Shop a little !

Session on Shopper Behavior by Mr. Anil Srinivasan, CEO, Recraft

‘lose control,

one more time

lose lose lose control,

Masti ki paathshala,

apni toh paathshala’

Wow what a song! A song that enthralled the entire nation couple of years back…. Song from one of the trend setting movies in the Indian Moviedom, “Rang De Basanti” (RDB) that resonates with most of us even now and there is no doubt in the fact that it will resonate for generations... Hey hang on; it’s not a movie review ….It is about Understanding Shoppers. Who will not love the class if the Professor relates RDB to explain the concept of ‘experience ‘in shopping behavior? The best part of CBS is meeting professors who are following different style of teaching and yet converging at a common point of ‘adding value to our learning’. Mr. Anil Srinivasan is one among them. It was our last session in 1^st trimester but supposed to be one of ‘The best sessions’ that I have attended so far.

 

Anil’s session happened just 3 days before Diwali. When whole of India was merrily spending the diwali week Sunday in making festival purchases, we were busy learning how people buy!!

He started his session with the typical question on our Diwali purchase. Immediate reply from one corner was “Van Heusen shirt”….Anil posed a question at us whether his Van Heusen purchase is rational or an emotional decision... We replied in unison that it’s rational with the pivotal reason, VH being a premium brand with excellent quality…. He again shot a question on our choice if we were to choose one from two identical-in-all-aspect shirts except that one is a Van Heusen and the other is without any label. Supplementary question was on the type of decision one is making in choosing the shirt. The majority answered ‘ Van Heusen ‘ & ‘Rational’…then came Anil’s perspective... he argued that if both the shirts are going to give the same functional benefit and some one is paying premium for a label , how could it be a pure rational decision. He explained that some actions starts rationally but becomes irrational ,which is nothing but the emotional component of a purchase, so buying Van Heusen is not a ‘purely’ rational decision ,but a combination of rational & emotional decision.

 

Then, with a beaming smile Anil turned towards Diwali release movies and asked about our favorite actors. Then came the gyan on formation of rational and irrational thinking based on our responses.

He explained the concepts of personality, experiential shopping, brand, costing to the retail format etc with his unique style and ended up the session with a concept development game of coming up with an experiential idea for promoting a new Shahrukh flick…lot of ideas came from different teams and he picked up the best one …He left us with a note that he will be handling the course on Retail and Luxury branding in the ensuing block… Thanks to CBS for this Diwali Bonanza … Many teach, only few inspire … Anil is one of our greatest inspirations…. Eagerly awaiting the Retail and Luxury Branding course

Contributed by Arun Saravanakumar, Marcom Varsity