Hypothesis Testing Brand Management
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Transcript of Hypothesis Testing Brand Management
Brand Management
Assignment on
Brand Management
Submitted By:
Anish Bhat Lidhoo
System & Finance
09020541014
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Hypotheses:
H0: Brand first; retail outlet next
H1: Retail outlet first; brand next
Introduction:
Decision-making with regard to retail outlet selection is very similar to
consumer decision-making on brands where the consumer goes through a
process starting from identifying needs to post-purchase issues. There are a
few interesting and important dimensions associated with consumer behaviour
and retail outlet selection.
Does the retail outlet have psychological implications on the target
segment?
Does selection of outlets vary in accordance with types of product
categories?
What is the sequence in which consumers are likely to go about their
decisions? Will they select the brand or the category first before
choosing the outlet?
What is the impact of the image developed by a retail outlet?
Would consumers be interested in store or retail brands?
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Retail outlets be it exclusive showrooms, malls or conventional stores having
multi-brands in the offering have special implications on the consumer mind.
Many companies branded themselves as elite brand by focusing on exclusive
showrooms like Titan when they collaborated with Timex. Many customers
wanting lower end watches felt the showrooms to be too elitist and to an
extent had a negative impact in the marketing sense, but Titan easily was
perceived to be a better brand than HMT, which was the market leader at that
time. On the same lines, ITC introduced their apparel brand, Wills Lifestyle,
targeted for the upper market segment. ITC had a chain of exclusive Wills
Lifestyle showrooms which helped it to be looked as a premium brand.
With the continual increase in the product range offering by the companies,
customers usually get caught in buying dilemma about which brand and which
product to choose. In buying a car or a two wheeler a customer may not find
this difficulty but when it comes to FMCG goods or consumer electronics,
customers may not be updated about the new offerings by a company, so they
would want to go through the offerings first and choose an outlet which would
offer them maximum brands and maximum products. While buying a TV or a
washing machine, would consumers visit an exclusive showroom of LG,
Samsung or Sony, or would they visit a multi-brand outlet like an e-zone or a
croma?
Customers are getting brand conscious day by day and the product
differentiation is getting narrower day by day. Customers don’t want to feel
cheated by choosing a wrong product of a preferable brand or a preferable
product of a wrong brand. Moreover, with hyper competition, prices are falling
and offerings are becoming even from the customer’s point of view. To buy a
car, the customer will choose the brand first and then go for an outlet while to
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buy a soap, the customer may visit the nearest store and choose the brand
according to the offer favourable to him/her. Thus wherever the capital at
stake is higher, the brand will be chosen first.
Buying a product is getting simpler in terms of paying and complex in terms of
deciding. To overcome this difficulty, customers want to be informed about
various offerings. This is the only difference between organised and un-
organised retail, where the customer gets to choose from a large variety of
products (in case of organised retail). Be it Reliance fresh or Croma, customers
spend a lot of time before choosing a product living upto their expectations.
This improves customer satisfaction and the perseverance in choosing the right
retail outlet. So the image developed by the retail outlet matters a lot to the
present customers.
Traditionally, retailers have been carrying manufacturer’s brands. But now-a-
days, supermarkets like More, Reliance fresh etc have started carrying retail or
store brands. This strategy is also carried out by Big Bazaar, Central, and
Shopper’s Stop etc, wherein store brands are also sold alongside the
manufacturer’s brands. Some examples can be summarised like Feaster’s by
More, DJ&C by Big Bazaar, Bare Denim by Central and many more. It is seen
that the retailers push their own brands as they find a higher margin in selling
these products. Customers are attracted by offering discounts, special offers
and increasing the brand image by strategic location of the store brands. This
increases the attractiveness of the store brands and thus resulting in finding
new customers. It has been seen, in the recent times that store brands are
selling at par with other brands available in the retail outlet.
Marketers need in-depth knowledge about the various dimensions which link
retailing and consumer behaviour. There is research required to handle retail
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decisions in a competitive context. McDonald's found that a major chunk of its
consumers decide to eat a few minutes before they make the purchase
decisions and hence it is building small outlets in large supermarkets. It is
providing play areas to ensure a number of families visit its outlets with
children. A few companies also operate through kiosks in airports, malls and
high-traffic areas. Sunglass Hut is a brand which operates kiosks at various
places which displays about 1,000 different models along with their prices.
