What's there in a symbol

A study by Sybil S. Yang, Sheryl E. Kimes Ph.D., and Mauro M. Sessarego of Cornell University, $ or Dollars: Effects of Menu-price Formats on Restaurant Checks, looked at several common restaurant price display techniques:

• Numerical with Dollar Sign: $12.00
• Numerical without Dollar Sign or Decimals: 12.
• Written: twelve dollars

The researchers expected that the written/scripted prices would perform best, but they found that the guests with the simple numeral prices spent significantly more than the other two groups.

So result is simple no more currency signs just a number you need to grow you profits...............

We are like this only

The diverse nature of India is a subject of fascination for most foreigners.This is the land of opportunities amidst the political world filled with scams. We in India are used to it simply because its all around us – depressing slums right next to posh residential areas, stories of opulence grabbing headlines along with those of extreme poverty.


Rightly said the Urban Indians are more pseudo Americans than Indians coz we are more bothered about MC Donald's burger price than the cereal prices sky rocketing, we are more bothered about Obama's reaction to middle east problem than PM's response to 2G scam, we are more interested in getting the Barbie and Disney's of the world for out kids than reading out stories from Chandamama or Ramayana.On the contrary the Rural India, the so called Bharat behaves differently.


As consumers too, the diversity is apparent – glucose biscuits could very well be the only breakfast some can afford while there is a market for luxury brands too. India’s consumer buying power – 101 BMWs booked in one day in Aurangabad or the celebration of opulence through TV programmes like ‘Shaadi 3 crore ki‘ have made the news rounds.

Retail Transformation

I was reading this interesting article by Ashish bhasin about evolution of the Indian retail landscape. Author was trying to relate the transformation to the Maslow’s need hierarchy theory and explaining the evolution of the retail landscape. I too agree that need is the mother of invention and this has affected the changes in the Indian retail landscape. The article tries to explain how we have moved away from the dingy Kirana store to the swanky hyper markets which now started fulfilling the basic need of choosing (shopping). The 1^st level of need hierarchy theory i.e.: Physiological needs.

Modern retail started offering a safe and secure environment not only in terms of ambience but also in terms of the price, quality, choice and overall shopping experience. With this the retail slowly graduated to the 2^nd level of Maslow’s hierarchy i.e.: Safety.

Now comes the third need “Love and belonging” and the customer was ready to move into this stage. In order to keep the customer happy and glued to the brand, almost every retailer launched their version of customer loyalty program. Not only the brand s but also the entrepreneurs saw an opportunity here (like I mint). Though these programs seldom gave any substantial gains except for the high end ones but marketing/advertising in this phase highlighted the sense of belongingness to the special class of customers.

From this level, some of the customers quickly graduated to the next level of” Self Esteem” and the platinum card syndrome was born. Specialized high end luxury malls were created especially for these esteemed customers and this phase saw plethora of international luxury brands invading India. Customers were bucketed into Platinum, Gold and silver class and were lured with plethora of offers and incentives to buy more.

The final phase of self-actualization saw the emergence of environment friendly retailers/customers. This phase saw the evolution of jute bags. The journey has come a complete cycle and we are back into the world of jute bags, Organic foods and go green gadgets.