John’s Blog

As retailers we often assume too much and think the customer has more knowledge than they do. Having said that I was wandering through an organic supermarket in London and came across this excellent means of getting information across from their newsletter.

Ramm Botanicals is an Eastern Australian based business. Their new catalogue arrived on my desk last week. Wow, was my first reaction. Australian by Design, plants fashioned for the Aussie climate and lifestyle. A grower who has identified fashion, sustainability and lifestyle is what it is all about in today�s market. Congratulations to Jeff Cooke and the team. John Stanley is an internationally recognised conference speaker and retail consultant with

There is a lot of buzz in branding at present. Cadbury have been trying to brand the colour purple, here is the latest update.

Having earlier talked about the concerns I have about width and depth on branding, I came across this counter argument. Korean growers are being encouraged to introduce new colours into the range of tomatoes to extend sales.

Ideas come from surprising places. I worked with Farm-A-Rama a farm supply store in the hinterland of East London. I thought their way of merchandising brooms was novel. Since the building had a high ceiling, he placed two wires, 300mm apart, across the building and hung the brooms. Not only did it save space, but it was an effective merchandising solution for a product that is difficult to merchandise. Autozone

By John Stanley Are you in the retail business or are you in the story telling business? I know most of you will say you are in retailing, but is this the right approach to growing sales in your business in a rapidly changing world? I have just finished reading Seth Godin�s latest book, �All Marketers Are Liars� {Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-141-02502-5}. This book starts by encouraging those in marketing,

I’m often encouraging my clients to ‘dare to be different’, that they cannot afford to be average. In the May edition of the QANTAS magazine they are promoting a new resturant in Singapore. I will leave it to you to make a decision on whether you want to dine there or not.

Susan Reimer April 22, 2007 I took a week’s vacation. To mulch. Not to travel, not to read a book, not to get my nails done or clean out a closet. I took a week’s vacation to mulch, because I knew it would take me at least that long to move the shaggy pile of brown stuff – about the size of a Mini Cooper – from the driveway to

Ref: Green Profit Magazine April/May 07 At the end of February, Monrovia announced a retail concept that�s now in place at all 36 Armstrong Garden Centers in California this spring � Monrovia Boutiques. Green Profit caught up with Monrovia�s chief sales and marketing officer Bob Smiland, who played a leading role in developing the boutique concept, for an exclusive look into the program. �The basic concept is to sell plants

By Michael Barbaro Published: April 16, 2007 After battling over prices for decades, so-called big-box retail chains in the United States are set to fight it out in a new arena: the environment. Home Depot will introduce a line of 3,000 products, like fluorescent light bulbs and natural insect killers, that promote clean water and energy conservation. The product line – expected to reach 6,000 products by 2009, or 12

Horticulture Week – April 12 2007 Chain opts to stop selling gas patio heaters to reinforce green credentials. Wyevale Garden Centres has backed up its recent appointment of a sustainability adviser by revealing plans to become carbon neutral by 2010. The company is the second garden centre business to unveil plans for carbon neutrality, following Somerset-based Sanders GardenWorld�s announcement last month (HW, 8 March). Wyevale�s move follows the appointment of

Having re-read Peter Kenyon’s excellent book ‘Good Enough Never Is’ recently I thought a sample article from the book would inspire. The challenge for any retailer is creating a unique point of difference, that is memoreable in the eyes of the customer. Think Elvis Presley and Gracelands and your mind goes to the southern states of the USA. But think Elvis and Grapelands and your mind goes to Woodford, Queensland.

But, do we always think it through for our customers? Call it linked selling, cross merchandising or solution solving, the result is the same. Provide the complete solution for the consumer and not only do you increase the average sale per customer, but, you also increase repeat business by building trust. This is a standard retail theory, but how often do we fail to put it into practice? The key

Fairway Stores are recognised as retail food heros from New York. A recent article in Global Food and Wine by Paul Mitchell interviewing the owner Steve Jenkins caught my eye �.. here it is. With only four stores in New York State, including Brooklyn and Manhattan locations, Fairway Market is a store that punches well above its weight, whether that weight is in cheese, meat, vegetables or deli items. For

By Bettina Arndt Ref: The Adelaide Advertiser April 13 2007 It was a natural food shop filled with the displays of fruit and vegetables, baskets of wheat germ and other items pulsing with natural goodness. They sold only one brand of bubbly water, proudly labelled �organic mineral water�. Organic water? What on earth does that mean? Mineral water contains minerals which are inorganic compounds, not the compounds of carbon required

No peeking, Scholastic, the US publisher of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows,’ the final book in the series by J.K Rowling, has set strict rules for libraries handling the book. Among them: Libraries must limit the number of emplyees who handle the books before the July 21 release, and provide names and contact information for each branch manager, according to the contract. A library that fails to keep ‘Deathly

I recently had a coffee with Trevor Cochrane, half of the highly successful Australian Garden Guru�s team. If you are not aware on the Guru�s you can check out their website www.thegardengurus.tv Whilst we were discussing trends in the gardening industry Trevor also commented on the amazing increase in the popularity of knitting. Well, this got me thinking, can knitting overtake the garden industry as the number one hobby? Having

Having informed you about the great time Californian retailers are having, the same is true in the UK. Horticulture Week, 22 March 07, indicates garden centres are up in sales by about 10% bringing them in line with the 2003 season. Some garden centres are recording sales 20% up over last year.

The debate on the sustainability has, in Western Australia, moved to carrots. Maggie Lilith, Salinity and Rural Liaison Officer, reports in the magazine �Greener Times� (March 2007) that it takes 325 litres of water to produce $1.00 of carrots. 65% of water used in WA goes to agriculture and horticulture and we are experiencing our worst water shortage in a hundred years. Rain water has dropped by 20% in the

Last year I wrote an article on the trend in Pop Up retailing. This is where a retailer sets up a business for a few weeks, trades and then closes down and moves to another location. Obviously, pop up retailing is very popular with sports and events, where the retailer has a large, captive audience for a set period of time. Pop Up retailing especially appeals to the Gen Y

The aim of any retailer is to maximise their profits by obtaining the maximum gross profit in relation to the maximum stock turn. Pricing a product and putting it on the shelf to gather dust is the role of a �caretaker� not a retailer. The role of a retailer is to create some urgency in the consumer�s mind and encourage them to buy now. Too many retailers believe that the

Over the last couple of decades we have been told that globalisation is the way forward. Retailing became international and China became the world�s factory, but the tide is beginning to change and now is the era of ‘Neighbour to Neighbour’ marketing. It is time to promote local. Consumers are becoming more concerned with the state of the planet, terrorism and consumerism in general and as a result are starting

I was recently having breakfast in a restaurant in Johannesburg South Africa. Whilst enjoying my morning caffine shot a police BMW car drove up at around 25km an hour with blue lights flashing. Like every other diner I was puzzled and slightly amused at what was happening. Three burly policemen came out and walked through the restaurant as if they owned it and eventually sat down. Halfway through their meal

One of the most commonly debatable subjects in my workshops is the role of a guarantee. There are those that think they are essential and those that believe they are the curse of retailing and that the consumer always abuses them. In my view a guarantee is part of the marketing budget and should be looked on as a marketing exercise. It should be a reassurance strategy in the consumers

by Collin Dunn, Seattle on 02.20.07 Starting March 15, all IKEA stores in the US will charge a nickel per plastic bag in an effort to get people to haul their Swedish Fish and affordable housewares out of the store in reusable bags and cut down on plastic bag waste. Proceeds of up to $1.75 million (that’s a whole lot of bags) from the bag campaign will go to American