Go-to-market time and India retail.

What is a Market "Market is a place where buyer and seller meets". 

I will say "Market is a place where Buyer goes, as seller anyway have to follow"

In new age of marketing and technology seller's information and product has to go to market, not the seller. Two critical item to sell are "Awareness of the product" and "Availability of the product". 

Some examples: 

Fair & Lovely make customer aware by TV ad and simultaneously ensure it's available in nearby store.

Religious organisation put a hoarding for "Baba’s" lecture (Pravachan) in town and then ensure smooth organisation of event for masses on big ground in town.

Hence critical aspects of “Go-to-market” are “Awareness to consumer” and “Availability to consumer”. A brand needs Marketing channel for awareness while Distribution channel for availability.  (Yes Baba is a brand, may be for peace and happiness)

In competitive and copycat world. “Go-to-market time” is critical for any brand to succeed so that products or new innovations or initiatives reach to consumers as quickly as possible. (or at least before someone copies you)

Go to market time= Max(Awareness time, Availability time). Assuming product is ready to sell.

India retail is one of the tough markets to go to. It has huge diversity and depth. There are1Bn+ consumers, 9Mn+ retailers, 29 states (Government bodies, creating hurdles to go to market vs creating roads to reach), 22 languages (to advertise),  3000+ TV channels, 99600 news paper to advertise even if you do all this 25% of consumer is uneducated (can’t read/understand your ad). Tough to make a right marketing mix based on reach and timelines

Now let’s see what are biggest channels to market (Aware) and distribute (Avail) in India and how brands are doing.

% of media spent. On different channels

% split to Distribution channels in India.

Key marketing channel: TV+ Print (~80%)

Key distribution channel: Traditional retail  (~91%)

If Go to market time= Max(Awareness time, Availability time).

But with technology,  Awareness time (time to adv TV/Print) has reduced a lot and has become << Availability time (Time to reach to traditional retailers)

What about availability time?

Below info-graphics give glimpse of India’s top FMCG’s and their reach to retailers. You will be surprised to see Go-To-Market time is in decades in India.

So, there is no CPG company less than a decade old and have national presence. Hence it's Big challenge for brands to go-to-India market !!

With growing economy lot of international brand would like to enter in India, domestic brand will go national and existing brand would expand portfolio or come up with new initiatives but if Go-To-Market for 90% of India retail remains  in decades the growth will be a big challenges, brands which will overcome the Go-to-market time challenges will definitely be the winner.  

What can be the solution? What is the future?

What if there is a channel for brands to reach to thousands of retailers overnight with right merchant mix?

What if there is a ready to use technology and retail analytic for brand to reach to 

right outlet? (reaching to right outlet can increase sales by 40%)

And what if there is no "what if"?? We @Shopkirana has taken this as an opportunity to solve India's GTM problem.

Case : At Shopkirana , UNIBIC have changed the way brands plan for Go-To-Market in India. UNIBIC has emerged as a one of the smartest brands to use Shopkirana as a Go-To-Market platform to reach to thousands of retailers. 

It has happened first time in retail history ...It took just 6 days to reach to thousands of retail store vs more than 6 months earlier. Supported by great data analytic and business forecast!! 

No one can think of significant market share in first month of launch, in a category like biscuits? But it has happened, detailed case study will be revealed soon.

Stay tuned!! We are going to make a dent in Indian retail space with overnight Go-To-Market!!