Retail branding

Retail BrandingLet me share with you all some of the conceptual insights of retail branding I learned in my post graduation.Branding is something which will make you switch from one brand to another. There always exists a reason for a customer for shifting from Subhiksha to Spencers. It is the intangible value that the brand has created in your mind. We can differentiate between a manufacturer’s brand and a retailer’s brand. A manufacturer brand is a subset of a retailer’s brand. A retailer’s brand on the other hand is a brand that is being sold by a retailer and can be a brand of anything. A retailer can have ‘n’ number of different brands and also, he can have ‘n’ number of products under a same brand.If we notice, then there may exist the same number of assortment labels which any of the 2 stores keep, for e.g. levi strauss and lee cooper might have same labels but then also, the customer might prefer to go to a levis store as compared to a lee cooper store.There exist certain parameters for distinction in retail branding:-1. Customer Service – it is the way and terms a store serves its customers regarding their demands, queries and complaints.2. Width & Depth of assortment – the variety a store keeps i.e. the various designs and patterns which forms the width and the sizes and colors which forms the depth of the merchandise assortment.3. Merchandising at store level – the merchandising decisions i.e. the decisions regarding the procurement and the number of merchandise to be kept in the store.4. Loyalty Programmes – the various schemes and offers the store provides to the customers who are regular and loyal to them.5. Promotional Offers – the other promotional offers that store comes up with for the general public and potential customers.6. Store Environment – the ambience of the retail store, which includes the color scheme, the background music, the fragrance etc. inside the store7. Visual Merchandising – the physical appearance of the store, the way the merchandise is displayed matters a lot in brand loyalty.8. Store Promotions – it means the responsibility and social initiatives the store takes to promote itself, adds on to the branding of the store.Retailer’s brand equity is the measurable value of the brand preference over others. It is because of the marketing effects or the outcome of the retailer’s efforts.For e.g. the Shoppers Stop’s exchange scheme for old Salwar Kameez with a new one will be considered a good as compared to the other stores which do not have such schemes and brand equity.

priyanka

some facts of our life

Soft skillsWe all have no clues that we use only 0.001% of our mind in our whole life. According to a research done in Moscow, our brains can remember 1.5 million books at a time. Imagine the capacity of our brains and the amount we utilised. This means that there exists a very large potential which can be utilised by us.There exists 3 major remedies that exists for stability of our minds are:1. Surya Namaskar2. Yoga3. MeditationGod has given us 4 major gifts for our lives :1. Mind – Intelligent quotient2. Body – Physical quotient3. Heart – Emotional Quotient4. Soul – Spiritual QuotientNow let me discuss them one by one:-1. Mind i.e. the intelligent quotientOur mind is divided into 3 major parts –a. conscious mind, which is of 10%b. sub conscious mind, which exists as 90%c. Unconscious mind, which has an infinite capacity.There exists a very good book which further details about this, “Beyond of our knowledge”.In 1949, Osho said “Happiness is nothing but a state of mind”. We develop our attitude from our perceptions. a human being has a mood swing in every 40 minutes. It happens because in every 40 minutes, our breathing state changes. Therefore, it is believed that we should focus on our believes which will itself help us to have a good attitude and behaviour.2. Body i.e. the physical quotientOur body is all about our habits and our way of living. We can have a control on our physical quotient by waking up early morning, exercising, doing yoga and surya namaskar. Sun is the only living god we have present from past hundreds of years.We should also know how to manage our diet and food habits which further helps us to manage our anger. We can do this by not eating much of chilli and adding more of green vegetables to our diet.Always remember, “Your mind is invisible body and your body id a visible mind”3. Heart i.e. the emotional quotientWe learn to respect and love others from our heart. Our way of communicating with others is all derived from our heart. It is all about our personality and our character. Emotional quotient displays a human being’s thinking and characteristics.It is being advised that we should try to grow our Intelligent quotient and Physical quotient based upon our Emotional quotient.Life is Learning Institue For Everyone.4. Soul i.e. the Spiritual quotientIt is about the combination of all the other 3 quotients of our lives. We need to have a good soul together with our mind, body and heart to have a enhanced lifestyle.

priyanka

hostel life

It’s been a few days that I have written any blog. Actually, life moves on so fast that its very difficult at times to take out some time for yourself in a day. Right now, I have a life full of ‘n’ number of thoughts which keep on floating in my mind day and night.
Today, I would like to share some of my thoughts, feelings and learnings that I got in my life till date. Mostly of which belongs to my 2 years spent in hostel doing my MBA and also the 3 yrs spent in my graduation.

