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Marketing Communication: Urban Stint Research
Rahul Bhandare conducted urban research on product stock, placement, and discounts. He gained insights from interviewing shopkeepers and visiting malls to understand why certain strategies worked better. In conclusion, he provided suggestions to improve peripheral vision based on his findings.
Marketing Communication: Urban Stint Research
- 1. Urban Research Stint RahulBhandare
- 2. Summary Product stock Product placement, discounts Insights: shopkeepers, malls Conclusion, Recommendations
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Editor's Notes
- #2 Good morning everyone I will be presenting my learning’s from my urban research in the areas of Currey Road, Lalbaug, Parel, Lower Parel. The research methadalogy I applied was to speak with shopkeepers and try to understand how business had changed for them over the years, what factors affect their business, how they keep stock and so on. Besides this I based my research on observations of shops and malls.
- #3 To give you a summary of my presentation, I will be speaking about my learning's of product stock, product placements, discounts, insights from shopkeepers, malls and finally the conclusion
- #4 What I mainly understood about product stock was that it varied depending on the type of the outlet, location of the shop as in is it in a densely populated region due to which goods move faster and it also depends on what is income level and purchasing power of the local population. But in general what I observed was that in bakeries the eatables would have to be restocked on a daily basis. So the shop owner would have an estimate of how much he could sell based on his experience and he would only bake that much of a quantity, The estimate was of the type wherein it would be okay for the shopkeeper if he made a few less sales but there should not be wastage. In general stores there was no definite schedule of stocking and it varied depending on the product type. Slice bread, eggs would be restocked daily, and other products such as biscuit, chocolates etc replenished as and when stock was less. In case of medical stores, small medical shops that I visited, did not have a track of stock. However, small quantities are restocked in 1-2 weeks. Also when a particular medicine gets expired the shop owners return the same to the company and get a new stock from the company in return. And in case of ration shops stock replenished every 15-20 days.
- #5 Many small shops would have small value attractive items on counter so that if a customer comes to buy something, he will on impulse also buy the items on the counter. Similarly cash counters at malls would also have these small carts of small value items to make customers add them to their cart. Small shops may also have a basket dangling chips or there may be a rack outside the store containing different types of crispy snacks.
- #6 For ration shops the various grains are kept on display in front of counter and in sacks in front of the shop with price tags. This helps customers to get a touch and feel of the grains to be able to judge for themselves quality. Farsan shops have all types of snack offerings kept on the counter and surrounding the shop keeper in glass cased shelves. Sweets are kept on lower shelves of counter in glass case to prevent spoilage due to flies and dust etc. Layout in all kinds of shops is such that in a quick glance a customer is able to see all the product offerings. Which gave me a small insight. Most of the shopping in a home is done by the lady of the house and this type of arrangement is really suitable for them because…
- #7 Women have better peripheral vision as in prehistoric times the women would have to guard the children when the men went to hunt. So they needed to have good peripheral vision to be able to see a predator coming from any direction towards the nest.
- #8 Clothing stores in malls would usually have a free flow layout and a certain apparel brand might occupy a section of the store. And clothes would be arranged by their color and style. In small old style apparel shops the clothes are stacked inside a rack and a salesman would remove them as per your requests. The second method saves space which is very costly in Mumbai, but the first one gives the customer greater freedom. Also in footwear outlets the footwear would be arranged depending on type, price range, color.
- #9 I also understood that discount offers have a strong influence on customer psyche and can induce unplanned purchases. For example one of my friends was accompanying me on my visit to a mall and on seeing a 50% discount sign he ended up purchasing two trousers while having no intention of doing this when we entered the store.
- #10 During the course of the project I was able to speak to twenty six shop keepers and I managed to learn a lot from them. On being questioned about how business was going most reported that they were doing moderately well but that their business volume was less than what it had been in the nineties. It turns out that the decrease in their business volume was because of the migration of the Mill workers from Lalbaug after the mills in Mumbai were shutdown. For small shops their income depends on large sales of small value items. And hence when a large population left the locality, business was affected. Also shops today blamed their lesser income on another factor. With the mill workers leaving this locality, a smaller population of upper and lower middle class entered Lalbaug. These were the populations who were more keen to buy from outlets such as Big Bazaar and make purchases on credit. And small shops could not afford giving credit and this also affected their business.
