Abstract
The case study ‘Experiencing flavourful fun’ traces and discusses the journey of RB, 1 a premium ice cream retailer that has forayed into the Indian marketplace almost 17 years ago. The case draws on industry reports, newspaper articles and the author’s own observation and personal experience with the brand for compiling this short case study. The case presents, in brief, RB’s strategy to increase customer loyalty by providing an exciting and satisfying retail experience.
The case begins by presenting the protagonist—the chief operating officer (COO)—mulling over the challenges that the brand faces due to the price differential between its offering versus the local, regional and national players. The protagonist is confident that the experimental, yet value-seeking Indian ice cream consumer will prefer the RB option over a more expensive Movenpick which may be considered as too expensive. It is with this intention that the brand is looking at setting up exclusive RB ice cream parlours that will offer an array of ice creams, sundaes and iced drinks to the Indian consumers.
The author goes on to trace the brand’s history and its journey from the United States to markets across the globe. The brand currently enjoys its presence in 42 countries, through 6,433 outlets. The company has used the 100 per cent franchise model to achieve the exciting growth numbers. The same franchise model was adopted when entering the Indian market. The section discusses in brief the franchise selection process and the owners’ stake in the same. Interestingly, the franchisee—in a particular location—enjoys some degree of flexibility in taking autonomous decisions to cater to the local palate and customer.
The next section which is titled ‘Scenario in India’ includes both a snapshot of the current market scenario for ice creams in India and the current operations of RB in India. The chain after 17 years has its presence in 100 Indian cities. Its products and offerings are available through traditional retail formats, such as stores in malls, multiplexes, hotels and restaurants, and through exclusive brand ice cream parlours as well as express counters at strategic locations. The Indian franchisers’ revenue comes majorly (50 per cent) from the parlour segment followed by modern trade, food services and foreign exports. Hence, this is a very important channel for the brand to reach its customers. The learners may imagine the brand as positioned somewhere between the Indian brands such as Amul, Vadilal and Kwality Walls, on the one hand, and Häagen-Dazs and Movenpick, on the other. The brand entered into the country when the Indian customer was accustomed to either no ice cream parlours or to local players such as Nirula’s in the Delhi market.
The case presents the consumer buying decisions for ice creams in India by stating that 60 per cent of the purchase is based on impulse and happens through roadside vending carts and kiosks, 30 per cent is for home consumption (family) and the rest is at hotels, etc. In order to be part of the consideration set of the experimental Indian who looks for ‘retail-tainment’, the brand has attempted a number of promotional exercises. First, there has been a global re-positioning strategy of engaging the RB customer more through various routes. This has been termed as ‘indulging customers for their happiness’. Hence, the brand has considerably increased its product variants to include many new and unique flavours. The ice cream parlours are being given a complete makeover with a livelier ambience through atmospherics and enhancing customer experience. Alongside the brand carried out a number of unique advertising campaigns in India through television serials as well as through picture placement in a Bollywood fantasy movie.
The ice cream market in India is forecasted, in the case, as having an exciting future ahead with an expected year-on-year growth of 35 per cent (case facts). Thus, the COO is also looking at having a bigger share of this pie and has targeted a growth of 30 per cent (case facts) and wants to become more aggressive now in major tier I and II cities by increasing its parlour presence by adding 80–85 parlours every year. The case also states that in the long term the COO wants to venture into tier III and IV cities as well. The challenge that they face in this endeavour, besides the competition, is changing consumer demographics and sentiments, which is further aggravated by a slow infrastructure development.
The case writer has attempted to increase the usability of the case and its relevance for assisting in a learning environment by providing a comprehensive teaching note. Thus, the case comes with a handy suggested pedagogy and assignment/discussion questions that may be used by the instructor who may decide to use this for classroom teaching. There are three sample questions and suggested answers for the same given with the case. This increases the usability of the case study as Indian students pursuing management education in India would understand business decision-making better if they are given local market scenarios with which they relate more.
Food and Beverages
Ice cream is a sector to which learners from any walk of life would be able to relate both as a student and as a consumer in their own right; hence, the usage scope for the case is quite high. However, the case study is brief and does not provide enough insights into the market scenario which is critical for understanding what does RB do in the light of the competitors’ strategies. The case also does not talk about one of the leading national ice cream brands in the Indian market—Mother Dairy. The Indian consumer demographics as well as psychographical reports are available and may be used to supplement the case for a more comprehensive discussion. The case talks about enhancing the retail experience by engaging the customer better at the RB ice cream parlour; thus, the instructor may ask the student-learner groups to visit ice cream parlours in the city in order to understand and then discuss in class as to what really works in providing a fruitful customer experience and one that would motivate the customer in wanting to replicate the experience and hence work towards the COO’s goal of increasing customer loyalty.
Though the case writer has suggested that the case study may be used for multiple objectives, including branding and repositioning, the case study does not provide sufficient information/data to merit a discussion on these topics. The case study may have a better potential in illustrating the following concepts/constructs:
Retail atmospherics Marketing strategy—evaluating strategies for growth.
In case the instructor looks at any of the above-suggested topics, then it may be prudent to suggest appropriate readings. A number of data providers are available, who can provide a comprehensive sectoral report, which is available for public use. Hence, it is suggested that the case should be accompanied by an ‘ice cream sector in India’ report and the learner’s own findings from their parlour visit and the reading. To increase the learner engagement levels, it may be suggested that they take pictures of the ice cream parlours they visited. Further, it is suggested that the reading may be decided based on the learner’s profile and the learning levels desired by the instructor.
Though the instructor may devise his/her own questions based on the leaning objectives, it is suggested that they may make use of some universal frameworks like SWOT (strength, weaknesses, opportunities, threat) analysis. This should not be difficult once the sector report is available for study. The instructor may also find it useful to ask the learners to place the RB brand versus the available completion in the Indian market on a perceptual map, where one of the dimensions—as identified in the case—could be price/value. In case the learner is part of an undergraduate level in marketing, it may be fruitful to use the situation to differentiate between price and value. The learners should be able to appreciate that by enhancing the customer experience in the retail store the brand is delinking itself from price and moving more towards value—both tangible and intangible. While discussing growth strategies the instructor may like to use the seminal reading and model by Ansoff (1957). It may be interesting to first ask the learners to place the current strategy—expanding by 80–85 stores in a year and the retail presence into one of the four cells in the matrix and then to identify the movement based on the strategy suggested by the learner group. The case study provides a broad decision situation, which in itself is the reason for its increased possibility of usage. It can be kept simple or enhanced with supportive documents to take learners/readers to complex strategy formulation and implementation decisions.