I remember the day I entered the campus, 12th June 2007 with the dream of having individual hostel rooms. But the second I entered my allotted flat, I saw 2 of my batch mates already standing their and unpacking their stuff. The flat consisted of only 2 rooms, so I thought them to be sisters where one was helping the other to adjust the stuff and would definitely leave afterwards. Entering the flat and having a talk with them opened up my and my parents eyes’ that these two were room-mates and the other room of the flat was supposed to be shared by me and the fourth most awaited flatmate. I got terrified from the fact and straightaway went to the warden mam and deputy director of the institute, had an argument with them for the same but was finally convinced to share the room.
All 3 of us sharing the flat were waiting eagerly to know our 4th flat-mate, as it was a great deal for 2 years to share lives with each other. She, my room-mate didn’t come the same day and rather arrived the very next day. Till the time, the first night of hostel was spent by all 3 of us together by joining the two beds of a room, sitting, chit-chatting and finally adjusting on a double bed, 3 of us slept together as the 2 sweet flatmates of mine never wanted me to sleep alone on the very first day.
So on the very first day I learnt that this flat is going to be my home for the next two years with 3 new family members out of 2 I already knew and prayed the third one to be lovely as well.

Staying 3 hours away from home always lured me on holidays to get moving and reach home as soon as possible no matter of the fact that the off in institute was for only a single day. Travelling from my institution to my place was not an easy task and as directed by my parents I always required a company for the same. So we with the time made a group of few people residing in the near by areas, making it easier for each one of us to do back and forth on offs.
I still remember amongst the starting days we were back home and were supposed to leave for hostel next morning, we all were conferencing with each other, taking advises from our parents regarding the route of the cab, talking to cab booking numbers for around 2 to 3 hours in the evening. Our parents got annoyed badly as we were not able to fix up the programme amongst 6-7 of us even in more than 2 hours of continuous phone calls. We realised, it was because of lack of adjustments between us which got tuned later very nicely.


People do have different views about different people and things. It may occur that I might find a person to be very nice and helpful while a friend of mine may feel that that particular person is very rude by nature. What I particularly feel and learned about this is that, it all depends on my own behaviour towards that person. I mean to say, I myself is responsible for the way the other person behaves with me. A friend of mine one day told me one very sweet thought, “Nobody is bad, nothing is bad. It’s just your perception about d people & things. Everybody is striving to get d best for themselves or for their friends n relatives, n in case something wrong occurs during that course of action, then it is not intentional. So its d best to keep your perceptions clear and be happy always.” In case that friend of mine read this blog any day, then I would really like to thank him for sharing it with me, coz it helped me a lot to live my life in a best way possible and to have good relations with all living beings on this earth.

I would like to suggest all the parents reading this blog, that they should send their children once in hostels and should allow them to move out of their home at least once in their student life, because the facts, the practicality they will learn in this time period of their lives cannot be taught to them by having them at their safe homes.i am saying this from my own experience as well as experience of my batch mates. It really teaches us the ways we should live our lives, what should we do various situations and the most importantly it teaches us to adjust with others and work in teams.

Priyanka

what is distribution?

Now let me discuss about distribution.
As discussed earlier, distribution is about indirect selling as well as physical distribution.
Distribution is about making a product available to the customers. here the major job of the organization is to decide the path i.e. the channel and the various intermediaries for the distribution process.
The intermediaries for the same can be as the middlemen, the agent or brokers, the wholesalers, the retailers, distributors, dealers who are the specialists in any particular products or the value added resellers (VARs).

