John’s Blog

I have discovered two books that could be of help to you in business. One is focused on the farm market industry and the other on the garden industry and both are from Ontario in Canada Pot It Up By Frankie Flowers {yes, that is his real name} The garden industry today is about providing solutions for the consumer, not selling “stuff”. Frankie, a retailer and grower based in Ontario,

Flowering plant sales in Japan have dropped by 22.2% in the last five years. There are many reasons for this, one is the lack of marketing, another is a reliance on the auction system that has devalued plants and made them a commodity and another is the lack of displays that appeal to the targeted 35 year old female shopper.

The major independent garden centre conference and trade show in the USA is held every August in Chicago. This year John Stanley is the keynote speaker on the Thursday of the conference. The show is one of the best shows in the USA to reveal new products to the garden trade. It also has three days of workshops for independent garden centre managers and owners as well as three keynote

In the first three months of the year I have travelled between Japan and the USA and have had to cope with customer service in both countries. When one travels to Japan the first reaction is that most sales staff are rude. Walk into a store and the staff ignores you. The reason is culture. If sales staff approached the consumer it would be perceived as rude and the average

One of the challenges retailers have in 2013 is connecting with the community and being seen as relevant within your catchment area. One way of connecting is with schools. One of the challenges schools have is bullying and if a retailer could connect with the school and promote healthy eating as well as helping to prevent school bullying you have a winning combination. This is where Spookley the square pumpkin

Our first webinar of the year was on Phone Apps and how we can use them as retailers. We need to understand how are consumers are using mobile devices so that we can design our marketing campaigns more effectively as retailers and small businesses. Harvard University in the USA has done a detailed study on how mobile devices are used. The report is available for you to download here. It

Keeping up with trends is a real challenge these days. One way I keep up is to follow the Trend Hunter. His latest ideas for February are in the Trend Report. There are some real gems in here to search out. If you are looking for product trends spend some time looking at the ideas he has discovered. Once you have looked at these trends you may want to also

If you had asked me last year if I needed a Phone App I would have probably laughed and kept using the marketing tools I already had. It is 2013 and the world is changing at a rapid speed that means how we market our business also changes rapidly… Our consumers are now leaving home with three essential tools to face the world. Their wallet or purse, their keys and

What does a shoe shop in New York, a watch retailer in Poznan, Poland and a second hand shop in De Bilt, Netherlands have in common? They have all used cardboard as part of their latest retail store design. Cardboard is coming into fashion as a material to be used in store design, merchandising and display. In fact the increased interest in “Pop Up” retailing is seeing more cardboard being

Providing a consumer experience and convenience for the consumer has become a real challenge for “Bricks” retailers who need to develop new ways of building loyalty. According to Mark Hurd, the President of Oracle, one of the solutions is for “Bricks“ retailers to embrace personalised webpage’s for their loyal consumers. This has already started in the USA and will quickly spread to other countries. Loyal customer would provide their details

Retailers often tell me that the new channels of media marketing are too expensive. I often comment that the expense is in time not in material costs. There are various tools in the market place to help you keep marketing costs down. One that should be in all our data bases for when we need it is Fiverr.com As the name suggests this is where you can get selected tasks

A recent research report highlighted that consumers are coming more cautious. According to research by Brainmales. 65% are saying Do I really need it 61% Looking for the best price 46% Are planning purchases 46% Buying less when they go shopping More are online shopping and the reasons are 75% believe it is cheaper 74% convenient 67% Can compare prices more easily Plus 30% of women hate shopping because of

A White paper has just been released by Brainmales on the challenges retailers are facing. The key 5 are 1 – Volatile Global Economy 2 – Rise in Online Shopping 3 – Increasing use and penetration of mobile devices 4 – Competition from International retailers 5 – Delivery of substandard customer experiences Three of these challenges are under your control and many retailers need to be focused on them.

Over the last three months I have been working with retailers across Europe and the Americas and I feel we are starting to see changes take place in retail land. I had the opportunity to spend some time in Ireland a country that has been particularly hit by the global financial crisis over recent years. The last time I visited the country the retailers were feeling that they could not

I have spend the last few days in the Netherlands working with retailers. The Dutch have an eye for detail when it comes to retailing. I visited a bed retailer and love this sign ….. a wake up call for all of us.

The Czech retail industry is low on the sigmoid curve and therefore still looking at innovative ideas. The retailers are prepared to dare to be different. Something many of us are now afraid to do.

The Floriade in Holland, held every ten years will soon be closing. This is an expo dedicated to lifestyle retailing and the consumer. The Dutch love their French fries and eat them out of a cone. It is a common shape that the consumer is familiar with. As a result a Dutch bulb company has copied the shape to design a package for the retailing of bulbs. Lovely idea and

Retailers in 2012 have to deal with an ever changing consumer who is shopping in a different way. As a result we have a new trend, “Showrooming” This is where the consumer walks into your store looks at the products you have on offer and then takes a photo with their smart phone and compares prices with other retailers. You may feel this is rude, but it is not going

I often talk about attracting the 35 year old consumer, but according to the latest retail survey by Neilsen I may need to rethink my thinking as will all retailers. In a White Paper entitled “ Introducing the Boomers Market : Marketing ‘s Most Valuable Generation” it states that 50% of the market will be over 50 in five years in the USA yet only 5% of the marketing budget

I am a Facebook fan when it comes to using it for business. Having said that most of my clients are not using Facebook successfully in their message strategies. Hopefully the following tips will help; Fans are Passionate – Remember if someone becomes a fan it is because they are passionate about you and what you do Find out what they will respond to on your page .It could be

Hells Gate in British Columbia is a tourist attraction in Fraser Canyon, apart for being an awesome place to visit, they also have some interesting merchandising ideas in their shop. They use wooden boxes with flair. I like the idea and many retailers could do a similar thing

It is the fourth of July I time when Americans love to shop. In fact Politicians are encouraging them to shop. But what are they really doing this 4th of July? They are barbecuing rather than shopping! The average American will spend $191 on the celebration, down from $216 last year according to research carried out by the national retail Federation and Visa. Half of those surveyed will watch fireworks