Consumers could place an order through these kiosks and the product is home-
delivered.
Retail outlet selection and brand selection
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There are three fundamental patterns which a consumer can follow and they
could be:
(i) Brand first, retail outlet second
(ii) Retail outlet first, brand second
(iii) Brand and retail outlet simultaneously.
A consumer wanting to buy a car may collect information on brands and
purchase it from a retail outlet based on his perception of price offered or
after-sales service provided by the outlet (typically, search for information on
brands is followed by retail outlet selection in durables). In certain product
categories, especially where `category killers' exist, consumers may think of the
retail outlet initially and then the brands (television, refrigerator and audio
products retailed through outlets like Croma or Dass in pune, could be an
example).
One more dimension may be to compare brands in the evoked set at retail
outlets which also exist in an evoked set of their own. This is highly possible,
especially in the Indian context where dealers develop a social relationship
with consumers, especially in semi-urban and rural areas. Primary research
could be used to discover the specific sequence involved in a situation of this
kind. A `brand first' dimension may need feature-based advertising and a `retail
outlet first' dimension may require a set of point-of-purchase (POP) materials
and special training to sales personnel to recognise the needs of consumers.
Further, if it is known that a number of consumers may be oriented to visit
their favourite retailer (before obtaining information on brands) in a
geographical area, there would have to be more emphasis on regional/local
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advertising which highlights the retail shop rather than regular brand-based
national advertising.
Strategies and sequences
Retail outlet first and brand second:
When a number of consumers follow this sequence of decision-making,
display of point-of-purchase material and building the image of the outlet
becomes important. The manufacturer of the brand may have to ensure that
the brand (and the variants demanded) will be available at the key outlets in a
locality. Point-of-purchase materials which are to be used at the retail outlet
may require primary research - should visuals be used, should product features
be used, should the POP material be in the regional language. There may also
be a need to monitor competition from other retail outlets to ensure that
consumers are kept satisfied in terms of service, price, promotional deals and
ambience. This is especially applicable to durables retailing in India (in cities).
Retailers attempt to increase consumer traffic by providing a number of `add-
ons'.
Brand first and outlet second:
The brand was probably thought of by the consumers because (i) the
consumers may not have developed a relationship with any retailer which is
strong enough to get into the `evoked retail set' or (ii) the brand has got into
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the evoked set because of advertising or positive word of mouth. Local
advertising with the mention of brand names which have already got into the
evoked set would enable consumers to be `pulled' to the outlet.
Primary research may be required to identify the brands in the evoked set. This
feedback may have to be provided by the manufacturers of a brand to retailers
in various regions (especially if it is a brand with a major chunk of the market
and one which is nationally advertised). Even multinational outlets could make
use of this approach and mention the brands in the evoked set (in a given
geographical area). This is likely to improve traffic to the outlet. Besides, the
evoked set could also change from time to time depending on the strategies of
brands.
About two decades ago, brands like Weston, National and Crown may have
been top-of-the-mind (in a specific geographical area) but slowly gave way to
other brands. The local advertising could be different from the national
advertising for the brand. A brand may be advertised on features nationally but
the retail outlet in may prefer to highlight the effective after-sales service
associated with the brand as this may be a priority of consumers. The
combination of `push-pull' strategy is shown in the table.
The interest generated in the brand would have to be backed by good pre-sale
services at the outlet.
Brand and retail outlet simultaneously:
When consumers think of the brand and retail outlet together, it means that
they have a certain preference for the outlet and would like to check the
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evoked set of brands there. The marketer would have to carry out primary
research to find out specific markets where consumers have a very positive
relationship with retailers. This is important because of the influence of
retailers over the purchase behaviour of consumers in the Indian context.
It may also be worthwhile to check if the evoked brands are carried by the
retailers who have a positive relationship with the target segments. This is to
ensure that the retailers who have a favourable perception among the target
segment carry the desired brands. Failing this, consumers may turn to a
different retailer, which would be to the disadvantage of a retailer who has
already won the confidence of consumers. Retail sales personnel also become
important in this situation. The prospective consumers are "carried over" to
the purchase stage by the store personnel and hence there should be incentive
programmes for the store personnel.
