SHOPPER’S STOP LTD.

Positioning strategies adopted by the company for its various stores and its impact
on brand identity.

Contents
COMPANY BACKGROUND........................................................................................3

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SWOT ANALYSIS.........................................................................................................4
MARKETING MIX.........................................................................................................5
TARGET GROUP...........................................................................................................8
POSITIONING OF THE STORES.................................................................................9
ADVERTISING & PROMOTIONS.............................................................................13
LOYALTY PROGRAMS.............................................................................................18
IMPACT OF POSITIONING ON BRAND IDENTITY..............................................20
BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................................................................................22

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 COMPANY BACKGROUND

Shoppers’ Stop is promoted by the K Raheja Corp Group, one of leading players in real
estate development and hotels. Shoppers’ Stop has progressed from being a single brand
shop to a family orientated fashion and lifestyle store. Shoppers’ Stop operates under the
Departmental store format, and was one of the pioneers of the large format stores in
India. Shoppers’ Stop hass created a new business unit to manage its specialty businesses
like Crossword, Mother care, F&B business and MAC.

They benchmark with global retailers, and strive to enhance their service offering in line
with the emerging global trends. They began by operating a chain of department stores
under the name “Shoppers’ Stop” in India. Currently they have twenty four (24) such
stores across the country and three (3) stores under the name “HomeStop”. Over the
years, they have also begun operating a number of speciality stores, namely Crossword,
Mothercare, Brio, Desi Café, Arcelia, Stop & Go and MAC. They are also experimenting
with other formats of retailing through their various ventures.

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SWOT ANALYSIS

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 MARKETING MIX

PRODUCT

1. General Products : Shopper’s Stop includes domestic as well as internation

retail articles and products

2. Private Label:Shopper Stop has also launched their own private labels such as
STOP.

3. Others : In addition to the above,Shopper Stop also does promotional

marketing.e.g.They launched ZooZoo range and also other similar products have
been launched. These also form the part of the Product as SS.

Private Labels of Shopper Stop

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 PLACE

1. Shoppers Stop is Indian largest chain of Super Stores and has many stores in
whole of india

2. Shoppers Stop Ltd. Excels in Service quality and the stores of a high class feel
which is different from Big Bazaar or similar stores.

PROMOTION

1. The communication strategy of Shopper’s Stop has been to reach out to the
customers in their own style and language

2. SS uses print as well as OOH media to promote the brand.The brand uses brand
ambassadors like Kareena Kapoor to endorse the brand.

3. The private label STOP is promoted in store through logo and proper placement
in the store adjoing similar national brands

4. Associates itself with Local festivals and events

PRICING

 SS has a proper mix of both premium and affordable priced products.The brands
are sold at MRP and lower. The main USP is the choice given to the customer
rather than the Price.

Various Pricing Strategies used by Shopper’s Stop are as below:

1. Premium Pricing

2. Economy Pricing

3. Psychological Pricing

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4. Optional Product Pricing

5. Promotional Pricing

6. Geographical Pricing

7. Value Pricing

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 TARGET GROUP

Shopper Stop mainly divides its customers on the basis of 2 main variables

1) Geographic and Demographics : Age,Gender,Income on the basis

of geography
2) Psychographics(or behavioral)

Shopper Stop is present in many cities across India so it has to modify itself according to
the geography. Geographical segmentation is very important for SS.
SS mainly targets people with high disposable incomes in Tier 1 Cities like
Mumbai,Delhi etc.
Within Mumbai also their stores are in areas like Juhu,Nirmal Lifestyle Mulund.The
malls and places which are considered to be high class,modern and upmarket.
On basis of Psychographics, the SS targets people who want a choice of good clothing
and products which are branded, high quality and in the upper price range.

