Rare Pied Wagtail gives Tesco the bird

                                                                                                                         pic: Wild About Britain

The Telegraph reports that for the past few weeks a Pied Wagtail has been resisting all Tesco attempts at capture in their Gt Yarmouth store.

The company was even granted a licence by Natural England to bring in a sniper to kill the protected bird, prompting outrage from customers, environmentalists and a BBC wildlife presenter.

Because of the reaction, Tesco have decided to revert to more old fashioned means of trapping and releasing the ‘unwelcome’ shopper-bird into the wild….

Given their large-space redundancy and shopper attrition, a more lateral-thinking approach might be to optimise the traffic-building potential of the situation via innovative instore theatre.

In other words, why not set up a series of gentle faux-attempts to capture the bird, stretching over several weeks, shooting it photographically, and posting the ongoing results on YouTube? 

Incidentally, for those NAMs that cannot work a visit to Gt. Yarmouth into their  store-check schedule, a comprehensive BBC treatment of the Pied Wagtail is available here.

Update 23-09-2014: for bird lovers everywhere.
Apparently, the Tesco wagtail has now  been caught and released into the wild.
In other words it would appear that Tesco will not be pursuing the photo-opportunity route suggested above, and are probably preoccupied with other issues...

Hat-tip to Richard for pointing us at the article

Asda playing instore...?

Given increased supply-chain efficiencies, coupled with shopper reluctance to drive out-of-town, resulting in increasing redundancy of large-space retailing, Asda appears to be following Tesco’s lead in seeking to buy businesses that might complement their retail offering whilst absorbing overheads.

The Daily Express reports that Asda is rumoured to want to buy out the Early Learning Centre, given Mothercare’s struggles…

Apart from a good purchase price, the ELC would be a natural fit in terms of family offering, but could also add to instore theatre and enrich the shopping experience whilst keeping the kids amused.

Great news for toy suppliers, but a possible threat for NAMs in less exciting categories…? However, surely this presents an opportunity for extra creativity that might also be rolled out elsewhere?

Alcohol update: the new poitín (poteen) subcategory

How poitín went from illegal moonshine to being sold in Tesco Ireland

Intensive catchup briefing for NAMs:

1. It is one of the most strongly alcoholic drinks on the planet. Homemade poitín can be anywhere between 50 and 90% alcohol by volume vs. average beer 4 to 6% and whiskey 40%. 
2. The first record of it is from the 6th century but it was illegal in Ireland for 300 years and was only legalised in 1997.
3. Purists may not like it but poitín is shedding its reputation as illegal moonshine and is for sale (legally) in shops and pubs around Ireland.

For those without DIY facilities, there are at least five companies in Ireland now selling poitín which can be bought in pubs and off-licences, while London cocktail bar Shebeen is selling eight different types of poitín, including one version made from potatoes in San Francisco. Irish company Coomara Irish Spirits recently made the biggest ever legal shipment of poitín to supermarket chain Tesco, which began stocking the spirit earlier this year.

NB. For those determined to try, the legal version of poitín is 40% and has been granted Geographical Indicative Status by the EU. As you know, this means that in the same way that champagne has to come from a certain area of France and Parmesan cheese can only come from a particular part of Italy, poitín can only come from Ireland.

NAM advice: i.e. Do read the label before you cannot.....
(For more exotic tastes, try Asian Snake Whiskey)

A shelf nearby is watching you....

According to The Washington Post, Mondelez, says it's planning to debut a grocery shelf in 2015 that comes equipped with sensors to determine the age and sex of passing customers. Hooked up to Microsoft's Kinect controller, the shelf will be able to use basic facial features like bone structure to build a profile of a potential snacker.

While pictures of your actual face won't be stored, aggregate demographic data from thousands of transactions will be used to funnel appropriate products for impulse purchase....

It remains to be seen whether the resulting privacy-agro will the negate the obvious advantages of shelf optimisation...