If a company such as LG or Videocon is dealing with a number of brands/sub-
brands, it has to ensure the availability of specific brands which may interest
the consumers. If the retail outlet is a large one dealing with a number of
brands (like Croma), a shop-in-shop arrangement may be preferable. This
model puts the brand in focus and reinforces the positive association a
consumer may have about it. A considerable amount of pre-sale service would
have to back up the shop-in-shop concept.
The shop-in-shop concept creates an aura of exclusivity. Consumers tend to
have higher expectations about the pre-sale service and the attention given to
them. A large store also is likely to stock several brands and hence all brands in
the evoked set would have to compete with each other to progress from the
evoked set to choice set. Large outlets may also have a built-in provision for a
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lower price (because of volumes) and hence may be in a better position to
clinch the deal with consumers who may simultaneously consider both the
brand and the retail outlet.
Examples:
Uninor opens retail outlet in Madurai:
Uninor opened an exclusive Company Owned Customer Outlet (COCO) in
Madurai on 3 February 2010. The outlet located at No – 20,North Veli Street,
Madurai – 1, has a floor space of about 696 Sq Ft. This is one of the experience
stores that Uninor provides its customers – a one-touch interface for Uninor
customers in Madurai. This exclusive store will provide a whole gamut of
services such as new connections, product plans, recharge, providing unique
numbers, address grievances, etc.
Uninor plans to establish exclusive retail outlets in the top 10 districts in Tamil
Nadu and expand further progressively. Madurai is a significant retail point for
Uninor’s growth plans. At present Uninor operates one COCO in Chennai, one
in Puducherry and one in Cochin. By December 2010, the company plans to
have in place another 15 COCOs in the Tamil Nadu and Kerala Hub. Uninor is
also planning on 150 FOFOs (Franchisee owned Franchisee outlets) for the
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Tamil Nadu -Kerala Hub by the end of this year. Each COCO employs 8
Customer Relationship Executives (CRE) and a FOFO (Franchisee owned outlet)
employs two CREs. Overall, Uninor COCOs and FOFOs will provide employment
to about 500 CREs by December 2010.
Wills Lifestyle plans 100 new stores, expansion of e-commerce:
It has completed a decade of operation and, with the market looking up; Wills
Lifestyle plans to expand in a big way by opening 100 new stores in the next
three years and concentrating on online buyers. Wills has 50 stores in 30 cities,
and in the next phase the company would focus on tier-two cities and open
two stores every month for the next six months in cities such as Nashik,
Nagpur and Jaipur.
Central Malls:
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Launched in May'04 at Bangalore, Central is a showcase, seamless mall and the
first of its kind in India. The thought behind this pioneering concept was to give
customers an unobstructed and a pure shopping experience and to ensure the
best brands in the Indian market are made available to the discerning Indian
customer.
Central offers everything for the urban aspirational shopper to shop, eat and
celebrate. Located in the heart of the city, Central believes its customers
should not have to travel long distances to reach us; instead we must be
present where customers frequently visit.
Central houses over 300 brands across categories, such as apparels, footwear
and accessories for women, men, children and infants, apart from a whole
range of Music, Books, Coffee Shops, Food Courts, Super Markets (Food
Bazaar), Fine Dining Restaurants, Pubs and Discotheques. The mall also has a
separate section for services such as Travel, Finance, Investment, Insurance,
Concert/Cinema Ticket Booking, Bill Payments and other miscellaneous
services. In addition, Central houses Central Square, a dedicated space for
product launches, impromptu events, daring displays, exciting shows, and art
exhibitions. Central is an integral part of the city and in the long run a City
should become part of CENTRAL!
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In a short span of its existence Central has revolutionized and redefined the
shopping experience in India. At Central, customers no longer only shop, they
get SHOP-ATAINED!
Shoppers’ Stop:
Shoppers Stop is one of the leading retail stores in India. Shoppers Stop began
by operating a chain of department stores under the name “Shoppers’ Stop” in
India. Currently Shoppers Stop has twenty seven (27) stores across the country
and three stores under the name HomeStop. Shoppers Stop has also begun
operating a number of speciality stores, namely Crossword Bookstores, Mother
care, Brio, Desi Café, Arcelia.
