Desicritics Author: Reshma Anand

Does a Supermarket Have to be Super Sized?

Reshma Anand — Fri, 25 May 2007 08:12:37 EDT

Does a supermarket have to be super sized?

In my last post on Retail in a transcultural environment I had talked about the ‘work arounds’ that consumers adopt to adapt to a foreign environment and I was to follow it up with a post that talked about these work arounds from the marketer’s / retailers perspective as retail grocery chains enter the Indian market.

It’s been a long wait though I am glad I did, since having moved to India I have been able to compare my notes about what I saw of supermarkets in the UK with those that I see in India.

The biggest difference I noticed between grocery retail formats in UK v/s India is that unlike in the UK – there isn’t much of a difference….between the traditional grocery stores (the mom and pop variety) and the modern grocery formats (supermarkets as we know them). Let me explain…

Size and SKUs – Super markets in the west are humongous (ten times or more) as compared to the tiny neighborhood grocery vendors. Naturally the number and variety of products stocked also increase proportionately. In India most supermarkets would be twice or at the most thrice as large as the mom-n-pop stores (leaving aside a few exceptions like Hypercity). I notice that the number of brands / product variants stocked does not differ significantly between stores of the two formats. This is partly related to the next point i.e. Location.

Location – In the UK the corner stores have a locational advantage. One can literally run across the street and pick up emergency supplies (though that’s all they have) rather than having to drive down a few miles to reach a super market. In India it would not be uncommon to see traditional stores and supermarkets cheek by jowl with each other since the culture of driving down a few miles just to buy grocery has still not set in. Indians are habituated to having grocery stores in close proximity to their place of residence and that places constraints on the size and scale of operation a supermarket can potentially have.

Prices – In the UK a trip to the corner store would require you to shell out more pounds for your can of milk, where as in India prices do not vary too much by store format.

Opening Hours – In the UK the corner stores (run mostly by Indians / Pakistanis / Sri-lankans) stay open till late evening where as the supermarkets shut relatively earlier depending on where those are located. Most shops including the supermarkets on the ‘high street’ (chief shopping area) would shut by 6 p.m. – a grim reality that I’d rather not remind myself about. In India most shops stay open till 10 p.m. and since traditional and modern grocery stores operate in the same commercial zone their closing hours do not differ.

Service – Here I cannot comment too much about how different the levels of service are between the corner stores v/s supermarkets in the UK. I found a consistent professional attitude throughout. In India though, the traditional stores win hands down. To give you an idea let me cite my experience. I stay in a multi-lingual community. If I have to call the traditional store to place an order, I just have to specify my house number and he will greet me in the language I speak. They deliver within a span of twenty minutes even if it is something that costs twenty bucks. If he does not have the product in his stock he would rather get it from the next store – than risk losing a customer. These stores often offer credit to known customers – if one is short of money the grocer’s typical response is… neither are you running away anywhere nor am I…pay me tomorrow!

Most of these traditional stores are family run businesses due to which the people employed have a greater interest in offering good service since it helps their business grow. The supermarket staff in stark contrast can project quite an indifferent attitude – at the end of the day it’s just a job for them and that too not a high paying one

Layout – is the most interesting element of this retail space. The mom and pop stores are breaking down their traditional structures and morphing into mini supermarkets – allowing the consumer to ‘walk in’ and browse through their wares which was earlier not possible partly due to the store layout and partly to blame were the ubiquitous but annoying sachets hanging from nowhere blocking one’s visibility. In their new avatars the traditional grocery stores are not only adding suffixes like ‘supermarket’ and ‘super-shopé’ to their names but also creating a cleaner, more organized layout. In place of dingy store interiors and bags of grains mercilessly dumped at the store entrance one encounters neatly partitioned shelves with a well thought out organization of products such that you will no longer find your mosquito repellent next to your pulses.

