Take it Free :Give me Business!

Recession or otherwise ,Marketing folks cannot tend to relax.Innovation in Marketing is quintessence to see through these tough recessionary times .
One such interesting marketing move that I recently spotted was Freecups.
FreePaperCups works with advertisers to provide the cups to companies for free in exchange for branding them with sponsors' messages. The result? Advertisers get their brands in front of consumers and business decision makers in offices, conference rooms, break rooms and corporate dining facilities across the nation; companies get to eliminate the expense of buying the cups themselves; and participating coffee services get to offer more competitive pricing.
Its definitely a effective,clean and green idea !
Source :www.freepapercups.com

Chennai's retail power !

Chennai, one of the metro cities of South India , has always been a great hub for retail.

Be it Parry's,Mylapore,Purasawalkam or the buzzling T.Nagar , its always been a scene of high action for retail sales.

Recently when I spoke to few retailers and retail corporate heads , the current recession definitely has had an impact on the sales .The impact however is more pronounced in malls and bigger stores where the footfalls have come down.

However for an Indian consumer who is extremely price conscious, retailers seem to have the right answers by charting out marketing campaigns which delivers value for money .

Known as 'Walmart of Chennai'- 'Saravana Stores' never seems to have a dip in sales , as everyday when I pass by the store in T.Nagar, I could just see enthusiastic shoppers coming out with atleast three to four plastic covers full of goods.

Yet another store which has drawn inspiration from Saravana Stores and grown across India is the 'The Big Bazaar'.Last week I happen to visit their store and was impressed by their Great Exchange Sale.Was fascinated to see customers coming in cars with loads of old goods to get them exchanged for coupons, which could be used for buying fresh goods in Big Bazaar.

Definitely Indian retailers seem to have the right answers for boosting sales - recession or otherwise !

Lipstick Effect !

During recession , all sectors take a bad hit and sales slump.

But its interesting to note that there is a phenonmenon that emerges in business during these dull times.

It's the famous 'Lipstick Effect'.

The "lipstick effect" can be traced back to the Great Depression of the 1930s. In the four years from 1929 to 1933, industrial production in the US halved, but sales of cosmetics rose.

Women who could not buy expensive fashion wear cut back on thier spending and instead looked upon lipsticks to keep their fashion quotient up!

Here's one of the definition I found :

lipstick effect n. During a recession, the tendency for consumers to purchase small, comforting items such as lipstick rather than large luxury items.

Its been validated from the sales of some of the big cosmetics major like L'oreal,Avon,Beiersdorf etc. during recession times.