The don’ts of luxury

If there are three things I must not ever do in luxury retailing, what are they?

New Delhi

Sam, why three things, there must be ten. I will give you three since you asked for three. Here goes:

Don't spread out the retail offering far and wide. Maintain access to the brand with a radius definition of some 60 km. Don't over-populate the outlets in the hinterland. You don’t want to be spotted everywhere.

Don't depend totally on any one single channel. Spread your risk and get the customer in.

Don't ever discount the brand. You have done too much of it already. Overt discounts that offer a 40 per cent off. Covert discounts that offer more of product on product. A tie with a blazer kinds. Super-overt discounts as sales within 5-star property premises and offering a 50 per cent discount to loyalty card holders. You negate the brand. You gain short-term volumes, but you kill the image of the brand. An Hermes must remain an Hermes.

A fair number of FMCG companies are now focusing actively on the small ‘kirana’ store to push sales. How do you rate this move?

Bangalore

Sankalp, I do believe this is a cutting-edge move. Sounds rudimentary, but is totally a great way of battling the blues during a slowdown.

There has been an overt focus on Big Retail. Organised retail. The reality, however, remains that there are only 3,270 big retail outlets in this country. And 14.6 million small retail outlets at last count. Add another 1.2 million paan shops, and you have a number that is truly bewildering in size, spread and possibility. Kirana push is sheer love’s labour. It is achieved through hard market work. Tough work that delivers results for sure.

I do believe this is effective work and will deliver for decades to come. Organised retail is far away in real Indian terms. If you need to reach the hinterland, it is still through the kirana. Real consumption resides here. Real consumption happens in trickles. Millions of very thin and little trickles.

Is India Westernizing a bit too fast? Is this positive at all?

Mumbai

Manjari, I do believe Westernisation started with Nehru-ji. He was as Western as they came. But this was a rather private Westernisation, much of which was hidden from the eyes of real India. In those days, the dominant medium of dissemination of information was Print. And Print reached the people who were literate. And literacy was low. And therefore a small number of discerning people who were literate appreciated the Westernisation movement that was affecting the country. In many ways, media reach restricted its spread of awareness. Today, the medium of mass dissemination of information is television. And television is a medium that anyone who cannot read or write even can understand. This is what I call “new literacy” in my book. Anybody with a pair of ears and eyes is literate because he or she can watch television.

Today, westernisation is something that is seen and felt by all. Those who live across the street and are totally Indianised in their mannerisms do find it odd that Westernisation is growing at such a rapid pace. When it impinges on their social, economic, political and importantly religious sensitivity, they react. There are two sides to this issue. One is what the educated, urban-empowered and city-dwellers represent. The other is what the rest of India represents. The tussle starts here. Therefore, I am not too sure whether any one of us have the right to pass a value judgment on this at all. To each their own. Touché.

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