Arcus appoints Euro RSCG, Delhi, as its agency

After winning the creative duties of Rajat Sharma-promoted news channel, India TV, Euro RSCG India has now picked up the advertising account of home development brand Arcus, which is owned by the Delhi-based Turner Morrison Group. The movement was not preceded by a pitch, however. As Euro was already working on one of the Group's brands (Lacoste), the company decided to align the Arcus part of the business to the agency as well. But while that may be one reason behind Arcus signing on Euro, Sanjeev Roy, director, Euro RSCG, Delhi, points our a more important reason for his agency acquiring the business. "Besides our work on Lacoste, we have been hired for our offering of integrated services," he says. The size of the Arcus account has not been ascertained, as both company and agency refuse to divulge spends.

Elaborating on the role the agency would play, Roy says, "Our task is to augment the value perception of the Arcus brand among the consumers." This, the agency plans to implement through a two-pronged strategy. "We have to increase the number of footfalls in the store (currently, the store registers 40,000-50,000 footfalls on weekdays), and simultaneously translate those footfalls into higher sales," Roy adds.

In an attempt to understand and subsequently employ methods to increase footfalls, the retail outlet has commissioned a couple of researches. "Arcus is still some distance from being a scalable model," says Vikas Gupta, CEO, Arcus. "We need to see what retail format to observe, to understand consumer interests et cetera. And based on the consumer and vendor feedback, we would better the experience at Arcus."

With the aid of some pointers from research, on-ground initiatives would gear to improve the in-store experience, merchandise display and efforts to include more value-added services. "Retailing is just not about advertising - display, for instance, is very critical in a retail store," emphasizes Roy. "And once you have earned a consumers, it is an equally challenging task retaining her. Therefore, activities such as direct marketing and promotions are going to play a special role in fostering a relationship with the customer."

Arcus, incidentally, had drawn up some very ambitious expansions plans three years ago, but little of that has materialized. In an interview with agencyfaqs! in January 2001, Arvind Nagarajan, then CEO, Arcus, had mentioned that in three years (by 2004, that is), Arcus would have 10 more stores across the country. Currently, there are only two Arcus stores around - one in Gurgaon (Haryana), the other in Lower Parel (Mumbai). While Gupta assures that the company would add some stores in the future, he does not specify timeframes. © 2004 agencyfaqs!