The future of Shopper Marketing in India - Part 2

In my previous post on the Future of Shopper Marketing in India, I started with asking some questions. Some are random questions which came to my mind, some were questions from the observations I had, few from all the time I spent visiting stores, some from all the travel I did in the recent months and more questions about how as marketers and communication strategist we're tackling the moment of truth - when a shopper is inside the store to buy you?

Shopper marketing is a huge mash-up of engagement, experience, convenience, intelligence, insights, design, architecture, aisle browsing, visualization, technology, mobile apps, QR codes, shopping coupons, vouchers, loyalty program, bargains, and plenty of other things in between. So it becomes difficult to describe in few words. But if I had to explain shopper marketing to my mom, I would say its "the energy spent in giving you an experience to engage with brands inside the store that makes you browse, choose or buy things that was not in your shopping list." Ha, am sure mom will give an unconvincing nod and get back doing her stuff. Anyways.

If it is all about the experience to attract, engage and make a shopper buy, then trust me, technology has to be your biggest ally. What I mean by that is, you need to understand, tinker, experiment and play with different kinds of technologies to achieve your objective. And here's what I mean by that:

"la bulle": bar éphémère Coca-Cola (/W&Cie) from W & CIE on Vimeo.

Hell, we're now talking about 3D holographic boxes to seriously tamper with your realities. Via (Bit Rebels)

Well, I'm not even half through my research and I kid you not, its a bloody huge subject. Your mind is completely fucked at the end of it but you do emerge enlightened. Watch out for more. Cheers.

Future of shopping in India

The whole concept of 'going shopping' has changed. 'Shopper Marketing' is fast changing too. Significant shifts has happens in shopping. Mall crawling with credit cards in wallet to home -delivery to e-commerce and internet shopping to m-commerce and mobile shopping. These days we're talking about Social Shopping which is a giant leap in itself. Google just released some interesting statistics. And here the Fast Company talks about the future of shopping. So what is the future of shopping?

In India, unfortunately we don't discuss or debate important issues like these anymore. We in India are still a developing nation and hanging around in malls is increasingly becoming a nation past-time. So obviously the question comes in my mind, how will shopping change in India? What consumer behaviors will drive shopper marketing and how will brands and retailers adapt technology? How will Indian consumers use technology for their benefits? How will shopping for daily usable items change compared to shopping for luxury items? Will smart apps replace the joys of leisurely mall crawling in the afternoon? Will we shop with our smart phones and get charged for the door delivery service? Will we see a Phoenix Mills Mall in Mumbai apps available on Smart Phones, where we pre-select and buy things and just visit the mall to pick-up those on the way back home? Or Big Bazaar Apps (They created FutureBazar, the online version of the store however, it ain't easy to navigate and the user experience is relatively poor) that still allows consumers get the cheapest deals without the crowd, chaos and long queues? Will we have to wait for international brands like Zara & Gap & Diesel to change things or can we write our own future? How will cashless shopping will become the accepted norm? When will we start flash our smart phones and walk out of the store?

SO THE QUESTION IS: HOW WILL TECHNOLOGY HELP EVOLVE SHOPPER MARKETING IN INDIA? HOW CAN WE REMAIN AHEAD OF THE CURVE?

No doubt the future of shopping and shopper marketing will be mobile apps trying to recreate the experience of shopping. Product catalogs for smart phones is already the new thing for big retailers and billions are being spent on providing a flawless user experience to shoppers. RFID technologies, Location based services, mobile payment gateways, social shopping will truly transform the way we look at shopping in India.

Now these are serious issues staring at the face of marketers and retailers in India. However, I do feel we lack the conviction and courage when it comes to experimenting or challenging the status quo of providing simplified solutions for the future where people are converging towards.

I'm doing some serious thinking and research in these subjects, so please feel free to share your views and comments and point to interesting articles, blogs, books that you might stumble upon. Cheers.

Social Shopping - Will it be big in India?

After having worked with one of India's largest retail chain clients are often techno-phobic. Especially when it comes to incorporating technology and social media within the marketing mix. Marketers in India always tread with caution when it comes to using social media, user generated content etc though there are exceptions. But that old mindset of open shop, advertise, announce sale and you'll be flooded with footfalls haven't changed at all. Neither have retailers haven't changed their marketing approach to attract the techno-savvy, more discerning, experience seeking, global Indian shoppers.

