CII - Retail B®and 2007 Summit

Add as a preferred source on Google

Bangalore, June 22, 2007: The CII Institute of Quality, a non-government, not-for-profit industry led and managed organization today announced its first ever RETAIL B®AND 2007 SUMMIT. The Summit will be held from July 05- 06, 2007 in Mumbai.

The RETAIL B®AND 2007 SUMMIT is an initiative by CII - Institute of Quality to highlight the importance of retail branding in the organized retail sector in India. It is a platform for industry excellence, the chance to meet the challenges of globalization and transform the industry.

Mr. S.K. Kakkar, Head, CII Institute of Quality said, "The Summit will deliberate on many other subjects like retail size, formats, prospects, challenges and developments. We will aim to seek out this new competence and focus attention on building retail brands for competitiveness."

Retail B®and 2007 Summit will witness participation from organizations that are leading or assisting in driving the retail revolution in India such as Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company Ltd., Hypercity, Subhiksha Trading Services, RPG Group, Reliance Lifestyle, Motorola, McDonalds, Future Group-Pantaloons, ICICI Bank, Shining Emotional Surplus Pvt. Ltd., IIM Ahmedabad, FCB Ulka, Cafe Coffee Day, Shoppers Stop, Titan Industries, Bombay Store, Yum Foods, Madura Garments, Infiniti Retail Ltd. and Tata Consulting Services.

Retail has always been a challenging business but these days it has become a matter of life and death for the retailers. Competition can come from most unexpected corners and hence retailers need to take an international perspective. With increasing competition, the winners will be those who can create a distinct identity for themselves and present retail offer that on its face itself spell out its value proposition stated Mr. Harish Bijoor, Event Chairman, The Retail B®and 2007. This involves building a customer-centric culture and constant monitoring of the emerging global trends.

Retail Branding is about differentiation, a unique personality, a true point of difference. It's about vision, values, ideas, ideology. Few marketers truly understand who they are, what they stand for, or what their innermost substance or being is.

Retail is one competence. Branding is another. With the rise of organized retail, there is a great degree of interest in the category from both sides of the fence. There is the big retailer and the small. This category interests the brand owner, the vendor who caters to the retail enterprise development and solutions providers of every kind.

The new generation consumer is young, daring and wants to experiment and explore with new ideas. Offerings to such consumers have to match their lifestyle and expectations. Brands and retailers need to look what's happening outside their market, anticipate the consumer demand and be ahead of others in offering the right products and services.

While the retail environment bubbles over, brand competence itself is on the morph. Retail branding is an altogether new subject. It is a relatively new competence that needs to be generated in an economy poised to become an economy dominated by the shopping revenue and experience.

Generating the shopping experience is a 1:1 expertise. Mass marketers, spearheaded by the FMCG and durables players of the day, who have specialized in the top-down formats of selling, branding and marketing find this to be a new competence arena. The shopping experience and everything that encompasses the point of retail, is about retail branding. A competence that is a bottom-up process altogether Many companies have Brand guidelines and manuals that identify the name, logo, colours, graphics of their Brand-a set of dos and don'ts. However, that is putting the cart before the horse. Without knowing who you are and what you stand for, how can you possibly create effective Brand communications? The logical sequence must be first your Brand's essence and identity and then the graphics and communications.