Freelance Brand and Creative Strategist / Strategic Planner and Fractional Strategy Director
Today I went to have a look at the new Netto store in North Leeds, Netto's first foray back into the UK market. Sited at the far end of Sainsbury's car park on Leeds' outer ring road its an ideal spot within five minutes of some really diverse residential areas and with substantial passing … Continue reading a visit to the new Netto
Every possible media outlet has run some kind of piece recently about how the big supermarkets are dinosaurs and, basically, deserve every bit of ill fortune they might experience. But I've yet to read a piece which compares the speed at which shopping habits are changing (i.e. very quickly) with how much time it takes … Continue reading shoppers are changing faster than the shops are
There are a heck of a lot of How To videos on youtube, many of them now effectively branded content piggybacking a youtuber vlogger’s audience a la Asda’s Mum’s Eye View. Mum’s Eye View is rather a success story, gaining over 56,000 subscribers and over two million views in the six months since launch. Although … Continue reading Asda eyes up branded content
images via the BBC online and TV forecasts I love all the weather-related retail stories that come out whenever there’s the slightest sign of a heatwave in the UK. It’s a gift for PRs (who are probably sitting on a load of Royal Baby press releases they can’t send out yet) and a fun way … Continue reading retail winners and losers in a heatwave
I’ve been thinking A LOT about the retail shopping experience recently. Partly because I’ve got relevant projects on the go or in the works and partly because I’ve been ‘impulse storing’ – which I’ve just invented to describe popping into a store on impulse to try and knock some items off the worrying large festive … Continue reading is the answer to Shopping Hell that we need to be nicer to each other?
No wonder our high streets are struggling – they’ve become a shopping assault course. In my second Planning job one of my clients was a big shopping centre. One of the insights we came up with was that this out of town complex was simply shopping made easier than the high street – it was … Continue reading the rise of the high street assault course
I used to love GAP. Mainly because their sales staff were always prepared to bring you dozens of different jeans to try on until you found one that fit. When your body shape is tricky (little waist but curvy hips), that kind of customer service makes a big difference and GAP became my first port … Continue reading where has GAP gone wrong?
My facebook newsfeed has recently turned into a virtual version of exchange & mart (or even, say, ebay). It seems that some people are more comfortable buying and selling with friends-of-friends than from random strangers who have positive feedback from other random people (cough, ebay). So my network are merrily flogging second hand cars and … Continue reading the *other* facebook marketplace
The last couple of weeks for me have been about contrasts in customer service. And they’ve all been frontline contact, whether face to face or on the phone. Take Holiday Inn Express. Their website promises an improved experience with “Real Service. Really.” But trying to book a meeting room and couple of bedrooms was more … Continue reading what happens when the brand’s frontline doesn’t deliver – and why we should be bothered
While I was on a Road Trip last week, for long and complicated reasons I popped into an independent mens and ladieswear retailer in the Yorkshire Dales (which shall remain nameless because I think the owner is a friend of a friend of a friend...). I understand that the business changed hands relatively recently and … Continue reading are design tram-smashes in fashion?