B2B event companies don’t often think about consumer spending as something directly relevant to their business. However, consumer trends can allow industry event and exhibition organizers to get an advance view of where the opportunities can lie in the future. In this Keynote address at UFI’s Asia Open Seminar in Bangalore, Devangshu Dutta shares his views about the key consumer trends in India, and the implications for the events and exhibitions industry.

(This presentation was delivered on 6 March 2014 in Bangalore, India.)

Arpita Mukherjee, Business Today
New Delhi, 8 July 2014

A day after world’s second-largest retailer Carrefour SA said that it will exit India by September end after shutting its cash-and-carry stores, RPG Enterprises Chairman Harsh Goenka tweeted that "the French can never understand India".

However, analysts say that too much should not be read into the company’s exit from India.

"Most global retail giants have struggled to successfully export their business model to new continents," says Arvind Singhal, chairman, Technopak Advisors.

He said the issue has nothing to do with the scope of the sector in the country and it is not a failure of government policy. The other global players in the sector are Germany’s Metro, American chain Wal-Mart and local players such as RIL’s Reliance Market.

Carrefour, since its entry in 2010, was not able to find a partner to expand its business beyond five stores.

"It has had a difficult time engaging with India over the last seven to eight years and could develop only a small cash-and-carry footprint without a partner," says Devangshu Dutta, Chief Executive, Third Eyesight. "We can debate on whether it was because they could not find any Indian partner whose motivations and profile matched Carrefour’s requirements or whether it was the operating conditions that it found difficult," he says.

Singhal adds the retailer, which operates more than 10,000 stores in 30-plus countries, has exited from several other countries in recent years, much like its peers Tesco and Wal-Mart. The French firm had moved out of markets such as Singapore, Greece and Malaysia.

The cash-and-carry, or the wholesale business in India is not easy to operate. Add to that the rules on local sourcing and state-wise restrictions on the operations, companies such as Carrefour are likely to struggle.

"It is important to remember that unlike Metro or even Wal-Mart, cash-and-carry is a very small part of the business for Carrefour globally," says Dutta. "Carrefour may have felt that it was ‘logical’ to disengage from India and instead focus on their other larger markets such as Europe since there are significant management challenges even in those geographies," says Dutta.

(Published in Business Today.)

Shipra Srivastava, Retailer
New Delhi, Issue dated July, 2014

It’s an industry which is not just based on creating a ‘hype’ for a product or service and senior advertising executives are also increasingly focusing on spreading awareness for a brand via a campaign based on a social cause. And, while this strategy has been effectively leveraged by a leading tea brand, but the awareness created amongst the target audience from this strategy has also led players like Coca Cola, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and Tata Chemicals to adopt a similar strategy for products / brands in their portfolio.

As a result, Coca-Cola India recently launched a campaign Sahi Daam to educate consumers not to pay more than the maximum retail price (MRP) printed on its bottles, in a bid to curb this unlawful practice.

Marketing consultants also pointed out that consumers in tier-II and-III towns are very price sensitive, and with the emphasis on ensuring product availability at the correct price, it would help to enhance sales growth in this segment.

Striking a similar view, a Coca-Cola India spokesperson, said, “We are attempting to ensure the customer gets a fair deal.”

Similarly, Lifebuoy, which is a leading brand of HUL, had the ‘Jump Pump’ campaign in 1,500 government-run schools in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra that are part of the mid-day meal scheme, and it enabled water pumps to be easily operated. The FMCG major was attempting to improve hygiene standards amongst students before their meal.

Koshy George, General Manager – skin cleansing, HUL, said, “We have attempted to improve hygiene standards amongst children.”

Tata Salt, too, attempted to emphasise the health-related aspects for consumers via free blood pressure check-up camps organised in several cities.

A relevant message

Advertising experts stressed that a brand leveraging a social cause in its campaign needs to ensure that the message is relevant and at the same time ‘connected’ to its core attributes.

In addition, such campaigns also help to break the ‘clutter’, which has plagued the communication strategy of several consumer-related categories.

Suvadip Ghosh Mazumdar, VP at Leo Burnett, said, “A socially relevant message goes beyond a simple sales ‘pitch’ and if the campaign connects with the target audience, brands can gain considerably.”

Similarly, Devangshu Dutta of the consultancy Third Eyesight, stressed that a campaign should ensure a direct link between a brand and its ability to solve a particular problem facing society.

Clearly, helping society can also pay big dividends for brands.

(Published in Retailer – July 2014 print issue.)