GROUP-5

Factors contributing towards the image and merchandise of a store

@RELIANCE TIMEOUT-OBERON MALL
ALVIN T VINCENT FK-2195 FEBIN T. SHAJAN FK-2206 GYANENDRA KUMAR F0-79 AMIT KUMAR F0-68 JOHN THOMAS PATHISSERIL FK-2182

04/01/2012

FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TOWARDS STORE IMAGE Retailing is a mature and extremely competitive arena which has to deal with demanding, diverse and well-informed consumers. The changing retail landscape is now adding more pressure on the retailers to retain their slice of the pie in the global, as well as the domestic market. For this the several components need to be taken care of. One of the critical components is the Space allocation. Space allocation tools are available that enables retailers to determine the optimum space for fixtures, and merchandise based on the analysis of product placement, usage and performance. The purpose of every retailer is to maximise the feel of experiential marketing. The ambience of a store communicates an image of identity, quality and value to a potential customer. A retailer must project an image that is consistent and focuses on individuality. For reliance timeout as a lifestyle format, the features that are most primary for a store design are as follows: External features and size of the store: As the store is inside Oberon mall, it gives a great advantage. When we see the store from outside itself, it has an elegant look which is supported by the position that it has got that is in the second floor of the mall which provides more visibility to the store. From the first look itself as the name itself is stylish and trendy in colour which makes it attractive. The store covers an area of 20000 sq. ft, which gives a feel of grandness and richness and gives an impression that it is meant for upper class people. Facade: A facade is generally one exterior side of a building but for a store like this it becomes the most important standpoint of a design. A specific, skill fully designed storefront can pull customers to your shop and increase sales. The storefront itself should be welcoming the customer. The facade design for reliance timeout is straight. The storefront was clean. The best product was visible to passersby. Reliance timeout believes that the entry is always important as the completion of a sale takes place inside the store, but the first step to successful sales is to lead customers through the door and thereby increasing the foot fall.

 Marquee and Logo:

Logo is giving a trendy look which attracts the youth. As it is situated inside Oberon mall, which is considered as a hanging out point for youth, being in the second floor with good visibility and with colourful and attractive logo Reliance is able to catch the attention of the people. Window display: The window pane at the front of the store is arcade and there is a lot of merchandise which is kept for display. Window displays are changed every day and are arranged to give a aesthetic appeal. Windows display consists of samples of all the product categories of store arranged in artistic manner. It includes books, toys, music, toys, gifts and stationeries. The visual aids for this store are very apt with the concept of a leisure store. Lighting: There are around 600 lights in the store. Effective display LED lighting bulbs can arrest senses and carry the consumers to the product. The lighting used here is a mixture of normal basic functional lights, spot lights, overhead lights, focus lights etc. Especially at the books section they have given additional lighting to give a warm and homely feeling. The minimum temperature that should be maintained in a store is 26 degree Celsius and for that they are using 3 chillers. The lighting at Reliance Timeout is well highlighted at each position. Three types of light are used: Basic functional lighting : Tubelights. Overhead lighting: It creates warmth and coziness. Spot lighting: It is used to focus on various racks. They have bright lights of yellow shade to give it an ambient look and they have given special effects for high value products which come under the fragrances and watch section.

 Wall color: The wall is all placed with shelf and racks. They have utilized the space completely to keep the merchandise. The major colors used in white and light blue. The important which has to be noticed is the combination of colors for different categories. Book section: Off white and brown colour Toys: Green, orange and red showing intimacy. Stationery: Grey and off white colour.

Colour scheme used in toy section gives a sense of friendliness and intimacy. Texture: There are no spectacular projections on the texture of the wall. Since the wall units occupy the entire space it is seen that no much work has been done on the design of the texture. Flooring: The carpet area of the floor is brown in color. It is almost 20,000 sq ft in area. The walking area is separated by off white vitrified tiles which help to reflect the light and which in turn provides a fresh and new look to the store. Another thing to be noted is that it has no elevation points. Inside of the store: Being a leisure format a lot of investment has gone into the interiors and ambience of the store. It is done very elegantly and the color combinations

set right or are in line with the category of the store. The basic color that is chosen is off white and brown to provide a warm feeling. Fixtures: The solid units which are present in the store are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Wall fixtures Platform ground fixtures Multi faceted ground fixture Gondola Display case Cake tables Bins

The noticeable part of these fixtures was it had a provision below the shelves to store merchandise in addition to what they store at the warehouse. Fixtures are aesthetically blended with the other design elements of the store.

 Graphics and signages: Graphics and signages inside the shop help identify the brands, indicate new products and arrivals and give various directions to the departments within the store, They also help the customer to locate the goods that he needs most conveniently. The graphics and signages used include: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Theme graphics Logo and colour design of Reliance Time Out. Campaign graphics Angry birds game campaign Promotional graphics Diwali offers Signages as promotions. Directional signs.

Sound: Sound sets the mood in the store. Slow instrumental music is played in the store and acts as a sensory relaxant. Classical music is played in the morning, regional music at noon and international music at evenings. Pricing strategies: As they are lifestyle formats they follow a high value pricing. For example if we take the case of a music CD the price range would be from 199 to 3999.In that they have discounts also. Usually they provide 10% discount on products like toys, music etc. For making an analysis we did a price benchmarking of music world with reliance timeout and found that the pricing of both is almost same for music and movies. Marketing activities and store promotions: Rock fest which is conducted July-August of every year, where in last year it resulted in 40% increase in foot fall. In this store the marketing and CSD is clubbed together. Book festival which is conducted during October of every year, where it resulted in 10% growth in sales.

