June 2007

By John Stanley Customer Service, we’ve probably all attended courses on the subject. I for one have tutored hundreds of them over the years, but in customer service we still often miss the point and fail to impress the customer. Let me give you two examples from my experiences recently in hotels. I stayed at […]

My daughter, I�m told, is a typical Gen Y. She rarely watches T.V. and therefore misses out on T.V. advertising, she does not read a newspaper and also misses out on that form of advertising and when she goes shopping she is cynical of most in-store advertising. How does the market get their message out

The consumer is always looking for stories, it helps them remember products and it boosts sales. Nigella Lawson and Jonathon Ross managed to get tens of thousands of consumers to use goose fat last Christmas when the story was told on UK TV. The Wollemi Pine from Australia has also seen sale increase due to

The latest edition of Time Magazine reports on the latest market research carried out by Fitsimmons and Morales who teach marketing at Duke and Arizona State University. It highlights how product placement on the supermarket shelf affects sales. It provides some interesting tips. John Stanley is an internationally recognised conference speaker and retail consultant with

Stock width and depth is always a challenge. I believe to many retailers offer too much choice within the range and offer too many samples. I discovered this interesting article on my journeys.

As retailers we often assume too much and think the customer has more knowledge than they do. Having said that I was wandering through an organic supermarket in London and came across this excellent means of getting information across from their newsletter.

Ramm Botanicals is an Eastern Australian based business. Their new catalogue arrived on my desk last week. Wow, was my first reaction. Australian by Design, plants fashioned for the Aussie climate and lifestyle. A grower who has identified fashion, sustainability and lifestyle is what it is all about in today�s market. Congratulations to Jeff Cooke

There is a lot of buzz in branding at present. Cadbury have been trying to brand the colour purple, here is the latest update.

Having earlier talked about the concerns I have about width and depth on branding, I came across this counter argument. Korean growers are being encouraged to introduce new colours into the range of tomatoes to extend sales.

Ideas come from surprising places. I worked with Farm-A-Rama a farm supply store in the hinterland of East London. I thought their way of merchandising brooms was novel. Since the building had a high ceiling, he placed two wires, 300mm apart, across the building and hung the brooms. Not only did it save space, but