“Congratulations Mrs Morris, you’re three month’s pregnant”
said the Doctor, and promptly handed us a ‘Pregnancy Information Folder’ from the Bounty Parenting Club.
“That’s fantastic news,”, I thought, “one of the happiest moments of my life; there’s a type of loyalty programme I haven’t seen before.”
Last week I was meeting a luxury retailer for the first time and they asked me what my ultimate retail experiences were. We got into a conversation about modern luxury not necessarily equating to spend and I shared details of a couple of stores I’ve visited that have impressed me where I haven’t had to blow the budget. But a top ten? That’s tricky. Here goes…
For anyone working in the vibrant world of retail marketing, data is perhaps the dullest topic to read about. It’s just as tough for me to sit down and start writing about it.
Dudley's not interested either.
In fact, if I want to keep my blog on marketing ideas exclusive, I just have to mention data and that should keep the readers away. The evidence from market research supports this too
Let’s not deny it; 2011 was a tough year for most of us in retail marketing. And this was for good reason. Many of the tried and tested activities that we used to have ready to rollout just didn’t have the impact we would expect. We saw some retailers discounting their products heavily, only achieving flat year-on-year sales at best.
No 74, Berlin
I’ve been doing a fair bit of travelling recently. As I explored each of the cities I visited, it was difficult to ignore just how different each country is in their approach to fashion retail. In particular, I thought it might be interesting to explore how local store designers approach the look of a concept store and the emerging trend of temporary ‘pop-up’ stores.
I’ve been reading with interest how successful Fiat has been in selling their limited edition 500byGucci model. They have now sold over 3000 cars and sales of their convertible edition are bound to hit the roof.
Not social media, again? Are you with me when I say that we spend 25% of our time talking about it but it leads to less than 5% of sales? Many retailers I meet are experiencing just that. They feel a need to embrace the technology: ‘PLEASE like us on Facebook’ as if their life depends on it, yet hand on heart they probably know that it won’t lead to a massive surge in income.
If you’re representing a luxury brand there are probably few marketing phrases that make your hair stand on end:
Last week I heard a familiar story from a retail client of ours. They had been paying a monthly retainer to a self-proclaimed ‘Social Media Guru’.
I’ve been given a book token as a gift. Sounds rather old-fashioned, doesn’t it? Actually, it’s a hi-tech stored value card, which comes with a tiny receipt, telling me how much has been loaded on it. What do book tokens make you think of, once you’ve been given one?
