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Ads and impact on consumer

Ads And Public

Companies spent huge amount of resources to showcase products in audio visual ads, and the more creative the ads are, the more audience it will have. All the audiences might not be the consumer but it definitely impacts publicity of the product. However, some time too much ads also irritate public and in return public switch of the device or move to other channels to get rid of such ads. Recently I have observed how ads are perceived by public, here is my experience

During rush hour, most of the FM radio channels in Bangalore put more ads and less songs. But there is a new FM mirchi 95, which has very less ads and I generally don’t change the channel while listening. I am sure the value of such ads would be more compare to the other FM channels. Radio mirchi would selectively put ads with higher value to get more revenue and it makes sense to public too. This is called win-win for both, fm and public. However, in some other channels, its like playing music in ads and some time I switch off my car audio system because its so irritating. In this case, the relative value of the ads would be much lesser irrespective of how much creative these ads are. But with competition and publicity, the two topmost priority, companies tend to pay for ads.

And then some times, ads are so factual that I wish to have a central authority to monitor the ads. E.g. there was a fairness cream ad and your skin color with be fairer within 2 weeks. This also reminded me a movie(Traffic Signal), a dark skinned kid saved all his money and bought a fairness cream based on the ad. After 15 days, no change in skin color and the kid got so much angry, that he tried to throw stones to a nearby hoarding with this cream. Quite funny though.

But some time, ads are quite realistic too and shows the important features of the product. Irrespective of how the ads are perceived by public, the companies will keep on spending more and more on this.

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The domination of unorganized retail sector in India

Unorganized Retail
Retailing in India is predominantly unorganized. According to a survey by AT Kearney, an overwhelming proportion of the Rs. 400,000 crore retail markets are unorganized in India. In fact, only a Rs. 20,000 crore segment of the market is organized. The sector is highly fragmented with 97% of its business being run by the unorganized retailers like the traditional family run stores and corner stores. The sector is the largest source of employment after agriculture, and has deep penetration into rural India generating more than 10% of India’s GDP.
Small store (kirana) retailing has been one of the easiest ways to generate self employment, as it requires limited investment in land, capital and labour.

The reasons for unorganized retail sector domination in India:
– In smaller towns and urban areas, there are many families who are traditionally using these kirana shops/ ‘mom and pop’ stores offering a wide range of merchandise mix. Generally these kirana shops are the family business of these small retailers which they are running for more than one generation.
– These kiran shops are having their own efficient management system and with this they are efficiently fulfilling the needs of the customer. This is one of the good reasons why the customer doesn’t want to change their old loyal kirana shop.
– A large number of working class in India is working as daily wage basis, at the end of the day when they get their wage, they come to this small retail shop to purchase wheat flour, rice etc for their supper. For them this the only place to have those food items because purchase quantity is so small that no big retail store would entertain this.
– Similarly there is another consumer class who are the seasonal worker. During their unemployment period they use to purchase from this kirana store in credit and when they get their salary they clear their dues. Now this type of credit facility is not available in corporate retail store, so this kirana stores are the only place for them to fulfill their needs.
– Another reason might be the proximity of the store. It is the convenience store for the customer. In every corner the street an
unorganized retail shop can be found that is hardly a walking distance from
the customer’s house. Many times customers prefer to shop from the nearby kirana shop rather than to drive a long distance organized retail stores.
– This unorganized stores are having n number of options to cut their costs. They incur little to no real-estate costs because they generally operate from their residences. Their labour cost is also low because the family members work in the store. Also they use cheap child labour at very low rates