middle eastern retailers

July 29 2018

‘Jugaad’ – India’s answer to Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

Jugaad- India’s answer to Minimum Viable product

Recently, I was attending a webinar highlighting the importance of “Design thinking” for start-ups. One of the panelists mentioned Jugaad’s philosophy and it inspired me to re-write my previous article on “Jugaad – a frugal & flexible way to innovate” with the context of the current pandemic of Covid19.

As most of you are aware that I always touch upon topics that relate to either Entrepreneurship, Retailing, Brand management & Leadership. I feel, my current topic would help upcoming entrepreneurs to start their ventures in the most economical way.

What is Jugaad?

Jugaad is a Hindi word that loosely translates as “the gutsy art of overcoming harsh constraints by improvising an effective solution using limited resources.”

Jugaad is an antidote to the complexity of India: a country of mind-blowing diversity; pervasive scarcity of all kinds; home to million millionaires (aims to reach by 2020, 1 million millionaires mark)

Jugaad is based on six fundamental pillars:

1. Seek opportunity in adversity

2. Do more with less

3. Think and act flexibly

4. Keep it simple

5. Include the margin

6. Follow your heart.

Jugaad during times of covid19

Looking at the positive side of the pandemic, it has made people more creative.

Check the picture of one of the elevators wherein the toothpick is being used to press the floor buttons in order to avoid surface touches.

To cater to the emergencies of hospitals in terms of beds, an Indian company has designed beds made of cardboard boxes. Watch the video here.

Jugaad innovators innovate faster:

Jugaad innovators don’t use linear, pre-planned, time-consuming R&D processes. Rather, they rely heavily on rapid prototyping techniques — i.e., they collaborate intimately with customers and use their constant feedback to zero in on the most relevant product features.

Jugaad innovators innovate cheaper:

Jugaad innovators are highly resourceful in the face of scarcity. Unlike many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, raising capital is the least of their worries. The practitioners of Jugaad work with what they have got.

Jugaad innovators innovate better:

Jugaad innovators recognize that consumers in emerging markets are low earners, but high yearners.

To explain the concept, I would like to mention a few case studies of Jugaad innovators cum entrepreneurs as to how they have dealt with situations and innovated to make the lives of their customers easier.

Case study 1: Using adversity to own advantage:

Kanak das, a resident of North East Indian state, grew riding his bicycle on roads full of potholes & bumps, rather than complaining, he turned this constraint to his advantage by retrofitting his bicycle with a makeshift device that converts the shocks received from bumpy roads to kinetic energy which accelerates the bicycle…. Allowing his bicycle to run faster on bumpy roads.

Case study 2: Jugaad gave birth to a completely new business:

In 1980, a businessman Mr. Tulsi Tanti set up a textile unit in Surat, sooner he found himself facing the bottlenecks like power shortages.

Alternatively, He compensated by producing power through generators but resulted in very high running costs due to high fuel prices in India.

His profit margin was a mere 5% wherein his power & fuel bill used to run up to 45-50% of overall operating costs.

Mr. Tanti immediately moved towards wind power by installing air wind turbines in his unit, resulting in uninterrupted power supply and reduced operating costs. (Also the initial investment of installing wind turbines were recovered in the first year itself from the savings generated from power & fuel costs).

Mr. Tanti realized the power of wind turbines and industry in feeding the power-starved country and its rural villages.

This very thought gave birth to a business whom we have known as “Suzlon wind”.

Today, Suzlon is the world’s fifth-largest wind energy solution provider. The company operates in thirty countries over 6 continents.

Learn how to make your brand stand out from the clutter, read here.

Case study 3: Mitti-cool refrigerator:

Mitti-cool refrigerator

Jugaad innovator Prajapati (resident of Kutch region in Gujarat), post-2001 earthquake wherein his entire village was destroyed.

He noticed that they were left with no source of providing residents with cool water options.

Being a clay artisan himself, he developed the world’s first sustainable, eco-friendly refrigerator “Mitti-cool”.

Mitti means clay, his refrigerator is divided into two chambers, the water from the top chamber seeps through the inner sidewalls, cooling the lower food chamber through evaporation.

The refrigerator is 100% bio gradable, uses zero electricity… an ingenious invention.

Today Prajapati’s Mitti-coolers are available in rural Indian villages and soon it would be exported to the African region.

Simplicity is the new mantra for success.

Learn about quarantined economics, click here.

I hope my article would help in giving directions to business owners and retailers in the Middle Eastern region & would force them to think differently and innovatively with their existing businesses.