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 POSITIONING OF THE STORES

Shoppers’ Stop
Shopper’s Stop is the flagship business of departmental stores. They retail a range of
branded apparel, footwear, perfumes, cosmetics, jewellery, leather products, accessories,
home products, electronics, books, music and toys in their stores. They also retail their
own private label apparel, footwear, fashion jewellery, leather products, accessories and
home products. These are complemented by cafe, food, entertainment, personal care and
various beauty related services. Promotions and events are an integral part of their service
offering to their customer, which helps them to create a unique shopping experience.
They retail products of domestic and international brands such as Louis Philippe, Pepe,
Arrow, BIBA, Gini & Jony, Carbon, Corelle, Magppie, Nike, Reebok, LEGO, and Mattel
among others, through their stores. They retail merchandise under their own labels, such
as STOP, Kashish, LIFE and Vettorio Fratini, Elliza Donatein, Haute Curry, I Jeanswear,
Insense, Mario Zegnoti, Acropolis and Indi-Visual. Their designer section show cases
some of India’s prominent fashion designers (Ritu Kumar, Satya Paul and LABEL),
retailing affordable designer wear. They are also licensees for Austin Reed (London), an
international brand, who’s mens’ and womens’ outerwear are retailed in India exclusively
through their chain.

Crossword
Crossword is a speciality store in the leisure bookstore category. The store focuses on
methodical classification, clear signages, and dedicated enquiry/order desks. There are
cafes, reading tables and stores within the store to enhance the customer experience. The
product mix consists of books, magazines, CDROMs, music, stationery and toys. Forty
eight (48) Crossword stores are currently being operated, out of which twenty six (26)
stores (including 10 shops in shops) are run by the Company and twenty two (22) are run
by external franchisees

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HomeStop
HomeStop is a format which retails hard and soft furnishing and home accessories. Their
offerings through HomeStop ranges from hard furnishing such as home furniture,
modular kitchens, health equipment and recliners, and soft furnishing such as mattresses,
draperies, carpets and home accessories such as decorative accessories, kitchen
accessories and appliances,. They are currently three (3) HomeStop, one each in Mumbai,
Bangalore and New Delhi.

Brio and Desi Café (F & B)

Their foray into Food and Beverages (“F & B”) began with Brio. Brio has been designed
with the intention of providing a warm and friendly place to relax, revive and reflect. It
currently operates twenty (20) Brio stores. They have started an Indian cuisine concept
under the name of Desi Café as another concept to add to the food and beverages
offerings. It currently operates three (3) Desi Café stores in Mumbai, Lucknow and
Rajouri.

Hypercity
They have a 19% stake in Hyper city Retail (India) Limited, which operates the store
named “HyperCity”. The store, having an area of approximately 124,500 square feet
offers food and grocery, general merchandise and apparel. Currently, there is one
HyperCity store in operation.

Hypercity Retail (India) Limited has also opened three (3) stores called ‘ExpressCity’ in
Jaipur and one (1) store in Thane, to experiment with smaller versions of the format.
ExpressCity is a retail format which is similar to a convenience store format primarily
retailing food, grocery and household needs

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Their growth strategy is based on increasing the reach and penetration across the country
by opening new stores and through multiple retailing channels and formats, and
furthering Shoppers’ Stop as an experiential retail brand through unique national and
international products. They also look at enhancing their merchandise width by adding
new product categories and services, and strengthen their offerings by adding new brands
and private labels to offer a better depth in each category.

They also endeavour to enhance their base of loyal customers through the First Citizen
Programme. They believe that as they grow in size and scale and expand the reach
further, their current economies of scale would be further enhanced. They also continue
to focus on at enhancing their operational efficiencies and human capital, which is critical
in any service driven industry such as retail. They are also investing in other formats by
way of joint ventures, licenses and franchisee arrangements. The following are the
initiatives under such arrangements:

M.A.C.
They have opened M.A.C. stores under a Supply and License Agreement with the
cosmetics major Estee Lauder. Currently it is operating four (4) MAC store in Mumbai,
Bangalore and Delhi.