 During the month of April and May they have an activity cal BACK TO SCHOOL which only concentrates on the school and college going students and mothers. Last year they had an increase in sales of 13% growth in the total sales. Every year during December as a part of Christmas they used to conduct CSR activities along with NGO organizations by giving them free books to study, free toys to play etc. Apart from this they offer 10% discount for all the Book club card members with lifetime validity. The sales volume per month is around one crore, as a result of the customer engagement activities like musical events, kids events like dancing singing competitions that are conducted in the store the conversion rate has increased to 40% and there is an increase in sales of 20% as a whole. Organization, personnel and services: Reliance Timeout is a platform for all age groups, right from kids, fast track youth, and the modern professional to the old. Everything in this store is designed in such a way that all members in a family will spend time in that store. Reliance Timeout has exclusive attractive discounts throughout the year on our bestselling books and music/movies. The store has 34 staffs. They have assigned the staffs to the store by designed in such a way that none of the customers will have a difficulty during their time of purchase. Maximum individual attention is provided. The store staffs and the department managers in the store are having a very good relationship which is making their working environment very pleasant and creative. That is the reason why the attrition rate in the store is not that high. They are also provided with training programmes. Once in a month a training programme will b there. Last training program was on SAP.

MERCHANDISE AVAILABLE AT RELIANCE TIMEOUT Reliance Timeout, the one-stop destination for books, music and stationery enthusiasts, a specialty format of Reliance Retail, which is situated in the second floor of Oberon mall offers 20,000 square feet and a huge range of choice to customers with 1,35,000 Books of every genre including Indian Languages and Academic books, over 65,000 movie and music titles, wide ranges of all popular gaming formats and accessories, 21,000 Stationery Items, 8,000 Toys, 19,000 Gifts articles including Fragrances, Watches and Fashion Jewellery.

Merchandising: Reliance Timeout stores are categorized as lifestyle stores where people consider it as a one stop shop place. Reliance Timeout is popular as it stocks a lot under one roof. There are six categories under this:

Books: The store has various titles of books from national and international publishers which has around 1, 35,000 books of every genre.

The section includes fiction, kids comics and books, non-fiction, personality development, academic and educational. Here you can find a separate section for Malayalam books too. This is the highest contributing

category, which is 30% of the total sales. As the store is having an aggregate sales figure of 1crore per month, the sales contribution from this category is around 300000.Major contributors are fiction and non-fiction.

Music: The store seems to be experimenting with a new product offering in the music arena which has over 65,000 movie and music titles. They have started negotiating with music companies and content aggregators for the initiation of sale of digital music in their stores. Physical format of music are: Compact discs(CD) Video compact discs(VCD) Digital Video discs(DVD) Audio cassettes(MC) The Product Mix for Music Category is as follows: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) International music International movies Hindi music Hindi movies Regional music Regional movies

International music has pop, rock, world music, lounge music, western classical, jazz and blues. International movies are classified as DVDs and VCDs. Each of this types has regular, classics, documentary, international music, concert videos, blue ray cds and box sets. Hindi music, Hindi videos, regional music and regional videos follow the same format. Other than this they have evergreen, indipop, devotional and Hindustani classical. The movies section has a vast collection from Bollywood, Hollywood and regional movies too. An interesting finding was the ones related to personal management, yoga and Karaoke studio that allows the customers to sing songs and record them with a professional quality of sound. The contribution to the total sales from this category is around 20%, the sales contribution from this category is around 200000.The major contributors are cartoon videos, educational cds, Malayalam and Hindi song collections.

The product that moves fast in music category: 1) International 2) Regional 3) Hindi New releases and box sets also sell very fast.

Stationery: The stationary is another category in the store which invites the kids and parents to the store. There are around 21,000 stationery items which follows the title as:

The contribution to the total sales from this category is around 10%, the sales contribution from this category is around 100000.Major contributors are books and pens.

 Toys: Toys range from small dolls to toy cars (around Rs. 2,000), which kids can drive themselves. Indian toy industry set to grow at 25 per cent. The retail value of the global toy industry is estimated at around $150 bn for 2005. Indian toy industry is estimated to be Rs. 1650 crore in size. In this store there are around 8,000 Toys. The contribution from this category is around 100000 that is 10% total store sale per month. Major contributors are dolls and play sets, remote controlled cars and construction kits.

Gifts: This category includes around 19,000 Gifts articles. Types of Gifts in Store: Artificial flowers & Accessories Arts & Crafts Candles & Accessories Curios Devotional Products Feng shui Products Gift Sets Memoirs Occasional Supplies Party Supplies Personal Accessories Greeting Cards

The contribution from this category is around 100000 that is 10% total store sale per month. Major contributors are greeting cards, gift sets.

 Others Rest of the items provided in the store are watches, fragrances, fashion jewellery and luggages.India is an under penetrated market for watches 27 % of Indians own a watch total estimated market as of 2005 Volume ~ 35 mn units & Value: Rs 2328 Crores. So they are creating a good segment for that. All these together are providing 20% to the total sales of the store. Reliance Timeout has an in-house Caf Coffee Day, which has become a popular hangout for youngsters. So while you buy your copy of favourite book, you can sip on some coffee and binge on some pastries.

Apart from this Reliance Timeout has an in-house Caf Coffee Day, which has become a popular hangout for youngsters. So while you buy your copy of favourite book, you can sip on some coffee and binge on some pastries.

Physical facilities: Fixtures: They are units on which SKUs are placed. The main factor that differentiates the visual display of this store is there fixtures. There are different kinds of fixtures: a) Slat walls b) End caps c) Snap fits d) Spinners e) Platform ground fixtures f) Cake tables g) Gondola h) Gondola envelopes i) Wall units j) Floor bins The specialty of the fixtures is that they are exclusively used by reliance timeout only. There are around 559 fixtures in the store. Others: Flooring Readers area Play area