The list of communication skills presented below should be helpful in developing oral communication skills in business, for presentations and also in general.

Vision:

To be a Global Retailer in India and Maintain No.1 position in the Indian Market in the Department Store Category.

Positioning

Shoppers’ Stop is positioned as a family store delivering a complete shopping experience defined by its mission, vision and values.

SHOPPERS STOPS

Vision:

To be a Global Retailer in India and Maintain No.1 position in the Indian Market in the Department Store Category.

Positioning

Shoppers’ Stop is positioned as a family store delivering a complete shopping experience defined by its mission, vision and values.

1991: Shoppers’ Stop launches at Andheri

Setting up shop in 1991 with its flagship store in Andheri, Mumbai, Shoppers’ Stop is a member of the K. Raheja Corp. of Companies. Shoppers’ Stop is the first retail venture by the K. Raheja Corp. Promoted by Mr. Chandru L. Raheja, Mr. Ravi C. Raheja and Mr. Neel C. Raheja, the K. Raheja Corp. have been leaders in the construction business for over 48 years. With its wide range of merchandise, exclusive shop-in-shop counters of international brands and world-class customer service, Shoppers’ Stop brought international standards of shopping to the Indian consumer providing them with a world class shopping experience.

India 2000 & Beyond…
Expanding its operations to Bangalore, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai (Andheri, Bandra, Chembur, Kandivli, Mulund), Pune, Gurgaon and Kolkata, Shoppers’ Stop is today recognised as India’s premier shopping destination. With a customer entry of about 50,000 customers a day, a national presence with over 6, 00,000 square feet of retail space and stocking over 250 brands of garments and accessories, Shoppers’ Stop has clearly become a one stop shop for all customers.

Customer Profile
Shoppers’ Stop’s core customers represent a strong SEC A skew. They fall between the age group of 16 years to 35 years, the majority of them being families and young couples with a monthly household income above Rs. 20000 and an annual spend of Rs.15000. A large number of Non – Resident Indians visit the shop for ethnic clothes in the international environment they are accustomed to.

Product Range offered

Shopper stop has categorized itself into 4 different areas:

Men

Women

Kids

Fragnance and Home & travel

The stores offer a complete range of apparel and lifestyle accessories for the entire family. From apparel brands like Provogue, Colour Plus, Arrow, Levi’s, Scullers, Zodiac to cosmetic brands like Lakme, Chambor, Le Teint Ricci etc.,Shoppers’ Stop caters to every lifestyle need. Shoppers’ Stop has also introduced its own line of clothing in the classic, value classic and value fashion segments. These are LIFE, STOP, KARROT and KASHISH that are available across different categories.

The merchandise at Shoppers’ Stop is sold at a quality and price assurance backed by its guarantee stamp on every bill. Shoppers’ Stop has 4 division the Men’s apparels, ladies apparels, kids wear and the Non-apparels. Following is their contribution to the turnover.

• Men’s 43% of sales.
• Women’s 18% of sales.
• Kids 8% of sales.
• Non-Apparels 31% of sales.

Based on the 4 areas specified above there can be further sub segmentation

1) Men section is further sub divided into men

• Men apparel
• Men accessories

2) Women section: the women section has also been classified into:

• Women’s apparel
• Women’s accessories

Women apparel can further be sub divided into:

Shirts Bottomwear Jeans Co-ordinated Set Ready to Stitch Skirts Dresses Lingerie Night wear Winterwear

Likewise Women’s accessories can be sub classified into:

Handbags Fashion Jewellery Watches Sunglasses Writing Instruments Socks

Similarly the kids section and the home and travel category can be classified.

Having discussed all the product categories now we would like to discuss the observations we had drawn on the basis of our field work:

For example if we take shirts section into consideration we can classify the shirts as:

• Formal shirts
• Semi-formal shirts
• Party shirts
• Casual shirts

If a person is shopping for a shirt he can make his shopping decision on the basis of following:

Brand Wise selection: Shopper Stop brings all the brands under one roof. Depending on your choice you could go for any brand. The various brands of the shirts which Shopper Stop offers are as follows:

• Wills lifestyle
• Color plus
• Austin Reed
• Acropolis
• Indian Terrain
• Park Avenue
• Van Huesen
• Arrow
• Spykar
• Stop
• Wrangler
• Louis Phillipe
• Mufti
• Life
• Vettorio Fratani
• Mario Zegnoti
• Lee

Thus these are all the brands of shirts available in Shopper Stop.

