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Future Bazaar Going Mass: A Case Study in The Making
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A couple of days ago, Future Bazaar announced it’s invitation to agencies to pitch a promotion strategy to take Future Bazaar to the broader urban mass beyond the Internet audience.
Business standard quoted Sankarson Banerjee, CEO of Future Bazaar, “We are looking for a dynamic partner to help us fundamentally change the way India shops. We have already successfully enhanced individual customer interactions through our new technology platform. With added innovation in marketing, we can transform the consumer experience and revolutionize the retail landscape”. It may seem tall claims and jazzy PR on the outside, but I think there is a lot more to it than what meets the eye.
If we break the whole quote into parts, what comes out is strong road map for the growth not just for Future Bazaar but Internet shopping in general in India.
“…Help us fundamentally change the way India shops”
The IAMAI report on Internet shopping shows that online shopping is an Rs.8000 Crore industry. So does that mean India is already on it’s way and this initiative from FB won’t be fundamentally altering the landscape?
Not really, FB still has scope to back it’s claim because, 7000, out of the Rs.8000 Crore in question is in the travel and tourism sector. That drawfs the product and services sector by a mammoth 6000 Crores. Compare this to the US where this sector commands 40% of the market share and we are indeed looking at a project that can fundamentally change the way India shops. And if you see the crowds at Big Bazaar every Wednesday, it won’t leave much doubt in the mind that the future group is best equipped to lead this shift.
“…With added innovation in marketing”
While this isn’t claiming that technological development in E-commerce sites will be dormant with focus purely on marketing, it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that technological innovation has reached a plateau.
And the next climb or growth ladder depends on improving the scale of users of Internet and catering to their demands. And to my mind, this is exactly what this initiative aims at. I don’t want this post to seem like a marketing plug for Future Bazaar, but I have been waiting for someone to take such an initiative to take the web to the masses instead of waiting for them to become net savvy.
Anyway, let us come back to Sankarson’s quote about innovation in marketing. If we agree on my point that technology has to grow flat at the moment and needs a wider user base to jump the next level, then marketing is where the work has to be put in. And the onus in this case falls on the ad agencies whom the group has invited to come up to the challenge.
What makes this a big responsibility on their shoulders is the fact that it’s effect will be seen in how the Internet shopping industry grows in India in general. The target audience for this campaign would be most probably be testing waters of online buying for the first time, and a bad experience with money can send them two steps behind where they are right now in terms of adapting to the medium.
Like I mentioned yesterday in a comment to my post on Media as a Service, such innovation has to be built by brands who already have an appeal. So therefore, the industry would be better off with someone like a Future Bazaar doing it than an upstart.
On the other hand the upstarts can leverage on this initiative by targeting the converts when they get converted.
And this is where social media plays a vital cog
What this initiative does is bring in a set of audience who are naive about how Internet as a medium works in general. And to top it they are now looking at spending money on the Internet without the skepticism earlier and are keen on learning. This is sort of the perfect mix that any marketer would look for.
The mix of audience is such that they would hang out on social sites, they are new so they are more open to experimenting and they come with an undeniable human tendency of thinking they know something that others don’t. This is where Ecom marketers can cash in and provide an alternative to Future Bazaar through niche targeting. Of course if someone wants to be ready for it you can always go over to WATConsult [now that is a marketing plug.. :)]
A Case Study in the Making
Now because it is future bazaar, and because it is the most creative minds at work on a campaign that can alter retailing in India, this is a strong case in the making. What they do right, what they do wrong, and how whatever they do opens up a gamut of opportunities for others to open. Let us wait and see how they go about bringing “others” into our world.
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