‘We bring science into retail branding’

Urban India is spending a lot of time mall-hopping. It is with good reason, therefore, that brands are conscious of the end shopping environment in a big way.Ambient media specialists Enhance, therefore, couldn’t have come at a better time.

The Starcom Mediavest Group affiliate was launched in June 2006 when the retail revolution in India had just taken-off. That’s where Kaushik Chakravorty, country head, Enhance, came in from Mudra’s OOH division Primesite, and provided what he calls the ‘science of advertising in retail environments’.

DNA Money’s Arcopol Chaudhuri spoke to him about his work, new lines of business and opportunities in retail and visual merchandising. Excerpts:

The retail boom has enveloped India. It’s a good time to be in ambient media business, isn’t it?
Definitely. And the business has also increased over the last one year. Within a year of our setting up shop, we have set up offices at Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Calcutta, Chennai and Hyderabad.

How significant is the role of Enhance in this retail friendly environment?
Our motive is to be the crucial finishing touch to the advertising already done by TV, radio, print and outdoor. These mediums entice, arouse and bring the consumer to the retail outlet. We focus on his experience inside the outlet. Through the right kind of retail and visual merchandising, Enhance provides the much needed experiential push to the consumer within the store so that the goes ahead and makes the purchase.

Traditionally in India, ambient media has exploited the two senses - sight and sound. What are the new breakthroughs that this medium has achieved? Do you see forms like smell and touch also coming into the picture anytime?
Not yet, but in terms of breakthroughs we’ll see more use of technology. For example, the increasing number of Bluetooth enabled mobile handsets in the country has resulted in a medium called bluecasting. We are looking at it in a big way.

How is Enhance’s work profile different from Starcom group’s other affiliate Navia Asia?
At Enhance we’re in the business of creating media. We bring in a science into the creation and placement of media thus providing solutions in retail branding. Navia is purely for out-of-home (OOH) media. Both are equally important and we work closely with them.

You’ve gained a reputation with telecom based clients…
Well, we have done extensive work for Essar Retail’s - The Mobile Store. We did the complete design and visual merchandising at all its outlets. For Aircel, we worked on about 581 stores in about 80 cities.

We’ve used a new technology - ‘SIM-bedding’ - wherein a SIM card was planted in the LED display at the store’s electronic signboard. By a simple SMS, the company can update it with new offers, new tariffs, and subscription schemes as soon as they are announced.

We even designed and erected cheque drop boxes for Aircel, in a manner that would facilitate hassle-free billing. And now we have Samsung on board as well, with whom we’ll be doing some great work.

What are the other clients you work with wherein you’ve used your other fields of expertise?
When we launched, we began with Dainik Jagran as our first client. And then we progressed into navigational signage as well. When you’re navigating in a mall, a township or even university campus, there’s a certain science behind directional signage that you encounter. Where should one place the right message, is a science we bring to the business. This has been explored by our clients we’re currently engaged with, like High Street Phoenix (Mumbai), Metro Junction Mall (Kalyan), GVK One Mall (Hyderabad), Rave@Moti Mall (Kanpur), Manipal University Campus (Dubai) and Manipal Township.

What are the new lines of business that you plan to enter?
Currently about 70% of our business comprises of retail and visual merchandising. Then there’s navigational signage consultancy. We now plan to get into building retail stores as well. We will use our talent pool of architects, designers, retail advertising and production specialists to build and design stores right from scratch. This will converge all our levels of expertise, providing value for the advertiser.
 
c_arcopol@dnaindia.net