aCROSS WORDs

Being a bookworm myself my obvious choice was to observe the well known and well acclaimed bookstore “CROSS WORD”. Though I had been to the shop umpteen times to binge on new books I had never really looked at the place with a “Marketing Eye”. ;) Thus, need I the slightest reason, and lo..There I was standing before the shop. Let me elaborate on each aspect of the store that caught my attention.

Location:

Situated in the bustling roads of Alwarpet, a premier location in Chennai, Cross Word was situated in a strategic location, at the juncture of 3 roads (Eldams road, TTK Road and CP Ramasamy Road… The shopping arena in the Heart of Chennai)
The entry into Crossword was an inviting one. It had a brief flight of shallow stairs, a double glass door which provided a generous view of the place. With its ‘noise of colour and variety’ the on goers would any day be curious to at least enter and check out the place if not buy anything. I opened the door I was welcomed by a whiff of fresh air. One that smelt of books and parchment paper. 

Ambience and Advertising

In the times of such power cut, I was pleasantly glad that the A/C was on full blast at CROSWORD. I felt at ease as the security helped me leave my bag at the baggage counter and gave me a token. I was also given a cloth tray to shop for books. (Well they do believe in the use of cloth bags I guess). 
The posters and boards adorning the walls of crossword are wordings and phrases that portray the joy of Reading. The whole place is painted in Yellow. Yes that the signature colour of Crossword. In my opinion just as Red increases a person’s appetite for food, Yellow increases a person’s appetite for knowledge and reading. Sub consciously it represents (at least to me) the sun, a smiley face, sunflowers, morning freshness.. Things that would induce a person to take some time off for leisure and in turn READ…

Interiors

As I walked through the floors of Crossword I could see that they have a vast collection of books. Not only books they also sold other goods such as CDs, Stationary articles, Gift articles. They had endorsed certain brands for each genre. Kids stationary were largely Vividha brand articles. Chumbak branded merchandise were also there to cater to decorative items section. Sixth Sense gift packs were there too to showcase interior decorative items. Stationery was mostly PaperKraft and Classmates.

Variety and Classification of Books:

Books being the flagship product of Crossword, they were in galore. Right from Romance, Fiction, Nonfiction, Horror, and Humor to Indian Writing, Contemporary Indian novels, and Travel guides there was every genre covered. You name it, you had it. They were placed neatly under each section. Each section had a Gondola of Books each. Also the books were stacked according to alphabetical order of the Names of the Authors. Thus one could locate a book with ease. Apart from such classifications, there were stands in many locations within the store, which donned the set of bestselling books and fast moving most-wanted collections. Even latest books and new entrant novels were stacked separately. There were other nooks and crannies which had varied sets of magazines, kid’s books and comics.

Tracking of Books:

They had a sound back end system in the book search counter. A customer could approach the customer relationship executive standing there and could request for a particular book. The executive would punch in the book’s name or author’s name and the system would retrieve from their internal database, the no. of copies remaining in that book and its availability. In cases when the book was unavailable or stocks were over, the crossword staff takes a book order from the customer and tries and gets the book asked for, within a few days. 

Some initiatives to grab customer’s Attention and Appreciation

There were cushions and chairs at all corners of the store to make its readers comfortable. Thus a customer at crossword could invariable spend a lot of time lacing through and choosing his books. On a regular basis, complimentary book marks were given to customers along with books they buy. Seasonal sales and discounts were given too. And most interestingly, time and again stalls were set up in the shop, where customers could participate in a small simple quiz on authors. 3 answers right and hey you get a discount coupon of Rs 100. 5 correct? Make it Rs 200. I personally loved this strategy.  

Final word with the Staff:

The staff at Crossword seemed to be amicable people who help customers in locating books and answering queries. I had a brief chat with the staff member at the cash counter. I enquired her about the shops inception and got to know that it was in November 2010. The shops location was one main reason to have attracted a large customer base, not to ignore that there was a dearth of good book stores around the area, with Odyssey a few kilometers away. She said Crossword at Alwarpet is the only outlet in Chennai. I tried to speak to the Store manager Mr.Jebakumar, but he was unavailable for the day. I picked up his contact details from the shop and planned to visit it once again for more details on sales and profits. I left the shop happy, refreshed, and of course with a new novel “If God was a Banker”


Divya Ananthram
FT 13422