December 2008

Colour in retailing is so important and many of you have asked how do we use colour correctly in our retail environments. We were recently talking to our brand designer and he mentioned that Voodoo Publications were some of the best books on the subject. This is a link to their website. I hope it […]

Zig is recognised as one of the business guru’s in the world. He recently gave a seminar in the U.S.A. and highlighted some research on closing the sale. Only 4% of business people asked to close the sale five or more times. Research shows that they closed 60% of all deals. Persistence is worth it.

Every supermarket and farm shop sells eggs, but I have come across very little research to help you understand the category. All that has changed with an excellent report that has just been released by the American Egg marketing board. This report is available via the Retail Wire website. If you click on this link,

Marketing success is about doing your research and developing a unique niche that relates to your targeted consumer. Sometimes this takes years of planning and sometimes you discover it by chance. I was recently at the Riccaton Markets, one of the bigger markets in New Zealand when I discovered one of these unique marketing gems.

Those of you who have attended my conferences may be aware of the fact that I am a great believe in “tipster marketing”. Tipster marketing is where a business identifies key people in the community who can become advocates of what you do. I recently stopped at the Quality Inn, Whanganui in New Zealand. The

Daphne Raj and Joe Gehrke are the owners of Teza Juice tea of Auckland, New Zealand. They have a great product, but in a recession climate, they did not have the marketing budget to get the message across using billboards and other conventional “interruption” marketing techniques. What do they do? Well, they “dared to be

In May 2008 I gave a presentation to the National Farmers Market Conference in Blenheim, New Zealand. One of the speakers was Johny Schwartz, the owner of Schwartz Restaurant in Christchurch. He was a motivating speaker and talked about two beliefs in his business. One was that there should be no waste and that as

Spotted in a South American gift shop!

The recent research carried out in the U.S.A. and reported in the I.G.C. Nursery Retailer research report indicated that “how to” guides were seeing a resurgence and the younger consumer was finding them exceptionally valuable. What in mind, I have just discovered two great “how to” leaflets. Palmers, the New Zealand Garden Centre franchisee group

By John Stanley The world changed in October 2008, have you changed your business practices as well? If you plan to carry on doing things in the same way in 2009, you will be in for a shock. Every business will need to adapt to the new economy we all find ourselves in. The consumer