While the smaller stores are imitating store and shelf layouts from super market, the latter are taking lessons from these small guys on how to woo the elusive consumer back. Spinach, a super market in Mumbai employed some of the local vegetable vendors to stand inside the store and ‘cajole and connect with’ the consumer for whom the sterile and indifferent store ambiance was an alien concept. After all, these consumers (mostly women) are used to shopping at vegetable markets, where conversations are exchanged with vendors along with money and goods.

Poor_Planner talks about one more potential 'work around' - Supermarket chains co-opting with the local vegetable vendor.

It’s interesting to see how retail establishments from these two worlds are converging; borrowing elements that work and shunning away those that don't. The small and medium size "supermarket" ensconced in residential pockets with service standards to match that of the traditional grocery ; sounds to me more like the future than what we know and have seen of super markets in the west.

Lost in the Supermarket - A Transcultural Perspective on the Retail Business

Reshma Anand — Thu, 1 Feb 2007 16:43:46 EST

While getting acquainted with everyday products and brands in a new retail environment. it was natural for me to feel surprised, confused and sometimes shocked and amused. I had grown up in a different country.

The differences between India and the UK were magnified in my mind. I attributed it to the varying maturity of the two economies, which had an obvious bearing on the retail environment. Until I read this post by Katia - a Brazilian living in the US, who gives her transcultural marketing perspective on making every day consumption choices and how those are influenced by her experiences in her home country. She says:

Since I've been living in the US, I've gotten used to and enjoy the many choices the market offers, but I still shop pretty much the way I did back home: I simplify my life by opting not to choose and just pick what I really need or can afford.

Laurence, who is originally from France and now lives in the UK talks about finding French products on the shelves of British supermarkets and how sometimes too much choice can get in the way of making a purchase decision.

The dominant mode of retail in India until recently was neighborhood grocers, the mom and pop store variety. I realized after reading these accounts that the bewilderment I faced was not only on account of the obvious differences in the retail environments / retails formats or the scale of choice available in the home country. It was:

A) A function of being in a foreign environment - a factor that would affect me as much as it would affect any other outsider. Whether that outsider was from a developing retail market or a mature one was immaterial. As Christine rightly points out that 'foreign-ness can even occur at home.'

B) A result of too much choice and having to navigate through the deluge to zero-in on the desired purchase.

As we acclimatizes ourselves to a foreign market there are work-arounds we find sometimes consciously and may a times subconsciously. Triggers that aid the adoption of new products / brands can be cues for marketers aiming to win over a new audience.

The search for the right ingredient

Food choices and habits do not change easily and when in a new market people try to find ingredients close to the ones they used back home. Finding a perfect substitute is not always possible and easy. Once abroad, people experiment with local produce and exchange tips with friends on near perfect substitutes they discover.

For instance I don't know what ricotta cheese or sour cream is locally used for - though I know some Indians abroad use a combination of the two to create a substitute for 'sour yogurt' - yogurt in India acquires a tartness that any diary product would in a warm climate. The stages before these perfect discoveries are most frustrating, since not always do we have friends handy to share such information.

Could we have the product find the consumer instead of the other way around?

I remember walking into a supermarket in Bangalore, India on one occasion and encountering an American food festival. The aisles sported American flags along with peanut butter jars, American corn, Oreo cookies and such like - too conspicuous to be missed.

Supermarkets in the West have aisles dedicated to foreign foods. Imagine having an Indian or a French food festival in one of those aisles. It would not be difficult for a supermarket to track what local brands / products are being picked up by the Indians or the French regularly. Overlay this information with what or how it is used. Placements of these products close to the foreign food aisles along with flyers that mention their adapted use in ethnic cuisines can do the trick (think ricotta in Indian cuisine).

Supermarkets already do this though right now I have only seen such efforts targeted at the native audience. Extending this to a foreign clientele cuts down the process of trail and error for the consumer while the marketer finds a new audience for his product.

Could price sensitivity be a barrier in adopting new products?

