A retailer’s brand image is made up of the perceptions about its merchandise, customer expectations and experience and the way they distinguish it from other competitions. As the formats are more or less similar, brand management is all about how a retailer makes a significant difference by building up top-of-mind recall and customer preference for itself over others. The customers expect a ‘coolness ‘factor, better shopping experience, connect and quality. The retailer uses tools such as MR, data analytics and consumer behaviour studies in association with merchandising teams to achieve the objectives.

Brand management creates loyalty in customers’ minds. It is a commitment to a particular retailer that survives the test of time, market changes, rising MRPs, competition and occasional quality fluctuations.

Some useful measures for better brand management in retail are:

A Strong Reason to Buy ( RTB ) : It is the proposition of the retail brand. In other words, it offers the projected differentiation, the value promised and the incentive to return on a regular basis.

The Service Quality : The hygiene level, the measures to delight the customer and great service influence the loyalty.

Innovative Schemes :   There are schemes and offers. The products are refreshed periodically. There are discount schemes. All this creates word-of-mouth publicity. All this increases the footfalls.

Loyalty Programmes : These programmes reward the loyal customers. They are a reason for them to return to the shop again.

Communication : A retail  brand must know when and how to communicate its proposition, loyalty programme updates and the schemes.