• The price range of the shirt depends on the brand to which it belongs
• Shirts have been serially arranged
• Each brand has its own uniqueness and it depends on the customer what features he is looking for in the shirt.
• Some brands like Louis Phillipe cater to the formal shirts for Business Class
• Spykar Shirts are meant mainly for the college going students. Spykar only has casual shirts in its product line.
• Provogue has a blend of formal as well as casual shirts.

A  person can shop on the basis of following parameters:

• Shop by design

Ø  Shade

Ø  Plain

Ø  Stripes

• Shop by sleeve

Ø  Full sleeves

Ø  Half sleeves

• Shop by price

Ø  Upto 999

Ø  1000-1299

Ø  1300-1599

Ø  1600-1899

Ø  1900-2199

Ø  2200-2499

Ø  Above 2500

Thus these are the basis upon which a purchase of shirt can be made. Now we would like to talk about the pricing objectives as well as how the pricing objectives have an impact on the consumer who is making the purchase:

• The shirt section in Shopper Stop is so arranged that it facilitates purchase on the basis of aforesaid parameters.
• The advantage from a consumer’s point of view is that he can compare the shirts of different brands under one roof.
• He can compare the price and the quality of the cloth of different Brands and then make the final decision.
• Within a brand also shirts are arranged on the basis of price as well as half sleeves or full sleeves. This saves the customer’s time as he is able to get exactly what he wants.
• The prices ending with odd numbers 9 indicate that the pricing strategy being adopted is Psychological pricing. Product’s prices ending with number 9 have a significant impact upon the psychology of the consumers.
• Consumers also perceive the high prices of shirts as an indicator of high quality.
• Perceived value pricing is another strategy adopted in case of pricing of shirts. Marketers set the prices of product on the basis of their perceived value in the minds of customers.
• The consumer enjoys the freedom he has in choosing the shirts. In case the consumer had gone to a shirt showroom which caters to a single brand then he will not have so many options.
• The consumer can himself make the purchase decision; he does not have to ask the sales executive to help him/her out. Although this depends on the type of consumer. Impulsive shoppers will make a decision in matter of seconds. While other consumers need time to make a decision.
• In Shopper Stop there is also a designer wear counter where clothes from leading designers in India are available. These clothes have a separate niche market and they are very highly priced. These clothes are purchased by consumers who are very much bothered about latest fashion. These clothes are status symbol because there prices can be 5 to 10 times higher than all the other brands. Designers like Nikhil and Shantanu etc. keep coming up with designer clothes. The other point with respect to these designer clothes is that they come in very limited stock that is for a particular designer cloth only few pieces may be available and if once that stock gets finished it is finished once and for all.  New designer clothes will replace that one and this is how it goes on. These designer clothes do not specifically have any brand name on the top of the cloth the name of the designer is written.
• These designer clothes are stocked in a separate section so that the attention of consumers is attracted towards them as they pass by.
• Pricing objective of Shoppers Stop is to maintain its market share as well as earn return on investment for its stakeholders.

Technical professionals are highly specialized and managing them according to traditional principles may meet with only minimal success.

Technical professionals want autonomy: They are frequently achievement-orientated people who seek motivation from their work.  Technical professionals’ desire for autonomy usually means that they want a large role in setting goals [...]]]>

Technical professionals are highly specialized and managing them according to traditional principles may meet with only minimal success.

Technical professionals want autonomy: They are frequently achievement-orientated people who seek motivation from their work.  Technical professionals’ desire for autonomy usually means that they want a large role in setting goals and making decisions.  Many would prefer to manage themselves.

Technical professionals need a sense of achievement: They often find the greatest challenge in tasks that require high levels of skill and effort; they want to do difficult jobs well and make significant accomplishments.  Support and recognition from management and colleagues also generates commitment, along with their organisation’s and their profession’s acceptance and recognition of the results they achieve.

