Archive for the ‘ Retail ’ Category

If you don’t control your value chain, control your communications!

This is the final piece of a series of three. The first ‘A bad piece of meat will always be a bad piece of meat’ discusses how people select suppliers,  the second one, ‘In this collaborative world, if we own the royal mile, then we have to accept that our suppliers are our responsibility!!!’ discusses how organisations are responsible for the actions of their suppliers since they own the final customer touch point, or what we at this fluid world call the royal mile.

This piece deals with when all else fail, control communications.

I’m prepared to accept that there are times when you are forced to cooperate with organisations whose actions are not under your control. If you happen to find yourself in such a situation, then you must be responsible for, and take control of the one thing you do have power over – your communications.

Let me give you an example.

A few years ago I bought a TV from John Lewis.

Anyone who has had the pleasure of buying anything in John Lewis’ electronics department will know that it’s a pure pleasure. The waiting time to be served is short, the staff helpful and polite, the advice based on customer need and not on the desire to up-sell, and the choice available more than acceptable. So far all good (and yes under the control of John Lewis).

However it all goes horribly wrong just a few days later (while I’m still in the post purchase anxiety of ‘do I really need a new TV?’ period – and also within the time frame when I can bring the TV back).

A letter arrives in the post, it’s not a ‘we hope you enjoy your TV’ message from John Lewis, but a threatening letter from the TV license people.


A letter treating me like a criminal because I have just bought a TV and, according to them, don’t have a license for it. No consideration that I may have bought it as a present for someone, or that I may actually have a license (which I did!) – just a threatening letter full of assumptions.

In one second my warm and fuzzy feelings for John Lewis disappears! Warm and fuzzy feelings I had because of an excellent service that I’m sure cost John Lewis a lot of money to deliver on! “But this has nothing to do with John Lewis” I hear you say!

But it does!

I understand John Lewis legally have to inform the license people when someone buys a TV from them.  I also understand that they have no control of the letter that is ultimately sent to their customers (although if I were them I would fight this one all the way to court!).

What I DON’T understand is why they did not have the courtesy to inform me about this legal obligation, and about the letter that would arrive at my doorstep a few days later. What I don’t understand is that they don’t try to separate my experience with them, with my experience with the TV license people. What I don’t understand is that in a situation where they can’t control the actions of an organisation they are forced to cooperate with, over whom they have no power, they don’t control and manage what they do have power of, the communications.

All it would have taken is a “We would like to inform you that we legally have to inform the organisation responsible for TV licenses about your purchase, and that you will be receiving a letter from them within a week”.

Just one simple phrase, yet a phrase that would mean a 100% disassociation from an unpleasant experience that is about to happen, one that could damage their brand, one phrase that would leave the customer with the feeling that John Lewis is on ‘their’ side!

As an organisation you must have a clear understanding of what you can and can’t control. As an organisation you must have a clear understanding as to the possible damaging scenarios around what you can’t control. As an organisation you must make sure that you use communications in your favour to avoid any negative associations from the behaviour of any of those suppliers/collaborators.

But use communications as a last option, control and prevention will always be more powerful! And after all, if Apple can force Vodafone to make each customers open the iPhone package themselves when they buy a new iPhone because ‘it’s part of the customer experience’ (bearing in mind that I as a customer can’t get Vodafone to do anything) – then everything is possible!

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2010
05/09
CATEGORY
Customer Experience
Marketing
Retail
Strategy
Thoughts
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What is the role of the high street in the future?

I love high streets. I chose to live in Marylebone because of its particularly lovely high street. I go out of my way to purchase as much as I can from the independent stores there (well from the ones that are left) rather than from chains or on-line, this to show my support, and to ensure their survival.

Marylebone High Street

But lately I’m finding it increasingly hard to buy things from the high street. Which makes me seriously question its future…

Why?

Well; let’s look at it from a basic marketing perspective. Forgive me for using such a simple, and to many outdated model, as the 4 P’s, but hey I’m a 60’s child so for the sake of simplicity I will stick to the 4 P’s rather than debating what should replace them. (The 4 P’s by the way was invented in 1960 by Jerome McCarthy– so I don’t dispute they need a revamp ).

Anyway, back to the high street.

It’s clear that it can’t compete on price. A while ago I went to Selfridges to buy a memory card, and ended up buying one on-line for £50 less. I wanted to buy ink for my printer at Ryman’s, and bought the same ink on-line at a 50% discount.

How about product? I doubt anyone would dispute that when it comes to product range and type, no-one can beat the Internet (especially with the effect of the long-tail and therefore the ability of offering a product even if there are only a few hundred buyers in one place).

Distribution (place) maybe? There is no way a retailer can have a presence everywhere (although some try at a massive cost). So nope the high street does not seem to be able to compete on place either.

