Working Hard At Soft Selling, India

WORKING HARD AT SOFT SELLING

Nothing these days sells without some sort of a promotional strategy backing it. From consumer durables to perishables to services to everything, there is marketing promotion in some form happening all the time. With the fast pace of life that everyone today shakes their head at, but is still loath to change, the momentum of change has been steadily increasing. Every trick in the book is being explored, tried and tested ones as well as daring and innovative ones. Unlikely collaborations are experimented with, and what's more, found to be coming up trumps, nevertheless.

PROMOTIONS IN THE RETAIL INDUSTRY
In the retail industry, with the advent of large players like Shoppers' Stop and Pyramid earlier, and Lifestyle and Globus more recently, the race has been to retain customer base. Thus loyalty programmes for members were born. And to keep up the enticement, new value additions are constantly sought and implemented. A look at two of such programmes.
Lifestyle - gathering loyalty around them
Lifestyle International (P) Ltd., cossets its loyal customers by inviting them to be part of an exclusive circle they call The Inner Circle. Membership to the circle can be obtained in two ways - by purchasing merchandise worth 1500/- or by paying Rs 150/-. The store also has free corporate membership programmes with big corporates like ICICI, Reliance Infocomm, etc. The circle members are given membership cards, which when presented at the billing counter automatically earns privilege points. As for accrual of points, a member gets one point on every purchase worth Rs. 50/- So on purchase of merchandise worth say 5000/- one gets 100 points. These points get accumulated and are sent to the customer every quarter in the form of gift vouchers. These vouchers can be used at various places with which Lifestyle has a tie-up, for example, Pizza Hut.
Benefits
Privilege points accumulated on the membership card translates into gift vouchers for a host of items as also value adds like special offers, discounts, exclusive movie screenings, special invites, get together events, and more. Some of the pleasant surprises included special screening of the movies Kyun Ho Gaya Na and Spiderman. Tie-ups with Pizza Hut, Water Kingdom, etc. bring in their own set of benefits. Sometimes just stepping into a Lifestyle store can fetch one a free cup of cappuchino coffee at Qwiky's who have a presence within the store.
Some promotional offers
For the holiday season Lifestyle has a new promotion in place - spend Rs 5000/- and get a gift voucher for Rs 500/- redeemable on luggage items in the store. Another exclusive offer that ended recently gave Circle members Rs 100/- off on every visit to HFX Beauty Lounge, the upscale, professionally managed chain of salons in Mumbai.
Earlier this year they had a promotion titled Style Vroom, aimed at the youth. It covered merchandise like handbags and apparel and also highlighted brands. Style tips and advice were given by experts. In September the outlet at Malad, Mumbai saw the launch of 'Indulgence', the 'studio' that has as its core, personalised hair and skin treatment using products from French cosmetic giant j.f.lazartique.
Advertising the promotions
Hoardings and bus shelters are used a lot. A lot of pamphlets are printed as also mailers. But apart from this, the store used an engaging method of letting customers know of their latest promotion in August. Along with little tricolour flags, honouring the Independence Day sentiment, they also distributed small pennants proclaiming the upcoming discount or off sale, as they call it. For any celebratory event, they always have balloons, a big draw with children - so popular that they are never enough, they find, says Tajinder Singh Matharu, Marketing Executive, Western Region.
Globus - adding on privileges
The Globus Privilege Club card, based on the concept of instant gratification has ensured 100% card to benefit ratio. Members are immediately rewarded for purchases at any of the Globus stores, in addition to a host of other privileges such as exclusive tie ups, promotions and special shopping hours. Globus offers two different card categories, each with it own benefits. A shopper gets a Privilege card on p urchase of merchandise worth over Rs. 2000/- and a Globus Gold Card Membership on purchases worth Rs. 15000/-. But these purchases can be spread across the first 3 months of the first purchase at Globus.
Benefits include invites to specially arranged events, new product launch privileges, like getting to check out and buy new products before anyone else, exclusive shopping hours like special hours during festive seasons and other occasions, exclusive offers on national and multinational brands and services available at Globus. Discount offers and privileges at other leading outlets also can be availed of as part of the benefits of tie-ups.
Some promotional offers
A free holiday package of 2 nights and 3 days on purchase of goods worth Rs 5000/-
A 4 night, 5-day free holiday package on purchase totalling Rs 10000/- and above.
For the above offers, where free stay extends to a couple and a child below 2 years, 22 national and 4 international destinations are up for grabs.
Targeting youth in a big way, Globus has specific promos like Fashion remix, Pizza hut offer etc. The former, conducted recently at all Globus retail stores in the country was very successful. The promotion allowed participants to join the grooming sessions by leading industry specialists. It also included free tips and vouchers from Dr. Batra's, Gold Gym, Anjali Mukherji's Health Total to name a few, etc. They were given expert advice on personality, hair styling, skin care and clothes. Fashion consultants helped them on fashion wear and sartorial etiquette.
Globus also organises Rampage, a fashion show to showcase the chain's latest apparel range.
Advertising the promotion
Youth being the target focus, Globus uses the Internet and website very effectively for all the campaigns as it has always generated a good response. Globus also actively participates in promotional tie-ups with the colleges for various events through out the year. The mega store is also exploring the idea of using music channels in the near future. Globus' extensive use of all kinds of media to communicate its message effectively has included print, hoardings, radio, magazines and other promotional activities that are implemented from time to time in all the stores.
Innovative advertising
Spicing up a promotion
Radio Mirchi's hot new method of spreading awareness about its breakfast channel Hello Mumbai used an unlikely vehicle. The much talked about dabbawallahs, whose operations have been the subject of study and example for many a management student, and who also had their moment of fame when Prince Charles visited India last year, became 'direct mailers' for the channel! They carried, in an exercise spread over four days, a dry red chilli along with each of the over two lakh lunch dabbas they take to hungry Mumbaikars every day. An accompanying sticker proclaimed the message: 'For more spice tune into Hello Mumbai with RJ Harsh and get to know what's hot in Mumbai.' The exercise certainly grabbed the attention of the intended audience, going by the response in the form of interest in the breakfast show and feedback from listeners. The creativity used as well as the right timing (lunchtime is one time when people generally take a break and so are receptive to advertisements) contributed to the success of the venture.