Under the aegis of MICA Leadership Series, MICA recently hosted Mr. Swetank Jain, Chief People Officer and Chief Communication Officer at Future Group where he spoke about his journey from the media industry, switching multiple jobs to eventually joining the retail sector. In his candid interaction, he said that the official designation with which he joined Future Group was ‘Aajao kuch toh kar hi lenge’.
Speaking of Future Group, he said that during that time, the company ventured into the clothing segment with the launch of Pantaloons. However, the difficulty they faced was that people do not purchase clothes every day, and that is where the first idea of having Big Bazaar came up.
They opened 3 Big Baazar at the same time in order to have economies of scale. Thus, the journey started. After some time, they realized it was difficult to run this operation as there was no supply chain. At that time, there weren't enough products also.
This led them to revamp the system and make it more efficient. They focused on customizing the stores to attract more people. In India, he said, ‘Crowd pulls crowd.’ Based on this insight, they put big humps of clothes in between the aisle and changed the interiors after the initial launch to drive more people.
He further spoke about how customization works in India, in ways that do not happen anywhere else in the world. Giving an example, he said, When we visit a restaurant, we usually add an extra line while placing an order, ‘Make the dish medium spicy’ but how much spicy is medium spicy really is? And, who defines it? Drawing inspiration from similar insights, he said that they launched ‘Consumer Patri’ which helped them focus on customizing the offerings at Future Group. He talked about the importance of building a strong portfolio across categories which gives them an advantage and margin. At Future Group, they currently use artificial intelligence to understand consumer behavior. How can one understand the consumer even before they know it – creating a huge base of persona.
While speaking of the consumer journey, he spoke in-depth about consumer insights. He said, “No one makes the decision whether or not to purchase online or offline, it is more about convenience.” Thus, it becomes important for brands to be present where the consumer wants them to be. In the case of modern trade, visibility and convenience are two of the most important pillars which drive sales.
Talking about failures and the fear of making mistakes, Jain said how Future Group never hesitated to venture into new ventures and businesses. Despite the failure in some of these, he said that the important thing is to keep trying and continue despite failures.
On a concluding note, he gave advice to the future marketers by saying, “You don’t sell a product to someone’s wallet, you sell it to their psyche.” You make them feel that the product is more valuable than what it is priced for. This helps in driving loyalty and makes one a repeat customer.