Critical in this regard seems to be the focus on brand building. The retail sector is highly fragmented, with the organized segment being a very nascent minority. Sir Terry Leahy, CEO of Tesco, said in a recent interview, "In a world with infinite information and complex choices, consumers will increasingly navigate by trust."¹ This trust will largely be an offshoot of the confidence that shoppers tend to repose in individual as well as corporate brands. In a similar vein, albeit in a slightly different context, Kim Faulkner's in his essay "Branding in South East Asia" observes that "New Asian brands are emerging, which, while drawing inspiration from the largesse of international brands, are trying to carve their own niche. What their brands are trying to do is to capitalize on the indigenous Asian cultures. What characterizes these new brands is pride in their provenance. They have recognized that internationalism does not mean trying to be western in Asia."²

The idea of incorporating the local customs in the DNA of the brands is not confined to marketing gimmicks but has become an integral component of the operational structure and format of successful Indian retail brands. Subhiksha, a South India–based discount retail chain, has structured its brand around the concept of the Indian housewife's conviction of getting the best value for money for her household and bargaining with the local grocer and vendors has been a cornerstone of her strategy to achieve this. So Subhiksha has designed its promotional campaign with the slogan "Bachat mera adhikaar hai!" meaning "Saving is my right!"

The Indian socio-economic fabric is a collage of variegated customs, climates, languages, and economic makeup. Successful brands establishing a connect with the Indian consumers have more often than not shown a sensitivity towards these heterogeneous contexts. Enterprises like Big Bazaar, a low-cost hypermarket that is part of the Future Group that owns Pantaloon Retail, is one of the other retailers that has successfully adapted and designed its stores according to the Indian way of shopping while keeping in mind the geopolitical nuances. As Pantaloon's Kishore Biyani rightly says in one of his recent interviews after winning the award at the World Retail Congress, "The economic, social, and cultural diversity of Indian consumers forces marketers and retailers to view the mass of consumers not as one single market but as a 'mass of niches.' "³

The Indian retailer has to innovate in order to create new demand and capture the existing one. Retail brands in India have realized this and are gearing up to meet with this challenge. There has been an attempt to reflect the cultural consciousness and economic tendencies behind the shopping orientations of their customers. Big Bazaar has managed to do this quite successfully. In his autobiography It Happened in India, Biyani, who has been often called the king of modern retail in India, writes, "Our store in Sangli (a small township 400 Kms southeast of Mumbai) is a bit different from what you would see at say High Street Phoenix in Mumbai…. It isn't air-conditioned, instead there are air coolers installed inside the store. Also there are as many shoppers there on weekdays as on weekends. Unlike office going people in big cities, people in smaller towns do not restrict their shopping to weekends. The store factors in the local taste, preference and culture, and in that way not two Big Bazaar outlets look the same."⁴ For instance, in the Gujarat-based BB outlets, edible oils are sold loose instead of in packets because that is how the region has shopped for oils all along before the advent of modern retail. This is probably the reason why the store has become synonymous with the idea of utility shopping in India.

In the early 1990s, the positioning had to be determined according to convenience of accessing the store, shopping privacy, navigation ease, and return on exchanges. Retailers in India were the first to realize this and position their brands accordingly. Shopping in India had always been a frenzied activity, whether it was the high-street shops in central marketplaces or the small mom-and-pop stores in the busy streets. Moreover, due to the concept of individual selling—where the shopkeeper or the salesmen personally assisted the shoppers—the activity was devoid of any privacy. Added to it was the fact that as the cities got more and more crowded, parking became a nuisance. So when the Raheja Group started Shoppers' Stop in 1991 as the first operators in modern retail in the country, the brand was promoted with the central idea of private and convenient shopping and the slogan in the ad campaigns was "Shop at your own convenience."

As brand guru, David Ogilvy rightly said, "Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes genius, faith, and perseverance to create a brand." And it appears as if the Indian retailers have put their imagination to work and are gearing up to consolidate their mindshare before the Wal-Marts of the world make their presence felt.

Notes

1. Leahy, Terry. "Retail and the World Economy," from images Retail, April 2007, Vol. 6, No. 4, p. 44.
2. Faulkner, Kim. "Branding in South East Asia," from Brands and Branding, The Economist, London, 2006, pp 203–204.
3. Biyani, Kishore. "The Promised Land for Retailers," from images Retail, April 2007, Vol. 6, No. 4, p. 37.
4. Biyani, Kishore. It happened in India, Rupa & co, New Delhi, 2007, p. 110.