Technical professionals fear burnout: Burnout happens when the professional loses a sense of accomplishment from work, is emotionally exhausted, and feels powerless to influence change.   A fear of obsolescence often accompanies this.  When skills are underutilized, apathy, burnout, or alienation may result.

Technical professionals are loyal to their profession first: Loyalty to the company often is second.  College graduates in entry-level marketing positions, for example, are more apt to align career objectives with the company promotion path than are entering engineers or accountants.

Technical professionals resist participating in company missions: With their tendency to pursue professional goals first and their need for control over their work, technical professionals are more resistant than are most occupational groups to committing to mandate organisation goals.

Technical professionals need collegial support, stimulation, and sharing: The potential for competition is high among bright, ambitious people with strong egos.  It can cause insecurity for some.  That insecurity can reduce risk taking and, in time, take a toll on innovation.  Collegial support is important to these professionals, many of whom seek an environment that uses the energy derived from different knowledge and experience base.  Technical leaders must manage a productive balance between teamwork and individual creativity.

A business leader creates a cohesive, dynamic team by:

STRENGTHS :

India’s geographical location is a culmination of forests, deserts, and mountains ands beaches. Diversity of culture i.e. a blend of various civilizations and their traditions. A wealth of archeological sites and historical monuments.

WEAKNESSES

Lack of adequate infrastructure. A xenophobic attitude among certain sections of the [...]]]> Incredible India :

STRENGTHS :

India’s geographical location is a culmination of forests, deserts, and mountains ands beaches. Diversity of culture i.e. a blend of various civilizations and their traditions. A wealth of archeological sites and historical monuments.

WEAKNESSES

Lack of adequate infrastructure. A xenophobic attitude among certain sections of the people. No proper marketing of India’s tourism abroad. Foreigners still think of India as a land of snake charmers.

OPPORTUNITIES

More proactive role from the government of India in terms of framing policies. Allowing entry of more multinational companies into the country giving us a global perspective. As well as growth of domestic tourism is one of the factors of the development of the tourism industry.

THREATS

Economic conditions and political turmoil in other countries affects tourism. Aggressive strategies adopted by other countries like Australia, Singapore in promoting their tourism affects Indian tourism.

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company is a joint venture between ICICI Bank – one of India’s foremost financial services companies-and Prudential plc – a leading international financial services group headquartered in the United Kingdom. Total capital infusion stands at Rs. 47.80 billion, with ICICI Bank [...]]]> ICICI Prudential Life Insurance :

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company is a joint venture between ICICI Bank – one of India’s foremost financial services companies-and Prudential plc – a leading international financial services group headquartered in the United Kingdom. Total capital infusion stands at Rs. 47.80 billion, with ICICI Bank holding a stake of 74% and Prudential plc holding 26%.

It began its operations in December 2000 after receiving approval from Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA). Today, their nation -wide  reach includes 1,960 branches (inclusive of 1,096 micro-offices), over 237,000 advisors; and 6 bancassurance partners.

For three years in a row, ICICI Prudential has been voted as India’s Most Trusted Private Life Insurer, by The Economic Times – AC Nielsen ORG MARG survey of ‘Most Trusted Brands’. As they grow their distribution, product range and customer base, they continue to tirelessly uphold their commitment to deliver world-class financial solutions to customers all over India.

For the past nine years, ICICI Prudential Life has retained its leadership position in the life insurance industry with a wide range of flexible products that meet the needs of the Indian customer at every step in life.

ICICI Prudential Life has one of the largest distribution networks amongst private life insurers in India. It has a strong presence across India with 1,960 branches (including 1,096 micro-offices) and an advisor base of over 230,000 (as on December 31, 2009).

The company has 6 bancassurance partners having tie-ups with ICICI Bank, Jalgaon Peoples Co-op Bank, Ratanagiri District Central Co-op Bank, Ballia Kshetriya Co-operative Bank, Renuka Nagrik Sahakari Bank, Bhandara Urban Co-operative Bank.