As for promotion, I wont even go there as the Internet has most available communication and targeting tools at its disposal, at a relatively small cost.

So what if we extend the 4 P’s and add a service element to it – process (which refers to the systems used to assist the organisation in delivering the service)? A few weeks ago I went to Divertimenti to buy a new filter for my Bialetti espresso maker. They had none in stock and I was told they could order one for me, and call when it arrived. In the spirit of support I chose to accept to wait and said yes. I went back today thinking they must have forgotten to call me. But oh no, the delivery would take 6 weeks. 6 weeks! So I guess it’s a no no to being competitive on process!

So what is the high street retailer doing about this rather serious problem? Well, some offer their own on-line e-commerce facility, or they allow Amazon to power their sales (to overcome the distribution challenge ), they try to put more products in store (range challenge), they slash their prices (price challenge), they pack their windows with sales messages (promotion and advertising challenge)…I could go on… but basically all efforts are ‘me-too’ strategies, and I don’t know about you, but to me trying to compete with the Internet head on seems rather stupid!

One would think that the only way forward is to differentiate. Basically to try to offer something which is not possible to offer on-line. Which brings me to the two remaining P’s of the service marketing mix, (in addition to process) people and physical evidence. These are the two things retailers have today that the Internet does not have. You would think they would use it! And yet finding an original retails space, offering a great experience, populated by people that add value (rather than affect it negatively) is extremely rare now a days.

So who get’s it right outside of the constantly mentioned Apple and Nike stores (with their endless marketing budgets)?!

Screen shot 2010-02-07 at 17.32.46

I suggest a visit to Daunt’s bookstore where the books are categorised by country and not author, and where people serving you actually read books! Make sure you pop by La Fromagerie, a cheese shop that would hold its own next to any French cheese shop, and where the staff can tell you the origin of any cheese. Still hungry? I recommend Mr Biggley’s sausages, made from scratch in his basement – he will tell you all about the art that is sausage making. And just in case you need a button – pop by the Button Queen, there are more buttons there then you know what to do with  – and believe it or not, staff that are enthused about – yes buttons!

Or maybe the future will look differently. My business partner in this fluid world Jonathan MacDonald has a very interesting view on where we may be heading!

“In the future, people will pay for human interaction – perhaps we will have toll roads that harbour these interactions – due to the nature of saying ‘hello’, we can call these ‘hi streets’ and we will congregate in Public Urban Boundary Systems (which will be shortened to the word ‘pubs’)”.

I shall now say good bye to you all, and who knows maybe we will meet, sometime in the future… on the ‘hi-street’ or in the ‘pub’!

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2010
02/07
CATEGORY
Competitive Advantage
Customer Experience
Marketing
Retail
2 comments

I can no longer defend Starbucks!

I’ve always been a great supporter of Starbucks…not because of its coffee (let’s face it, it’s not great), but because it entering the market made it possible to actually drink coffee in the US. For a coffee lover, who used to spend 50% of her time across the Ocean, Starbucks soon became one of my best friends…and since I’m a loyal friend, I’m loyal to Starbucks!

To a point!

When I’m in Paris, like now, I always take the time to stroll down one of my favourite little streets…mainly because it has a few jewellery stores I love! And today was that day (I know because my wallet looked worried)! It did not need to be, where I was expecting to find my cute stores, I found, yes you guessed it, a Starbucks!

starbucks 2

As if that was not enough, in order for it to open it had gobbled up not one, not two, not three but four small independent stores! Four stores with a distinctive personality, four stores managed by entrepreneurs, four stores bringing diversity and a personality to a lovely street, four stores which makes it possibly for me to know exactly where I am…two minutes from Rue de Buci, Paris, France!

Staring at what is on top of everything an incredibly unattractive Starbucks I felt my loyalty wash away, replaced by sadness. It had never been so clear to me that we are loosing the battle against clone towns (clone town is a UK term for a town where the High Street, or other major shopping areas, are significantly dominated by Chain stores).

The only jewellery store left is, again you guessed right, closing down…let’s face it how could one of these places compete with Sarbucks when it comes to paying rent!

bail a ceder

I felt the need to take pictures of my other favourite stores on the same street in the full knowledge that they would probably not be there next time I come to Paris.

This is the tiniest bookstore you will ever see, yet they seem to always find what you need, or maybe they just guide you in that direction, either way, it’s great! Beats a WHSmith or Barnes and Noble, non?

livres

And this store sells nothing but board games…you know the ones that require no computer, no electricity, but does require human interaction! Maybe not better than a Mac store but certainly equally as cool!

games2

If you ever walk past a store like this, pop in, buy something, it literally can make the world of difference!