My counter argument to the client has often been - its New Media, unless you experiment with it, you'll never know what's working and what's not working. The debate continued with endless hours of meetings without any consensus. After much deliberation, finally they agreed to have their own Facebook fan page. I kid you not. After one year of debate, discussion, yay, we have a Facebook fan page with more than 170470 fans. The fastest growing Facebook fan page according to AllFacebook.

The client was so excited that we were invited to a champagne party. Lol. In the party I was blunt enough to ask the client, what about engagement and involvement with these fans. Are we generating enough Return of Involvement? Obviously it wasn't a pretty question to ask in between merry making. But hey, I'm what I am. (I just made this up, anyway. Parties have stopped long back.)

Anyways. The world has moved beyond. Social Shopping and Social Commerce is the next frontier of growth and driving business for all retailers across the world. Groupon is the new lover boy of Social Media. Thousands of other Social Shopping pages are cropping up every day all over the world. So how will Indian Retailers cope with this new phenomenon? And how can retailers like Shopper Stop provide unmatched Social Shopping experience to tech savvy consumers?

"Social shopping attempts use of technology to mimic the social interactions found in physical malls and stores." Well, I maybe way ahead of the curve given urban consumers in India have just started to experience shopping in malls and spending leisurely hours hanging around in malls. Social shopping/ online shopping/ m-commerce/ e-commerce is much ahead of its time for implementation at the moment by most marketers in India. It's true however that many marketing organizations have already started experimentation but the numbers are really small. Personally I think as a marketer, I should always remain knowledgeable and aware of the changing consumer environment and be in a position to anticipate those changes about to happen. I might sound very geeky when say things like this in meetings, getting reactions hard to describe in words. The responsibility lies on the planners to inform their clients about these change points. Implementation of Social Shopping in the marketing mix depends on several other factors beyond a marketers control. Advent of 3G, increasing usage of mobile internet, increasing numbers of smart phone users, VAS and Apps, security issues, banking policies and finally Govt. of India's policy towards m-commerce etc. will together help create a conducive platform that enables the usage of social technologies as an effective marketing tool . Young India jumped on the social media platform much much later compared to the rest of the world. Computer illiteracy and low penetration were two key factors. However, things have changed now. 3G will indeed make internet access more easy and addressable in India, a very good sign. Therefore, social shopping will take its own time, exactly how Orkut & Facebook started its journey in India - slow and steady in the beginning and sudden spike afterwards. So it's important to keep tab on things about to hit us soon. Especially true for retailers who can enable these technologies in their marketing mix. They will stay ahead, desirable, driving imagery while generating more footfalls and making healthy revenues.

Here's a great example from Levi's

This is a serious subject, needs a holistic understanding and a new approach to marketing. Watch out this space for more. I would love to hear your feedback and comments though. Especially given the whole shopping environment around us is changing. Kirana stores to hypermarkets to malls to online stores to discount coupons to online shopping to social shopping. Ha.

To be continued...

shopper's stop

Shopper Marketing is a new area of focus for agency head honchos these days. With organised retailing becoming big in the country and increasingly contributing more to the GDP, Shopper Marketing is seen as the potential growth area for agency business. Yes, after Digital, it's Shopper Marketing now. Agencies are gearing up to set up specialized units and teams to deliver more values for their clients. Paco Underhill's 'Why we buy' is nicely stacked in the bookshelves of most agency heads.

Even big retailers are trying to understand the science behind Shopper Marketing. So the top boss from a client's office calls up and asks if I could spend sometime with his young team and explain them in simple words what is the meaning of shopper marketing. Honestly, with my little knowledge on the subject I did manage to put a quick ppt and presented it to the team. In the process, we had a healthy discussion about the changing face of retailing in Indian metros, future shopping habits and trends to watch out for in the tier II/III cities, dabbled on the eternal debate of kirana store vs organised retailing, how Walmart will bring changes in the existing retail clutter, how futuristic is Future Group, new areas of retailing etc. etc. A long and a hectic day, but a fruitful one because in the process I got to learn lots.

So here are few slides from the presentation. Go ahead and feel free to use them in-case it helps you for similar exercises:

Please do share your thoughts and comments on the same. Let me know what is your take on Shopper Marketing? How will it bring a change in the way retailing is seen in India? What are the things we should look out for? Are there any hidden opportunities that can be explored? Or you can point me to some interesting articles and topics on the same subject. Basically, enlighten me.