January 2016

In December there was a fascinating article in The Daily Mail in the UK about the look of retirement homes in the future. This article discussed the ‘Home Farm” concept where the home a was part of a farm complex with vertical and horizontal food gardens as part of the package. The homes are built […]

As retailers we need to be in-tune with our female Millennial consumers. For some this is easy, whilst for others it is more difficult. I was therefore interested to read an article in the November edition of “Speaker”, written by Frances Rios and entitled “What Women Want.” According to Frances… 91% of women say advertisers

Many of you will know that Linda and I own a chestnut farm in Nannup in West Australia. In November a book was launched that features 30 farms in the region that were doing something unique. This coffee table book included our farm, Chestnut Brae. It is wonderful that we have only had the farm

Consumers are increasingly looking for local products. In the UK the main avenue has been Farm Shops whilst in Europe it has been via Farmer’s Markets. In Australia it has been the Farmer Market that has been the main driver of getting local food to local people. This is now changing and evolving. The new

Online grocery shopping is now well established. The problem for most consumers is that it has been a boring interface. Now that is all changing. Aussie Farmers Direct have developed a 3D App called “Aisle One” and have promoted it as “the world’s first virtual shopping experience”. This is the nearest to real life shopping

“Decoding the Irrational Consumer: How to commission, run and generate insights from neuromarketing research” by Darren Bridger, Marketing Science Series. This is not a book for the practical retailer looking for new ideas to grow sales. This a book if you want to look at the research behind how the consumer thinks. We are all irrational consumers