The Hindu Business Line : Retailers rewrite ad strategies

RETAIL majors are growing at a sturdy pace. Even as key retail players are integrating forward into the domestic-end consumer markets, mass value retailers such as Big Bazaar and departmental stores such as Shoppers' Stop are revving up their advertising strategies.

Big Bazaar has always been advertising in print and hoarding besides in-store promotions. However, it forayed into television advertising for the first time a couple of months ago. The retailer felt that besides conveying the rational benefits behind these insights, television commercial could also plant the emotional aspect of shopping to maximum number of people - the masses, reinforcing the retailer's positioning `Isse Sasta Aur Accha Kahin Nahin'. The advertising company, Mudra and the marketing team of Pantaloon executed the television commercials.

Unconventional media such as cinema theatres, audio-visual vans and in-store screen advertising were also used to attract eyeballs.

Similarly, Shoppers' Stop painted the town its signature black and white with its recent advertising campaign. The campaign was built around the proposition that here was a store that stocked everything you could want. The departmental store, however, chose to invest in radio advertising.

The campaign held on Radio Mirchi in Mumbai juxtaposed a variety of product categories against each other and establishes that a range of items is there for the picking at Shoppers' Stop. The ads depicted a shopper's train of thought from one item to another, be it ties or photo frames, toys or formal wear, mobile phones or lipstick. `If it's on your mind it's on our shelves': that's the message and theme of this new campaign. Contract Advertising agency had executed this particular commercial.

The retail chain's `innovative' programme with Radio Mirchi in Mumbai during Diwali also did a lot for brand building.

The radio jockey was linked up to customers at the store who would be asked what was on their mind, which would be available on the shelves.

Even retail major LifeStyle has planned a television commercial reflecting the new brand identity that will go on air across the country in the last week of November. `Fashion is a mix of what you wear, what you do, and your attitude' is the underlying philosophy of the new television campaign.

The new identity will support all its marketing activities and is centred at two elements of fashion and youth.

Given the exponential growth of the retail industry, retailers believe that mainstream advertising gives them a strategic advantage in understanding the issues.