And The osCAR goes to……

BMW has clearly emerged as the most favored luxury car in the Indian Market beating Mercedes and Audi.BMW has been consistently selling 240+ cars every month followed by Merc selling around 150+ while super cool Audi is just managing around 110+.

As one can see the difference between the sales figures are pretty high considering these are Segment F (luxury) cars.
Its is said that Merc one of the early entrants to India has lost its shine in recent years .Industry analysts say “Merc’s  offering of discounts has done nothing good except eroding its brand value”.   I personally find the Merc to be boring ,however the recent launches like S class and new E class are refreshing.

Audi which had been head to head with BMW in launching new models have lost in sales compared to BMW.While Audi has 11 dealerships across the country,BMW has been trying to expand aggressively from 12 to 20 by the end of 2009.(currently it has 15) I think this  aggressive dealership expansion has paid off BMW handsomely.

There was a billboard war  Audi vs.. BMW in US where Audi’s board said “your move BMW” and BMW replied in style.

After looking the sales figures,I think this probably fits here too.Now its BMW’s time to say       “Your Move Audi”

Lessons From A Slumdog Sales boy

An MBA or any similar management degree teaches you basics of economics,accounting,finance,marketing,human resource management,research methodology,business strategy.

Often B-school graduates,get a shocker when they enter into the corporate world and find there is a huge disconnect between the theory they studied and the tasks they perform on the field.Does that mean theory is irrelevant? definitely not.Its your ability to link the concepts and their relevant applications ,to see beyond the documents to get the big picture and the idea behind it.

Here,look how the uneducated “slumdog sales boy” (does is it sound offensive ??) sells small handiworks to the foreign tourists.

As a marketing graduate I am able to  identify the some of the concepts which are relevant to this boy’s strategy.

• He understands the customer segments namely domestic and foreign tourists
• He has targeted a niche segment i.e. foreign tourists who would be more profitable even though the sales volume might be low
• He understands that many others will be selling the same item and his only way is to pitch it differently i.e. in international marketing terms “communication adaptation”
• His multilingual ability gives him a competitive advantage over others selling the same item because business strategy tells us that distinctive capabilities are difficult to imitate than distinctive resources which are the main sources of competitive advantage.      So what’s the big deal ?….

If you are doing field sales and feel that all those concepts you learned are going to waste …think again…may be you can use those concepts and models to design your own selling procedure according to your industry. who knows ? if it clicks it may become a SOP in the  company itself….

Remember Knowledge is Power only when Applied correctly…..

Indian Retail yet to Arrive

Black Friday has officially kick started the holiday shopping season in the U.S.

ShopperTrak RCT, a retail industry research firm, said total Black Friday sales rose 3% this year, to about $10.6 billion nationwide,the smallest gain for a “Black Friday” in three years. But retailers say it could have been worse and they hope the positive trend will continue through the season. ShopperTrak has estimated that 9.9 percent fewer shoppers will descend on stores this holiday season, producing a sales gain of 0.1 percent

Compare this with Indian retail scenario

When a single Black Friday sales account for more than $450 billion ,Industry experts believe modern retail could be worth as much as $100 billion out of a total $600 billion Indian consumer market only by 2011.Kishore Biyani told CNN.com."Our sales during Diwali (the festival of lights in October) were quite good, up 18 percent year on year." 

But the 18% will be still very less when looked in actual sales figures. So when will India have its Black Friday?Big Bazaar CEO Rajan Malhotra told CNN.com, "I think it is up to modern retail to create occasions of consumption in a market like ours," noting that the chain's "Once in a Lifetime" promotion last month took sales to record levels.

Retail expert Ireena Vittal of consultancy McKinsey says 180 million of India's 205 million households are still intimidated by modern retail, ensuring that traditional retail formats will continue to grow.

I think Indian retail has still a long way to go before we have "Great Indian shopping Day" comparable to the US Black Friday.