Latest Podcast from Hospitality Mavericks: Retail, Hospitality & Delivering Value to Savvy Consumers with Brian Moore

Michael Tingsager and Brian share key trade insights re Amazon, the Discounters, Shrinkflation/brand equity preservation, as they affect the past, present and future states of retail and hospitality. With many crossovers to be found between the two sectors, Brian provides in-depth advice for businesses looking to succeed in a world of corporate giants and savvy consumers.

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Shrink-flating the London Symphony Orchestra, an FMCG parallel?

As part of the cut-backs in funding for the Arts, a government official attended a recent performance and reported a follows:

Schubert’s No.8 in B Minor

To the Chairman, The London Symphony Orchestra

After attending a recent performance of this work, we make the following recommendations:

1. We note that the twelve first violins were playing identical notes, as were the second violins. Three violins in each section, suitably amplified, would seem to us to be adequate.
2. Much unnecessary labour is involved in the number of demisemiquavers in this work. We suggest that many of these could be rounded up to the nearest semiquaver, thus saving practice time for the individual player and rehearsal time for the entire ensemble. This simplification would also make more use of trainee and less-skilled players with only marginal loss of precision.
3. We could find no productivity value in string passages being repeated by the horns; all tutti repeats could also be eliminated without any reduction in efficiency.
4. In so labour-intensive an undertaking as a symphony, we regard the long oboe tacet passages to be extremely wasteful. What notes this instrument is required to play, could, subject to a satisfactory demarcation conference with the Musicians’ Union, be shared out equitably with the other instruments.

Conclusion

If the above recommendations are implemented, the piece under consideration could be played through in less than half an hour, with concomitant savings in lighting, heating and overtime, wear and tear on the instruments and hall rental fees. Also had the composer been aware of modern cost-effective procedures, he might well have finished this work…

Just like cutting back the contents of our best brand and thinking our most regular consumers won't notice...

And almost as bad as not caring if they do...!

Poundland Launches Rival To Toblerone Bar

At 180g, Poundland said its Twin Peaks is 20% heavier than its branded equivalent, and offers “a double mountain in every packet”.

 It officially goes on sale in the first week of July at the chain’s famous £1 price point.

NAM Implications:

• Twin peaks, and more of them…
• A self-inflicted no-brainer…?

Short-changing your best consumers - under cover of the letter rather than the spirit of the law...

Again the weekend papers give everyday examples of how established brands are insulting the intelligence of their best customers (regular users that know every aspect of the brand) Sunday Times April 30, 2017, thereby raising the following issues:

• ‘Shrinkflation’ raises an issue called brand credibility…
• Remember that hard-won property based on realistic assessment of savvy consumer needs, and then poured down the drain on the assumption that the same consumer is too dumb to notice a reduction in contents of their favourite i.e. repeat-purchase brand…?
• Then adding insult to injury by urging consumers to ignore the evidence of their own experience (remember experiential marketing?) by pointing to the 'letter-of-law' weight declaration on the pack...
• …with one non-shrinking member of a category being sufficient to demonstrate that a change in relative competitive appeal has occurred…
• Thereby making themselves ready to scoop up dissatisfied demand…