By the way, I sincerely hope the Americans, who I prevented from entering Starbucks by sending them 2 minutes down the road to a ‘real’ coffee shop, managed to find it, and that they were not too disappointed at the original décor and its amazing (but strong) coffee!

coffee

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2009
07/16
CATEGORY
Retail
1 comment

Taking BOGOFs to an extreme!

During my time at WPP I did a lot of work in the retail space. Buy one get one free (BOGOFs) were, and still are, a huge headache for brands as they are expected to take on the cost of the promotion (such is the power of the retailer, but we will discuss that some other day).

Walking down the street I see signs like this everywhere (not to mention in supermarkets).

buy teo commando

But this morning, as I was cleaning out old newspapers, one ad really caught my eye.

2 for one room

Pardon my Swedish, what it says is ‘One extra room when you buy”. Basically when you buy an apartment you get the smallest room for free. No this is not WHSmith where you get three books for the price of two (or if they were more transparent they would admit that you get the cheapest for free). No these guys are advertising apartments!!!

You know you live in extreme times when you can get BOGOFs on a flat (well on rooms!)!!!

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2009
07/10
CATEGORY
Findings
Retail
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You can always count on the Japanese to prove you wrong when you think you have seen it all!

So what is the latest craza in Japan? Check this out!

wishroom
Yes you’ve guessed right, a BRA for men! Hey I have no problem with that, whatever makes you happy that’s what I say!

But what made me really laugh was the marketing argument used by the sales representative from Wishroom when on TV asked about the product and its purpose.

“It’s there to give support” he answered.…

No my little chumps, not the kind of support needed by us bra wearing women, but apparently LIFE support!

“Wearing one is a way to avoid stress as the men feel more supported when they do so” says the owner of Wishroom in an article by Nouvelles Tendances and Technologies http://www.nouvo.ch/s-019

I mean really?!!! I have heard a lot of hilarious marketing arguments in my years, hell I am even the author of some of them…but this one beats them all!

However, having said what I have just said, (or giggled it) what do I know about not wearing one! Maybe I would feel a little mentally unsupported if I didn’t! I’ll give it a go next time I hang in my flat on a Sunday and let you know!

Surf away, it is in Japanese but the site is still fascinating! http://www.wishroom.net/

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2009
06/30
CATEGORY
Retail
Trend (people)
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What price are we prepared to pay for a great retail experience?

It’s that time again, that horrid time when I have to pick a new pair of glasses. There is only one retail experience that fills me with more dread and that is buying a new bikini! This is probably why I have been putting it of for months. However, after having spent most of the morning trying to decipher what my mails on my phone were actually saying, I had to come to the painful conclusion that despite the glorious weather I had to deal with the eyeglasses situation!

Off I went to Mallon & Taub on Marylebone High Street where I to my surprise spent a glorious hour with Tom the optician, but even more so Tom the eyeglasses aficionado! Wow, I have rarely seen someone speak about something with so much passion, not even about cheese, baguette and wine (and I’m half French)!

Mallonandtaub

During my time in the shop I was educated on facial shapes, position of noses, the latest fashion in frames (not only styles but the actual year the style was first created), the direction the industry is going in, the technological development taking place, the fact that handmade frames are coming back, and that people laid off six years ago when cheep frames made by fashion designers took over the market are now being hired back, and how these frame manufactures will only sell their products to real opticians as a point of differentiation…I mean I could go on!!!

This coupled with the fact that each design looked amazing, and were individually picked out with me in mind (and not just randomly in the hope that one of them would fit) made the whole experience anything but the painful one I had expected. Au contraire, I was enthused and motivated (and a bit envious of his passion if I can be honest)!!!

So how much was this new face going to cost me? Apparently somewhere around £500 pounds. I have in the last couple of days made a promise to a very special person (you know who you are ) to stick to a reasonable budget. So with this in mind I walked to David Clulow on Wigmore Street.

I spent the next 15 minutes in a very clinical, personality less environment, staring at frames made by Fashion Designers who I can only guess know very little about the subject (or so I had recently been told). No special hand made frames in site and I found myself wondering, is this a real optician? (Tom your knowledge clearly made an impact on me) But more importantly I spent those 15 minutes on my own. No one seemed interested in helping me, not to mention educate or engage me! I tried several pairs of glasses, they all looked wrong (no wonder, what do I know about facial shapes and position of noses?).

There was another significant difference between the two and that was in the price. My guesstimate is that a pair of glasses here would cost me around £250.

As I walked out I made a mental calculation…a great retail experience clearly has a price tag. It’s apparently a minimum of £250 extra, or to put it in perspective, double the price! Not a bad business model by anyone’s standard!!!

Tom here I come!

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2009
06/23
CATEGORY
Retail
Thoughts
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