George buyers do Balmain.

(Thanks Lauren for the article.)
So I posted some of the Balmain Fall '09 collection last week, including an image of the stunning silver and black mini dress which Kate Moss was spotted wearing back in April. 

The dress is of course a tad out of my price range but check out what George at Asda have created for £16. Verdicts? The supermarket is hoping the limited edition dress will be one of their best selling items of the year.

I have a dress I bought years ago in a second hand store which is very in-line with Balmain's latest collection - I think I'll be wearing it next week and will post pics. 

I'm Running Sainsbury's.

I just watched 'I'm Running Sainsbury's' on 4oD. I was pleasantly surprised at the insight that was given to the running of Britain's oldest supermarket store, which takes £30,000/min over 800 stores nationwide. 

The first episode focuses on 21 year old store trainer Becky's idea, which in theory would save the customer a lot of time in store. Her idea came from the "Feed your family for a FIVER" campaign (made famous by Jamie Oliver). Becky noticed that although customers were informed of the ingredients needed for each meal, the products were spaced out all over the supermarket floor. What if there was a pre-packed bag containing all the items needed? Sounds obvious doesn't it? 

Becky pitched the idea to directors (including CE Justin King - see my post on hearing him speak at the Retail Week Conference) at Sainsbury's "Store Support Centre" (i.e. HQ). They decided to do a week test trial in stores of one of Becky's recipes. The product looked great and the idea seemed a perfect solution! But unfortunately it didn't makes sales targets so the idea wasn't taken forward. I think possibly because it is asking supermarket shoppers to shop in an entirely different way from what they are used to.

Supermarket Sweep

An article on the channel 4 website, describes both the overt and covert signals to customers, designed into the layouts of supermarkets. 

"It’s no coincidence that the sweets are right by the till in supermarkets, nor that the one thing you really came for is at the far corner, past the pet food you don’t need."

Supermarkets interiors are designed to control our movement around the stores. I know that this is something we must take into consideration in my work with fixture placements, key items being in the best sightlines and visual displays reflecting and enticing the customer to the stock. 

It's good not to know everything!

A fascinating and engaging story of how the Dutch ex-Heineken COO with little retail experience, transformed the falling Morrison's brand into a success story, which isn't even letting the Credit Crunch knock it back down. 

Bolland feels his lack of retail knowledge benefitted him when he was appointed to CEO of Morrison's. Coming from an outsiders perspective, he didn't understand what the brand stood for and had to start from scratch in repositioning Morrison's, often acting against the advice of those "in the know". Speaking to real customers, he established that there was a feeling that the brand didn't offer the same service that say, the high street could.  

By weighing up the market competitors such as Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose and Asda, Bolland established that he wanted to position Morrison's as a predominantly food retailer (when everyone else was moving into non-food) with competitive yet quality product. He made the decision that every single penny needed to go into making the food valuable and fresh. Today Morrison's is the only supermarket who buy entirely from farmers. 

Bolland also discussed their adverts featuring celebrities but stressed that the likes of Denise Van Outen and Alan Hanson were real Morrison's shoppers who appreciated value and fresh produce. When questioned on pumping lots of money into flash advertising, he responded by stating that there was very little increased budgeting for their ad campaigns and that the real difference was in the advertising approach.