7 P’s of Marketing of  ICICI Prudential :

1. Products  and  Services:

Insurance Solutions for Individuals: ICICI Prudential Life Insurance offers several novel, customer-centric products for customers at every stage of life. The products and services offered by the organization are in various fields, such as:

Protection Plans:

1. Save ‘n’ Protect : It’s a perfect plan to collect funds as savings and be protected by the insurance policy.

2. Cashback : It’s a policy with a combination of three benefits periodic liquidity, protection & savings.

3. Home Assure : It is a policy where you can cover your home loan which is a term assurance plan.

4. Pure Protect : It secures your life and your family’s in case of any unforeseen situation. It is a term plan which is a flexible and inexpensive product.

5. Life Guard : It is a cover which is available at a low cost. This plan comes with 2 options –level term assurance with return of premium & single premium.

Premium Guarantee Plans:

1. InvestShield CashBack : It provides a premium guarantee and also balancing the returns, safety & liquidity. It is a unit linked plan.

2. InvestShield Life New : A plan where the customer is guaranteed that he will at least get back his premiums. It is a unit linked plan which also provides premium guarantee and the customer gets the benefits of high returns. The policy also offers a protection to the family with a life insurance cover.

Education Insurance Plans:

1. SmartKid Regular Premium : It is a tradional plan where funds are provided for the needs of the child in the future.

2. SmartKid New Unit-linked Regular & Single Premium : The policy is made in such a way that the child receives money at a stage, for his educational needs.

Wealth Creation Plans:

1. PremierLife Gold : Premier Life Gold helps with long-term wealth creation .It is a limited premium paying plan. And from the second year onwards it also provides flexibility of premium reduction.

2. LifeStage RP : The LifeStage RP is unit linked plan that provides you with a portfolio strategy and keeps distributing your funds across the different asset classes depending on your profile.

3. Wealth Advantage : Its an exclusive whole life single premium unit linked plan that provides long term coverage up to the age of 70 years. And you have the option of withdrawing your funds systematically.

4. Lifetime Gold : This plan is a unit linked plan from which you can get high returns over a long term with easy investment options. It offers 8 fund options – Preserver, Protector, Return Guarantee Fund, Balancer, Flexi Balanced Multiplier, R.I.C.H and Flexi Growth.

5. LifeStage Assure : A unit linked insurance plan that provides Guaranteed Maturity Addition of 100%- 450% of first year premium based on the term and number of premiums paid. Also your funds are allocated across several asset class based on your profile.

6. LifeLink Super : It’s a single premium unit linked insurance which offers premium allocation along with a chance to get high returns over the long term, and your family is also protected by this plan.

Group Plans:

1. Group Term Insurance Plan : It’s a flexible group term plan which provides an inexpensive cover to members of a group. The cover is either given based on uniform or based on designation/rank or a multiple of salary. The benefit under the policy is paid to the beneficiary nominated by the member on his/her death.

2. Group Gratuity Plan : The plan helps employers fund their statutory gratuity obligation in a scientific manner and also avail of tax benefits as applicable to approved gratuity funds.

3. Group Super Annuation Plan : This plan offers a flexible market linked scheme that provides substantial benefits to both employers and employees. Both defined contribution (DC) and defined benefit (DB) schemes are offered to optimize returns for members of the trust and rationalize cost. Members have the option of choosing from various annuity options or opting for a partial commutation of the annuity at the time of retirement.

4. Annuity Solutions : This plan has annuity products which give you income and help you realize your needs. In addition to the annuities offered to existing superannuation customers, the plan also offers immediate annuities to superannuation funds managed by the team.

Health Insurance Plans:

1. Diabetes Plans : It is a long term insurance policy created for individuals with Type II diabetes and pre-diabetes. It offers long term (upto 20 years) control over diabetes through a specially designed Wellness Programme including regular health checkups and a Diabetes Coach to facilitate diabetes management. It also provides you coverage against seven major critical illnesses.

2. Cancer Plans : It provide a regular premium plan that helps you with a cash benefit on the diagnosis as well as at different stages in the treatment of various cancer conditions.

3. Comprehensive Health coverage : provides comprehensive hospitalization cover and reimburses all other medical expenses by building a health fund.

4. Critical Illness Plan : It is a 360-degree product that will provide long-term coverage against 35 critical illnesses, total and permanent disability, and death.

