2009

Travelling around the world you always pick up at least one new idea in any town. I was in Geraldton in mid West Australia in March working with a group of retailers. They are just opening their first Farmers Market in Geraldton. I discovered the T-shirt shown in the photograph whilst in town. A group

A number of you will be aware that I was recently on the Australian TV programme, “Today Tonight”, to present a session on how retailing will change once we get over the discount mode of doing business. If you missed it click here to view. I discussed the fact that I believed “Bundle” retailing would

Walk down any High Street in any country over the last few months and I will guarantee you will see discounting taking place. Some retailers are discounting with 50%,70% and 90% discount signs on display to try and survive while others are planning a profitable perceived discount campaign. You may not consider a discount strategy

For those of you who were involved with the Tipster marketing workshop, Jurek mentioned Pride and Passion a tipster web page that has been developed by the tourist board in Scotland. www.prideandpassion.net This is the link to the web page, it promotes local tourist attractions in Scotland.

Over the last few months I have been talking in conferences about retailers using YouTube to develop their own training programmes for customers and staff. Many have put this in the too hard basket. This week The Gardening Channel was launched, a how to TV channel for gardeners. This is an excellent tool and shows

Dr Charlie Hall is the present chairholder of the Ellison Chair in International Floriculture at Texas A & M University in the USA. He has a brilliant blog on marketing trends in the industry that everyone should be aware of. On February 15th he produced an excellent article on ‘Marketing During a Recession’. Under his

I recently attended the West Australian Nuffield scholar report backs from scholars who had travelled the world looking for new ideas in the agricultural sector. One presenter introduced the audience to Beyond Organix, www.beyondorganix.com. This webpage is worth checking out as it takes the discussion on organic food to the next level. What made me

I was speaking at a conference recently in the Australian capital, Canberra, and the organisers put me into the Crown Plaza. At first it was like many hotels around the world, until I went to breakfast. On the table was a promotion to inform guests that we were stopping in the first hotel in Australia

Anaconda is an Australian based outdoor store selling clothing, boots and equipment for the various outdoor activities. When you purchase products they ask customers if they would like a 10% discount if they returned on their birthday and purchased something else. They provide a birthday discount certificate to existing customers. This is a simple, but