John’s Blog

Small is Beautiful and Back in Retail Fashion By John Stanley I have just returned from a visit to Chile which gave me an opportunity to study retail trends in that region of the globe. I discovered the hardware stores of my early childhood, stores that were independently owned and full from floor to ceiling […]

Retailing Comes of Age By John Stanley Have you been to buy any dog food lately? Do you remember the days when you just picked it up in the supermarket and kept walking? Walk into any pet �box store� today and it�s a whole new experience. Prior to purchasing today�s canine�s lunch, you need to

By John Stanley Have you been to buy any dog food lately? Do you remember the days when you just picked it up in the supermarket and kept walking? Walk into any pet �box store� today and it�s a whole new experience. Prior to purchasing today�s canine�s lunch, you need to know the age and

Overcoming Store or Library Blindness By John Stanley Walk into my office and you�ll notice things that are obvious to you, but not obvious to me. This is because I�m so familiar with my office that I�ve become office blind. In retail stores it�s called store blindness and I guess in a library it could

LIBRARIES that sell wine LIBRARIES that sell wine, provide breakfast and have comfortable sofas could be the way of the future, according to a leading international library consultant. John Stanley, who has been consulting for 30 years, said libraries needed to adopt a more progressive approach to meet the needs of today’s users. His comments

Advocates are High Earners By John Stanley In previous articles and conference presentations I�ve often talked about getting your consumers to become advocates, hence our popular conference presentation �Ban the Customer and Grow Your Business�. But what is actually happening out there? According to research by Maritz Loyalty Marketing and reported in the St Louis

Changing the Mind Set – A View on the Future of Retailing by John Stanley It is rare to get delegates from five continents and twenty countries brainstorming retail global trends, but this did happen recently at the Pets International Conference in Brussels, Belgium. This topic was clearly focussed on pets, but the outcomes could

Third Place Retailing – The New Battlefield by John Stanley On 10th January 2005, McDonalds� USA announced it was entering the premium coffee industry. It would sell premium coffee at a premium price. A business recognised for fast food at a low price point is re-engineering itself to provide an up-market coffee, yet coffee is

Walk The Consumers Journey – Part 2 By John Stanley Step Two: Journey of Inspiration In the last article in this series we looked at the Journey of Discovery. Consumers need to discover you exist. If you are innovative in your marketing and external promotions they may just get in their car and journey to

Walk The Consumers Journey – Part 1 By John Stanley Successful retailers take consumers on a journey. In the next series of articles I will explain the journey to you giving you examples on how to implement it in your business along the way. But firstly let me provide the outline to the journey so