RAMMS, India’s leading end-to-end retail consultancy provider and partner in India of the Ebeltoft group, an international consortium of retail consultants, organised the first of the seminar series, “Get Ready for Wal-Mart: How to thrive in the new global retail scene!” in Mumbai yesterday.
The focus of the seminar revolved around the Wal-Mart experience and the operation techniques that have led it to become the biggest retailer in the world. The accent was on a positive perspective on international best practices in retail and understanding the business process of the largest retailer in the world. John Williams and John Torella, senior partners of JC Williams Group, USA, and R Kannan, president, RAMMS India, shared their personal experiences in the retail world in a global environment.
Williams highlighted global trends in the retail industry and covered topics like Wal-Mart culture, financials, operations, technology and logistics, supplier relations, real estate, merchandising, brands, advertising and e-commerce.
Torella emphasised the need to effectively bring about change in the marketing and communication tools used by marketers to suit the requirements of the modern customer in India. Torella stated, “The end goal of the marketer is to build customer and financial equity. Today, marketing is moving from immediate sales to profitable growth; from creation of product, services, stores, etc., to recreating a total experience; from just setting up a store to making it into a multi-channel outlet; and from providing rational benefits to emotional benefits.”
Torella reminded that the role of a chief marketing officer today is to put the customer at the heart of the business, and at the same time focus on innovation. He said, “The store is an important medium to reach out to your customer and, hence, in-store marketing is an important tool.” Elaborating on communication, he said that the traditional media is not slated to go away, but the challenge is to blend it with the new media for better optimisation.
It is learnt that RAMMS has inked a strategic partnership with JC Williams Group to form RAMMS–JC Williams Group India. The new company will bring together RAMMS’s knowledge and experience of working with Indian brands and retailers with JWCG’s global practical, creative and in-depth knowledge of retailing and marketing, including up-to-date know-how and techniques to make retail operations better and profitable. The spectrum of services offered by the new entity will be mall management, retail operations, merchandising and productivity, retail training and development.
– Zainab Morbiwala, Mumbai Bureau
