Open & Shut Case -6

The changing contour of neighborhood with reference to shops, shopping experience and et al.

The New shops that opened are of two types one is of stand alone ie the shop will be only in one neighbor hood the other is a chain of shops/stores, in this it an be a chain of shops with branches  only in various part of the city or it can have branches state wide /Region wide or it could be a national scale sometimes even multi national brands have set shop in the neighbor hood. this classification brings to the point about their Adv. spend budgets. Obviously the bigger the chain the larger the budget.

In recent past i have noticed that the old shops that were replaced by new shops were mostly stand alone shops, but the scenario is changing slowly, the chain of stores/shops started coming and as people wanted quality and ready to pay for it, these chain of stores found takers and had good foot falls, but some time down the line that was not also sustainable so as on date the chain of stores are being replaced by Franchise model especially in Hotels and Restaurants, In the white goods and Consumer durable markets the old timer has already been replaced by big chain of stores. Now even the grocery stores are replaced by Business house which operate at national level and some times even multinationals have come.

So the contour of  neighborhood Business area/Bazar Street is changing and increasingly being occupied by Big Business house. 

What does this mean to us CMC. Let us see in our next blog

Namaskarams

V Rajagopalan

Open & Shut Case - 5

 

The changing contour of neighborhood with reference to shops, shopping experience and et al.

The local business entities from traditional shops, services are closing down due to probably next generation not interested, also one more point to emphasized is that these people stopped supporting various local causes or reduced their support once established, some time they enjoyed monopoly over a period of time these factors combined with various external factors were cause for the development paving way for new shops, service establishment to come. But as discussed in our earlier blogs these new establishment s we not able to sustain because the primary factor of "being visible to customer" was very difficult for them. That is why we suggested a revival of supporting a local cause ie: Our Carnatic Music Concerts. Which can provide the way for these new establishment to reach the customer.

As such things are changing very fast, before we discuss that I will give one of my personnel experience. 

In my neighborhood a well business shop shut shop after the next Gen got married and settled else where, Then few months later the owner brought a new interested party and that new party started the same business in the same premises with a new look. new name etc a brand new venture. Here the old owner was there in the shop and canvasing the people who walked in for a first look to buy from th e shop but unfortunately none of the old  timers who were buying from him turned to this new shop so he could not leverage his good will, all those people who walked in are like a newly settled people and they only bought things as and when needed and from where ever they find it easy or little less etc.

So the reach of the shop was very low and the traditional method of supporting the local cause like temple festivals etc. was not followed by the new investor and the old owner could not help beyond a  limit so they had to shut shop. This is a classical example of how things are shaping up in the suburbs.

The old shop was one of the handful number of shops that served the old timers. but as years passed the old timers are not the real purchasers and it is the turn of their children and these old shop though was known to them business was ok, but when it shut shop and a new shop came up the loyality was not there and they customers choose between better option.

Again the one option if the business wants to remain in the minds of the customers they have to cater to the needs of the Locals in their day to day life apart from delivering your goods or services.

As such we all know these new  shops spend money on advertising in modern way like

putting No Parking Banners, Building Police booths, Donating Barricades, Maintaining Parks, Direction sign boards etc.. while these are also good they are a way impersonal ,so the business also need to take part in celebrations which will take them very near to the customer. 

As we say one such way to do that Sponsoring CMC

Namaskarams

V Rajagopalan

Open & Shut Case 4

 

Carnatic Music :Platform offers flexibility in the following parameters, for a Local Neighborhood Vendor

Flexible Budget, Geographical area of coverage, Demography specific coverage, Targeted Customers Coverage, Business relevant theme, Timings, Scalability, Venue, Long term plan, Personalized reach.

Flexible payment terms, Flexibility of change of plan in the mid course, flexibility to promote multiple local business, Flexibility of sponsoring along with other vendors 

Focus on Right Customers ; As these programs are conducted in the neighborhood most of them attending the programs will be your potential customer.

Long Term Relationship : These audience and some time the performers in Talent Promotion concert will feel a personnel relationship with your Business as you have supported their personnel interest, this paves way for a long term relationship, For Talent Promotion concert giving certificate, medals for the participating children will take your Brand and Business to the household name in the neighborhood.

Carnatic Music Concerts can be combined with the Religious Festivals and Local Religious Occasions in Temples and Mutts and other Religious organizations, This will develop goodwill for your business within the larger population.

the brand awareness created can be leveraged across immediate neighborhood also by opening new branches in those places

Funding- Carnatic Music Concerts in the neighborhood will be a long term, pocket friendly, flexible, option for Brand Building and Business Development.

Carnatic Music Concerts can be conducted throughout the year, flexible time& duration.

These concerts can be uploaded in social media and can reach wider audience if required, providing primary introduction of your Brand and Business, to your potential customer in other areas as well.

So in essence promoting a localized art form will enable the newly started shops and establishment in the neighborhood to escape the cycle of Open and Shut Case 

Namaskaram

V Rajagopalan

Open & Shut Case 3

 

What is the Solution ?

at first ! What is the problem?  

The profitability of the business or even a mere existence (sustainability) is difficult for small neighbor hood shops. 

That is why 

 Open with Hope & Shut with Despair.

happens

This situation is due to various external factors some of them being,

On line Shopping

Chain of Stores opening shops in every neighborhood (while these stores before were only in rich class area)

Big Retail Giants opening showrooms in neighborhood(while these showrooms before were only in Business locality)

Multinational Brands coming to neighbor hood

Real Estate cost

Etc ...

