DOCTORETAIL®

Who says shopping isn’t complicated? With the number of variables being plugged into shopping every day, it has become an art & a science both for the Shopper & the Marketer. But, who has made shopping complicated? In the current Indian scenario of such intense competition, the rate of change is constantly pushing new limits. Just a couple of years back, an Organized Retail in-store innovation used to make marketing headlines & office talk across companies. Now, they all seem common place. Every week, companies are fighting for space & retailers are auctioning it to the highest bidder. As the End-cap prices sky-rocket, brand managers need to innovate constantly in-order to engage the shopper just that little bit extra. The options for a typical middle / upper-middle class urban household meanwhile are ever increasing. The phenomenal success of malls & multiplexes, irrespective of their high-end pricing speak for themselves. Shopping behaviour is chan...

Over the past 12 months, retailers have dodged numerous obstacles that could have put their productivity and overall fiscal health productivity at risk. Consumer sentiment has undoubtedly improved, leading to a year-over-year increase in retail sales — especially during the holiday season. However, the global economy is still volatile, which is making shopping behaviors and retail sales moving targets. At the same time, retailers have had to keep pace with customer expectations, which are constantly shape-shifting with the emergence of new tools, apps and services. Even disruptive organizations such as Netflix, Airbnb and Uber have raised the bar on customer experience. Although they are not retailers in the traditional sense, they are giving customers more control over their experiences, and are fueling their desire for personalized anytime, anywhere service. As a result, retailers are tasked to create more seamless, relevant and tailored experiences, while tackling thei...

" Consumer Healthcare ( OTC) Sales is n either  like Pharma  nor  like FMCG   , its OTC and one needs to be the best of three worlds to succeed in OTC Sales"  In order to understand the above statement let’s start with the definition of OTC, as put in Wikipedia “Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs are medicines sold directly to a consumer without a prescription from a healthcare professional, as compared to prescription drugs, which may be sold only to consumers possessing a valid prescription” – but this article is not limited to defining OTC (which we all know), this article is to emphasise on how to sell OTC products correctly. The traditional medicines segment is the leading segment in the Indian OTC market, contributing to about 30 percent to the total market.  Currently in India, OTC drugs are sold through five different types of distribution outlets, namely—department stores, indepen...

The purpose of this article is to discuss and elaborate the main issues encountered in managing brand equity. In order to achieve this purpose, we first analyse the concept of brand equity; second, we provide a comprehensive framework for managing brand equity; and finally, we distinguish different ways to leverage and measure brand equity.  Brand equity can be regarded as a managerial concept, as a financial intangible asset, as a relationship concept or as a customer-based concept from the perspective of the individual consumer. The main asset dimensions of brand equity can be grouped into brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality and brand associations. There are three alternative ways to leverage brand equity: first building it, second borrowing it, or third buying it. In a general sense, brand equity is defined in terms of the marketing effects uniquely attributable to the brand. That is, brand equity relates to the fact that different outcomes result from t...

Building pharma brands driven by customer-focused innovation will enable companies to differentiate their products in a crowded marketplace Business consultant and author, Peter Drucker, whose thinking greatly contributed to the shape of the modern business organisation, wrote: ‘The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well, the product or service fits him and sells itself’. On that basis my perspective would be that the pharmaceutical industry is not a customer centric business, which uses deep customer understanding to drive innovation at a molecule, brand or commercialisation level. A controversial statement perhaps but let us use it as a hypothesis which we can explore.  What has driven pharma industry success?   The reality is that much of the pharmaceutical industry’s success has been driven by three core areas:  Smart R&D engines (in many cases now faltering)  Effective patent extension, life cycle manageme...