5. Hospitalisation Plan : A health insurance policy that provides assured insurability till age 75 years, assured coverage for accepted pre-existing illnesses after 2 years and an assured price for 3 years. Also there is another hospital care plan where there  is a fixed benefit plan covering various stages of treatment – hospitalisation, ICU, procedures & recuperating allowance. It covers a range of medical conditions (900 surgeries) and has a long term guaranteed coverage upto 20 years.

Retirement Plans:

1. Forever Life : A traditional retirement product that offers guaranteed returns for the first 4 years.

2. Immediate Annuity : A single premium annuity product that assures an income for life at the time of your retirement. It has the benefit of 5 payout options.

3. LifeStage Pension : A regular premium unit linked pension plan that provides you with a unique lifecycle-based strategy that continuously re-distributes your money across various asset classes based on your age and risk profile.

4. Premier Life Pension : It is a unit-linked pension policy with a limited premium paying option for preferred customers.

5. Lifetime Super Pension : It is a regular premium unit linked pension plan that helps one accumulate over the long term and offers 5 annuity options (life annuity, life annuity with return of purchase price, joint life last survivor annuity with return of purchase price, life annuity guaranteed for 5, 10 and 15 years & for life thereafter, joint life, last survivor annuity without return of purchase pric5. at the time of retirement.

6. LifeLink Super Pension : A single premium unit linked pension plan.

Rural Plans :

Suraksha & Suraksha Kavach : It’s a rural plans which offer benefits like life Cover, low and Affordable Premiums and Hassle Free Procedure.
Micro Insurance Sarv Jana Suraksha : Sarv Jana Suraksha is a plan to provide protection and security to rural population at a very affordable cost. The family members are protected in this plan incase of death of the policyholder.

The New Product Launched by ICICI Prudential is as follows-
1. ‘Anmol Nivesh’ for tea tribes in Assam in January 2009
2. Health Saver in January 2009

2. Price:

Pricing is very important in life insurance as policyholders are attracted towards it more often. ICICI Prudential has some unique policies which is different from other companies.

Example: ICICI Prudential- Pure Protect

Below is the table that shows premium for various age-term combinations for a Sum Assured of Rs.50 lakhs.

Features of Pure Protect :
1. Entry Age

2. Policy Term:

3. Place:

Mostly Life Insurance companies have offices at main locations in cities and towns. But most of the customers buy insurance policies with the help of  agents. Therefore place is important but other than place what is more important is wide distribution of  policies through banks directly. It is known as Bancassurance. Bancassurance is the term used to describe the partnership or relationship between a bank and an insurance company whereby the insurance company uses the bank sales channel in order to sell insurance products. Bank staff and tellers, rather than an insurance salesperson, become the point of sale/point of contact for the customer. Bank staff are advised and supported by the insurance company through product information, marketing campaigns and sales training. Both the bank and insurance company share the commission. Insurance policies are processed and administered by the insurance company.  By selling insurance policies bank earns a revenue stream apart from interest. It is called as fee-based income. This income is purely risk free for the bank since the bank simply plays the role of an intermediary for sourcing business to the insurance company.So, ICICI Bank uses bancassurance to distribute policies to its customers. ICICI Prudential Life has one of the largest distribution networks amongst private life insurers in India. It has a strong presence across India with 1,960 branches (including 1,096 micro-offices) and an advisor base of over 230,000 (as on December 31, 2009).

ICICI Prudential has 6 bancassurance partners having tie-ups with ICICI Bank, Jalgaon Peoples Co-op Bank, Ratanagiri District Central Co-op Bank, Ballia Kshetriya Co-operative Bank, Renuka Nagrik Sahakari Bank, Bhandara Urban Co-operative Bank.

Mostly all private life insurance companies are using bancassurance model. Other than this all ICICI Prudential Life Insurance offices are at significant locations.

4.Promotion:

Over the last few months, ICICI Prudential has been advertising in outdoor, TV and press. The company launched a corporate television campaign – Saat Phere – which took the emotions and thoughts of initial Sindoor corporate film a few steps further.

The film highlights the strength of promises that a husband makes to his wife, through the depiction of everyday situations, and then goes on to emphasise that ICICI Prudential will stand by the husband to help him fulfill all these promises. The TV campaign has also been extended to outdoor.