While there could be many other such factors as well, so there could be many ways to tackle the situation as well.

But  let us analyze it from the following points,

If a new shop is opened were they able to inform the customer about this development.

Are the existing small shops visible to customers (as like earlier).

If they are visible are they able to attract and retain customers.

If there are customers coming are they able to convert them into loyal customers.

The above points if taken care of will at least solve the existence crisis of  small shops,

This points to acquiring  retaining and growing the customers.

 While the present day neighbor hood shopping space invaders have big marketing budget, the local vendors cannot afford it, still have to find a way to reach the customers. That is where the local advertising opportunity comes to help. One such opportunity is Carnatic Music Concerts Platform

We will see how to utilize this platform in our next blogs

Namaskaram

V Rajagopalan

Open & Shut Case 2

 

The new vendors found it difficult to establish themselves so they kept on changing their place of business, for example from a extn street they will shift to main road or vise versa, Thus they tried to keep their business going on and of course they managed it to a certain extent. So these shops functioned in one area but from different address, at different point of time.

Then the neighbor hood was transformed by arrival of Flats(apartment) culture this brought a huge difference in the way the neighbor hood bazar functioned. Super market /Chain of Supper market came into existence and then the Shopping Mall culture creeped in. These establishments advertised themselves thru newspapers and Television channels because they are available across many areas and also in some cases in various cities. Thus they could keep the business running.

Till this time the shops that were established in  a neighbor hood functioned from that area for quite a good period of time.

Due to online shopping and the advent of multinationals in daily commodity business and big companies setting shops in neighbor hood, also due to real estate cost, these single area neighbor hood vendors could not sustain in their business in the area of their establishment.

Thus the situation today in many neighbor hood is the small shops and establishment vendors will open shop today and will close very soon because they could not survive profitably.

Thus if you visit a neighbor hood today and see a shop and if you go there after three or four months the chance are very high that the shop might have shut doors. 

Open and Shut Case.

What is the solution let us see in our next blog

Namaskaram

V Rajagopalan

Open & Shut Case 1

 

For the past 20 are so years I have been observing my neighbor hood Retail Shops & Establishment. Also whenever I get an opportunity to visit other areas in  my city Chennai and also other towns if I am familiar with that place and if I visit those places often  I make it a point to watch out for the Shops and Establishment trends in that area. 

The Trend I see

20 years before, the neighbor hood was occupied by shops which are there almost since the early stages of that areas formation, the available space for shops and establishments were also limited. The requirement of the customers were are also of  regular commodities. The customer were all regular customers the shop keepers, mostly the owners, had personal equation with almost all the customers. The business was predictable, no surprises, the customers were loyal, most of them had credit facility with the shops. 

Point to be noted here is these shops and establishment took part in all the neighborhood celebrations in fact they volunteered to organize, sponsor and extended all kinds of support for these activities. This gesture in turn helped these shops & establishment to earn the loyalty of the customers. Some time the customers even willing to pay some premium for the product and services for the sake of emotional connect.

As times rolled by the extent of neighbor hood expanded and and there was seamless merger of many neighbor hoods because of dwelling units coming in between two distinct areas. This gave access to more than one vendor in the vicinity for the customers. Though the loyalty was in decline this was compensated by increase in the number of customers. The business started to be little bit unpredictable. As more and more dwelling units came up very close together the requirement of more than basic needs increased so new type of shops and establishments came in to existence and by now the landscape of the bazar has totally changed. 

The old shops & establishments continued to do business in spite of competition with support from loyal customers. Due to less profit earning because of competition and also due to escalating cost of the events the old establishments showed diminished interests in the events. This was taken advantage by the new vendors and they started supporting these events  but due to availability of more vendors the visibility and connect with customers for these new vendors was very much less compared to the old establishment.

Namaskaram

V Rajagopalan

Classical Music Platform for Branding -5

Personnel Level Branding

Branding as we know has got four levels 

Recognition, Recall, Top of Mind and Brand Preference.

A Brand looking

 for primary recognition 

can arrange for a Group Singing concerts, followed by a concept called Akandam (whole day singing by various artsist, students etc.. ). This will bring in lot of foot falls and the first recognition can be established.

For Recall

can arrange for concerts for a specific auspiocus days (aradhana day, Shivarathry day etc..) this will  enable a closed group of people to gather for the concert and the recall campaign will be achived.

For Top of Mind 

can arrange for concerts of Celebrities, Legends, Trending artist etc.

For Brand Preference and Loyality

Can arrange for concerts under invitation/special concerts for a targeted group of  audience.

As we discussed earlier these above concerts can be arranged at a suitable venue, for a suitable age group etc with all permutaion combination possible thus giving scope for a tailor made campagins.

The flexibility of tailoring your campaign to suit your needs makes the Carnatic Concert Platform an ideal one to suit every budget.

These concerts can also be recorded or live streamed again to targeted audience if required thus expanding the scope of  the campaign.

In our next blog we will see how the Brands can interact with their customer/potential customer during the campaign.

Also we will look at how we can arrange concert platforms for various branding requirement like B2B/B2C Personnel Branding etc taking into account the above four levels.

Namaskaram

V Rajagopalan