Arcelia
Arcelia is a new retail concept aiming at the bridge to luxury segment, with a strong
emphasis on experience and indulgence and is primarily caters to discerning women
shoppers. It primarily retails cosmetics, fragrances, fine jewellery, footwear, handbags
etc. They currently have two (2) stores operational in Delhi and Pune.
Mothercare
Under an exclusive franchisee arrangement by virtue of a Development Agreement with
Mothercare UK Limited, they have opened Mothercare stores, which market a variety of
products for expecting mothers, babies, toddlers and children, the focus being on style,
function and safety. It currently operates eighteen (18) Mothercare stores; out of which
ten (10) are shop in shop and eight (8) are standalone stores.

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Nuance Group
They have forayed into airport retailing through our joint venture with The Nuance
Group AG, Switzerland. They will handle the retail operations in the domestic terminals
while the joint venture company will handle the operations at the duty free zones in
international terminals. The joint venture company, called Nuance Group (India) Private
Limited, has already bagged contracts to operate outlets at the international airports at
Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Timezone
Timezone marks their foray into entertainment retail. They have acquired a 45% stake in
Timezone Entertainment Private Limited which is in the business of providing family
entertainment centres. It currently operates six (6) outlets in Mumbai, Ahmedabad,
Kolkata and Hyderabad.

HyperCity-Argos
They have ventured into new formats of retailing, namely catalogue stores, call and
collect stores, internet retail website and telephone orders through their subsidiary,
Gateway Multichannel Retail (India) Limited under the name of ‘HyperCity-Argos’.
Currently operating five (5) stores at Thane.

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 ADVERTISING & PROMOTIONS

Advertising strategy is based on creating a bond with the customer and enhancing their
trust in Shoppers’ Stop. Advertisements thus promote the Shoppers’ Stop brand and not
the merchandise, store or the property location. They extensively use promotions and
events to further their relationship with the customers. They have a central marketing
team at service office in Mumbai, supported by representatives at their stores.
Advertising

Being in the retailing business, Shoppers Stop has been a pioneer - and that's not just a
juicy compliment. They were the the first in India (since 1991), they have a fruitful IT
setup, and they have constantly expanded their product line, encouraging even
unconventional tie-ups like Om Shanti Om movie clothing line. They have also pioneered
in developing their B2B sourcing technique. Some online interviews revealed that they
intend to rapidly expand to over 50 stores in 2 years, from the current strength of 22 in
eleven cities.

The original logo now functions as the Raheja group's logo for retail stores. I was
surprised to know about their diverse investments. Apart from Crosswords, they own
other speciality store brands including HomeStop, mothercare, Brio and desicafe'.

Old logo New logo

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The Ad Campaign

The current campaign speaks of a logo change and a untenable 'Start Something New'
tagline. Such rebranding campaigns communicate an underlying reason for the change,
benefits (if any) to the consumer. This campaign seems to starkly lack that.
Here's one of the Print Ads

The management of Shoppers Stop have got strong business acumen. The advertisement

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of Shoppers Stop directly relate to their target audience in terms of style, classy look and
wardrobes available. The ad here tries to mix the western influence on the wardrobe
collection in terms of style and class, and still tries to correlate with the Indian culture.

Shopper Stop also advertised its product range by being the official wardrobe partner for
various events and parties. Due to uge demand and craze of such fasionable products,
such schemes work out well for Shoppers Stop. For eg people adored Deepika
Padukone’s style in Love Aaj Kal and they could purchase two of her signature kurta’s
from the movie at Shoppers Stop!!!

Promotions

Shoppers’ Stop use promotions as an important part of our marketing tool to reinforce the
brand positioning ‘Feel the experience, while you shop’. The promotions are targeted at
enhancing the fun in shopping and providing the customer with a unique shopping
experience and not just on offering discounts and bargains. Their belief is to give more
for same and not same for less.

The companies plan their annual promotions calendar and carry out these promotions
simultaneously across all our stores.

