The Hindu Business Line : Retail gurus chant loyalty mantra

RETAIL brand building is not just about creating a logo or advertising, but more about the experience the retailer can offer to ensure consistent footfalls and maximise returns from the footfalls.

Retail gurus at the India Retail Summit on Thursday said that a variety of factors such as the store location, the events and promos organised for customers, customer service, staff training and even loyalty programmes play an important role in creating an experiential retail brand.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Hemendra Javeri, Chairman, Madura Garments, said that branding is essential to create brand equity. "It helps to create consumer loyalty to draw consumers again and again to the store."

Taking the topic of experiential branding forward, Mr Ajay Mehra, CEO, Planet M, said that the nature of celebrity events that a store organises, its visual merchandising and the loyalty programmes help create a buzz about the store. "Apart from this, store staff must have complete knowledge of the products, the supply chain has to be efficient and the front-end system has to be good."

Mr Mehra pointed out that Planet M has around 2.5 lakh loyalty programme members and 49 per cent of its business comes from the loyalty programme.

Mr I.S. Narula, President and CEO, Ishanya, said that the essence of retail branding is to first understand the personality of the brand, then identify the core target audience and finally understand his/her needs and how the brand can satisfy them. "One has to be clear whether the retail chain is going to be a family destination such as McDonald's, or it is one which would satisfy intellectual needs such as Crossword."

Mr Narula also emphasised the need to maintainbrand consistency as well as create a well-differentiated identity. "The store's personality should be unique, which the customers should be able to talk about."

Talking about the need to maintain consistency in the experience that a retail chain offers, Mr Sandeep Ahuja of VLCC, said, "A lot of our business comes from word-of-mouth marketing, hence, we invest a lot to ensure that the experience that we offer is consistent, so that our clients are happy."

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