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Samsung India is
planning to rebrand its 100 stores across India, in order to have uniform in-store
elements. It is also planning to take its overall store count up to 130 stores
this year. According
to the company, Samsung has a single-store brand the world over, which is Samsung
Plaza, with India being the only country where the company followed a two-brand
model. The company has decided to follow its global practice, while simultaneously
enhancing its store count by 30 per cent. The
company also plans to do away with its practice of benchmarking its stores in
terms of sq ft space for Plazas and Digitall Homes. The company plans to let geography,
location, and localised market size dictate the size of its uniform brand store. Under
the plan, the flagship "Samsung Digitall Home" stores will be brought
under the umbrella of its existing store brand "Samsung Plaza". The
company plans on transplanting the interactivity of the "Digitall Home"
concepts to "Samsung Plaza" stores, so that they are upgraded to more
than just a product display. Samsung
has a strong presence in the metros, and will be adding most of the 30 per cent
store expansion in non-metros, with a mix of standalone and mall stores, and trade
margins differing between the two. The differentiation in trade margins is to
ostensibly address the higher costs incurred by mall stores in terms of real estate
and housekeeping. Samsung
plans to use its stores for product demonstration, which it holds important for
product display, and sees it as one of the success factors given its expanded
product range. To address these requirements, Samsung decided to standardise product
demonstration across its stores for solution marketing, such as a LCD TV being
experienced with a home theatre system, across all its stores.
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