You know that self-driving cars are on the way. There’s an extension of that; self-driving shops (SDS). They’ll be electric, so running cost will be a fraction of a petrol vehicle. It means they’ll park themselves on a street, wait… Continue Reading
This is the difference between a marketing consultancy, like Free Beer, and a web design company. I was talking to the iconic Northbridge butcher, Terranova, who wanted a web site makeover. Now if Terranova spoke to a web design company,… Continue Reading
“We chased the consumer with aggressive discounting in November and December . . . so when we got to the stocktake sale consumers didn’t need to purchase,” – Bernie Brookes, Myer Chief Executive, Feb 7, 2011. Well there you have… Continue Reading
A. These guys are going out of business. B. They deserve it. Publisher Henry Rosenbloom and bookseller Mark Rubbo on Late Night Live talked about the fragile state of the industry and blamed the Internet, the Aussie dollar, the GST… Continue Reading
Crikey and others have written about the lack of direction at Coles. Here are some suggestions, without the benefit of any market research information. 1. Use social software and market research to solicit the best ideas from the shop floor.… Continue Reading
My preferred café is closed over the holiday season so I’ve been visiting the slightly less fashionable one down the street. It’s run by a Turkish lady and her business partner. They’ve bought this place at considerable financial risk. Business… Continue Reading
The fourth best thing about Japan, after Japanese ladies, Cupie Mayonnaise and the kotatsu is the attitude to customer service. Americans can give good service, but it’s different: it’s good because they want you to tip them. Not so much… Continue Reading
As part of my marketing training at Colgate-Palmolive I worked as a sales rep visiting Sydney supermarkets. The experience left me deeply scarred. Supermarket managers are people who have spent 10 years or more being bastardised by their superiors and… Continue Reading
What distinguishes a restaurant from a fast-food outlet? Apart from the fact that it’s hard to make a living as a restaurant these days? When I was a kid our family went to a very good Chinese place called The… Continue Reading
I’m reproducing here an extract from an Instant Messaging conversation I had in Second Life last night. This is to demonstrate how SL could be used as a virtual store and how companies could use the environment to improve internal… Continue Reading
A member of my family recently bought a piece of jewellery at a store called Secrets shhh, a new franchised retailer with stores all around Australia. The business offers cubic zirconium jewels (diamond simulants) in quality settings at a fraction… Continue Reading
