: The retail brand has to embody and transmit clearvalues to the customer. (Like 'value for money', 'Luxury shoppingredefined'). Some companies have attempted to define this in theirmission statements but they are often too vague and no actionable.For example the U. K. Virgin brand the value of challengingconventions and the U.S, retailer Nordstrom has a built a value ofcustomer service. While many Indian product brands have successfullyweaved values around their brands (Hamam on 'trust', Godrej on'quality' and TVS on 'service') retailers are yet to develop aconsistent value across their businesses.

Brand strategy: It is imperative that retailers have systematicstrategy on issues like whether to level of the retail brand orcorporate brand and decision Also one product/one brand that theymay be selling II their shop. Retailers can also decide to launchhigh quality retailer brands ('own labels') backed by pro motionalcampaigns, reinforcing clear personalities Pricing policies, todayposition retailer brands good value lines or premium lines (Nilgirisdepartment stores prices its grocery lines above manufacture brandprices). The view that retailer brands offer cheaper alternative tomanufacturer brand is no longer valid.

Experienced consumers are no longer primarily motivated by lowprice. For example DCM Benetton India redesigned its stores as perits international format and also repositioned the brand from acasual wear brand to a wardrobe option. The company is nowattempting to target a niche audience through its concept stores. Itlaunched a 'Baby-on-Board' store, which targets mothers-to-be andkids, an 'Accessories' stores that sells luggage, bags, sunglassesand vanity cases and an 'Adults Only' store that showcasesBenetton's apparel collection for men and women.

Brand structure: Operational levels of the retail business have tobe held together to integrate the whole brand proposal. At thislevel, marketing, human resources, distribution, logistics,administration and sales have to work towards a common brand valuethat has to be communicated to the consumer: The retail brand'smessages must be weaved into the everyday experiences that theconsumer has with the retail brand. Brand building constitutes a wayin which the main value of the retail store shifts to what has beentraditionally called an intangible. Indian Retailing is coming ofage and needs to have a clear brand proposition to offer thediscerning Indian consumer. There is no doubt that the retailbusiness is gravitating from high street towards destinationshopping (mall development) with an estimated 10 million square feetof mall space expected to hit the metros and mini-metros across thecountry this year. However we need not assume that retailing atshopping-malls, is going to be fundamentally different from shoppingat the traditional shopping areas, except that a mall has a moremodern structure and in most cases brings multiple brand outletsunder a single roof. The local retailers moving into malls howeverhave to face the challenge of building brand recognition and loyaltyright from scratch. Most mall developers have on offer, the samecombination of shopping (International/national brands),Entertainment (Theatre Multiplex) and food (McDonald's/PizzaHut/Cafe Coffee Day) in their malls. Malls are also fast becoming aplace that youth can 'hang out', but if the crowds do troop in, butthe cash registers are not ringing, it can harm the serious businessof retailing and hurt this nascent industry on the growth path. The

critical lesson for mall developers is, to invest some quality.Effort in understanding the shopping-needs of customers in theirtargeted areas, and then build a carefully planned portfolio ofretail options that can meet the needs of these targeted customers.Mall developers also have to create distinctive (brand) identitiesfor their specific malls. It is equally important for the would-beretailer tenants, to realize that mere moving into a mall does notbuild their brand or guarantee business for them. They have to workas hard to draw consumers to their own stores once the latter haveentered the mall, and then have the right value proposition forthem, to get them converted into customers, and then to becomerepeat customers. Building a differentiating brand identity wouldwork for both the mall owner and the mall retailer. We are alsoseeing organized Indian retailing in several businesses that speaksvolumes of the staggering potential for the expansion of this sun-rise sector in our country. But here again, the early initiatives inthe sectors illustrated below seem to rely more on novelty andexcitement of newer ambiences rather than truly investing in brandbuilding. Gourmet coffee retailing: The organized coffee retailbusiness is estimated at Rs.250 crores and is showing a growth rateof 40%. Apart from the Quickys, Cafe Coffee Day and Baristas chains,the Tatas have launched their Bean Coffee Junction chain in Chennai.Coffee World an international gourmet coffee chain is set to launchits outlet in Bangalore this year. Reliance is offering gourmetcoffee at some of its Reliance Web World outlets under the brandname 'Java Green'. There are not more than 350 outlets in theorganized sector today but retail consultancy KSA Technopak opinesthat India's potential for coffee retail outlets could be around twothousand. However the coffee retailers are already cloning eachothers' strategies by offering that "total experience" like rightcoffee, food and ambience with Wi-Fi and jukeboxes. Chennai haswitnessed a manifold increase in the total retail space devoted tonon-grocery or lifestyle retail. There are four major lifestyleretailers such as LifeStyle, Westside, Shoppers' Stop, and Globus.Globus alone account for a little over 200,000 square feet of retailspace. Add to that the retail space of the traditional apparelretailers such as Nalli's and Kumarans and the recent entrants such

