2010

I often talk about the key to success is really knowing your customer. I recently came across a great example of how critical this can be. In Germany they have Advent Wreaths, something unique to this country in Europe. These wreaths have four candles on them. One candle is lit every week in the four […]

It is that time of year when I ma asked what is going to be the colour trend for the next tweleve months. The colour trends are led by the paint manufactureres such as Pantone. Robert Prince, Chief Executive of the Nursery and Garden Industry in Australia sent me these details from Pantone. 2011 The

The UK has just recorded its coldest Novenmber day breaking all records, plus this is only the start of winter. Take a walk down the High Street and everyone is wrapped up in scarfs, gloves and winter clothes. They then enter stores and it starts to look like a striptease act. While temperatures outside have

Customers walk into your store and your job is to get them to stop and look at the products on offer, hopefully if you can achieve that they will be enticed into buying the product on offer. Your “Show Stopper” strategy is critical if you are to grow your sales in 2011. The start of

Retailing has done it tough over the last year, but Chritmas is the time when in theory all that changes. The day after Thanksgiving in the USA is when retailers in theory start paying money to themselves rather than the taxman. Thus Black Friday has proven to be a necessary positve retailing day in that

Marketing has gone through a revolution over the last few years and month. It seems like every month a new idea hits the market place. Gone are the days when it was as simple as writing a newspaper advert and the job was done. The retailer of today has to consider the social media, conventional