In case you want to brainstorm and understand Jugaad concept more holistically, you may reach me on riteshmohan@yahoo.com

(Reference book – Jugaad Innovation by Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu, and Simone Ahuja. I thank & salute the writers for bringing out the most unique feature of our Indian ecosystem so creatively and innovatively)

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. He specializes in Retail management, Product development, Brand management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, Business Management & Empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

July 14 2018

4 Must Do’s for Luxury Retailing.

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Recently, one of my blog followers asked me a question as to what makes Luxury brands so aspirational and different.

This question prompted me to write this article which will give you 4 “Must do’s” to build a luxury brand.

Having worked and being involved in leading the team that produced a luxury concept arising from United Arab Emirates (in beauty & fashion domain), I would like to share my wisdom acquired from my personal experience.

Foremost you need to understand the difference between non-luxury brands and luxury brands.

Most non-luxury brands succeed because they are marketed in terms of the problems they solve. These are their reasons for being. For example – Brand X of t-shirt whisks sweat away to keep you cooler; A Particular sweetener gives you the taste without the calories, brand car X gets more miles to the gallon so you spend less on over-priced gas.

Not so in the business of luxury. No one wears a Burberry trench coat merely to stay warm. No one forks over $200,000 for a Bentley simply to get from point A to point B.

No Luxury products exist for a much less rational reason. Therefore, the marketing of them must be much more emotional.

In short, mass marketing is the business of selling reality. Luxury marketing is the business of selling dreams.

Forget about positioning; luxury is not comparative. Advocate beliefs:

Luxury brands should advocate the beliefs of customers rather than simply rely on brand values. Beliefs go further; they’re more specific and, consequently, more segmenting.

Unlike mass brands, luxury brands should not strive to please everyone, but those customers whose beliefs align with their own.

A good example of this is Ferrari’s belief in high performance. The brand rarely advertises in mass media, but it invests significant amounts in Formula 1 events. It focuses on actions related to its belief to reinforce this tenet in consumers’ minds.

Another good example is Louis Vuitton’s belief in art. Among other collaborations, the fashion house linked up with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama to create a limited edition of products.

In mass markets, brands distribute their investments across several efforts because they want to reach and please the broadest possible spectrum of customers. Instead, luxury brands’ investments are focused on the specific beliefs of the brand, creating a very focused experience for the right customers.

2) Bring a sense of exclusivity and experiential emotive:

A true luxury brand cannot stop their offering at the product itself; they must go beyond that to offer unique services or rituals. This can start with something as simple as attentive salespeople and prompt customer service, but it should really go beyond that to create a consumption “ritual” that allows customers to experience the brand.

Perfume brand Le Labo does this very well. Using the premise that the quality of perfume deteriorates over time, it revolutionized the consumer buying experience by offering a special personal experience: each Le Labo perfume is hand-blended and individually prepared in front of the customer at the moment of purchase. The glass decanter is then dated and the customer’s name is printed on the label. After taking the perfume home, the customer must let it marinate in the fridge for a week before using it. Through this ritual, buying Le Labo perfume becomes more than an exclusive product; it becomes a personal experience.

3) The store becomes the epitome of luxury for discerning customers:

Luxury brands must pay extra special attention to the way they sell and innovate at the point of purchase. Before, it was enough for luxury brands to use brick and mortar stores to sell their products, but they must now aim to design multifunctional, controlled spaces that create brand experiences and communicate brand beliefs.

BMW World in Munich is another example of a temple-like showroom, where consumers can “experience” the brand rather than simply buy the product.

BMW world.

4) Don’t respond to rising demand.

One of the key premise that Luxury brands work on is “Less is more”. Connoisseurs of luxury brands relish a sense of exclusivity that comes along with Luxury products, its emotional gratification that provides a sense of belonging to the elite club.

One of the most famous and highly successful brands that have mastered this point is Hermes. The bags are scarce, sought-after a simply the best, and they have the price tags that go along with all that exclusivity.

Hermes- Kelly Bag

Status… status… status.

If you’re looking for a bag to tell everyone who sees you that, not only have you arrived, but you’ve arrived with exquisite taste, Hermès will do that every single time

To summarize, I would like to end up with a famous quote by Hubert Givenchy, “Luxury is in each detail”.

I hope the above pointers would help my fellow retailers to develop their brands more luxurious for their discerning customers.

I would be more than glad to share my wisdom and knowledge with my retail fraternity. You can reach me on riteshmohan@yahoo.com

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. He specializes in Retail management, Product development and Brand management, Retail Operations, Sales Management and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

June 17 2018

Is your social media strategy working for your brand? If not, learn from these case studies.

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“Is your social media strategy working for your brand?”

We all know that social media marketing is a force that one cannot ignore. The new media requires a new strategy and mindset to leverage it.