as Pothys, R.M.K.V and Chennai Silks. The reasonable real estateprices, overall lower cost of operations and accessibility toconsumers vis-a-vis other metros, have spurned the growth oforganized retail at Chennai. But, on the brand building front, thestory is no different. A retail analyst has already observed thatChennai is over-retailed in the lifestyle segment, with littledifferentiation among the players. As consumers, we have beennoticing how India's state owned petroleum companies are undertakinga massive image improvement, makeover and different exercise. Fromsignage to logos to canopies, clean floors, channel music, lighting,convenience stores, uniformed attendants, internet browsing andpromotion schemes, the public sector pumps are working hard atdelivering a new experience to the Indian motoring consumer. Allthis, of course, is being done as part of a bigger game plan to copewith the coming private sector competition from, Essar and Shell.Let's wait and watch whether public sector hindsight into brandingpays off for them in the face of private competition in the next fewyears'.

Strategy of creating strong retail brand

Creating a brand after targeting a particular segment in retail isnow a challenging task. Retailer distinct themselves by creating astrong brand name for themselves. In today's market retailers arefacing a lot of challenges for creating a brand.

Creating competitive advantage through brand innovation: Creatingcompetitive advantages through brand innovation needs finance andmarket information. This is a challenging task. Many time retailersare finding new markets to create a strong brand in the competition.For this reason they applied different strategies. These strategiesmay generate positive or negative consequences in future.

Developing market opportunities: Market opportunities bring thesituation in which it is possible to do something that retailer wantto do with their brands. Developing a market opportunity is achallenging situation for retailers. Finding or creating opportunityfor retailer's brand in the competition is the process of retailbrand strategy. This can be illustrated in perspective.

Grasim Industries, Raymond India and Vimal are all betting onsmaller cities to grow and capture the nascent market for brandedsuiting and shirting’s. All these companies all of a sudden haveturned their attention to Tier-III and Tier-IV cities such asBelgaum, Jillandhar, Chas, Kulti and Purulia. Mr Krishnamoorthy,President of Grasim textiles, said, till now the Grasim brand wasassociated with fashion conscious elite segment. Now, wedeliberately want to take the power of fashion to a larger audience.Citizens of smaller towns have aspirations and are willing to emptytheir pockets to experience these brands. Grasim offers thisaudience not just style but also the association of Bollywood icon,who symbolises these dreams. Grasim has invested Rs 4 crore for aTelevision Ad campaign featuring, Bollywood Hero, Akshay Kumar.

Raymond Apparels has launched Notting Hill a Value for Money brand to woo the Indian Middle Class. lTC's John Players and Mudra Garments Peter England arc the leaders in this market".

Building trust with consumers, customers and society:

"Consumer is the king" and building trust with consumer is one ofthe important requirement. Building trust in between customer andretailer can help to retain customers. In today's competitioncustomer retention is the most challenging job and therefore retailbranding is also becoming very challenging work. So retailer pro-vides different customized services to his entire customers.Perspective-II reflects the same thing

Future Group offers consumer finance services: The country's largestretail, Future Group introduced oils consumer finance division,Future Money, which will function under Future Capital Holdings andwill provide up to 70-80% credit of the cost of purchase made atFuture Group stores. The service will later be extended to purchasesmade at other retailers and also for home, automobiles and creditcards.

Maturing markets: Market when it is in a stale of completedeveloping is called maturing market. So when the market is

gradually becoming fully developed market, it is difficult tosustain in a competition for an existing brand.

More sophisticated and increasing competition: In today's market itis very much difficult for a brand 10 sustain in the market for longtime because of sophisticated and increasing competition. Differentbrand are competing with each other in this market. And thus the'Life Cycle Time' of a brand is also reducing day by day".

Apparel brands are trying out various combinations of innovativedisplays, product packaging, bright colours and special lighting tograb and hold buyers' attention. Arvind Brands, which manages brandssuch as Arrow, Excalibur, Flying Machine, Lee and Wrangler; usesvaried colours, fixtures, fret walls and thematic displays. Productpackaging is another area where brands try to look distinctive andcarry bags become an inherent part of the brand identity. Thebranding initiative also extends to sales persons, who wear thecompany's apparel line to be in sync with the brand. Most brandsalso go for seasonal looks, with the theme of the space changingwith each new range of clothing. The spending on such brandingefforts is similar to an exclusive store in a mall environment. So,the next time you go shopping, watch out for the coil' hangers, thered display walls and the framed trivia.

