Retailing strategy for spectacles and sunglasses in Delhi

Abstract

Abstract The research proposed herein is men for a Delhi based import house of spectacles and sunglasses that has now decide to forward integrate by opening a chain of retail outlets in Delhi. This study aims at designing a viable positioning strategy for a chain of retail showrooms for this company in Delhi. On the basis of a prior research carried out , the comapany has already decided to target the upper middle and upper income class of people. The project attempts to understand the behavior of consumers within the target segment thereby determining the value proposition that they want. Thus, the main research objective was to identify the sub-segments within the target segment and studying the preference patterns of the same.To begin with, an exploratory research was carried out with customers in the from of focused group discussions and in-depth retailer interviews. Apart from a basic understanding of the industry, the exploratory research gave some very useful insights into the buyer behavior patterns, role of the optician in the purchase decision, brand consciousness and the psycho graphic factors influencing the consumer preferences. The descriptive research comprised of a consumer survey on a sample size of around 50 respondents using a self-administered questionnaire. The respondent set was clustered based on lifestyle attributes. A 2-sentimentalization was found to give the best fit. The clusters identified had the following characteristics. Cluster I : Unconventional, fun loving, spender, and modern. Cluster II : cautious and planned

The factors respondent look for when choosing a point of purchase for spectacles or sunglasses were grouped into factors for data reduction and summarization. In case of spectacles, the four factors identified can be summarized as : Factor 1: Hard core benefits. Factor 2: Association Factor 3: Fashion ans status Factor 4: Convenience The three factors identified for sunglasses are: Factor 1: Convenience Factor 2: Fashion &Status Factor 3: Brand The hypothesis made at the stage of research problem definition was that the lifestyle characteristics, should determine the preferences. But when an attempt was made to map the preferences onto the lifestyle clusters, it was inferred that the preferences of the consumers cannot be attributed to the psycho graphic factors tested in the research .Similarly, the association between the demographics and preferences was tested, but even this could not explain the entire variation in the data. However, it did provide a few useful insights. Apart from this, the research revealed that product brand is not an important consideration when buying a pair of spectacles . However in case of sunglassess, the findings showed that consumers are relatively more brand conscious. It was also startling to know that all the respondents, who could recall vran names, had mentioned Rayban as the first brand. But it was also interesting to know that these brand preferences are not actually getting translated into buying behavior as most of the famous brands of sunglasses fall beyound the price range that the consumers are willing to pay for them. Thus, it can be hypothesized that there is a need for store brands, which have a premium image but at the same time are priced slightly below the current foreign brands. It can further be hypothesized that in case of sunglasses,is perceived as a surrogate for quality whereas in spectacles due to the absence of any popular product brands, the customer tends to rely completely on the optucian . Thus, the brand of the optical store becomes more important than the product brand. Hence there is an opportunity of building a store brand for spectacles also which would connote quality and trust. Therefore, it is recommended that the company should build and promote a brand of retail showrooms rather than trying to promote product brands present in its portfolio. The brand should evoke trust technical competence and reliablity in the mind of the consumer and at the same time symbolize status and prestige Also the company should use the retail chain brand as an umbrella brand for its various store brands of sunglasses . The message conveyed to the consumer should be that the company is not just selling a product, but a service that of eye care and that they are the experts in this area by the virtue of being in this business for the past twenty five years and also because they are the direct importers.