“The company has also undertaken press and internet campaigns to inform customers about benefits of some of its products, particularly retirement solutions, through the Chintamani campaign.”

After the hugely successful Chintamani (retirement) and Saat Phere (corporate) campaigns, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance also introduced some innovations in the category, such as: having a tax planner by the name of Chintamani on radio, who would answer consumer’s queries about the role of insurance in financial planning.

“Other initiatives included tie-up with the Dabbawalla Organisation in Mumbai for a direct marketing exercise, to talk to the customer through a non-cluttered route, and thereby have a higher impact. The direct mailer was about ICICI Prudential’s retirement solutions and the tax benefits that one can avail of  by investing in any of these. About 100,000 direct mailers were attached to the ‘dabbas’, in areas such as Churchgate, Bandra and Andheri where there are mostly office-goers” .

In addition to advertising, the company has also initiated several activities to raise consumer awareness about life insurance and ICICI Prudential. “It includes seminars – ICICI Prudential regularly holds consumer awareness meets on ‘the need for retirement planning’ in different cities such as Pune, Aurangabad, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Bangalore and Mangalore. These are very well attended and have contributed significantly towards increasing awareness about the category and the company. Apart from this, it also entered into alliances with telecom companies, as well as companies like BPCL and Dominos”

5.People:

People are the main assets in any organization . They are very precious in the service sector. Therefore, ICICI Prudential has good number of talented people in their organization . The people strategy of ICICI Prudential is “To build a committed team with a culture of innovation, learning and growth. The Human Resource Function at ICICI Prudential drives the people strategy of the business. With its initial focus on operational excellence to deliver benefits and services to staff members, HR is now committed to building capability through state of the art processes. A robust performance management system, compensation system and a segmented training architecture enable it to deliver value to the organization. The company provides an enabling environment to foster growth and learning for their employees.

Every member of the ICICI Prudential team is committed to 5 core values:

• Integrity
• Customer First
• Boundaryless
• Ownership
• Passion

These values shine forth in all we do, and have become the keystones of our success.

6. Process:

The client approaches the insurer (ICICI  Prudential) through an agent with a proposal containing his personal details, income details, medical history, products ( the product describes the features provided by the insurer like maturity bonus, claims allowed etc. These features vary from product to product), sum assured (the amount for which the client is covered), term (number of years for which the client is to be covered) and premium amount (installment amount to be paid by the client to the insurer). The agent who brings this proposal is termed as a base/servicing agent for the proposal.

The proposal will go through various stages of approval and risk evaluation by the “Central Processing Centre” of the ICICI Prudential. Upon final approval, a legal agreement, termed as policy, between the insurer and the client is prepared whereby the insurer covers the client for the sum assured. The client is also entitled for some additional benefits, if any, depending on the features of the product taken in the policy. The base agent gets a commission for the policy.

The client pays a premium at regular intervals. These subsequent premiums are termed as renewal premiums. The base agent gets a commission on the renewal premium also.

The client may come back with some alterations to the policy viz. increase/decrease in sum assured, increase/decrease of the term of policy etc. The insurer will make the relevant changes to the policy and will issue endorsements stating the alterations made and their effect on the policy.

During the term of the policy, the client can submit claims. The insurer makes payment against the claim after verification. Depending on the type of claim the policy is either terminated or is kept in force.

At the end of the term of the policy, the client gets the sum assured as part of the maturity benefit under life insurance policies. In addition to this the client will get the maturity bonus and any other benefits depending on the product feature.

7. Physical Evidence:

Physical evidence includes facility design, equipment signage, employee dress, tangibles, reports and statements.

Signage:

Signage personifies the insurance company. It gives a identity by which users recognize the company. A signage depicts the company’s philosophy and policy. Following are some of the examples

Tangibles:

Insurance companies give their customers and agents various tangible items like pen, letter pad, calendars. Such things try to reduce the intangibility characteristics of this industry. Example: Pen of ICICI Prudential

Statements:

The statements are punch line which briefly depicts the vision and attitude of a insurance company towards its users/potentials. It also indicates their business motive. Example: ICICI Prudential have a punch line called “ We cover you at every step of Life” and also the advertisement of “Jeete Raho” was hit among the TV viewers.