'Never ever employ a management guy to make a retail network rock. For, he is sure to make it go down the drain,' warned Nirmalya Kumar. Professor of marketing at London Business School, Kumar knows marketing like the back of his hand and, therefore, made a scintillating presentation 'Winning at Retail' at Mumbai's the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel on Wednesday.
Topics that he discussed were:
- What are the success factors for mass and specialist retailing?
- Wal-Mart and Zara -- what makes them world-class?
- What lessons can we learn from the 'winners' in global retail?
A specialist in retail marketing, Kumar has recently co-authored a book on the rise of 'own brands', Private Label Strategy: How to meet the store brand challenge.
Taking a cue from the preface to his book, Kumar elaborated, "there is no single answer that will solve the brand manufacturers' problems vis-à-vis private labels. No matter what marketing gurus claim, no such magic potion exists."
Through two video clips on Zara, a big retail chain in Spain and on US retail giant Wal-Mart, he explained, "The simple motto of 'now or never' paves the way for Zara's success. Its achievement is sewn by three key factors -- efficiency, speed and coordination."
"These factors help any new garment design to reach hundreds of shop across Europe in 15 days."
Drawing a comparison between Zara and Wal-Mart, Kumar said, "A joke does the rounds of US campuses -- 'if you have a PhD in physics, you can either work for NASA or for Wal-Mart.'
"Though a marketing head honcho in India can't think of visiting individual stores owned by his or her company, for Wal-Mart, that's exactly what a marketing boss is supposed to do. That individual is entitled to use the company's private plane for the purpose, provided he or she comes up with a new idea at the end of each trip."
Chat with Nirmalya Kumar on Friday, 4 p.m.