Traditionally, retailers have felt the need to tailor their messagesaround price and products. With few exceptions, they have not run apure branding campaign with separate tactical campaigns revolvingaround pricing and products. This can be attributed to the fact thatthey have been diverting a significant portion of their resourcestowards streamlining the procurement and invention processes.Therefore, they could not really afford to have separate campaignsconcentrating solely on brand-building efforts. However retailershave woken to the fact that branding cannot be a secondlyconsideration. It has the potential to swing the consumer's decisionin your favour. In a marketplace that is proliferating with retailstores, a strong brand can serve as a crucial differentiator. It isa wonder that stores that stock many strong brands on their shelves

have not made any significant attempts to build brands for them-selves".

For a retailer there are five things to develop a retail brandstrategy:

Analysis the consumer buying behavior:

Information on customer is nothing but customer data. Buying andspending pattern of customer is the major requirement after havingdemography data. This information can gather from different agencieslike the National Council of Applied Economic Research.

Management interview: Management could organize events throughinterviewing customer and employees for finding out all the causeand effect relationship that causes success and failure of a retailbrand. In depth understanding of the problem between employees andorganization or finding the 'service gap' of service provider neededindebt behavioral study. This indebt study can only possible whenmanagement interviewed employees and customer as well.

Relationship management to enhance in-store shopping experience:Competition will force retailers to think about their customers asindividuals, analyze their shares of customers and calculate theircustomer lifetime values. Retailers need to build data bases usingin-store data collection and launch frequent shopper rewards, carryon an interactive communication with them, make special offers,drive traffic and add value outside the in-store relationship.Retail brands get built by developing personal relationships withconsumers rather than only through product and pricing. For example,staff should be trained to recognize their VIP customers. 'Soft'rewards for VIP customers include priority service, free giftwrapping, enhanced guarantees and sales pre-notifications. 'Hard'benefits include privileged rewards and extra value offers as wellas straight discounts. The quality o[management of the customer isbecoming an increasingly important source towards building theretail brand. Education and training of staff needs to be done toenhance customer service. Local store management can be empowered tomaximize the value of each customer visit. Analysis of customer

behavior can guide store merchandising to match the profile of theircustomers and even the needs of the shoppers at different times ofthe day".

External communication to add value outside the store: Retailers useadvertising to build their brands and promotions to drive storetraffic. Retailers have, still not felt the concept of individualcustomer communication outside the stores as a necessity. It isnecessary that they seek to add a new form of dialogue with theircustomers. Retail chain Subhiksha, for examples, mails a broadsheetto its customers giving them details of the promotional offersavailable and price comparisons across brands that helps its cus-tomers to take more informed decisions.

Motivating the staff to volunteer value: The quality of in-storeservice is key factors in differentiating the retailer would winninga higher share of customer spend. In one survey, shoppers wereasked, would they ask for the same salesperson on their next pur-chase visit; the 'yes' respondents were found to more likely givethe store a 8-10 rating. Research shows that shoppers unhappy withthe salesperson there by low performance of the store serviceefficiency arises. So Staff must be trained and motivated torecognize their best customers and to offer them superior service.Successful retailing has always been said to be, about getting thenitty-gritty right of merchandising, forecasting, the supply chain,training and recruitment of high quality personnel and categorymanagement.

Strategy by Indian retailer to develop retail brand

In India retailers are following different strategies to create abrand which will differentiate their own brand from all other brandsin the competition. Some strategies followed by some examples aredescribed bellow".

1. Entrepreneurs and organizations entering into the retail industry:More number of entrepreneur and organizations are entering intoretail sector. This creates competition among differentorganizations. For differentiation there should be a strong brand

and innovative branding strategy. So several strategies like comewith new brand name that targeting to the new segment, tie up withexiting brand name in the market, adding some tag lines to the corebrand name is needed.

2. Retail organizations wishing to leverage their unique product-mixand service experience by creating a "brand": Through unique productmix and services a retailer can have good customer response. Now ifa retailer can create good relationship with customer he also cangenerate brand loyalty for his own stores. Brand itselfdifferentiate all services from competitors.