Instore display in a minimal footprint. A Box That Will Blow Your Mind!

Given that instore display has to be assessed in terms of its ability to exceed the selling intensity of the 'lost' selling space, what better than to achieve the 'instore theatre' impact by going all the way to projected displays, with a difference?

...and all within the footprint of a projection screen...

Bionic Mannequins are Keeping an Eye on Shoppers to Boost Luxury Sales

The EYE SEE mannequin from Almax S.p.A. (Italy) in collaboration with Kee Square makes it possible to observe who is attracted by store windows and visual displays using facial recognition software. The software, powered by IBM, uses a camera embedded in one eye that feeds data into facial-recognition software like that used by police. It can track age range, gender, race, number of people and dwell time.

Results
The €4,000 ($5,072) device has spurred shops to adjust window displays, store layouts and promotions to keep consumers walking in the door and spending.

According to Bloomberg, Benneton US are among five retailers currently trialling the mannequin camera.

A step too far?
Like all attempts to monitor shopper behaviour, the innovation raises privacy issues for both staff and shoppers. Staff issues could be managed via loading of all personnel pics into the software and eliminating them from the tracking, hopefully….

However, given that privacy tends to be less of an issue when consumer needs are being met via tailored offerings, like with Amazon’s relevant emails, providing the store can demonstrate reactive use of the insight, then size and quality of basket will deliver the ultimate endorsement.

Happy own-brand Xmas, how Ansoff can help?

Given Sainsbury’s predictions that this will be an own brand Christmas as hard-up Britons “splash out” to enjoy a family Christmas, making their money go farther via own-brands perhaps the Ansoff Matrix can spell out the moves and help suppliers to anticipate the impact…?

As you know, Ansoff identifies four ways of growing a business by selling:
- More current products to current customers
- New products to current customers
- Current products to new customers
- New products to new customers

How Sainsbury’s could increase own-brand sales

More current products to current customers:
Essentially, as most produce sales are own-brand, coupons and keen prices and store-level assortment could encourage purchase of larger portions of Christmas meats turkey, fruit & veg, with pricing delicately balanced to avoid over-purchase/waste….making current customers happier

New products to current customers:
Here the emphasis could be on encouraging purchase of complementary Christmas items both food and non-food, brands & own-brands, with in-store promotion/theatre and linked couponing to tease custom away from branded alternatives and other mults/channels via current JS customers in the aisle – making current customers even happier....

Current products to new customers:
By studying the profile of their current customer, JS could seek out new shoppers of similar profile, and try to attract them to the store via the own-brand products that appear to appeal to current JS customers, given that they probably have similar appetites. These new customers will need to be attracted and retained by a combination of virtually one-to-one communication and coupon-swaps to encourage a first-time switch from their traditional Christmas destination. To achieve an acceptable ROI, this has to result in an unprecedented and compelling experience, well suited to the JS approach.

This will probably be the most competitive segment as Tesco tries to recover lost share/customers and retain its current customers via its £1bn investment programme…

New products to new customers:
This high risk alternative means trying to attract new shoppers and sell them new products, targeting consumers that are unaccustomed to the JS experience, with products that are new to JS, a double-whammy that may attract the risk-seekers, but will probably play a small part in own-brand Christmas..

So, from a supplier’s point-of-view, this is all about own-brand, wrong!
This is about how a skilled and systematic retailer is going to make this an unforgettable own-brand Christmas, using differentiation to build and hold an enlarged customer-base, at the expense of brands…unless suppliers make Ansoff work even better for their brands…
PS  For insight on the subtle moves see our free paper : 4 generations of private label

Living above the shop – optimising incremental space in retail

Houses and gardens have been built on top of the eight-storey Jiutian International Plaza in the densely populated Chinese city of Zhuzhou, where residential space is scarce at ground level.

