1. Backing Indian Insights
October 2011
Mumbai

2. Indianness…the new confident customer
Serve, don’t teach me, please…
And she can kill….

3. Emerging, but Asserting Markets
At the turn of the 20th century, U.S. was the largest emerging
market. Europe was the ‘developed market’.
Consumer tastes is emerging markets, with the rise in income
levels, follow the patterns of the developed markets, right?

4. Emerging, but Asserting Markets
At the turn of the 20th century, U.S. was the largest emerging
market. Europe was the ‘developed market’.
Consumer tastes is emerging markets, with the rise in income
levels, follow the patterns of the developed markets, right?
Wrong. If so, the U.S. Should be eating muffins, mashed
potatoes, scrambled eggs, rotting cheese…
Food, HPC, appliances, entertainment, large emerging markets
may NOT follow developed market tastes.

5. Asserting Markets
Large markets: Reward offerings that cater to local nuances and
make them global scale.

6. Asserting Markets
Large markets: Reward offerings that cater to local nuances and
make them global scale.
Deep markets: Customer gets validation of her behaviour from
family, community, culture.
Room of influence available to marketers is partial.
Local nuances are large markets & shall be served

7. Backing Insights : The mindset..
• She is right and confident. She listens to her mom
and neighbor a lot.
• They are in large numbers; it pays to tune with them
• Therefore, ours is to serve them and not “improve”
or “globalize” them…

8. Who shops at BIG BAZAAR?

9. Point Of View: Indian Customer
Early steps of aspiring, upgrading
• No nuclear families
• No cosmopolitan cities; only multi ethnic
• Hunting in packs
• Unique collective instincts
• Small joys of small savings
• The elbow push factor

10. No nuclear families
Big Bazaar point of view
• Nuclear living in reality
• Extended family living in the mind; mohalla mindset
• „Personal privacy‟?!

11. No nuclear families
Big Bazaar point of view
• Nuclear living in reality
• Extended family living in the mind; mohalla mindset
• „Personal privacy‟?!
Therefore, Big Bazaar design elements
• 3 generations together
• Ma in law & daughter in law together
• You can always think of someone to gift to, someone
to share with: combo packs
• Festivals matter

12. • Happiness in 3 generations together.

13. • Prominent on every BIG BAZAAR‟s facade

14. • Modern day public places, Temples of democracy

15. Every locality is different
Big Bazaar point of view
• Ethnic clusters everywhere
• Not just ethnic : White collared v/s Gold collared

16. Every locality is different
Big Bazaar point of view
• Ethnic clusters everywhere
• Not just ethnic : White collared v/s Gold collared
Therefore, Big Bazaar design elements
• Visuals are shot afresh for every new city
• Store heads as „karta‟
• Even pricing and promotions are at store level
• Control, uniformity v/s empowerment

17. • Ethnic signatures vital for connect

18. Hunting in packs
Big Bazaar point of view
• Shopping is family outing
• Shared decision making
• Double the number of senses; double the
capacity to absorb stimuli

19. Hunting in packs
Big Bazaar point of view
• Shopping is family outing
• Shared decision making
• Double the number of senses; double the
capacity to absorb stimuli
Therefore, Big Bazaar design elements
• Layout
• Communication

20. • Shared, excited decision making for smallest of things

21. • Typical supermarket aisles; orderly and efficient

22. • Typical BIG BAZAAR layout: C‟s & L‟s
• No straight aisles

23. • The child determines if it‟s a „family outing‟
• A family unit shops more then individual unit

24. Unique Collective instincts
Big Bazaar point of view
• Such a nice place! Must be expensive
• Thanda matlab, baasi! (only leftovers are
„frozen‟)

25. Unique Collective instincts
Big Bazaar point of view
• Such a nice place! Must be expensive
• Thanda matlab, baasi! (only leftovers are
„frozen‟)
Therefore, Big Bazaar design elements
• Impact on store choice; store design
• Impact on food merchandising; supply chain

26. • Kota stone, white lights, no false ceiling
• Simple and imperfect… like everything else in my life…

27. • It costs Big Bazaar more to sell groceries loose than packed
• But it‟s a vital customer connect everyone has copied

28. Elbow Push Factor
• What‟s „butt brush‟ factor?
• Elbow Push Factor : In a queue in India, any
space of more than a forearm long, makes
everyone uncomfortable and will always get
intruded.

29. Elbow Push Factor
• What‟s „butt brush‟ factor?
• Elbow Push Factor : In a queue in India, any
space of more than a forearm long, makes
everyone uncomfortable and will always get
intruded.
Therefore, Big Bazaar design elements
• Inter shopper competition: „copy shopping‟
• Selling in the queues. Last chance to grab

30. • Aspiration is everyone‟s birthright and they shall have it

31. The Market: Competing Mental models
• West: Gallery of dead objects, focus on individual
product, separate spaces for things and people
• India: Living system, exchange of energy, focus on
abundance, the buyer as hunter

32. Big Bazaar: Design Principles
• Shop as a living thing
• Mall as accessible celebration
• Deliberate disorder
• An antidote to impersonal shopping
• The universal legitimacy of a good deal

33. The Consumer Experience
• Making everyone feel rich; the ability to splurge
without thinking twice
• Creating aspiration one can feel comfortable
aspiring to: my kind of aspiration
• Keeping the buyer in a hunting-foraging mode, not
making her a passive spectator
• Culturally accessible interiors, comfortable service,
lack of any sense of being evaluated

34. Damodar Mall blog: shoptalk.in twitter: @SupermarketWala