Sravanthi Challapalli

Chennai , Dec. 12

The Chennai-based discount chain Subhiksha has launched its first-ever national TV campaign. Mr Mohit Khattar, President (Marketing), Subhiksha, told Business Line that the campaign follows the recent expansion spree across the country.

Restricted to 140 outlets in Tamil Nadu till last year, Subhiksha in 2006 rolled out 350 stores in Delhi, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Delhi has 100 outlets, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh nearly 50, and Bangalore has 38. The campaign is targeted to reach larger audiences and introduce them to Subhiksha and the advantages of shopping there.

Launched in Hindi, it shows various shoppers looking for lower prices and opting to shop at Subhiksha, declaring that as it's hard-earned money— , "bachat mera adhikaar hai" — (savings are my right). Later on, there will be Telugu and Kannada versions of the campaign too.

The target audience is adults over 25 years of age, men and women in SEC A, B and C, whoever does the shopping, Mr Khattar said. The company is spending Rs 15 crore on this campaign in the first 12 months. Other media it is using include print, outdoor and radio. The ad agency in charge of the campaign is Orchard, Bangalore.

Mr Khattar said the Subhiksha outlets in Chennai and the rest of Tamil Nadu are being revamped. Customer feedback has it that they looked for a larger variety of products and better service so the stores are being made bigger, have more stocks and are becoming self-service models — till now, customers had to give their shopping lists and wait for the staff to put it together, which delayed the transaction time, he explained. However, the stores outside Tamil Nadu have been bigger and self-service formats from day one.

Subhiksha, which started operations in 1997 and made Rs 300 crore in sales from 140 outlets the previous year, hopes to make Rs 500 crore in revenue now that it has nearly 500 outlets across the country.

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