Shoppers Stop retails a range of branded apparel and private label under the
following categories of apparel, footwear, fashion jewellery, leather products,
accessories and home products. These are complemented by cafe, food,
entertainment, personal care and various beauty related services.
Shoppers Stop launched its e-store with delivery across major cities in India in
2008. The website retails all the products available at Shoppers Stop stores,
including apparel, cosmetics and accessories.
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Croma:
Buyers of consumer electronics products face a problem of plenty: hundreds of
brands, thousands of products, a mind-boggling range of features, which one
to choose?
You can shop for 6000 products across eight categories in a world-class
ambience.
Croma is promoted by Infiniti Retail Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of Tata Sons.
Woolworths, one of the world’s leading retailers, provides technical and
strategic sourcing support, ensuring that you buy nothing but the best.
Croma's first store opened on October 9, 2006 at Juhu in Mumbai, and it's
rolling out many more stores across India.
Bharti Airtel launches India’s first Mobile App Store – Airtel App Central:
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Bharti Airtel, Asia’s leading integrated telecom service provider, today
announced the launch of India’s first mobile applications store - Airtel App
Central. Now, Airtel mobile customers can transform their basic phone into a
Smart Phone by accessing over 1250 Apps across 25 categories for their
business, games, books, social networking and other needs. Offering an easy
single click purchase – with no credit card required – the cost is automatically
added to the customer’s mobile bill or deducted from the available talk-time.
Starting as low as Rs. 5, Airtel App Central will offer local and regional Apps for
customers across the length and breadth of the country.
Reliance:
Post launch, in a dramatic shift in its positioning and mainly due to the
circumstances prevailing in UP, West Bengal and Orissa, it was mentioned
recently in news dailies that, Reliance Retail is moving out of stocking fruits
and vegetables. Reliance Retail has decided to minimise its exposure in the
fruit and vegetable business and position Reliance Fresh as a pure play super
market focusing on categories like food, FMCG, home, consumer durables, IT
and wellness, with food accounting for the bulk of the business.
The company may not stock fruit and vegetables in some states. Though
Reliance Fresh is not exiting the fruit and vegetable business altogether, it has
decided not to compete with local vendors partly due to political reasons, and
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partly due to its inability to create a robust supply chain. This is quite different
from what the firm had originally planned.
When the first Reliance Fresh store opened in Hyderabad last October, not
only did the company said the store’s main focus would be fresh produce like
fruits and vegetables at a much lower price, but also spoke at length about its
“farm-to-fork’’ theory. The idea the company spoke about was to source from
farmers and sell directly to the consumer removing middlemen out of the way.
Reliance Fresh, Reliance Mart, Reliance Digital, Reliance Trendz, Reliance
Footprint, Reliance Wellness, Reliance Jewels, Reliance Timeout and Reliance
Super are various formats that Reliance has rolled out.
In addition, Reliance Retail has entered into an alliance with Apple for setting
up a chain of Apple Specialty Stores branded as iStore, starting with Bangalore.
Apple Store:
The Apple Store is a chain of retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc.,
dealing in computers and consumer electronics. As of December 2009 Apple
has opened 294 stores; 231 in 41 US states, 25 in the United Kingdom (21
in England, 2 in Scotland, 1 in Northern Ireland and 1 in Wales), 14 in Canada, 7
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in Japan, 6 in Australia, 3 in Switzerland, 3 in Germany, 2 in Italy, 2 in France,
and 1 in the People's Republic of China.
Bajaj Probiking:
Bajaj introduced a series of showrooms across the country called the Bajaj
Probiking. These showrooms, targeted for the youth, provided access to the
newest models from the Bajaj, Pulsar and the Avenger. Customers could have a
test ride of these performance bikes before making up their mind to buy one.
Koutons Retail:
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Koutons Retail India Ltd. is the leading retailer of readymade and fashion wear
brand in the country today. With more than 1400 outlets across India, it has a
wide range of apparel designs suited for all segments including corporate,
formal and casual dressings. Koutons aptly creates the conducive environment
for a family outing, making family shopping the best experience at an
affordable price - all at one place.
