Bharati in “swayamvar” mode? October 11, 2006
Posted by kk in Retail Research, Retailing Companies.add a comment
Bharati Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal told Reuters he was in talks with the U.S.’s Wal-Mart, Britain’s Tesco and France’s Carrefour and the final decision would come down to “chemistry”. “We are in the final stages of choosing a partner,” Mittal said in an interview with Reuters Television on the margins of an Indo-British trade summit. “I would expect there would be a decision by the end of the month.”
“India is a continent of customers. It is entirely in the unorganised sector and it needs to be organised. So, the opportunity for organised retail is very large,” added Mittal.
Mittal said Bharti Enterprises, a diversified telecoms conglomerate, was considering launching stores from the small-sized convenience level to giant hypermarkets. Its partner would provide backoffice and logistical investment.
Cracking the Indian market, with its 1.1 billion population, remains the holy grail for the world’s biggest supermarket chains as they suffer saturation and slowing growth at home.
While U.S. and European consumers pinch their pennies, India’s retail industry is estimated to be worth $300 billion with forecasters seeing it growing to $427 billion by 2010 and $637 billion by 2015, says report.
The Indian government has thus far barred companies such as Wal-Mart and Tesco at the retail level in an attempt to prevent them from swamping local “Mom and Pop” stores, making a joint venture vital for foreigners seeking entry.
Bharti Enterprises and its foreign partner will be pitted against Reliance Industries Ltd, an Indian conglomerate in the midst of a rapid retail rollout and is investing $5.6 billion in outlets ranging from convenience stores to hypermarkets hawking everything from clothing to airplane tickets. It aims to turn revenues of $20 billion by 2010.
Why Coke? Brain provides answers October 9, 2006
Posted by kk in Retail Consumer/ Behavior, Retail Research.add a comment
Marketers have always espoused power of the brand. They have known for years that Coke and Pepsi, both of which although nearly identical in color and chemical composition; evoke strong subjective preferences for one or the other, mostly though in favor of Coke.
This is not new; what is new, however, is that progress made in brain imaging techniques (such as, functional brain
scanning- fMRI), have begun to offer insights into functioning of human brain in relation to brand preference behavior of consumers as they find two different systems of brain being involved in generating such brand preferences. Based on such studies, neuro-scientists are able to offer explanations for success or otherwise of a brand or a campaign. This has led to increase in clamor of marketers for the new field of Neuromarketing (a field of study created from combining the knowledge of marketing with that of neuroscience). The new field is of particular significance to understand consumer perceptions on store A vs. store B even though both of which may be offering same products at comparable prices.
In a path breaking study, comprising 67 subjects, conducted at Baylor College of Medicine, scientists attempted to put to rest that age-old question: Which one you prefer, Coke or Pepsi? The experiment tried to seek behavior patterns of consumers when only sensory information (color, taste, etc) was provided to them vis a vis when cultural information (brand cues) were provided to them. Results and methodology of this study can be viewed in Neuron- a prestigeous science journal.
The verdict of the study: Brand knowledge biases consumers’ preference decisions and two separate systems in the brain are involved in generating these preferences. In the case of Coke and Pepsi, sensory information plays only a part in determining consumers’ behavior. Indeed, brand knowledge (at least in the case of Coke in the study) biased preference decisions (more…)
Tweens and Teens: Do You Know the Difference? October 4, 2006
Posted by kk in Retail Consumer/ Behavior, Retail Research, Retail Trends.add a comment
Children between the ages of 8 and 14 – tweens and young teens – are a powerful demographic group. They control billions in purchasing power and make up 60% of Internet users under age 18, and as tweens become teens, their online activities change dramatically.
They may be small in stature, but they have a huge influence.”Teens ages 12 to 14 go online more frequently than children who are 8 to 11, spend more time online and engage in a variety of online social and communication activities, such as instant messaging and social networking, that kids slightly younger have yet to grasp.”
No marketer should make the mistake of thinking that there is no difference between tweens and teens. The transition from childhood to adolescence is a big turning point — socially, mentally, physically and emotionally. Just ask any parent with children between the ages of 8 and 14.
“It also marks a turning point in online behavior,” says Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and the author of the new report, Tweens and Teens Online: From Mario to MySpace.