In Brazil, false ceilings within reach of shoppers are used to merchandise Easter-eggs  with shoppers helping themselves (and paying!) during trips in the run-up to Easter.

Making chewing gum more Six-siting 
On a more mundane but equally creative level, unfazed by a dual-siting tradition, Adams gum were able to secure six separate sitings of their medicated chewing gum in Loblaws of Canada  by creating incremental space via blister-packs on walls and columns throughout the store near dental, confectionery, medicine, kids lunch and strong-tasting food categories, each site separately coded to check ROI per location.

In other words, when pressed for space in retail, creating incremental space can be the answer…

Application in the High Street
In the same way, incremental restoration of the living space above the shop could be a way of reviving UK high streets (see High Street revival recipe )

The online space-threat
However, for the truely creative thinker, the real use/threat of incremental space in retail has to be the growth of online in a flat-line market means that with a 13% share and growing at 14%, physical retail space in the UK is already 13% over capacity….
This means that retailers have to be increasingly open to ideas for optimisation of existing and incremental space by imaginative NAMs…

Couldn’t work here?
Perhaps these initiatives need to be forced a little, in these unprecedented times? 

Virtual shops vs. bricks – some spacial implications?

With a 2012 anticipated 13.2% share of all UK retail trade, and growing at 14%, in a flat-line market, online retail has to represent an unforeseen alternative to ‘real’ retail space. In other words, given the relatively slow reaction of retail space development to market demand, it could be said that UK retail space is already 13.2% over capacity, in that online is taking 13.2% of all retail sales. Moreover this situation will get worse as online grows, especially as online can react ‘instantly’ to market demand, scaling up at relatively little incremental cost…

The real space requirement:
In addition, as shops become more efficient, generating increased revenue per sq.ft., coupled with suppliers’ increased distribution efficiency (smaller quantities delivered more often = increased availability, 100%, zero-defect), adding store-level assortment, matched to local need, it can be seen that even less physical retail space will be required.

Buying time:
This means that major retailers will attempt to diversify even more to buy time, as they slowly readjust to market demand in terms of reducing their physical space i.e. sell off redundant shops, whilst taking some comfort in the growth of their online business, without fully appreciating the cannibalistic element…
Besides which, with Amazon at 50% of all online, no one can rest easy…

Supplier action:

• Suppliers need to reassess brands in terms of their bricks vs. online balance vs. real demand
• Where physical in-store presence is required, the brand will need focused support and performance-based-reward to justify its footprint
• Where shoppers need to handle the brand, suppliers will have to make case for purposeful ‘show-rooming’ and reward the retailer appropriately
• Suppliers need to drive store redundancy via 100% zero-defect supply, and optimise space productivity until a level of retail space is achieved that is more in line with market realities

All else is detail…

Tesco trials UK’s first virtual stores

                                                                                      pic: The Financial Times
Tesco on Monday launched a two-week trial of the UK’s first interactive virtual grocery store at London’s Gatwick airport, following positive results in Korea,  an innovation which generated 25 million online posts around the globe. See Tesco Vid

Holiday-makers in the North Terminal departure lounge can browse 80 core products, from milk and bread to toilet paper, displayed on 10 large refrigerator-sized touch screens. They can scan bar codes with a smartphone to place them in a Tesco.com online shopping basket, and arrange for delivery when they return from holiday.

On-site help
There are staff on hand to explain how it works, to talk shoppers through how to download the app and sign up to Tesco.com – if they aren’t already using it – and even a couple of iPads to let customers sign up there and then.

Roll-out options?
If the trial is successful, Tesco could position the interactive screens anywhere members of the public congregate, the only limitation being cost-effectiveness…

Korea reality vs. the UK?
However, a key difference between the two markets is that the online-distribution infrastructure in Korea is so well advanced that it is possible for commuters to place an online order en route and have the goods delivered on arrival home.

