Because their first customer touch points (stores associates) go an extra mile to communicate and connect with their customers.

Just 15 minutes back I was at a Delta Maxi store near my Hotel in Belgrade. I buy two pints of Jelen Pivo (an excellent Serbian beer, a brand and market leader – but that is besides the point) among other eatable stuff and some mineral water.

At check-out, the young lady goes an extra mile in communicating to me, a foreigner who did not understood Serbian at all, that if I return back the empty beer bottles I’ll get back 30 Serbian Dinars. How she communicated is a separate story and no need to retell here – that is not important.

That she communicated well with a foreigner, despite the language barrier, is the fundamental point here. Someone had really taken care to drill down that work ethics.

Thank you young lady and Delta Maxi – you really made my day today.

“Want to find freshness of fruits and vegetables? Just use your ears. It’s not fresh till you hear a delicious frrrunch”

Surprisingly, this advertisement is by Samsung to promote their refrigerators. I am amazed to see use of fruit and vegetables in advertising in India. Just try to count ads for cosmetics, shampoos, wellness drugs, sports goods, stationery items, even men underwear ha! ha! (remember Amul Macho, monkeys and those silly bananas). It is not only in India – I saw similar trend lately in last few months elsewhere also in as diverse countries like Serbia, Oman and Turkey.

Power of fruit and vegetables to connote freshness anywhere is really astounding. It is universal. Period.

Why no Indian retailer is now advertising fresh produce except to communicate their so called cheap prices with God know comparative with what which incidentally is always called “Market” with a capital M.

Last advertisement recorded (to my knowledge) to promote fruit and vegetables and retailer as a brand in India was perhaps released on telly ten years back by one of the companies I proudly served. Who from that era does not still remember stalwarts of their times like T.N.Seshan, Kiran Bedi etc promoting the humble fruit and vegetables for their own sake. But as cliché goes – those were the times….or as Bob Dylan would have said …The Times They Are a-Changin’