The retail sector in India is about to see a boom and with this boom comes challenges of competition. Marketing & brand building play a very big role in the retail sector, by the way the store is considered to be the biggest touch point and influencer in the buying decision. Below I’ve tried to capture the various factors that influence brand experience in the store.

 Brand Experience at the store

  Let us focus on People. This includes the sales people at the store and the store manager. A very interesting topic within this is the strategy that brands adopt to select people at their stores that add to their brand value & ultimately to a brand experience. A recent article in talks about how premium brands lay emphasis on getting the right person at the store (http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-09-15/india-business/30159525_1_luxury-brands-mumbai-s-palladium-mall-ermenegildo-zegna). Another article that came out a while back talks about stores trying to identify ‘cool staff’ that can position their brands (http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2010-04-21/news/28455608_1_reliance-brands-premium-brands-darshan-mehta).

The question here is how this process of identification can be made more consistent. Can there be an objective process that can help determine drives necessary for these roles? The buck doesn’t stop only at selection. When it comes to luxury brands, do retail store people have the selling skills to handle high net worth individuals. When it comes to other brands, the Store Manager is a critical role that helps manage store operations. Does the organization have a process in place to hire the right store managers.  These are some questions that help organizations to align their talent strategy to their brand strategy.

Predictive Index offers a science based approach to do the above. Some of the successful drives identified by PI for retail store managers are

·         Ability to connect quickly with people

·         Collaborative, persuasive communication style

·         Attentive to details and structured approach to work

One such study done for store representatives has helped benchmark the drives needed for high performers and low performers. http://www.piworldwide.com/Research-Insights/Performance-Snapshots/2003/Retail-InStore-Sales-Rep.aspx

A structured process will help retail companies in talent management.