Big Bazaarization of India

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Big Bazaarization of India!

By : Chetan Khanna

Big Bazaar has managed to take make the most of the changes in the post-liberalisation era.

It has managed to create an equity that differs from convention. Through emphasis onsubject of enquiry it has managed to create a new consumption culture called Big

Bazaarization. Now it has spread to perpetually all sectors of Indian society.

Big Bazaarization has basically started from where Ritzers McDonaldization of Society

(1993) ends. Mcdonaldization comprises Efficiency, Calculability, Predictability, Control

and Replacement of human labour with technology. Big Bazaarization does have the above

factors as its backbone but also have the following seven factors that Big Bazaar has

worked upon and made it work in Indian conditions.

The factors can be seen in the figure where there is an hour glass model with sand flowing

from the top half to bottom. A strong upper principle is more about attitude and bottom is

more related to development of a superior influence. It has been used by project managers

across the board to iron out the flaws in implementation purposes.

Defining the Product

Big Bazaar has been able to merge the look and feel of the local markets with modern retail

features of quality, choice and convenience. Now the consumers expect low prices of goods

and save on every purchase. Its not limited to a particular food item and can be as diverseas apparel or staple.

Comparative Advantage

Big Bazaar has created a context where the customers pay for different goods and services

happily. They have started a store that always looks crowded. The U-shaped section with a

low clearance and island style on multiple floors has been noteworthy. The creation of a

demand led approach in terms of design has been in coherence with the customers need

and demand. Now customers do not just come to shop but have a great time. They have

created an ambience to chat, gossip and eat. They had been the first one to create an

experience culture whereby customers used to seek out services in a memorable way. Also,

adapting it accordance with the local culture has been a feather in their cap.

The no frill design of the store epitomises simplicity. It has been designed to ensure that

the target audience is reached. Its not limited to one particular region and has infact taken


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watches the customers every Sunday from a distance in any of the stores and improves

upon those from the very next day.

Decoy Tactic

By preferring to design the stores through categories over brand, Big bazaar has managedto force the customers to buy the products they want the want the consumers to purchase.

This has ensured they sell the products which have the highest margin and the lowest

price. The tactic has helped them reap the maximum benefit. This has ensured that those

entrepreneurs, who had a long term relationship with them, have grown side by side. It has

also helped them to maintain the same quality of the goods.

Tapping the free mentality

Big Bazaar has managed to give an emotional charge to perceive the offering as more

important than it actually is. They have tapped into the fact that humans have been more

intrinsically afraid of loss. Ultimately they have made the target audiences believe that

there shall not be any sense of loss when a Free! item is consumed. Recently, Big Bazaar

had launched a scheme to buy one get one free on Basmati Rice in one of the stores. The

consumers went head over heels over the ready-to-eat product and it got finished in a few

hours!

They have used the Free! Mentality eloquently and covered perpetually all products

available in their inventory. Through this they have made increasingly numerous

customers.

Now, even the e-commerce companies have tried to piggyback on the lead of Big Bazaars

free strategy!

Effectiveness

Big Bazaars effectiveness can be measured through a small incident. Usually the shirts at

Big Bazaar had been priced at Rs 349 in the time. Post inception a store manager had

sourced 1 lakh shirts and kept the price at Rs 149 to introduce white shirts to their

collection. Unfortunately, the decision turned out to be farce. But, contrary to expectation

the shirt was sold at Rs 49. The management took responsibility of not knowing the target

audience. There had been a mismatch between product and the customer. The customerhad been coming in buses and trains and for them maintenance cost for the white shirt was

very high. The big picture thought process has helped to focus on opportunities than

problems and ensuring more number of customers are made in the process. Thus, in the

above example they managed to make more than 50,000 customers in the process!

Target Audience


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For any firm its important to know the customers and Big Bazaar knows how to cater to

them in a succinct manner. They have built up on the Pantaloon experiment of theirs an

reaped the benefits through Big Bazaar. The division into 3 classes of consuming, serving

and struggling class has helped them immensely to understand the customers. Consuming

class has a substantial disposable income and form part of the upper and middle classes

that are supposed to be 14% of the customers. Serving class depend solely on the

consumers and constitutes 55%. Struggling class are the rest of the population who live in a

hand to mouth manner in the country. Through Pantaloon their target had been the

consuming class and through Big Bazaar it had been the serving class. Thus, they have

managed to effectively create and ultimately reach the desired consumer.

Conclusion

Big Bazaar has managed to grab attention through careful plantation of anecdotes in the

creation of a new consumption culture. Now customers expect all the above 7 factors in

addition to the Mcdonaldization factors of Efficiency, Calculability and Predictability from

Big Bazaar. Now any other store that comes up has to first come up to Big Bazaar standard

and then deliver a point of difference.

The promoter has actually made us believe that ordinary individuals can make

extraordinary things happen. A dukaandar with typical Baniya mentality knows the

customers so well that it has managed to charter unknown territory to create a new

consumption culture called Big Bazaarization! Its indeed a far cry from the pandemonium

of the first store that opened in 2001 in Kolkota.

Documents

Big Bazaarization of India