The GDP growth is more than heartening, money has effectively been trickling down in most part of the country, local retailers are investing in hypermarts and mall outlets, people have opened up to the spending lifestyle, disposable income has risen nicely and living on credit has been gaining acceptability. All these things make India not just a favorable but a hot market for these retail majors. Europe and American land has already been saturated, to survive in international arena, the retail majors will have to beat each other to gain the promising fresh ground across the world.

On the other half of the story, one thing that many in India would be waiting would be the war of Carrefour and Walmart. With government delaying the direct investment by any foreign retail chains and these players evaluating the local players (WalMart with Bharti and Carrefour with Wadia Brothers) the time has surely become the critical hinge to hang on for a while.

The plans of slow and steady growth of Carrefour has long been eroded by Walmart, since it began its european rampage, and announced its arrival with thud by acquiring Asda (WalMart doubled its international sales to more that US$25 billion at that time with the acquisition). Carrefour had replied by having a friendly bid rival Promodes at Euro 15.9b, thereby potentially creating Europe’s largest retailer with a market value of US $48 billion. Though the sentiments could have been affected by the failed attempt of Carrefour to enter American market in 1980s, still what mattered was the global pie; and it was too large to be fought by gimmicks.

Here is where Asian countries come into picture. The land has yet been riding on its own unorganized distribution network, making road tougher for these retail chains. But the largest investment - land and labor has been cheap, making it lucrative. These retail chains thrive on local sourcing, private brands and strong distribution network. The last option is yet to be seen that how these majors can exploit. Because the evading market for these majors - South East Asia, is driven by trust, mutual understanding and credit. It’s very normal for a person to tell the retailer while walking on the road to send purified water container, x kg aata and y kg sugar to his home. The price may be paid at the end of the month when he is given a list of purchases in previous month. You can’t expect that in Europe or America. Europe especially, being low on labor, is mostly a self serving model based. All this leads to development of organized format.

So when the fight is on between the two for markets they also understand how tough the path further would be. The market is held by the unorganized wholesale setups who have been effectively been driving the sales since more than century. All the major cities have a wholesale market from where the sales of area of anything between 60 to 200kms radius are operated. And mind it; it’s the wholesale and not operator, so retailers have to come by themselves over here.

This setup may be rendered low on effectiveness by these giants and that will be a trouble for a government of a democratic country. So it is yet to be seen how and when their entry is allowed. The markets across world today can be classified under five formats:
· Hypermarts
· Discount Department Stores
· Hard Discounts
· Category Killers
· Warehouse Clubs and Cash and carry

For now, the cash and carry seems to be a nice backdoor available and last week Walmart braced it in full publicity. The cash-and-carry model is being followed by the German retailer Metro AG in India which has set up two distribution centers in Bangalore and is in the process of setting up more in Hyderabad and Kolkata.Whatsoever, the time will make the fight only grimmer. Will the culture also make a difference in this acceptance is also a yet another point!

If one talks about those few companies that are head over heels in building a fortress continuously and consistently, it has to include Google. With innovation as its marketing plank for normal public and investors alike, the company keeps popping surprises and awe. Google Labs is one area that needs to be checked every now and then as something or other deadly keeps coming out. Latest of this quality is Google Business Referral program.

Google has understood well the importance of knowledge availability at right time. After having made a collective mapping of world in Google maps, the company has launched a program that will pay people to take digital photos of local shops and verify their operating hours and payment options – essentially, creating a digital Yellow Pages to layer on top of Google Maps.

According to the company and program terms, the representatives can earn up to $10 for each business they catalog for Google – $2 for the business's information, and $8 for getting the company to verify that the information is correct by either sending in a postcard or approving it online.According to Utility belt at Business2.com, if Google can get people to add business details to its maps, the referrals effort could prove to be financially rewarding in the long run. As part of the program, representatives also will be telling local businesses about Google's AdWords program. It discusses that Google’s move is also important as it fights with Yahoo, Microsoft and others for the future of mobile advertising. As more devices, particularly mobile phones and in-car navigators, gain access to the Internet, companies will have more chances to reach consumers through mobile advertising. If Google can create the most comprehensive directory of local venues, it will have both a better shot at recruiting them as advertisers, and a more comprehensive local product.

And lastly i would like to point this Bloody Coasters campaign. These Bloody Coasters (for Mumbai Traffic Police) were printed using a special invisible red ink, wich spreads only when moistened. They were placed at tables and bar counters in Mumbai’s prominent bars and watering holes. When a customer places his frosted, moist glass of alchohol on it, the red ink starts spreading; and the normal face starts bleeding.
Alongside, the message reads: Just a reminder: Drunken driving kills.

Agency: Contract, Mumbai, India.

Credits: Directdaily

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Name: Jas

Location: India

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