Music World gets unplugged

The country's largest music retail chain and part of the Rs 1,500-crore RPG Group, Music World has decided it's time to take a break from its large-format retail model. "For about six months now we have experimented with the ‘mini-Music-World-on-the-rack' concept, which has proved quite successful for us. We place a small music rack in music stores at prominent locations that attract high-traffic. The buyer gets legal music, accompanied with all the guarantees and promotions that our main stores offer," says K Dasaratharaman, chief executive officer, Music World Entertainment.

The chain, which is present in 15 locations in nine cities, is looking to try out this model at 40 locations across country. Dasaratharaman adds, "These racks occupy just about 200 sq ft area, host a limited range that is likely move fast - like the Top 10 western labels, Top 10 Hindi film songs, Top 10 regional language songs such as Tamil movie songs, Top 10 pop numbers and so on."

Music World, which is present in the cities of Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Cochin, Delhi, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Pune, has a turnover of Rs 50 crore currently. Keeping in view its growing popularity, the chain has also launched its consumer reward-cum-loyalty card called ‘Masti'. This product is essentially aimed at rewarding consumers for their continued patronage of the chain. "The card has been launched in Chennai and would be rolled out in other cities by the year end. The Bangalore launch is slated for the end of November," he said.

The card, co-branded by Expressions Greetings, would be available at all Music World outlets. A buyer purchasing music worth Rs 300 and above would be automatically entitled to this card for an additional payment of Rs 50. A booklet detailing all the offers in town accompanies the card. Most of the prominent lifestyle brands such as Reebok, Titan (Fastrack), Louis Philippe, Pizza Corner, Oysterbay and VLCC feature in the booklet. "The offer includes free gifts to discounts to the tune of 25 per cent," says Dasaratharaman. To forge a personal bond with the consumer, the card would offer a 12 per cent discount during the month of his/her birthday and another 11 per cent during the month just prior to his/her birthday.

All these efforts are obviously aimed at countering the heat in the marketplace The store, which introduced the concept of corporatisation of music retailing in the country, has been battling not just the slump in the music industry, but also competition from cheap, pirated cassettes and CDs. Moreover, the advent of aspirational stores such as Landmark, Fountainhead and Planet Music have begun eating into its market share. Hence, after four years' of existence, the store has gone for this innovative small-music-rack concept to take its brand forward.

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