While conversing with a friend yesterday, I asked her how she made her choices and like most of us she moved from the known and familiar terrain, slowly into the new and unfamiliar. The transition into the new was often triggered by a price-off.

I could relate to that experience. I am a non-experimental shopper by and large and my eyes stayed focused strictly on pre-decided products though one thing that never fails to catch my attention is when I see a 'yellow price slip' from the corner of my eye suggesting a price cut.

Indians coming abroad are by and large price sensitive partly because they use the home currency to benchmark rates against, but mark-downs are universally effective in initiating consumers to new brands. Since a price-off brings down the risk associated with experimentation.

These are just some of the work arounds.I am sure there are more and would be interesting to hear and read your thoughts.

The issue with adapting to a foreign environment is as true of consumers as it is with marketers entering a new market. The retail landscape in India is abuzz with activity as modern format retail outlets start to make their presence felt and some foreign players (Wal Mart) emerging on the scene.

In their quest to woo the elusive consumer some of these new generation grocery chains are taking lessons from the traditional retailers while the latter are morphing themselves to keep pace with the competition. I will explore that in another post later.

Remaking Advertisements - Reviving Familiar Elements In Communication

Reshma Anand — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 15:31:45 EST

Happened to see this old YouTube video today that I am sure most people, who grew up at about the same time as me in India, would remember. Before the advent of satellite TV, there was only one channel to watch. Those were the times with little clutter and media spend decisions simply revolved around getting the prime time slot. Consequently the range of ads and infomercials that we saw during those times enjoyed and still continue to enjoy, tremendous mind share amongst consumers.

The video reminded me of an ad research I was part of some time ago, where a new brand entering the market targeted at kids, was trying to take the animation route to break clutter. Animation per se as a route could break clutter purely because of its novelty but there was something going against the ads that were being tested. The brand launch was going to be a global one and ads had been developed by an agency outside the country. It goes without saying that the situations depicted and the characters were alien to the audience. Each frame by itself was not difficult to understand but to decode the message behind the ad, they would have had to make the mental connection between the scenes which people were not able to ladder up in their mind.

When I saw the YouTube video today, which happened to be an animation, I wondered why no agency has used elements from that video to develop any TV commercial around it? And logically extending that point, why don't we see remakes of old ads.

Ads from the past, not only evoke the feeling of nostalgia associated with a brand and make us feel all warm and cozy about it but they also contain associations around brands that become indelible with the passage of time. Elements like...Mummy bhook lagi hai...bus 2 minute (Jingle for Maggi) or the swirling Nirma girl stopping the passer by are all too familiar. And who can forget Lalitaji from the Surf Excel ad?

And if you thought it was just the nostalgia factor at work, Caroline Whitehill talks about how brand associations get hard-wired over time in her write-up about how neuroscience is transforming research...

Why for certain familiar brands, people still talk about advertising campaigns from ten years ago.... Neuroscience has shown us that it takes a long time to create connections. But with repetition and over time, cells that fire together repeatedly become literally physically soldered together. Neuroscientists say 'cells that fire together are wired together'. This process takes at least two years and is known as hardwiring. 'Brand associations that are already consolidated in long-term memory cannot be broken off

We do see this happening albeit in a limited way - with the Close-up reviving their old ad jingle to kya aap naya close up kartein hain or Lyril continuing to show the lime freshness through the waterfall as their backdrop. But for every brand & agency team trying to retain elements in their commercials, there are a dozen if not more fresh communication ideas thrown at consumers everyday - which one would probably notice for the short while those are on air but fade away into oblivion in no time. What remains with us are the ones from a time by-gone. In many ways then old adverts are like music, the vintage classics are the ones that are timeless

Nursery Rhymes and Morbidity

Reshma Anand — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 16:58:15 EST

One of the questions that has always intrigued me is why nursery rhymes have morbid undertones. A college mate and I had discussed this for the first time about 10 years ago. Last month it surfaced again on reading this post 'on struggling with poems, language and culture' and then yet again when someone mused about why did the engine come and break piggy's bones?

