Contemporary marketing in most organized retail establishments in India are generally thematic or tactical. For consumers, the buying process has two stages: choosing a store, followed by a brand. Thematic initiatives communicate what the retail store stands for, trying to put forth the positioning idea/platform on which it is built - say, on the platform of sheer experience or on multi-brand convenience - in order to entice customers in to stepping in to the store (to generate the required footfalls). Tactical efforts aim to convert browsers in to buyers.
Shoppers’ Stop, for instance, has positioned its store on the ‘experience’ platform. Subhiksha in the south relies on the ‘less than MRP’ platform. Pantaloons on ‘family culture and value’ while Bata has chosen ‘quality footwear at affordable prices’. The tactical promotions of these retail outlets have always consisted of value additions to select merchandise applicable for a short span of time, discounts during sales, or a sweepstakes temptation during festivals.
MASS APPROACH: When a larger target audience is addressed with a wide assortment of merchandise, retail stores take the mass approach. In both these thematic and tactical efforts, customer segmentation is generally according to socio-economic, geographic, demographic and psychographics categories and reached through common media vehicles.
These vehicles reach much more than the targeted customers, and this may result in a lot of spill. For example, in geographic segmentation, there can be a local market focus if the catchments of the store are to b addressed. In psychographics segmentation there may be an appeal to the lifestyle of the consumer to promote the store’s offerings. All these segments are generally addressed en masse.