Koutons was born in 1991 as Charlie Creations and are now Koutons Retail
India Ltd. Koutons started primarily as a denim brand but are today
manufacturing and selling complete men, women and kids wardrobe under the
brand name Koutons, Les Femme and Koutons Junior respectively. Another
brand from the stable of Koutons is Charlie Outlaw, which caters to the teens
of the country with apparels including jeans, T- shirts, jackets etc. Koutons
Brand is catering to the Upper & Upper Middle Class of Society with a vast
target age group between 18-60 years.
"Value for Money and High on Fashion" being their USP, Koutons has given the
brand an extension delving into specific consumer segments. The garments are
made keeping in view the overall need of the niche market and the
basic/fashion demand of the Indian masses. Our product range also caters to
the tastes of all segments. Our Brand is placed as the most dynamic brand of
India.
Cafe Coffee Day:
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Café Coffee Day is a division of India's largest coffee conglomerate,
Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company Ltd. (ABCTCL), popularly known
as Coffee Day, A Rs. 750 crore ISO 9002 certified company. Coffee Day sources
coffee from 5000 acres of coffee estates, the 2nd largest in Asia, that is owned
by a sister concern and from 11,000 small growers. It is one of India’s leading
coffee exporters with clients across USA, Europe & Japan. Its different divisions
include: Coffee Day Fresh n Ground (which owns 400 Coffee bean and powder
retail outlets), Coffee Day Xpress (which owns 895 Coffee Day Kiosk), Coffee
Day Take away (which owns 12000 Vending Machines), Coffee Day Exports and
Coffee Day Perfect (FMCG Packaged Coffee) division.
The Mobile Store:
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The MobileStore format is a one stop mobile solution shop that provides, multi
brand handsets, accessories, connections, repairs, VAS etc all under one roof.
The MobileStore currently has more than 1050 outlets and the vision is to have
a network of 2500 stores by 2010 across 650 cities, thus covering virtually
every major town in every state across India. The MobileStore outlets are in
three formats: Large - 1000-1500 square feet, Medium- 800-1000 square feet
and Corner-150-200 square feet, with smaller formats located primarily in
large malls. Key thrust areas for the retail format are: Comprehensive Product
Range, Knowledgeable Store Staff & Interactive Environment, Competitive
Prices and Handset Repairs.
The MobileStore caters to the Indian consumer's choice of the widest and most
comprehensive range of mobile phones with special offers from all the key
brands available across the globe. The MobileStore offers complete telecom
solutions right from handset purchase to the choice of service operator and
miscellaneous services like monthly bill collections etc., the stores also offer
connections (pre paid and post paid), accessories and VAS including the latest
ring tones, wallpapers and gaming and prompt after sales service, available not
only in the city of purchase but in all The MobileStore outlets across the
country.
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All the above examples are corresponding to the organised retail industry, but
in India, the unorganised retail accounts for close to 98% of the total retail
industry. These unorganized retailers generally consists of mom and pop
stores, kiranas, sabzi mandis, hole-in-the-wall shops, counter stores, street
markets, roadside peddlers etc. Most of these traditional retail outlets are
family run stores characterized by lack of quality in inventory and retail chain
management, low standards, and essentially operated by anyone who has
something to sell.
Textiles sector with companies like Bombay Dyeing, Raymond's, S Kumar's and
Grasim first saw the emergence of retail chains. Later Titan successfully
created an organized retailing concept and established a series of showrooms
for its premium watches. The latter half of the 1990s saw a fresh wave of
entrants with a shift from Manufactures to Pure Retailers, e.g., Food World,
Subhiksha and Nilgiris in food and FMCG; Planet M and Music World in music;
Crossword and Fountainhead in books. Post 1995 onwards saw an emergence
of shopping centres, mainly in urban areas, with facilities like car parking
targeted to provide a complete destination experience for all segments of
society. Emergence of hyper and super markets trying to provide customer
with 3 V’s - Value, Variety and Volume Expanding target consumer segment:
The Sachet revolution - example of reaching to the bottom of the pyramid.
Driven by the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and apparel segments, the
Indian retail market which is currently estimated to be around US$ 350 billion
is expected to witness growth by nine per cent annually touching US$ 521
billion by 2012.
