CHAPTER 6
BRANDING THE BAZAAR
THE LOGIC OF INDIAN BRANDS AND RETAILING
The Effect, Not the Cause
Much has been said about the boom in the retailing industry in India. The resulting euphoria, which led to a mindless land-grab strategy by most players, caused an equal degree of recoil when the world economic slowdown began. The truth is that retailing is essentially the face of consumer demand being generated at the back end, and its sales graphs are bound to fluctuate along with changes in consumer sentiment. At the same time, a country with a GDP growth rate of 8.5 percent (2010–11) and a mindset opening up to new experiences is bound to flock to the shop windows filled with consumer goods that beckon them. The fact that retailing in India is a high-potential sector poised for tremendous transformation is an effect of the recent unleashing of consumption desires, not a cause. Retailing is, after all, just the marketplace where consumers interface with what they will consume. A population whose values, attitudes, and behavior are being swept by winds of change will certainly demand that the marketplace change to keep up with those changes.
In the past decade or so, the façade of the Indian consumer market has undergone a complete makeover, all in the customer’s favor. Bank account holders who once stood in long queues in dusty public sector banks now walk into an air-conditioned kiosk, punch a few ATM keys, and take the cash. Customers once dependent on the whims of the shopkeeper’s ...
