In the retail marketing industry, there is no clear leader and no great company. Companies that have not done focused evaluations of the vendors in this industry will increasingly do it because the spending share on this segment will become big. When that starts happening, the good companies will see more growth while the smaller ones will have to either get better or disappear. And this industry will see more organization and some clear leaders will emerge. Channelplay is one of them.
Channelplay’s Raison D’etre
Selling….. Everyone seems to hate it. People hate being sold to, and most sellers also only seem to do it grudgingly. Yet, every single person in the world makes a living because things get sold. It might be done in a better way. Channelplay exists to help people sell better. When people sell better, customers have pleasant experiences, sellers have better careers, their companies have richer shareholders, economies do better and countries progress.
Channelplay is a retail marketing company that helps its clients sell more effectively. Within four years of existence, it has become one of India’s leading retail marketing companies and currently serves the world’s top mobile and PC brands. It is a leading Sales Force Automation, Shopper Marketing & Channel Management Companies in India. Managing over 5000 field staff, and working with over 60 clients in diverse industries, they’ve learnt from the challenges of delivering high-performance solutions.
Inception Story
It was in the year 2006 that the terrific trio squad of Sundeep Holani- CEO & Co-founder, Tushar- Co-founder and Suhas- Co-founder incorporated Channelplay Limited. These three did their MBA from IIM Calcutta. They always wanted to start a business together. Sundeep had around 4 years of retail IT consulting experience and have spent most of his time in the US and China where he got to learn how retail works and how IT is implemented in retail. Suhas and Tushar had worked for some of the biggest names in consumer products and services in India. While this trio took jobs from campus, they frequently shared business plans and discussed opportunities. Of all the plans discussed, Channelplay took off!
Services Proffered by Chaannelplay
Channelplay has 5 verticals within which they operate. In the first one, they do Advocacy directly, for this they have a large team of sales representatives who represent brands and position themselves inside the stores; these can vary from big brands like Croma, Reliance Digital etc. to small mom & pop stores in markets across the city.
Another service that drives advocacy in a way is their Training and Development service; in this Channelplay provides extensive training to the employees recruited by the retailers themselves. They ensure that they are capable enough of dealing and selling off their brand’s products.
Thirdly, they provide Visual Merchandising (VM), already catering to around 15000 stores in the country, their team of VM experts visit the store and ensure that maximum brand visibility is attained. This can be done by ensuring the proper arrangement of stock, deployment of collateral in the form of posters, danglers etc.
The fourth thing Channelplay does is Mystery Shopping & Audit. They have their Retail Intelligence Vertical, in which they do retail audits, mystery shopping, wherein a person would go to these outlets, announced or unannounced, like a shadow-customer. This enables Channelplay to analyze their shortcomings and performance.
Lastly, it is Experiential Marketing, where they do activations, events, promotions etc., making the brand visible outside the store environment, enabling the foot-falls to raise which in turn becomes the fulcrum for the other 4 services.
Uniqueness of Channelplay
Channelplay is one of the few professionally managed companies in the space. Its large footprint of over 5000 employees, revenue of around 150 crores in various cities across India gives their 60 clients unparalleled reach. Channelplay is also at the leading edge of technology implementation to drive efficiency and transparency in its services. Channelplay can be rated as among the best in the world in technology implementation.
Future Outlook
Channelplay is focused on the Indian market, at least for the next couple of years. There is a lot more they want to do to bring operational and process excellence before they increase their geographical footprint. On the revenue side, things are growing satisfactorily, and they would like to keep the momentum. The long-term plan is to be India’s best and biggest, and to be listed on the NSE.
Website:- www.channelplay.in
Channelplay: India’s Leading Channel Management Company
