Category: branding & visual communication
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2025: A year to safeguard your trust and keep your customers safe.
in assortment structure planning, branding & visual communication, brave-words, customer experience, customer service, customer-engagement, ethical retailing, food & drink, health & beauty, high street planning, in-store services, leisure & sport, location strategy, meaning in the retail madness, new retail, personalisation, retail, retail businesses, retail management, retail organisations, retail strategy, shop of the future, store experienceJanuary is not many people’s favourite month of the year, unless you work for a credit card business, I guess. But the start to 2025 has been a particularly bad one, with horrendous fires in Los Angeles and Ghana, and our own problems with flooding and storms closer to home. Of course, there are always…
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More Lush. More fun than ever!
in assortment structure planning, branding & visual communication, customer experience, customer service, customer-engagement, health & beauty, impulse retailing, in-store services, packaging, Pinterest Gallery, retail, retail businesses, retail management, retail strategy, shop of the future, space management, space planning, store experience, store layout, store theatre, telling product stories, visual merchandisingUntil last week my favourite and most fun shop experience would have been the Lush shop on Oxford Street. It isn’t anymore. It’s the new Lush shop on Longacre in Covent Garden! The new concept takes everything that has always been so special about the Oxford Street experience and has wrapped it up in a…
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Søstrene Grene: Sisters delightfully doing it for themselves!
in accessories, assortment structure planning, branding & visual communication, customer experience, customer-engagement, fashion accessories, health & beauty, home, impulse retailing, internationalisation, jewellery, multi-category, new retail, packaging, Pinterest Gallery, retail, retail brand heritage, retail businesses, retail strategy, sales promotions & events, space management, space planning, store experience, store layout, store operations, store theatre, sustainability, telling product stories, value retailing, visual merchandising, visual merchandising operationsSøstrene Grene simply means the Grene sisters, in Danish. However, when it comes to this wonderful retailer of everything from spices to pencils, candles to cardigans, that is the only thing which is simple or ordinary. As they say, this is a delightfully different store! The brand paints a picture of two sisters, Anna &…
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Rituals: Lighting an intimate landscape of shape & colour
in branding & visual communication, customer experience, customer-engagement, disruptive retail, health & beauty, omni-channel retailing, packaging, personalisation, Pinterest Gallery, retail strategy, shop of the future, space management, space planning, store experience, store layout, store theatre, telling product stories, visual merchandising, windowsI may not fall within the usual customer profile demographic of Rituals, but i find myself mesmorised by the beauty of their shops. I always find myself pulled inside. It would seem that in a world where many commercial retailers have either forgotten, or are simple unaware, of the emotional power on customers, of outstanding…
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Never Knowingly Underestimate John Lewis!
in branding & visual communication, customer experience, customer service, customer-engagement, in-store services, multi-category, omni-channel retailing, pop-up stores, retail, retail brand heritage, retail management, retail organisations, retail strategy, sales promotions & events, store experience, store theatreI’m not the only one to be impressed by the new John Lewis Christmas adverts. They are certainly a ‘nod’ backwards to their Christmas campaign peak years, a decade or so ago, but they also signal an exciting shift in strategy, and a bright future for this most trusted of brands. Listen to what I…
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Body Shop: Seeking a change in fortune for this rough-cut diamond
in branding & visual communication, brave-words, customer experience, customer service, customer-engagement, disruptive retail, ethical retailing, health & beauty, impulse retailing, in-store services, packaging, product suppliers, recycling, retail, retail brand heritage, retail businesses, retail management, retail organisations, retail strategy, store theatre, sustainability, telling product storiesWhere do you begin with the story of Body Shop. So many twists and turns, and so many lessons. Anyone who remembers the 1980s and 1990s experienced a totally new retail concept. Body Shop was way ahead of its time in the world of conscientious cosmetics and toiletries. It was primarily a producer, ensuring that…
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Swimming with the current: Gymshark’s coffee conversations
As you may already be aware I am a huge fan of Gymshark, the gym wear producer and retailer. There are so many things to learn from the rags to riches business that began in a garage 10 years ago and is now valued at over $1 billion. I’ve been following their press during their…
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Let’s not deny Gen Z’s the rite to discover and enjoy things for the first time!
Seeing the opening of the new Superdry Athletic Essentials shop in London Westfield reminds me of how cyclical the world of fashion, retailing and customer taste is. To many seasoned retailers and customers such as myself, it probably takes us back to the world where brands such as Hollister, American Eagle & Aeropostale ruled the…
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Is Responsibility more Natural to Customers than Sustainability?
Getting the message across to customers about sustainability is a challenge. Not only is it one of those words that can mean many things to many people, but it often involves technical data and scientific concepts, and is a nightmare to assess with its veils of spurious marketing claims and dubious transparency. So whilst many…
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Trust M&S to be ‘Positively Dissatisfied!’
in assortment structure planning, branding & visual communication, customer experience, customer service, customer-engagement, disruptive retail, fashion accessories, food & drink, home, ladies fashion, multi-category, omni-channel retailing, retail, retail brand heritage, retail businesses, retail management, retail organisations, retail strategy, store experience, store operationsI remember this story from the halcyon days of M&S. That when customers bought food from M&S and it didn’t taste amazing, they immediately thought their cooker was not working properly and called an engineer. Of course this may well be folklore. However it does illustrate the level of trust that M&S commanded, and it…
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