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Retail companies in India are seeing their margins from FMCG companies go up
from 14-15 per cent to 17-19 per cent as they compete for shelf space with
retailer’s private labels. Some FMCG companies say that as retailers acquire
scale, they also deliver supply chain efficiency and organized scale. The Indian
food market, which at US$ 182 billion accounts for about two thirds of the
total Indian retail market, has seen the entry of Yum! Restaurants which
announced it will invest up to US$ 150 million (about Rs 700 crore) in India
where it will compete with companies in India such as Nirulas and Haldiram in
the country's organized food and beverage retail sector.
Shopping malls have mushroomed all over the major metros of India,
spreading its tentacles far and wide, like the proverbial hydra. Gurgaon, Noida,
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and a few other satellite townships in the NCR (national capital region) of
India’s capital city Delhi, have been standing witnesses and silent partners to
this mall mania. Called as the Shopping-mall capital of India, Gurgaon has been
a focal point of the this rising tide, with monolithic glass structures, colossal
trade towers and a lot of glitzy skyscrapers manning the entire length and
breadth of this erstwhile urban village. Many others have followed suit, as they
jump into this bandwagon of a modern India, cashing in on the rising spending
potential of the great Indian middle class.
Retail companies in India have missed the woods for the trees, as the trend in
the market shows that there has been a complete mismatch of consumers and
brands. It’s true that the foot-falls in most of the major malls have been great
and phenomenal, matching those in any developed retail markets; but, not all
footfalls generate business. Other than the few multiplexes and the fast food
chains, most of the retail endeavours have run into big troubles. Not everyone
who enters the mall is a prospective consumer, as majority of them come just
to hang out, and indulge in window shopping in an air-conditioned
environment for free. With high real estate cost, many of these retailers have
failed to break even, and business has been abysmally low, even non-existent
at times.
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Conclusion:
From the above study, we follow that consumer behaviour does depend upon
the selection of the brand and the retail outlet. A consumer may take any of
the three paths discussed earlier, but what mainly influences him/her in doing
so is the type of product he/she chooses.
In our study, we also discussed the Indian retail industry in very brief, which
mainly compromises of the unorganized sector. The Indian organized sector,
mostly in the urban areas is catching up with the unorganized sector at a fast
pace, although the gap to be bridged is too large. There has been an increasing
trend in the opening of new malls and exclusive retail outlets of various
brands. The consumers are getting more brand conscious and thus look
forward in choosing a right brand, suiting their personality. So, most of the
companies are focusing on opening their own exclusive retail outlets on
franchisee basis to increase brand loyalty and brand recall. Moreover, we see
almost all the brands having a shelf space in the malls and other retail outlets.
The only exception of brands having their own exclusive stores is the FMCG
companies which mainly depend on the unorganized retail outlets and the
supermarkets. So in their case, the consumer may not follow the path of
selecting a brand first but choose the product after selecting a retail outlet.
Thus our initial hypothesis: brand first; retail outlet second holds true in
sectors like the apparel stores, consumer durables like notebooks, automobile
showrooms etc. In case of these, the consumer does an extensive research
about the product to be bought and selects the brand. After the brand is
selected, the customer chooses any feasible location to get the product from.
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Our alternate hypothesis: retail outlet first; brand next holds true in FMCG,
consumer durables like the mobile phones etc, and shopping malls.
In support of the alternate hypothesis, we can also take the case of the
booming Indian economy, with which the per capita income has increased and
people have more of disposable income to spend. We see a typical urban
Indian spending his/her weekend at the nearest mall or a shopping arcade or a
place which he/she does not pre-plan. So, most of the people go for a
purchase at a retail outlet without planning about the brand to be bought. This
can be seen in case of the apparels, FMCG, consumer durables etc.
So from the study, it is clear that our initial hypothesis holds well in the
traditional markets where the consumer knows what he is buying. This can
mainly be because of the influential brand endorsement or brand loyalty. But
as we have also studied the recent advancements in the retailing
methodologies, like the coming up of the mall culture and the companies
focusing on exclusive showrooms, our alternate hypothesis easily gets more
weightage than the initial hypothesis. Although we can’t totally neglect our
initial hypothesis, but we conclude by saying that RETAIL OUTLETS FIRST;
BRANDS NEXT is the future.
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