Consumer is King!

Well, let me first admit the truth that my first and last love among subjects was marketing and HR was a willful choice I made, after considering a lot of factors. So my fellow HR pros, do not get surprised if u happen to read this! J

Here, I ve jotted down something relevant to what we studied, related to the 5 Ps of marketing. Just for info, the 4 Ps of marketing namely Product, price, place and promotion are pillars of thought utilized by the marketers for forming their marketing strategy., trying meanwhile to satisfy the 5^th P, people. Can people be satisfied? An effective marketer might be able to wrap up all the 4 Ps but the 5^th, will be very very tricky!

Back in the Indian retail scene, something similar to what happened in US, in 80’s, is in process. If you know what I mean that is the moving of the retail giants into the Indian neighbourhoods. Can the poor provision stores run my ‘Daamu chettan’ or ‘chetan bhai’ survive time? Does it benefit us better to have these retail giants in place of petty shops? well… I would like to point out; to a great extent, as a consumer, ‘yes’.

In one of the marketing lectures, I remember my prof making a statement that the saying “Consumer is King” applies greatly to the US markets where choice is plenty. I had to see it to believe it! Every brand on the shelf is fighting the one similar to it, placed right beside. If the slogan/ pricing/ artwork on carton/extra additives etc. does not match or exceed expectations, it ll just not be lifted off the shelf! Well, that’s the story of the products, the retailers by themselves are no different! They bring out flyers almost every other week, trying to beckon all with marvelous ‘Coupon offers’ (reducing initial marked prices to beat competition) savings and festive season offers. When the biggies compete the after effect is big savings and such a situation is beneficial to the consumer.

I feel at times they even take the phrase “…King” overboard for eg:, here  they have a return policy that is unbelievable!. Be it electronic/toy/clothing/bedding/telephone etc. etc., if one does not feel that it fits the bill, they can return it anytime(there are shops offering 90 days upto even 365), no questions asked!!! (Note: Legally the shops are expected to receive any returns within 90 days time) I was agape seeing this at first thinking that such action can cause serious loss to the manufacturer, especially in electronic and telephone departments. Because whatever is returned by the consumer can be sold again only as refurbished, and that too at half the price! Sometimes, the stuff returned will have absolutely nothing wrong, except that it dint suit the customer’s ‘taste’. Once I commented on a blog about the return policy in US, and the author was prompt to delete it away!!  J

The advertisements that are aired in the media try their best to create some kind of retention in the minds of their prospective consumers; sometimes by creating very good ads and sometimes by creating horrible ones.. I still have nt got a clue why the latter!??? Personally I feel the best place to advertise in US would be in one of the weather watch sites. The traffic would be really high there because of the unpredictable weather pattern in US.

Biggies starting up shop in India is but inevitable in her run towards becoming ‘big’.  These are but signs of a developed country and India is just on her way.