Wide Angle

I met with a retail-industry member last week that’s in the midst of growing one of their businesses from a regional brand focused on Latin America to a global brand with a strong footprint in the US and the UK.  As we talked about what it will take to enter a crowded retail space, our member expressed it this way, “we need to be very clear what are our brand standards and what are our brand standouts.”

I loved the simplicity of the statement and the depth of the insight. Given the increasing prevalence of mobile/social/location technologies like Foursquare, it can be awfully tough for retailers to differentiate, so the customer experience has never been more important.  Do you know the difference between your brand standards and your brand standouts?  If you are like most businesses, the truthful answer is “no”. Read More »

Sometimes the cornucopia of plenty in American grocery and general merchandise stores can be, well, a bit monotonous. The bread aisle is a monochrome light brown (occasionally accented by, oddly enough, brown shelves), the dairy case a washed out sea of white plastic bathed in a pale fluorescent glow, the men’s undershirts an undifferentiated mass of white, brown and light gray. It’s no wonder, then, that consumers crave a little variety in packaging and presentation. It’s not just to make the scenery a little less boring; it also makes products dramatically easier to find. Read More »

So perhaps the title here is a bit harsh, but something needed to catch your eye. We’ve long known retailers to be a unique beast, managing more products than any CPG marketer could imagine, focusing on category-specific merchandising strategies (often to the detriment of cross-sell), and most recently, managing the tradeoffs between brick-and-mortar stores and online sales.

But frankly, this too often turns retailers into myopic, proximity-biased incrementalists in their customer strategy (too harsh again?). Imagine my encouragement when I see retail CMOs begin to tout the very elements of customer-focused strategy their CPG peers have long known. Read More »

I’m no wine connoisseur, so the marketer in me kicked in on a recent trip to my local liquor store.  I considered the attributes I wanted – under $15, preferably red, not too sweet or fruity, a familiar brand name and something that connotes a fun experience. Faced with an array of wines from California to Chile, from Merlot to Bordeaux, I was struck by the enormous difficulty marketers face in differentiating their brands and creating a connection with consumers in the moment.

Granted, I was probably a little outside of the target segment for most wine makers, but what would have altered my decision? A catchy label or even a suggestion from one of the sales people could have nudged me in a different direction. The lesson for me here: while there is immense opportunity to influence a brand decision before a consumer goes shopping, the importance of the in-store experience—whether through product placement, point of purchase signage or a well trained store employee—cannot be minimized. Read More »