Residing in epicenter of “Malls”.

No this is not about the Mall culture of the metros or is it? Read on to find out while I myself will figure out while writing what this post ends up in.

Living in Begumpet/somajiguda/Banjarahills……. most of the It/BPO (highly paid labors) belonging to the rat race, live in these areas. They work on weekdays and the earnings are shelled out on weekends. Ya ya I knw what you guys are thinking, you don’t belong to this shopholic breed. Well who said junta goes to malls only to shell out money. We go for window shopping, “Bird watching”, AC ki hawa khane in those summer days, to kill time, R&D on a specific product etc…….

Fortunately-unfortunately “na illu Begumpet lo undi” .Towards right a few 100 meters is Shoppers Stop, towards my left just after crossing the bridge is Lifestyle. Slightly ahead of this is Hyderabad central….few more kilometers, Banjara hills road no.1, opposite TK is City centre..phew!! already four in a radius of …..Kms. (will calculate and fill in the blank).Anyways in Hyderabad kilometers don’t matter. The traffic jams makes all the difference in speed & time to reach the so called “near by” places.

Central is heavily rushed at any hour of the day as the PVR crowd is added to the other general mall crowd plus the huge eating joint crowd. You will find ((Shoppers Stop+Pantaloons+Lifestyle ) * products) @ Central.Yeah but if you are looking for a very specific piece in terms of size/color/variety this is NOT the place to look for.

Malls are not the place to shop for those people who have taken the decision and are very sure/keen of what they want in terms of all the specifications of the product. You may not find the right size if the color is there, or vice versa.

It’s a place where one generally goes and picks up the stuff without deciding or one who knows “where“ to buy but not “why” to buy. I have been searching for “Mera wala Blue” casual shoes at all these places. Successfully found it at both shoppers & central but of 4 and 8 number sizes L that too single piece.

When it comes to trendy clothing, Lifestyle& City center is the place to look for. It does has all the fashionable chic clothes + the chics (good for guys) .The crowd also includes Ok type boys…Where do all the handsome looking men shop? We haven’t seen many..annnn!! I know now , probably we are too busy shopping and trying out stuff rather than looking here and there: D. but Central crowd always has a bunch of annoying lafangas sitting on seats of every floor who come just for bird watching.

The good fragrance of these malls is contributed by the perfume section kept at the entrance .Their price range goes beyond limits hence these sections are mostly empty. Just beside them will be the cosmetic+ Jewelry section with heavily make-uped layered sales girls.

The whole idea of super markets /malls or such places which keep all their goods on display has struck the right cord of today’s consumer and a marketing strategy which works very well. Earlier people used to prepare a shopping list before going to market and would buy the same from a shop where goods were taken out on demand. Now every product is visible to the consumer whether it’s needed or not, resulting in tempting customers to pick up stuff randomly. We end up buying more than what we actually need. (Considering the fact we have the money to buy.)

And if taking about malls how can one forget the multiplexes. During college days (that’s only 2 years back) watching a movie consumed 35(ticket -balcony was preferred) + 10(coke)+10(popcorn)+10 (bus/auto/transport)= 65 rupees.

And now we shell out 100(ticket)+100(coke&popcorn)+500(optional-after all you are in multiplex you might end up shopping some stuff or there is a super market attached to all so might be a grocery buy .Also people have their own addictions to buy books/cds/gadget..etc) whatever it sums up to=700 bugs
65 was spent once in say.three months and now movie watching has almost become a weekly business or at least monthly .

I think I can go on and on this; there are so many mall strategies yet to be told the 999 price tag and all …phew! Stop!

Those were the consumer behavioral norms of the past. These are the behavioral patterns of the generation pre-liberalization.

However, just as consumer mindsets and attitudes have taken a step change since the opening up of the economy and the advent of consumerism, so too have consumer behaviors seen a 'sea change' during the same period.

Peter Drucker said, "The purpose of business is to find a customer." Theodore Levitt elaborated that "the purpose of business is to create and keep a customer". However, today business is moving towards what Jason Jennings and Laurence Houghton said, "The purpose of business is to find, keep and grow the right customer.