- #11 Besides this I understood that customers do also develop loyalties to old stores and tend to always go the same. Also for a store its location is of prime importance. Ideal situation for a shop is to be in a fairly densely populated region while not having too many shops selling similar commodities around it. What is also beneficial is having a shop in a market wherein a consumer gets a varied offering of products. Consequently a consumer looks at making all his/her purchases in this one spot itself, thus benefitting all the shops. Many shopkeepers also spoke about problems of having good people to work in shop. And so the people working under the shop owner keep changing every few years and the new person has to again be retrained.
- #12 Before we discuss malls we have to address a more fundamental issue. Why do people choose to go to malls? For every person there may be numerous nearer possibly cheaper options to eat, buy, socialize. But there is something that malls offer that none of these can. Malls create an environment of well being. They signify that not only do you earn well enough to survive but also so much that you can afford to buy at such a large shopping destination. For those who do not earn enough to be able to buy in malls, the place makes them feel that as they are allowed entry here, so they too fit in. And that perhaps soon they can afford what malls have to offer. Also being able to buy something expensive from an outlet further increases the feeling of well being and can become habitual.
- #13 I observed that in malls the largest number of outlets present are that of apparel. Perhaps because that is one of the immediate factors that affect self image. These are followed by few outlets of accessories(watches, purses), footwear, gift shops. And malls will also always have a number of branded food chains such as Mac Donalds, Mad Over Donuts, Subway etc. Also I noticed that competitors like Nike, Adidas would have their outlets right next to each other. This could be for the convenience of people to be able to easily choose in which store they would like to make their purchases. In a particular section I noticed that pillars in a mall were covered with mirrors. So that people could look at themselves. This again contributes to the well being factor of malls.
- #14 Also right outside the mall I noticed that there were many small shops and food stalls. These are for the people who can’t afford buying in malls. So they go in the mall for their ambience and then buy over here. And so I thought that there was a close parallel between relationship between small stalls- malls and symbiotic animals like oxpecker birds-rhinos.
- #15 There is also a great gulf of difference between the environment in a mall and that right outside it. Which reflects that while we are progressing in some areas, we still remain behind as a nation in developing proper infrastructure.
- #16 To conclude, as I said earlier a lot of shopkeepers in Lalbaug spoke about lesser business due to mills shutting down.
- #17 Ironically this very shutdown helped provide the land required to establish malls. So what was the loss for small shopkeepers and the large number of mill workers that lost their jobs, was a gain for the mall retail industry. This teaches us a very valuable lesson that there is a price for every new pedestal of human progress that we achieve.
- #18 What we have seen so far is how malls have come as a new challenger to traditional retail. But now today we have a completely new kind of player who has proved to be a large threat for both of these i.e online retail. So is the story of retail one of survival of the fittest? Well yes to a certain extent traditional shops, malls and online retail will have to do the best they can to serve customer needs. But I think at the end of the day it’s about all of these come at a level where they are able to co-exist with each other.
- #19 You know how sometimes something bad happens but it is followed by a great opportunity, you should just be able to see it. I see something similar to this happening in Lalbaug. While the nineties had a large mill worker population today since the last five years Lalbaug sees huge number of people coming from across the city. A few shop keepers have realized the potential of this opportunity. So these shops change their business during the Ganesh Festival and sell more of eatables, sweets. There are gift stalls strategically right outside darshan halls. But if these shops think about it there is much more that can be done. Why can’t a medical tie up with a Ganpati Mandal to supply medicine, first aid kit for possible injuries, illness caused by over crowding, standing for too long in ques. Bakeries could set up stalls selling Ganesh festival based sweets. Clothing outlets can sell Ganesh festival based shirts. Considering the crowds that come even such small initiatives could help these shop keepers generate good profits to a great extent.
- #20 So with that I would like to conclude my presentation. Thank You.