Loser’s mindset

The most common mindset in today’s retail companies pertaining to social media is to hire a social media resource (headcount) to their existing marketing team & this would get them to top of mind recall in their targeted customer’s minds.

Few premises for the above belief in many retail companies:

Social media is easy to handle and does not require great efforts nor any specialized skillset resource.
Putting posts about their services and offers is all they mean with “content”. Flashy artworks, offers/promotions, and beautiful product shots are all they know about content management.
They fail to identify, social media channels as a source of revenue and customer engagement.

Basically there is a lack of strategy to handle this new form of media.

With the popularity of Instagram Stories, Facebook Live, and messenger apps have fundamentally changed how retailers interact with consumers online.

Simply posting photos or updates to a branded social profile won’t cut it anymore.

Need some Strategy for reconsidering your social media?

Here are a few retailers that have winning social media strategies:

Case 1: Birchbox

Birchbox uses Facebook Live to share great content and engage with fans. The cosmetics brand regularly runs Facebook Live videos in which members of the company share news, give away prizes, and answer questions.

According to MarketingDive, Birchbox’s top-performing stream “lasted 40 minutes and had an average view time of 10 minutes among the nearly 50,000 viewers who participated live.”

Strategy delivering result:

Birchbox sees the live video as a two-way street. It helps Birchbox engage with target audiences in real-time, but it also allows consumers to interact with the brand. The retailer approaches live streams as Q&A opportunities with audiences where Birchbox can market the products included in their monthly subscription boxes and educate audiences about the brand.

While some Middle Eastern retailers might still be wondering whether to consider live video as part of their strategy, Birchbox (the online beauty retailer) has been bullish from the start and is an early adopter of Facebook’s new live video feature.

Case 2: Born Originals

German fashion brand Born Originals has a large and engaged Instagram following.

For the benefit of my readers, Born Originals creates customized sneakers and leather goods.

Born Originals also makes good use of Instagram Stories. Their account is filled with gorgeous photos from the company and their customers alike.

Learn how food delivery apps like swiggy, zomato makes their money, click here.

You may reach me on riteshmohan@yahoo.com

About the author:

June 12 2018

Is your brand ready for Omni-channel retailing? Learn from Brand Zara- leading the Phygital evolution in fashion.

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Do you know what is the biggest challenge in today’s digital era for businesses? Here it is, we have access to gigabytes of information at our fingertips yet we fail to see or identify or decode this information/data into useful insights for our businesses.

Zara, the Spanish fashion retailer has been fast to decode the importance of Phygital experience in their stores.

Zara is attempting to elevate the customer experience with a technology-enhanced concept store in London’s Westfield Stratford shopping center. The store focuses on a service where shoppers can try on the clothes they like in store, pay for them online and have the clothes delivered to their homes.

Inditex SA, the Spanish company that owns Zara brand, calls it an example of the technologies it will implement around the world.

Key features of Zara’s Phygital experience are:

Use of robotic arm to retrieve online orders and deliver to customers in-store (Buy online pick up in store):

The new flagship store uses an optical barcode reader system which scans the QR or PIN codes that customers receive when they place an order online. Behind the scenes at the automated online collection pick-up point, a robotic arm then collects trays and organizes the packages optimally based on their sizes, smoothly delivering orders for customers to collect in seconds. Customers can collect online orders made in store on the same day if placed before 2 pm, or the next day if placed after 2 pm.

2. Use of Interactive Mirrors based on AI and AR technology:

In addition, the new store also features interactive mirrors equipped with RFID technology which is able to detect what garment a customer is holding and offer more information on the item as well as multiple choices of what a complete outfit may look like. In store employees will work with iPads and be able to advise customers on product selections or accept payments on the spot.

3. Use of RFID in merchandise inventory planning:

Every garment is fitted with a radio-frequency identification tag. The technology lets Zara check a store’s inventory in two hours, a process that used to take about three days.

4. Digital payment options:

Customers can choose to pay using their mobile phones via the Zara app or the Inditex’s Group app, InWallet.

5. Self-service checkouts:

Shoppers can buy clothes without talking to anyone. Self-service checkouts on floors let customers pay with their mobile phones or credit cards.

Retailers will need to connect decades-old fundamentals & processes with the newest front-end user interfaces. The Spanish brand Zara is one of the few fast fashion brands who has embraced technology and leading its brand’s evolution into the digital world.

Food for thought for Middle Eastern retailers:

Are we getting ready to embrace the fast-changing consumer’s shopping trends? Are we fast enough to embrace the change in our retail environment?

I shall conclude my article with these two thought-provoking questions to my readers and retail fraternity members to share their opinions by leaving a comment below and let the world learn from their wisdom.

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in Middle East region. He specializes in Retail management, Product development and Brand management, Retail Operations, Sales Management and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

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