The types of channels can be one level channel, two level, three level or even four level channels.
The channel strategy decision for distribution is further divided into 3 parts:
1. Intensive distribution i.e. by making the product intensively available widely in the market, it is preferred for the convenience products. For e.g. Pepsi, being made available in each and every small shops. It leads into increased sales, wider customer recognition and in impulse buying by the customers. on the other hand it leads to characterically low prices and low margins in the product.
2. Selective distribution i.e. it limits the availability of the products to a few carefully selected outlets to gain adequate market. For e.g. outlets by fashion designers like satyapaul, whirlpool, Samsung products. It helps in adequate market coverage, more control and less cost and moreover it helps the firms which are capable enough of carrying full product line rather than having only 1 quality.
3. Exclusive distribution i.e. where the supplier agrees to sell his product only to a single middlemen. For e.g. l’oreal, kaya, major women apparel brands etc. It provides the organization with full control, enhances the product image, promotes the dealer loyalty and also restricts the resellers from carrying the competing brands. On the other hand, it becomes risky by betting on only one dealer in the market place. Therefore, this type of distribution is suitable only for the highly priced, high margin and low volume products.

priyanka

what exactly is sales??

Now let me discuss what exactly is sales & selling.
Sales is all about how an organization helps the public to fulfill their requirements with the help of the merchandise that the organization offers.

Also, Selling is not about pushing a product down the customer’s throat. It is also not about smart talking or outsmarting the customers. A customer feels deprived of his privacy in case he is been called frequently by any salesmen. To take an example of this, it happens with all of us daily. We are the major victims of the banks from where we get the calls regarding offering of credit cards, personal loans, home loans etc. moreover these days, even the mobile service agencies like, Vodafone, idea and Airtel call ‘n’ number of times in a day to their customers as well as to the prospective customers. And what actually happens when they call us is that, we get so much irritated at times that we disconnect the call even without listening to the person on the other side.
Something similar was the case few years back for the walk-in salesmen like from aqua-guard, who used to visit each home just to display their products. But they also faced the similar situation of being kicked off or not being entertained at all by the households. Which gave learning that, sales is also not about running on the field job to achieve targets blindly.
Also remember that it is only a Myth that “schemes help to sell the product”. Its is not at all like that.
Selling is about
knowing your product / service inside out
meeting the end objectives of your organization
knowing your customers/ prospective customers thoroughly
maintaining peer level relationships with your customers
listening and understanding well your customers
making the customers feel comfortable with your presence
helping and always telling the truth to the customers and never misguiding them.

Sales is very much different from marketing. In marketing we identify the markets and promote our product, while in sales, customers are identified and the best is done to fulfill their needs.

priyanka

hello everyone

hello everyone
thank you for visiting my blog.
i am priyanka, who is been born and brought up in India. i have completed my graduation as well as post graduation in India itself. i love to write and would love to share my thoughts, my learnings and my past experiences with everyone which could become helpful.
i would be glad if u comment after you go through my posts which will help me to do improve myself.
thanks
priyanka

introduction

lets start up with the introduction to the topic.
the topic can be divided into 2 major parts:
1. sales management
2. distribution management
Let me discuss sales management initially. This basically refers to the direct selling. The major functions it involves is of analysing,planning,organising, directing and controlling of the whole sales force for an organization.
On the other hand, distribution management is further divided into two parts:
indirect selling
physical distribution
Indirect selling means selling been done with the help of various channels such as dealers, distributors, agents etc while physical distribution refers to the process of movement of merchandise from one place to other like the movement that takes place from the factory i.e. the place of origin of the merchandise to the final end customer for that product.

Now let me explain the thin line of difference that exists between a customer, consumer and a buyer.
A buyer is a person who buys any brand of product just because he needs to buy it. For e.g. A person ‘A’ go to a shop and asks for a bathing soap. Here this person ‘A’, is not affected and is least interested to decide upon which brand will he be interested in using. On the other hand, a customer is brand centric. He will always take care of which brand he purchases. For e.g., Mr. B went to the shop & asked for a Cinthol bathing soap. In this case, he is very much conscious of the brand of merchandise he purchases.
A customer is a person who purchases the merchandise irrespective of the fact that he is the end user or not. While, a consumer is a person who actually consumes the merchandise.

priyanka