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Some of our promotions and events include:
 Parikrama: Festival celebrating Indian tradition and culture, which not only
serves to bring the consumers closer to culture, but also provides a platform to
promote upcoming artisans from remote and rural areas giving them an
opportunity to showcase their art and craft at Shoppers’ Stop.
 Fly to Santaland: Customers shopping upto or more than a predetermined value
woul be eligible to enter a contest and win a holiday to The Santa Village in
Finland showcasing apparel and accessories for men with offers ranging from
gifts to trips to international destinations and discounts etc. with every buy that
they make. The event serves to bring men into the stores.
 Wardrobe Exchange: A charity promotion under which customers donate their old
garments and accessories and earn discounts on new purchases at Shoppers' Stop.
The old garments are donated to Concern India Foundation.
 Rims And Dials : A festival which solely focuses on watches and sunglasses
 Do Your Denim : This event is geared towards bringing out the creativity of
customers to design their own denim jeans

Besides these, they organized several other festivals such as:

 Disney Carnival, in 1993, with official Disney characters from Disney Inc
(Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy) participating.
 The Tycoon Tie Festival in 1994, in which the largest tie in the world was
displayed and featured in the Guinness Book of World Records.
 Festival of Britain, in 1996 in collaboration with the Government of Great Britain.
 The Buy and Fly to Seven Wonders of the World, in 2001 which provided
customers an opportunity to win a trip to the Seven Wonders.

They also hold sales at the end of each season (twice a year to mark the end of each
season) wherein they offer a range of discounts on our merchandise. These not only help
them clear their inventory, but also bring in larger number of customers into the stores.

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First Citizen Programme
Started in April 1994, the First Citizen programme is the center of loyal customer
management process. We had 971,537 First Citizens as on December 31, 2008. First
citizens accounted for about 62% of their sales for the year ended March 31, 2008 and
61% of the sales for the nine months ended December 31, 2008. They have three levels in
First Citizen membership namely Classic Moments, Silver Edge and Golden Glow,
depending on the spend in our stores:

First Citizens receive:

• Reward points on their spend in our stores, which can be exchanged for merchandise
• Special schemes and promotions available only to First Citizens.
• Extended or exclusive shopping hours, especially during festivals
• Invitations to select events and celebrations
• Home delivery of alterations.
• Comfort Lounges at select stores.

It is a tradition to invite First Citizens to inaugurate new stores.

‘First Update’ from Shoppers’ Stop

‘First Update’ is a complimentary bi-monthly magazine sent to Golden Glow First
Citizens. The articles are written keeping in view the lifestyle preference of the customer
covering various topics such as health, shopping, product specific information, , fashion
trends, new arrivals in store, store updates, contests/offers, entertainment and travel.

First Citizen Co-branded credit card

They have introduced Co-Branded cards as an extension of the First Citizen programme.
They currently offer (subject to fulfillment of conditions) a First Citizen Citibank –co
branded card to First Citizens. This card provides additional points over the regular
reward points besides other benefits such as free insurance, offer alerts, EMI schemes,
etc. The reward point system allow the member the flexibility to earn reward points by

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shopping at any place of their own choice and still have them redeemed at Shoppers’
Stop.

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 LOYALTY PROGRAMS

To enhance the shopping experience of customers and offer the ‘ultimate shopping
experience, Shoppers’ Stop started a loyalty program named ‘First citizen’. It is this
emotional connect that they have been able to create with our customers through their
service offering and special promotions that has helped them convert many of them into
loyal customers.

A person can become a First Citizen club member by submitting an application form.
The club provided membership to the frequent customers in three stages- Classic
Moments, Silver Edge and Golden Glow. The customer gets reward points every time he
shops and these points can later be redeemed for any item in the Shoppers’ Stop store.
The First Citizen Program membership also entitles the customer to exclusive privileges
such as product previews, priority billing and other special benefits. These benefits are
highlighted as under –

 They were entitled to various offers at selected departmental stores in other

countries.

 The card holders can also earn a point if they used their cards even at places other
than stoppers’ stop.

 Accident insurance up to Rs. 20,00,000 for first citizen golden glow Citibank card
holders and Rs. 10,00,000 for first citizen silver edge Citibank card holders.

 They received invitations to exclusive preview sales, discounts and other

promotional activities.

 All stoppers’ stop outlets across the country featured Citibank financial centres at
which the first citizen card holders could avail of the various services offered by
Citibank like loan facility for homes and automobiles.

