John’s Blog

In a recent newsletter I mentioned that in my view Mr. Price Home of South Africa was one of the best merchandisers I was aware of. That caused a flurry of emails from South Africa offering other retailers I could add to the list. In July, I was working with clients in the country and […]

A reader of our newsletter, Andre from the Mica group in South Africa has suggested we provide a regular update on colour trends to help our readers. Thanks for the idea. Colour trends go with seasons, but tend to keep to the same patterns around the world. In gardening the purples seem to be a

The industry must have come of age …. the Australian Post Office released a set of stamps this week to celebrate farmers markets.

In 2003 Lowes found out 80% of women are doing �everyday fix it� projects around the house on their own. 2002 Ace Hardware �Americas To-Do List� found 62% of women tackle home improvement. The average man spends $12.27 in store and $17.74 for women. 2003 survey by Home Improvements Research Institute of Tampa, Florida found

I spotted this in this weeks Time Magazine. Julian Treasure isn’t happy with what he hears. Standing in a coffee bar in London’s Soho district, he’s forced to raise his voice to list the noises bouncing around the caf: the rumble of an espresso machine, the hum of a chiller cabinet, and the tinny tones

By John Stanley Winning awards as best retailer in your retail sector, best customer service in town or retailer of the year are great marketing opportunities. Awards can be used in internal and external store marketing campaigns and set you apart from the rest of the retailers in your catchment area. The strategy works for

By John Stanley Customer Service, we’ve probably all attended courses on the subject. I for one have tutored hundreds of them over the years, but in customer service we still often miss the point and fail to impress the customer. Let me give you two examples from my experiences recently in hotels. I stayed at

My daughter, I�m told, is a typical Gen Y. She rarely watches T.V. and therefore misses out on T.V. advertising, she does not read a newspaper and also misses out on that form of advertising and when she goes shopping she is cynical of most in-store advertising. How does the market get their message out

The consumer is always looking for stories, it helps them remember products and it boosts sales. Nigella Lawson and Jonathon Ross managed to get tens of thousands of consumers to use goose fat last Christmas when the story was told on UK TV. The Wollemi Pine from Australia has also seen sale increase due to

The latest edition of Time Magazine reports on the latest market research carried out by Fitsimmons and Morales who teach marketing at Duke and Arizona State University. It highlights how product placement on the supermarket shelf affects sales. It provides some interesting tips. John Stanley is an internationally recognised conference speaker and retail consultant with