UK distribution limitations
In the UK it will be necessary for Tesco to so manage expectation that the new facility will be seen as an enhancement to normal online shopping, fitting in with the shopper’s routine ordering-delivery process.

Direct vs broadcast media?
In terms of funding, the bar-code units will probably replace traditional poster-advertising, whilst much of Tesco’s Press and TV media could possibly be converted to direct-response advertising by incorporating bar-codes wherever possible. It would also be possible to auction some premium product-space to appropriate brand-owners.

Threat to traditional media?
The future of Tesco’s remaining media usage, thus challenged by measurable response, has to be open to question, in these unprecedented times.
In response, major brand owners may explore the application of bar-codes to their own eposter advertising, directing consumers to trade-partner retailers, by negotiation…

Either way, we are on the brink of fully complementary shopping, adding another spoke to the wheel of omni-channel fulfillment…
A pointer for your omni-channel NAM? 

Touch but don't press - How daily Apples have become unhealthy for the competition

Latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel reveal that in the UK, more than one in seven people now have a tablet in their household and over 52% of the population own a smartphone. Couple this global realisation that tapping keys have become increasingly out-of-tune with consumer intuition and it can be seen why Apple have forced Microsoft, Blackberry and Nokia into catch-up mode…forever in pursuit of Apple’s innovator advantage.
In other words, Apple have made ‘screen-touching’ the only future…

A touching retail experience
Add to this the escalating success of Apple’s retail outlets, and it can be seen that the company is successfully applying the same fundamental creativity to retailing by populating its outlets with non-virtual Apple people! In fact, over the past five years, the company created 35,852 retail jobs, all acting as representatives for one of the best known brands in the world, optimising their unique combination of retail plus online plus a daily dialogue with enthusiastic users that few tech companies can duplicate.
In practice, their stores are more about being the front line for Apple advertising, rather than a ‘normal’ retail experience.

Helping people buy...
However, this experience of the ultra-softsell, in an open-table environment littered with products in constant use by enthusiastic shoppers, and continual access to human advice, can be addictive. In fact, this tactile experience, coupled with the realisation that the price cannot be bettered elsewhere, makes buying compulsive.
A frustrating lesson for ‘normal’ retailers everywhere….

Applying the Apple lessons to your business
Seth Godin extracts 10 iPad lessons to enhance your product launches, especially in niche markets.

Can you risk being out-of-touch in an Apple-free personal-corporate life balance that does not include a daily bite of the inevitapple?

Morrisons feeds Big Brother, really!

In a UK supermarket first, the new deal allows budget-conscious housemates on the show to buy groceries from Morrisons in their weekly shop, delivered on screen in the supermarket’s trademarked bags…

This link with the UK’s most down-to-earth grocer should help keep some of the most extreme housemates grounded, thus minimising the possible emergence of the “Truman Show” Delusion now becoming more common in the US…

“Truman Show” delusion?
In fact, psychiatrists are seeing an increase in the number of patients who think they are the unwilling star of a secret reality show. This “Truman Show” delusion may be the first mental illness to come out of the 21st century's obsession with quick and easy fame.

The First Lawsuit
Nicholas Marzano believes he is the subject of a secret reality show, and everyone in his town of Hillside, Illinois is in on it. He's suing TV company HBO in federal court for, in his words, "filming and broadcasting a hidden camera reality show depicting the day-to-day activities of plaintiff" without his consent. His suit, filed in April, alleges that HBO has hidden cameras throughout his home, installed controlling devices in his car, enlisted the help of local police, and recruited actors to portray "attorneys, government and law enforcement officials, physicians, employers, prospective employers, family, friends, neighbours, and co-workers," all so that their show about his life can continue. Marzano also says HBO is keeping him from getting a job or paying his bills, so that he will be forced to remain on the show…..
(See a further 5 case studies here.)

