Eagles- Group B6- Rural /Retail magazine

H&M's and other stories broadens target market

By Suhasini Seshan

Europe’s second largest retailer Hennes & Mauritz will be launching a new line of clothes during spring simultaneously in seven cities and on its online stores.

The new line “& Other Stories” will be launching in Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, London, Milan, Paris and Stockholm. Moreover an online store launches on stories.com in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom.

Tata Safari rejuvenates through Storme

by Asghar Zaidi

Tata Safari which is in a critical stage of its lifecycle has launched the much awaited Storme recently. The new Storme is a completely updated Safari and is expected to bring back the much desired consumer interest . Tata Safari which is a true-blood Indian SUV failed to capitalize on its long innings and a hard-core fan following. Despite the fact that Safari had a distinct brand character, the marketing minds of Tata Motors failed to address the quality issues which was creating a negative perception among the consumers. see the rise of more compact SUVs and was less aggressive in addressing competition from Scorpio. The laid-back attitude of the brand owners has virtually made Safari anominal player in a category which it once pioneered.

Although the brand tried to come out with newer versions, most of the changes were cosmetic rather than a radical one.The laid-back approach of Tata Motors in addressing the nagging issues of Safari virtually put Safari in to the sidelines. The brand failed to see the rise of more compact SUVs and was less aggressive in addressing competition from Scorpio. One can only hope that Storme will change the quality perception that is haunting Tata Motors ever since it ventured in to passenger segment

Fujifilm plan to increase market share

By Prachi Trehan

Japanese imaging solutions provider, Fujifilm is set to double its marketing budget to Rs. 120 crore this year. They hope to achieve this target by doubling its sales in the domestic market from 1.6 lakh units in 2011 to 3.2 lakh units in 2012.It currently enjoys 8 percent of the digital compact camera market in India, which is approximately 25 lakh units and believes that there would be a rising demand for cameras from mostly small towns. It will invest 8 to 9 percent of the turnover on R&D activities and expects revenue of Rs 700 crore for this fiscal year from the domestic market.

Bata to expand online retailing

By Gigitha

Footwear retailing brand Bata has announced plans to improve its online retail presence, which is emerging as the next big sales avenue for the company. Through its 10 month old platform, Bata now sells 1000 pairs of shoes a week. The company aims to triple this sales figure to 3000 pairs a week within a year. Bata India is one of the very few companies among consumer goods majors to have its own e-platform to licensed products. The company currently has tie ups with ebay.com and rediff.com and they plan to establish tie ups with e shopping websites like myntra.com, yebhi.com and bestylish.com in future.

PayPal runs first point-of-scale Trail with home Depot

Home Depot has become the first retailer working to introduce PayPal at the point of scale. This is a significant achievement for PayPal, which has conventionally offered online payment solutions to customers. The eBay owned company confirmed its partnership programme with Home Depot as a limited pilot concerned with POS technologies. A Limited numbers of PayPal employees are involved in the project. It is currently being implemented in 5 stores. This pilot project went live in December and allows customers to use their PayPal-ISSUED CREDIT CARD to pay for items at the register. Customers can also choose to enter their mobile phone number into the POS device placed at the register. Neither of the solutions makes use of near field communication, which can be a limiting factor for adoption. More such POS projects are scheduled for this year, PayPal added.

The Emotional Connect

By Abhishek Shetty

 Domino’s Pizza India has moved over from ‘Khushiyon Ki Home Delivery’ to ‘‘YehHaiRishtonKa Time’ to create a stronger emotional connect with their consumers. From a functional promise of fulfilling hunger needs through ‘Hungry Kya?’ to adding an emotional touch of happiness to a box of pizza with ‘Khushiyon Ki Home Delivery’. They now boast the tagline,‘YehHaiRishtonKa Time’. Domino’s Pizza is on the path to reinvent its strategy to position itself in the Indian market. .Harneet Singh, VP- Marketing, Domino’s Pizza India says”Happiness as an emotion has become very generic and about 30 brands in India have happiness in their taglines. So the possibility to own that tag name becomes remote. A strong positioning is the one which is entirely owned by the brand. We thought it was the right time to evolve to a tagline which has a deeper connect and is much closer to a consumer, and which as a brand he/she can own. We believe that time spent over a pizza makes relationships stronger, livelier and warmer. It is this belief that has been articulated in our new baseline ‘YehHaiRishtonKa Time’ “. 4-5% of the total revenue is spent on marketing and this campaign is a part of the same. Changes will be seen at all possible touch points with the consumer. The brand will be running engaging activities on from ‘Khushiyon Ki Home Delivery’ to ‘YehHaiRishtonKa Time’ to create a stronger emotional connect with their consumers. The brand will be running engaging activities on Facebook,Twitter and Youtube

Billabong receives sixth offer

by Jay Gandhi

Billabong has received another takeover offer. This time from VF Corporation, the owner of US brands like North Face and Timberland, and its associate US private equity firm Altamont Capital Partners.
The companies have offered to buy all of the troubled surfwear’s shares for $1.10 – the same price all of its other previous bidders have offered.