How sticky is your communication? Remember the game Chinese Whispers? One person whispers a message to the next person, which is then passed on through a line of people, until the last person announces the message to the group. Often the final message bears little resemblance to the initial message. Cue much hilarity. This outcome […]
Do you speak how shoppers speak? Have you ever sat bored and confused, as two people who work in a different industry to you, talk about work? They are having a conversation in English, but you haven’t got a clue what they are going on about? The discussion is full of jargon. The dictionary definition […]
Are you measuring what the shopper measures? Think about the last time you bought a laptop. Did you go into a store or online and look at 10 different laptops making a note of all the details – hard drive size, memory type, processor speed and count, battery weight etc? Do you even know the […]
Are you loading the value scales in your favour? Think about a traditional set of weighing scales. The design is all about balance and counter balance. The weight on one side of the scale is set against the weight on the other side. The relationship between the 2 weights determines in which way the scales […]
Are you protecting the price quality hierarchy in your category? Everyday we make decisions around value for money. What price is this product and is it worth paying? These can be explicit decisions – deciding between BA and Easy Jet for a flight. Or implicit decisions – at some point many of us decided that […]
Where is the battleground in your category? Last week Amazon took another step into the grocery world with the launch of their ‘Dash Buttons’. These are internet connected buttons that can order household goods with one press. They can be stuck on, or hung near, fridges, washing machines or bathroom cabinets and are designed to […]
What are the right tail products in your category? How many of you have stood in the supermarket queue and had a sneaky look at the trollies or baskets around you? What is the person in front of you buying and what does that say about the type of person they are? Healthy or unhealthy? […]
How clear are the building blocks of your category…? How many of you have played Jenga? For those who haven’t, or those who last played it about 20 years ago, here is a quick reminder. Jenga is played with 54 wooden blocks. During the game players take it in turns to remove one block at […]
Are you offering the right amount of choice to shoppers? Many things in life are about finding the right balance between not enough and too much. One square of Dairy Milk is not enough, the whole bar is too much. One glass of wine may not be enough, but after 4 or 5 you probably […]
What can Comic Relief 2015 tell us about added value promotions? Last week we spoke about Limited Editions and how they can deliver something new and different without adding to the permanent SKU count. This week we turn our attention to how you do new and different promotional activity without having to offer a big […]