What is the power of retail especially in a country which has strong cultural tendencies which exist hand in hand with examination of the western influences?

Being in the marketing communications business one actually by default becomes an observer of what become brands and what they offer over a period of time… and more importantly of people and what they do with the brands. And I happen to be one of those who would look for perspectives behind business ideas.

Retail if you ask me is the biggest ever evolution in media. It delivers what no other media can deliver or even dream of coming close to. Experience.

While the world talks about the internet being the revolution that comes as close to delivering experience of concepts, and that being the “new media” one has actually forgotten the importance of the real world in which we live in and more in this country where we’ve grown up to the habit of physical examination before purchase.

It would be easy to ape the west and follow blind folded the conventions they’ve set-up in terms of their approach to retail. But is that what we should do? Follow? Or look at our own beliefs and conventions and approach it a little different?

Clearly, in the west, where at the time the baby boomer generation was born into, distances were a reality and they grew up to take as a part of their lives.

If we take that into account we also figure possible reasons for retail to manifest itself not just in the physical sense but also in the virtual sense, shopping through catalogues, shopping online, tele shopping grew along with the brick and mortar. Their way of life had an impact on behavior.

Not so in our case, where we’re caught at the confluence of just about experiencing a world where availability of money is not so much a question (especially in the middle class) coupled with tendencies of touch and feel which have formed certain habits in behavior.

Therefore, what this offers is actually a devastating mix for any marketer worth his salt to feed on. And, capitalize on both rather than singularly or in isolation.

The shop is actually the largest double spread ad, cum, TV commercial, cum outdoor campaign media along with the product and its explanation available on the spot. And with the modern retail format is equivalent to a simulating machine where the mind experiences both the brand and the product. And maybe a little more.

We’re talking not static impressions here. But overarching brand experience culminating into possible product experiences.

No wonder, as research points out that almost 70% of shopping decisions are weighted into that phase where the consumer actually experiences the brand cues which are emotional as well as product cues which are rational.

How we make that experience most memorable becomes one of the most important areas for any marketer to evaluate and that too consistently. This can’t be an ad-hoc method, it has to be strategic and it has to be consistent over time.

In a nutshell, all your advertising and marketing services spends could be nullified in a single stroke if competition has decided to focus the marketing investment at retail.

The beauty of this is that all of it can be tested, measured and optimized as well.

It spells out a tectonic shift in outlook in marketing where the marketer needs to focus and examine the point of experience more than the point of fleeting impressions.

The winner obviously will be the one which sustains and thereby makes it by default a habit to the mass.

Here is a link to a rather exhaustive Q&A session on the business logic of the tools and the way they would / could effect the market or last mile activation and events effectiveness measurement.

http://www.eventfaqs.com/index.php?rlink=interview/interview_inner.php&csrid=61

Vijay Singh
Managing Director
141Sercon 

An exercise, over a yearlong of R&D across the emerging marketing services landscape of Asia, with a singular focus of wanting to bring to the market a series of tools which positively impact business of the brands, has come to a head and ready to roll in form of PulseSuite.

PulseSuite a combination of tools, some of which are focussed on brand diagnostics in the last mile, while others are tools which will enhance the productivity of the dollar in the last mile.

“Last mile” is the key in any brands journey to its potential customer. This is the moment of truth; this is where the customer become a buyer. This is also where he switches his brand preference. All the brand recall comes to naught the moment a competing brand finds its way to the customers shopping trolley. Last mile is very complex – the customer uses his hands and eyes to shop, rather than only depending on the TV commercial which he saw the night before.

This complexity is bound to grow. As more and more discerning marketers are pumping in larger portions of their budgets into this last mile.

Our objective is to simplify the otherwise complex last mile. Report live, with insights and analysis, how the brand is performing in the last mile on its own and vs its competitors.

Added to this is the fact that we are enabling all this at a price point which is a fraction of the cost which other retail analytical tools costs (and none seem to available in the geography). And further backing it up with a unique and blanket “Satisfaction Guarantee” – we are doing this because we are very sure that we have developed a series of awesome tools which address the gap which has existed in the market and are going to be a boon for any brand owner.

We are launching MarketPulse, ShopperPulse and EventPulse today, please review the tools and talk to us on how we can help make your last mile your winning mile.