For NAMs and KAMs with a compulsion to read all of the source material, the real article is available for sale by the journal Cognitive Neuropsychiatry

A reality wake-up call?
The real issue is the extent to which we are all in the process of emerging from a 30-year ‘unreality’ show, with growth built on credit, a world where forecasting meant adding 10% to last year’s figures, and a combination of inflation and devaluation, all ably managed by trusted politicians and bankers, helping to sustain unreal levels of ‘feel-good’ consumerism…

This unprecedented wake-up call means we are all now playing for real at having to think for ourselves, unwilling to outsource our decision-making to retailers and marketers, determined to settle for nothing less than demonstrable value-for-money, ever again….

Have a really nice weekend, from the NamNews Team!

World's biggest boxes of pasta on sale in Turkey

Given the Jubilee Weekend and the possibility of extra friends dropping in, why risk running out of the basics?

Simply pick up a half-tonne box of Barilla spaghetti now on sale in Turkey.

Too heavy and too big for the shopping trolley, delivery is included in the price, at Turkey's Migros Ticaret supermarket chain.

The mega box of penne pasta, sells for 999 Turkish lira ($560), for charity.

The boxes at 1-and-a-half meters high and well over a meter wide, are for sale at supermarkets in Istanbul, Edirne and the resort port city of Bodrum. All revenues from the sales of the massive cartons will go to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

As with some ‘one-off’ promotional ideas, what happens if the half tonne carton really takes off and becomes a ‘must stock’ line, complete with listing fees, availability KPIs and returns allowances…apart from becoming an irresistible challenge for the professional shop-lifter...

Have a giant Jubilee weekend, from the NamNews Team!

Touching response-rates in improving buying appetite, twofold

In these unprecedented times, when every little helps, light touching of the other party can apparently impart a subliminal sense of caring and connection, leading to more successful social interactions, better teamwork and even shopping behaviour.

In a new study ranging from dating to restaurant tipping and following the waiter’s advice, passersby responding to surveys in a mall, and the percentage of shoppers in a supermarket who purchase food they had sampled, it would appear that suppliers and retailers are missing a trick by not building more touching opportunities into the shopping experience.

Impressing the researcher...
Given that the author Leonard Mlodinow is a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology, with an appetite for statistical significance, even he was surprised to find a twofold increase in response rates following a light touch on the arm…

Not convinced?
Some scepticism is understandable. After all, some people recoil when a stranger touches them. And it is possible that some of the subjects in the studies did recoil but that their reactions were outweighed by the reactions of those who reacted positively.

'Over-touching'?
However, for those finding this blog-post an answer to a personal history of low-success social encounters, and are even tempted to experiment without further delay, it must be emphasised that these were all very subtle touches, not gropes. In fact, in studies in which the touched person was later debriefed about the experience, typically less than one-third of the subjects were even aware that they had been touched.

Apart from being an obvious pointer for Tesco in helping to warm up the shopping experience, there is surely an application in terms of supplier-retailer negotiation, both within and following a multilevel and multifunctional handshake routine…?

(Thanks to Andrew Sullivan)

Asda adding retailtainment to the shopping basket?

Asda plans to revamp in-store marketing to improve core customer shopping experience, following Asda 'Mumdex' research which looked at how it could support mums and their sometimes over-enthusiastic off-spring.... Momentum, an integrated marketing communications agency have been appointed to enhance Asda’s key commercial trading occasions by creating a programme of retail events to
- engage customers
- ensure the programme delivers a proven commercial return
- strategically align with objectives of Asda’s brand partners
- use their digital and social platforms to promote events to customers.

This raises the issue of the extent to which suppliers and retailers share and optimise consumer insight and shopper insight in programmes that are based upon suppliers' differentiating retailers by shopper-profile, and tailoring trade strategies appropriately.

In other words, folks, in this case, an integrated ‘digital and physical’ opportunity to optimise Asda potential for brands with profiles that are congruent with Asda’s shopper profile…
One to watch, but still a bit to go to match instore theatre in Brazil...