3. Retail organizations planning for Brand: Repositioning: Brandrepositioning is required because of several reason like when newofferings flood the market, the superiority of the established brandhas to be re-emphasized; the established brands may not be able tooffer either the same features or the variants that are beingoffered by the new brands (Ambassador and Robin Blue). Hence, thereis a need for them to reposition themselves in a timely manner,relying more on the consumer good will they enjoy or by exploringways to appeal to the consumers; when a contemporary image isrequired in some categories because of changing psychographics; whenbrands desire to change their target segment (rarely); when brandswant to communicate improved offerings; when motivation to buyproducts in the category is low.

4. Retail organizations who wish to develop strategic alliances withother brands as a part of their growth strategy: Tied up with otherstrong brands helps retailers to get advantages in the competition.If a retailers do not have presence in the market before then tiedup with other leading brand in that particular category helpsretailers to create competition.

5. Product brand owners who wish to find a retail net· work consistentwith their overall brand strategy: Many time retailers are workingfor growing retail network. Growing a retail network and gettingmore access to the consumer helps brands to be well known. Moreretail network not only helps to create brand awareness but alsogenerate competition to the competitor.

Strategy for creating store brand by retailers

1st step: In order to have store brands or any other product, it ismore sensible to know the consumer buying system or their buyingbehavior. The management has to know about the retail buyingprocess of a consumer to have success of both long term and shortterm. The consumer behaviour starts with arousal of need and endswith post purchase behaviour which would result in store loyalty.There are some factors that would influence the decisions of thebuyer. Those are Beliefs about the performance of retailer andproducts, values, attitudes evaluation of retailers and products,family, reference group, cuture.

2nd Step: Creation of retail store brands involves both long termand short strategies. In order to a create retail store brand, areThings to be considered before introduction of the store brand, andThings to be considered during the introduction of the brand. Thingsto be considered before introduction of the store brand

For the introduction of the brand, the following are very importantin order to make the brand a successful one, if the following is notright then the brand cannot have a long term success.

Target customers: Though there is a good response for the storebrands introduced by the retailers, it should be directed towardstarget customers i.e. to whom the products must reach. More over fora retail store, the target customers would be the people abovemiddle income group and people above high income group (very rich).Because they are people with more income and as a result of it theyare often making vis· vis to the retail store".

Price water House Coopers (PwC) report claims that the number ofhouseholds earning more than Rs.45000 will go up from 30 million in1999-2000 to 81 million by 2005-06. It also further claims that thenumber of 'very rich' households will increase six fold from Imillion to 6 million during the same period. The PwC report furtheradds that the 'consuming class' and 'climbing class' - the twosegments that offer tremendous opportunities to retailers areexpected to grow by 38.8% from 124 million households in 1994-95 to

159 million households by 2005-06. This increase in the consumingclass will lead to greatly increased purchasing power, signaling abright future for the organized retailing. So with the above factsif target customers are targeted correctly then it do wonders forthe store. The income of the people is on a rise, so if the productis liked by them then it would be a successful one for the outlet".

Identify the needs of target customers: Having the target customers,the store has to find the needs of the people which remainunsatisfied. The needs of the customers have to be given dueimportance because the consumers buying behaviour starts with it. Ifthe needs are found, a product can made in such a way that itsatisfies their need. If the consumer finds that the product issatisfying him then the retail store brand can be successful one. Inorder to identify the needs of the people, survey can be made on thetarget customers. If this is costly, then information is got fromthe key customers. Feedback is got from the customers regardingtheir brands performance and if any need is found not satisfied, thestore would be designing a product based on that. The store is alsogetting information voluntarily from their customers i.e. they wouldbe giving the information to their salesmen voluntarily and they areusing this in order to design or develop a product.

Quality of the products: First and foremost thing which makes theconsumer to buy the product is the QUALITY of the brand. The storeattaches more importance to the quality of their brands and onanything else. Similarly UK based supermarket Sinsbury launched astore brand 'taste the difference' (food product). It showed itsquality through using of quality ingredients and it promoted wellknown chef Jamie Oliver to improve the brands quality. So if a storewants to sell its store brand it should attach more importance toquality than any other thing. In order to have a long term success,the quality of a brand should be consistent over a period of time'".

Price of the brand: Price plays an important role in the creation ofstore brand. Most of the store brands are purchased because they arepriced 10% to 40% below the national brand. Because of this most of

the consumers are attracted towards the brand and this also used todifferentiate the store brand and the national brand.

In some it can also be premium store brands. There are twostrategies for this. The first strategy is to identify the gap inthe market in accordance launch a premium store brand. SupermarketSainsbury did this while launching its brand Taste the difference'.The second strategy is to exploit the gap in such a way that theprices become secondary. Target has launched a range of privatelabels as apart of its store brand collection. The store has aseries of designers like Sonia Kashuk, Michael Graves, StevenGraves, Steven Sprouse, Philippe Starck, Todd Oldham and IssacMizrahi. The strategy has been to launch the coveted products and indoing so, it circumvents the 'Low price issue'''.

