Are the summer months good for retailers? I see a lot of rush in modern retail.

- Sarthak P. Basu, Kolkata

Sarthak, you are right. Summer time is good time for retailers. This is the great Indian holiday season. The shopper is typically on the rampage in summer.

This season brings in customers of three profiles into Malls. Type one is the normal resident of the mall hinterland. These residents walk into malls as there is plenty of time to kill. Type two is the holidaying type, who is spending time in the city. This is the type that carries good money in. Type three is the small town shopper who comes to the big city in droves.

Summer is also good because malls come up as favourable places to shop at, as compared to the hot high street. Malls are fun, air-conditioned spaces to be in.

Public Relations seems to have little zing and pep left in it today. Why?

- Rohit Bansali, Hyderabad

Yes, PR has got a bad name over the years. It has become a niche profession rather than what true-blue Public Relations was meant to be. The moment one drops the two-letter word called ‘PR’, it is associated with negativity. PR has somehow managed to get negative sheen over the decades.

I believe the first aspect that needs to change in PR is the nomenclature itself. PR mustn’t be called PR anymore.

We need to bring in a more proactive terminology, but that is not enough because that’s the exterior packaging. One needs to package the content well too. Public Relations needs to genuinely get public.

What is this scam about scam ads? Why scam ads at all?

- Nalini Pillai, Bhubaneswar

Scam ads were originally meant to be fun ads. Ads that never really left the very creative desk of the very creative guy. To that extent of need, scam ads are really the vent of the pressure cooker creative man. In many ways, creative folk do feel that clients stifle creativity. It starts with a brief, which later moves on to story-board critiques, checks with Market Research data which will say what to include and what not to, and finally it is the sales feel of the ad that will count. In circumstances such as these, the scam ad is therapy that creative folk indulge in at times.

While this therapy is appreciated for what it is, it is best left within the loo and on the toilet paper that bears the doodle. Taking it to fruition and giving it near life-like form may be a bad thing to do.

Is branding important for the fabric retailer at all? And for the fashion retailer? We normally sell in a commoditised form.

- Rohit P Mehta, Mumbai

Rohit, for fabric, branding is important as it establishes for your brand of fabric a dimension of recognition, franchise and craving. The moment you want to buy a Raymond’s fabric for a wedding suit, you are indicating a positive disposition towards the brand name and not the fabric. Therefore, a brand is a reputation and a trust. You will blindly buy a Raymond’s fabric for a wedding suit, never mind how rich or poor you are. This is brand trust. . It is this trust that brands try to build first and later monetise.

In the beginning of the branding exercise, you will bleed. At the end of the branding exercise, your consumer will bleed forever. Sadly.

For fashion retailers branding is important. Branding signifies how an ordinary ‘kurti’ which retails at Rs 150 will retail at Rs 1,200 at the end of it all.

Therefore, between a fabric player and a fashion retailer, branding as an imperative first dawned on the fashion retailer. In the case of the fabric retailer, there is still commodity lethargy plaguing his business.

But in short, branding is important for everyone.

Harish Bijoor is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.

askharishbijoor@gmail.com

Related Topics