2015

Five weeks before Christmas I did some consultancy in one of my local shopping centres. Walking around one had to question what was the driver to get people to spend at this time of year. One company I looked at had a 40% off Christmas sale…in my youth sales occurred after Christmas…price was not the […]

Whilst many of us are still trying to understand how to retail to the Millennial generation, the next generation are appearing as consumers.  Gen Z’s think differently to the generations before them. An article in WGSN stated that there are 2 billion Gen Z’s globally and they are already spending 44 billion dollars a year.

The hexo+ arrived on the market this month. This is a drone that wirelessly tethers its self to a smart phone and follows you anywhere, available for around $300. As a business you may not have a need for drone following you around, but there may be times it could be valuable. The reason I

I realise that is a sweeping statement, but I do believe this is the best retail book I have seen this year. Retail Marketing Strategy…Delivering shopper delight by Constant Berkhout and published by Kogan Press. The title tells you what the content of the book is about. Constant has worked with retailers in Europe and

Switzerland may only have 8 million population, but this small landlocked country has four official languages, German, French, Italian and Romansh and a thriving horticultural industry. On first impression, it seems to be a DIFM (Do It For Me) rather than a DIY (Do It Yourself) society as the landscapers seem too far outnumber the

Norma Burnson is the author of a book “Sustainable Food for the Globe, Everyday People Producing Food in Abundance” Norma interviews seventeen entrepreneurs from around the world who are developing ideas and creating projects to grow food. The book takes you from Canada to the USA, Pakistan to Switzerland, Uganda to Pakistan and New Zealand

Food tourism: A practical marketing guide, by John and Linda Stanley – reviewed by Annals of Tourism research. This book is a new welcome addition to food tourism practice and literature. The book has ten sections, divided into four parts. In the first part, the authors present an introductory chapter followed by a chapter titled ‘‘The Changing Tourists’’.

I was meeting a potential client in Chatsworth in New South Wales whilst on the road. I arrived early and decided to have a coffee. I had a range of coffee shops to choose from. The one that grabbed my attention was Lid and Jar. Why?… They had decided to take the “high” ground with

The Growing Chefs Program in BC is where growers and chefs encourage school children to get engaged with growing and cooking local produce. Whilst I was in BC there was a fundraising dinner for “one-of-a-kind.” Local chefs worked with local growers, and the little chefs from the local school, to produce a meal created from

Those of you that have been to one of my presentations lately will be aware I do a session on Millennials. I picked this up from the Buzz magazine in the USA. It adds another piece to the jigsaw. Make it fun! That’s what Millennials are saying when responding to a nationwide survey conducted by