Positioning: Positioning attracts the customers a lot easilytowards the brand. When positioning of the store brand is perfect,then pricing the brand above premium is possible. Moreover, whenintroducing store brands, retailers may use either a differentiationstrategy or an imitation strategy in positioning the store brands.

Examples of a high quality differentiation strategy where retailersintroduce high quality differentiated brands that differentiate themfrom the national brands include "Sam's Choice" from Wal-Mart.Alternatively, the retailer may differentiate by offering a white-label generic or a low quality store brand targeted to low qualityoriented customers. The more common strategy however is an imitationstrategy, where a retailer introduces a store brand as a me-tooproduct relative to a popular national brand. This strategy accountsfor more than 50% of the store brand introductions in the groceryindustry. "Food Bazaar" positioned its private salt brand as premiumhealth salt which is available in the price of the ordinary salt. Itenjoys 40 - 45% market share in its category among all the "FoodBazaar" outlets. Thus it has used the differentiation strategy andgot success. The long-term losses that can happen due to retaliation(imitation strategy) from national brand manufacturers who maywithdraw promotional and advertising support, which are essential tothe development of the category itself. Such support helps the whole

category because it builds awareness and drives traffic to thestore.

Packaging: Packaging plays a very important role because even if thecustomers are not aware about the store brand, the packaging willmake the consumer to see the product and it make the customer toinquire about the product. The store have a special unit for packingtheir store brands and the design, look etc.,

Training to the employees: Training is said to be important becausethe customers of the store will not be aware about the store brands,its uses, its merits, etc. In order to fill this gap the employeesof the store must be given adequate training regarding their brand.Every time when the store introduces its new store brand, they areproviding one month training to their employees. The main advantageof giving training to the employees is that, media advertising isnot given for the store brands, so the training can act as asubstitute for advertising.

Things to be considered during the introduction: Now the brand isavailable in the retail outlet. The following things are veryessential for the complete creation of the retail store brand.

Promotion of the store brand: Promotion is that aspect of marketingcommunications that keeps the product in the minds of customers andhelps stimulate trial and repeat purchase. Most retail owners andmarketing managers are familiar with promotional strategies such as:Advertising, Personal selling, Sales promotions (buy one get one,coupons, introductory offers, etc.), Public relations & publicity.For a retail store, media advertising is not needed, because it isalready provided by the national brand. In this particular store,they are providing hand bills and hoardings type of advertisements’.

Feedback from the customers: Feedback can be got from the customersregarding the store brand's performance and its improvement.Feedback gives the satisfaction level of the customers. The storereceives feedback from the customers regarding their brand'sperformance. Feedback can also be used for improving the qualities

of the brand. These are the things which should be considered duringthe introduction of the retail store brand.

In the 2005 India Economic Summit, delegate’s conveyed mixed messageabout FDI but one final message was loud and clear that India'sretail development is inevitable. Most of the organized retailers inIndia are harping on quality, service, convenience, satisfaction andassured benefits to lure shoppers into the store. Retailers shouldcreate value for the consumer and must decide suitable vehicle todeliver desired consumer value. No doubt that retail branding is oneof the vehic1es to deliver value proposition and also it helps toposition the store in the mind of target shoppers. Probably in agrowing market no one finds difficulty in pulling customer intostore but that may not be sufficient to operate profitably.Retailers need to find out what matches consumer requirement andoffer better than competition.

Retailers certainly need to be innovative in branding the valueproposition and deciding what services need to deliver that to theconsumer for successful retail branding. It is not all aboutdeciding the name or logos for outlets but all about serving theconsumer seller, faster and at less cost. Retailers can use theirbrand as an indicator of what they stand for and what value the)'offer. Retailers have to out think consumer in providing service andvalue. At this juncture, most of the retailers are concerned aboutgrowth in number of stores rather than creating value for the brandname. Some companies like Pantaloon Retail has gone one step aheadto start e-tailing format along with brick and mortar formats.

The most important issue in retailing is credibility andtrustworthiness of the supplier. If Pantaloon Retail India gets thesame credibility and trust it is able to find from current customerbase, it is highly probable label the new format is going to besuccessful. Again some of the product categories books are highlysuccessful on internet as those categories require Jess feel andtouch. My conclusion is that consumer is the focus of retailbusiness and the retailers should serve the consumer better, fasterand at less cost.

Reference:

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16. 'Piping hot business', Business Standard, 10 December, 2004