K Radhakrishnan on customer experience and storytelling

I'm delighted to have you on the show let's let's get the ball rolling rather so experience economy is that a contradiction in terms between customized experience and the collective economy it's it's been intriguing to me as to where the trigger point for change really is is the consumer evolution the trigger point for the economy to change or is it the things in the economy that changes which actually changes the individual and I believe there is a certain interaction between the two but clearly for me and being in grocery for for the last so many decades I have seen that the consumer has got to be ready for something and that is an change that comes with sorry for

using a cliche whether where on the meslov hierarchy the population is and I think India has really shifted up from the bottom of the bottom of the pyramid and there has to be a lot of change that's happened to the Indian as an individual but are we getting there because you raise an interesting point rather which is in something like grocery so very price driven so very functional are we yet at the stage where we can have a consumer experience I think we are doing a disservice to the to the category of in of grocery by actually making the price the the biggest selling point because grocery involves several categories which require nurturing and therefore there has to be a

theater around some of those categories which is getting completely missed if you actually go down the price route however saving money has never been more important than it is today because you're spending money today on several other interests or aspirations that you have and therefore I think grocery becomes the fall guy from where you could actually save save money and personally I feel that there must be a limit to which you actually chase price because if you don't do that the category is not going to go well but and rather to you where do you where do you place the the reason or the blame for this is it is it consumers unwillingness or is there an element here in the Indian marketing community that we're not putting enough

marketing effort into explaining the experience hundred percent I think that's a that's a that's a great question I think the problem is that the retailers maybe are not doing enough theater in the stores if you go to the West you go to the US or or to Europe some of the supermarkets are really worth visiting even for the visual appeal like a Whole Foods exactly right yeah I mean I was the US a couple of weeks ago and I went to some of those stores the kind of theater around very simple stuff the problem in India is are we differentiating grocery enough there is are there enough differentiated products where you move the consumer from the price I don't think it's a consumer problem the problem with price is that if everything is the same

then what I want to buy it is at the lowest common denominator well maybe this is a challenge for the younger up and coming marketeers we should we should we should put it out to them but rather moving on from this because you're you know you're across multiple product lines multiple SKUs thousands of them but most importantly you're transnational when you think about consumer experiences and maybe this is looking back into your career future group retail Spencer's

how do you make the consumer experience relevant to the micro markets I think modern retail organized retail hasn't moved away from the top 20 cities yet so imagine the headroom this is a 400 billion dollar category and most of that is growth is coming from the top 20 cities I think we are yet to start I don't think we've even started to some of the micro markets some of the products that the big brands have haven't gone across the city yet it's not available in some of the micro markets and therefore that's really the opportunity I don't think it's a point for discussion it has to grow there is headroom and there is enough geography to actually get to

it okay and just because you have such extraordinary experience right right let's let's take advantage let's plunder your experience take FMCG as a category right are we getting enough exciting brands in that category or is it rather vanilla the answer is no I can't get enough exciting brands in that category or is it rather vanilla

the answer is no I can't remember in the last 20 years any FMCG category which has actually made a paradigm shift in the use the way consumer uses the category what's missing in the narrative is the word category management is out and they are really chasing the price and you know you need to quote from HG Wells' War of the Worlds War is the victory of the dying over the dead and there's the right context to say it that the pricing will be the victory of the dying over the dead and if you say it in Hindi

that's absolutely fascinating Rada that's a fantastic place to end and I think that's a that's a brilliant rallying call for young marketeers so we want to hear from you young marketeers on trailblazers come up here and tell us how you'll do it thank you Rada fantastic thank you very much for having me Jimmy you