Recently in the news for its marketing budget of a whopping Rs 100 crore, Big Bazaar is undergoing an image make-over – from hypermarket to department store. Akshay Mehrotra, Chief Marketing Officer, Future Retail talks about switching from Print to TV advertising and the brand’s ambitious plan of a new TVC each week for a year
By Henna Achhpal
Q] In its 13 years, this is the second time Big Bazaar is undergoing an image make-over. This time it’s bigger and more ambitious – what’s the strategy behind ‘Making India Beautiful’ and how is it different from ‘Naye India Ka Bazaar’?
‘Making India Beautiful’ is a retailer telling the market that the consumer has changed. The change is far more visible, Indians have learnt to accept what’s happening and are embracing the future. Some of the work that we have shown in our TVCs showcases how modernity has been accepted. That’s the societal change we are trying to represent in our communication. With every change, we introduce a product – what’s important is that we plug in a product and then say that we offer a range. Earlier, Big Bazaar used to say that everything we sell is sasta and accha, and then we said our format of buying is fresh. Today, we are going beyond the hypermarket space and becoming a department store. When a customer comes to buy backpacks, we are saying that we offer the largest range. ‘Naye India Ka Bazaar’ was saying this is how India should shop, ‘Making India Beautiful’ is more grass roots and connects with the audience - it conveys that we understand India.
Q] Are you shifting the brand positioning from being the king of discounts?
We stand for value and we’re not letting go of that image at all. Our communication is that we may look aspirational, but we offer value prices.
Q] What type of consumer are you aiming to target?
The most mass consumer – while today we offer a certain range, it’s important to attract the entire gamut of consumers. We want to convey that we offer aspirational as well as entry level products. The department store strategy is that everyone is welcome and we have a range for everyone in the market.
Q] Tell us about Fashion Big Bazaar. What is its positioning?
Big Bazaar Fashion is now FBB and receives a separate store-instore treatment. The tonality is young and modern. There was a time when people used to own four or five T-shirts; today the average person has 10 to 15. The younger consumer experiments while the older consumer keeps the relevancy of what he wants to buy in mind. Another change is that men have started impulse shopping today and they are looking for variety and details. While branded fashion attracts a younger audience, there has also been ‘massification’ of fashion. Now, people above 40 are wearing fashionable clothes, which is a message we’ve communicated in one of our commercials. Occasions to shop are changing and the impulse is very important. While the FBB brand is building fashion, the Big Bazaar brand provides the required massification.
Q] Print has been Big Bazaar’s primary medium – what made the shift to TV happen?
The larger reason is that communication habits of people have changed. If you want to tell a story, you need TV. Print is when you need immediacy of consumption; so we use it when we have a big sale or special offers. Secondly, TV helps you reach and attract a larger consumer base. The consumer today responds more to video content than text.
Q] One of the highlights of this campaign is a new ad for each week of the year – what is the thought behind this?
There’s an episodal treatment in our films. Each of them has a hashtag which connects to the thought in the film and makes it look like there’s an episode coming out. The TVC actually runs for 10 days, not seven. Every Monday, a new film is launched, there’s an overlap of four days. Every film focuses on a product bringing out a societal change. The tougher part is building that much content as every film has to have the insight of societal change and we’re exploring 52 different categories. Every Monday, I sign off on a script, every Thursday there will be a PPM happening, every weekend the film is shot, every Monday and Tuesday the post happens, every Wednesday the film is presented internally for approvals — it’s a packed week.
Q] What’s the media mix for this campaign? How are you leveraging other media apart from TV?
It will be touching almost 50-50 between TV and Print. Every time we have a sale, we take out a jacket in every newspaper, which becomes quite expensive. With this campaign, we’re doing 365 days of TV and only 100 days of Print. Radio is a reminder medium, not more than 2% of the ad spends. Internet is a new medium which we are still learning. We’re experimenting outdoor with FBB. When it comes to fashion, TV builds the brand and Print and OOH build consumption. While we do our weekly advertising on TV, we’ve gone aggressive on outdoor. We believe this a medium that can showcase great visuals and bring out the clothes much better, in Print the visuals lose out.
Q] What are your plans and strategies for social media?
Social media is bringing about a reverse conversation for us. Consumers have far greater insights and we are asking them what their articulation of the latest campaign is. We are surprised at the feedback we receive. The jeans TVC attracted the largest amount of negative publicity, but before we could react, other consumers responded positively and there was a conversation taking place. So we’re using it as a tool for listening and engagement.
Q] A change in logo and look of the brand usually accompanies an image make-over but Big Bazaar has stayed with the same logo... any particular reason?
Our logo is very iconic, we didn’t find the need to change it. Traditionally, it was the most modern logo with Big Bazaar written in chunky, block letters with one aggressive and one neutral colour. We made a slight change in 2010. Earlier, it was a box divided into orange and blue on which Big Bazaar was written in white. We did away with the box and made the font orange and blue. That was reverse typo, this is direct. We did this to drop the overtone of colour. Now most ads are white-based, simpler and easy to read.
Q] At a time when brick-and-mortar stores are slowly losing to e-commerce, what are Big Bazaar’s plans?
Big Bazaar Direct is one of the answers. The way we approach consumer interaction is more important. The joy of getting a product instantly is too large. It’s very difficult to buy without touch and feel. Brick-and-mortar will remain, but I think hybrid models are the next step in retail. Will I have a pure online model? I don’t know yet. Enough experiments are taking place in various markets to see what works.
Q] Why hasn’t there been heavy marketing for Big Bazaar Direct?
Big Bazaar Direct is the omni channel approach which has had far better traction. It’s more to do with markets where Big Bazaar didn’t exist. The marketing for it is happening to the prospective franchisees, not to the mass consumer. It’s more direct, for which we don’t need mass media. We organize town hall meetings in those cities and send out pamphlets.
Q] How has Big Bazaar dealt with increasing competition?
In our business, competition is good. The most competitive market is Bangalore, and because it became competitive, we became bigger. Today we have 16 stores there. An identical market, Chennai, has only four stores because there is no competition. The challenge is that everyone today tries to talk to the same TG, tries to mimic your offer so differentiation is very important.
Q] What is Big Bazaar’s current marketshare in India?
We have about 25% share in the organized hypermarket space. We have the largest modern retail distribution in place. But there are many brands wherein we make up for more than 10% of the brand itself. For example, the moment a biscuit introduces a jam variant, almost 20% of the sales will happen in modern retail out of which 50% comes from us.
Q] What challenges has the market posed for Big Bazaar?
Growth and building regular consumption have been the toughest challenges.
CMO FILE
As CMO, Akshay Mehrotra oversees the overall marketing and brand building activities for Big Bazaar and FBB. Previously, he was Chief Marketing Officer of Policybazaar.com (a Naukri and Intel Capital Portfolio Company). He was also the Head of Marketing and Corporate Communication at Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance where he was instrumental in building the brand and various direct istribution channels. He has experience in both traditional as well as online marketing.
MARKETING TIP
More than online, the hybrid model is the future of retail.
FACTS
CREATIVE AGENCY: DDB MUDRA
MEDIA AGENCY: ALLIED MEDIA, FOR 52 TVCS: MEDIACOM
SOCIAL AND DIGITAL MEDIA MARKETING AGENCY: COMMUNICATE 2
PR AGENCY: INTERNAL
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