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Shoppers’ stop also launched a co-branded card named First Citizen Citibank Master
Bank in collaboration with Citibank in 2001. The customer of shoppers’ stop who joined
the First Citizen club would get the First Citizen Citibank Master Bank. This was the first
co-branded card in India. Thus, the First Citizen Citibank Credit Card truly meant more
rewards for the loyal customers of Shoppers Stop.

It also had a loyalty program, called ‘SKIDS’ for children of First Citizen Club members
who were of the age group 4 to 14. This is a program offering members an opportunity to
avail of a variety of special benefits, by amassing points on their purchases, and it also
offers them privileged shopping experiences.

Currently, Shoppers’ Stop has a database of over 4.5 lakh members who contribute to a
large percentage of the total sales of Shoppers’ Stop. Incidentally, Shoppers’ Stop is the
only retailer from India to become a member of the prestigious Intercontinental Group of
Departmental Stores (IGDS). The IGDS consists of 29 experienced retailers from all over
the world, which include established stores like Selfridges (England), Karstadt
(Germany), Shanghai No. 1 (China), Matahari (Indonesia), Takashimaya (Japan), C K
Tang (Singapore), Manor (Switzerland) and Lamcy Plaza (Dubai). This membership is
restricted to one member organization per country/region.

The Key benefits of a Loyalty Program

The underlying principle of loyalty cards is based on structured marketing efforts that
reward, and therefore encourage, loyal buying behaviour. The various studies on loyalty
behaviour of a consumer towards a particular store and the key benefits he derives from
any loyalty program are mentioned as under –

 If the customers seek the benefits from loyalty programs then he/she tends to
make more utilization of such programs.

 His/her number of visit to the particular store increases considerably.

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  Purchasing decisions of customers under such loyalty programs is confined and
they visit the company’s store when the customer wants to purchase certain items
which are sold in the company.

 Customers also tend to involve their family members, friends and others in such
programs so that they can also enjoy the benefits of the programs and ultimately it
increases the customer base of the company which runs such loyalty programs.

 Since all the time customers get one or more benefits from these programs, so
there is inclination in purchasing of products and services from the same
company.

 Other than financial benefits customer also get the privilege of insurance (in some
cases) and make purchase of goods from other stores etc.

Sample Value Table

Monthly Expenses Cost (in Rs.) Reward Points

Shopping at Shopper’s Stop 3,000 120
Restaurant/Entertainment 9,000
Grocery 3,000
Travel 5,000 170
Total for the Month 20,000 190
Full Year 190 * 12 = 2,280

* Every Rs. 100 that First Citizen Citibank Golden Glow Card members spend at
Shoppers' Stop will get them 5 Rewards Points and every Rs. 100 that First Citizen
Citibank Silver Edge Card members spend at Shoppers' Stop will get them 4 Rewards
Points. Every Rs. 100 that is spent elsewhere will earn them 1 Rewards Point.

IMPACT OF POSITIONING ON BRAND IDENTITY

BRAND IMAGE BRAND IDENTITY BRAND POSITION

The part of the brand identity and
How the brand is How strategists want the
value proposition to be actively
now perceived brand to be perceived
communicated to a target audience

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The postioning used by Shopper Stop has lead to a strong Brand identity formulation and
hence stronger Brand Image.

The Shopper Stop has made their positioning in sync with their brand identity through

 Focused on Delivering and Measuring Customer Service

 Training Employees to Deliver Customer Satisfaction

 Offering Trust in Price and Quality versus ‘Mom and Pop’

 Private Label Contribution to be Limited to 25%

 Product Brand Proliferation

This report gives a perspective of Shopper Stop and its various programs with their
positioning, advertising and positioning.

Due to the repost and specifically the above points we conclude that the impact of their
strong positioning and positive communication of the brand identity,the brand image of
SS has come out be positive and strong.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. www.shoppersstop.com
2. www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoppers'_Stop
3. http://www.indiaretailbiz.com
4. http://www.indianrealtynews.com
5. http://www.retailangle.com

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