Those were never mean to be nursery rhymes in the first place

An excerpt from the secret history of nursery rhymes states that....

Many of the origins of the humble nursery rhyme reflect actual events in history! The secret meanings of the Nursery Rhyme have been lost in the passing of time. A nursery rhyme was often used to parody the royal and political events and people of the day. The humble Rhyme was used as a seemingly innocent vehicle to quickly spread subversive messages! A rhyme is often short and easy to remember and this was a critical element when many people were unable to read or write and a rhyme was verbally passed from generation to generation - it was also a vital element when commoners wanted to comment on the events of the day! It must be remembered that direct criticism or dissent would often have been punishable by death!

So while Jack (of the Jack and Jill fame) was Louis the XVI, Jill who came tumbling after him was the queen Marie Antoinette and Humpty-Dumpty was not this over-weight cute thing we had imagined. In fact he was not even human; it was a cannon that protect a church in the city of Colchester. And Ring-a-Ring of Roses, made a reference to a deadly plague that gripped England in the 1300's that left a rosy red rash in the form of a ring, and killed many - which is why - they all fall down!

How rhymes of yore (and gore) become nursery rhymes....

After 200 or so years of narrating rhymes - people got a little weary of them. Their vocal chords needed rest. So around the middle of the 1500s, they started printing little booklets with these rhymes, also supported by cute illustrations. Thus we see the birth of comics - called Chapbooks.

Chapbook is "a small book or pamphlet containing poems, ballads, stories, or religious tracts". More people during this time were learning to read but the chapbooks were also popular with people who could not read as they contained pictures, in the printed form of crude wood engravings - A Middle Ages equivalent of a Children's comic!

Though it has not been mentioned explicitly, one can infer that, since these chapbooks were amongst the first forms of printed literature available, people learning how to read used these and would have probably set a precedent there in including these rhymes in any toddler's coursework. Besides these rhymes had some elements in their structure and language that made it easy for people to remember them - the alliteration in Hickory Dickory dock or phonetic words like baa baa in the one with the black sheep - which could have aided their continued presence in the pre-school syllabus.

Why do children still recite these gruesome ballads?

One reason is that these rhymes have become sacred cows in their own right. Attempts at revising these rhymes have not met with much success - a) people believe that these rhymes have been part of our childhood for generations and revising them would be losing some of that legacy and b) some sources state that "such rhymes allow children to imaginatively deal with violence and anger and revising them would mean that we are poorer as a society because of the lost opportunities to discuss obsolete values"

I don't completely agree with either - my mother and grandmother did not grow up reciting Goosey Goosey Gander. They had rhymes of their own. And if at all there is a loss of legacy - it has been for those indigenous rhymes that we have lost. Coming to the second reason - though these rhymes could act as starting points to stir up discussions on racial or religious hatred but i suppose 5 or 6 would not be the right age to broach such subjects...don't you agree? It would be more appropriate fodder for grown-up discussions.

On one of my recent trips home, I heard my 3 yr old niece recite hindi rhymes (machli jal ki rani hai...jeevan uska paani hai and bandar mama...pehan pyjama) taught to her by my mother. Some I had heard before, some were new to me - but none of them were the text book rhymes I was familiar with. I did a quick search to see if I these rhymes were popular with others too. I found a whole host of pages dedicated to them. Indian Nursery Rhymes has poems in many Indian languages. Karadi Rhymes has two CDs full of indigenous compositions like 'my name is Madhavi...I'm from Allepey'. Even if it may not be possible to bring about quick changes to the official school syllabi, I hope at least outside of the system there is a change in what kids are taught and so that can reduce the number of instances where kids are wondering why most of their nursery rhyme characters are falling, hurting and having their crowns and bones broken all the time'

For those further interested an excellent resource on the history of rhymes here and here