Forces at IIM Calcutta: 12/2/07

Who's doing what in Kids Retail in India

Monalisa, the Versace of kids is coming to India
Global lifestyle brand Nautika is bringing Nautika Kids
International brand, Zapp has tied up with Raymond to foray into Kid's apparel
Disney has launched exclusive chains which stock character - based stationery.
Pantaloon's joint venture with Gini & Jony will set up a retail chain to market kids' apparel.
Swiss kids wear brand Milou is collaborating with Tirupur based Sreeja hosieries
Turner International India Pvt. Ltd. will launch Cartoon network Townsville and Planet POGO - two theme parks designed around its channels - in National Capital region.
Sahara One Television has signed an MoU to source content from Spacetoon media Group, Middle East's largest kids' entertainment b rand for animation and live content.

Leading the kids' retail revolution is the apparel business, which accounts for almost 80% of revenue, with kids clothing in India following international trends. According to research firm KSA Technopak, the branded segment comprises $ 70.7 million of the total kids' apparel market-size of over $3 billion.

Self-Destructive Habits in India

From Jagdish Sheth's Blog :

Self Destructive habits of good companies -

Denial
Arrogance
Complacency
Competency Dependence
Competitive Myopia
Volume Obsession
The Territorial Impulse

'Is India as a nation likely to acquire some of the bad habits?
Is India's IT sector already showing signs of bad habits such as arrogance and complacency?
What should the leadership in Indian organizations do to avoid or break these habits?

In answer to the first two questions, yes, any large organization is at risk to fall into the pattern of bad habits. As I highlight in my book, these habits follow naturally from early successes.

As for the last question about what leaders can do, I would emphasize two important strategies:

Leadership should constantly remind themselves and others to remain humble.
Early successes cannot be taken for granted because of emerging competition from Eastern Europe, Vietnam and Latin America.

No 'kidding' !

Travelling by train, recently, I witnessed a little boy being coaxed into displaying his recitation skills by his beaming parents, sitting beside him. Indian parents in general find it rewarding to put up a show for any visiting folks, where the kid at home would be asked to display his various skill sets ranging from yoga poses to renditions of popular movie songs.

Partha Sinha, in his thought provoking article, 'Showcase Kids: An obsession with Indian parents' states,

'The Indian obsession of putting a child on display has its roots in the way we have culturally looked at our progeny. Children are new improved versions of the parent –– they don’t and can’t have an identity of their own. The expectation of ‘extended self’ is so much that most people don’t bother to make a pension plan. It’s almost a given that the child will take care of the parent because they are one and the same.

The display value has got nothing to do with the child––it’s got everything to do with their parents. Most metro urban professionals measure their success by two factors –– where do they live and which school their children go to. When the father, most probably taught in a vernacular medium, waxes eloquent about his child’s fees in a Cathedral or Bombay Scottish School, he isn’t talking of the child.'

It would be well for all Indian parents to read what Kahlil Gibran has to say on 'Children',

'Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.'

Cartoon : http://www.manicksorcar.com

Posted by Prof.Ray Titus

Brand 'fancy'

Rural folk in India are now going the 'brand way'. Take the case of edible oils. According to the Processed Food and Agribusiness - Report by KPMG and FICCI, packaged products are preferred in the edible oil segment as rural consumers are increasingly becoming health conscious as well as brand-aware.

The annual consumption of edible oil in the country is currently about 110 lakh tonnes, 40 per cent of which is branded. While edible oil’s growth, in terms of consumption, is about 8 per cent, packaged oil is growing at 22 per cent.

The reasons behind rural folk joining the growing fold of 'brand consumers' is twofold. First, Brands help consumers be at ease when it comes to evaluations based on quality and other functional attributes. For brand conscious consumers these parameters are a taken as they assume that it would be rare that a brand defaults on such basic attributes. The second reason, is that brand purchases satiate 'aspirational impulses'. Every consumer wants to climb the aspiration ladder. Buying a brand is a sign that shows the consumer has 'arrived', more so for rural consumers.

Now that is not to say that brands will win, hands down. Brands have to customise to rural purchase patterns. In the case of edible oils, marketers targeting the rural folk have taken care to ensure that package sizes are reduced the fit the 'lower' purchasing power of rural folk who cannot afford the money to buy larger quantities at a time.

Pic : http://www.businessworldindia.com