And then it hit me - BANG! ...the ever changing Retail Landscape

I found myself in a guitar shop this week (my one weakness), and got talking to the owner. I let it slip that I had just bought a lead and strings online. Naturally he was disappointed I didn't buy from him. The usual discussion followed, you know ...how you'd prefer to buy in a shop, but the prices...

I said that that was the new reality and he needs to create other ways of adding value and making revenue, and then it hit me BANG! I've been there before, 25 years a go. I was a manager of an independent camera shop, before the internet was a twinkle in Tim Berners-Lee's eyes. We found we could not compete on price with mail-order camera shops, because they bought their goods as 'grey imports'. i.e. circumnavigating the official distributor by buying where the pound was strong. So a £125 camera was sold at cost price in order to compete, yet our way round that was to use our greatest asset ...our physical presence. Our caring, advisory and patient stance meant that few walked away without buying a case, filters, film, flash gun, batteries and so on. These supplementary products came with at least a 50% mark-up, so we were able to make a handsome return on what the customer was going to have to buy anyway.

There's no doubt that the retail landscape is changing because of the rise of e-commerce. But it always has been changing and we shouldn't feel bad about it. Remember the days when you went in to an insurance broker's shop to buy insurance? Customers vote with their money and it's up to the commercial world to adapt and change accordingly. There will always be demand and supply, and all that is required is finding that mutual win-win space.

Bring back Speak-Mails

Colleagues of mine occasionally get a visit by me to their desk. I look at them and pause meaningfully, once I have their attention.

"I'm delivering a Speak-Mail" *?* "I could have sent you an email but thought I'd use an old fashioned thing called talking" Once the look of puzzlement has gone, we talk.

I don't know about you, but I'm getting fed up with the misuse of emails. I've been using emails since 1990 and three things bug me most. 1) getting Cc'd on stuff, just for the sender to cover their back, or worse to make it look like they are busy. 2) messages sent to colleagues WITHIN TALKING DISTANCE and 3) Using emails to convey a criticism, instead of voicing feelings directly.

My experience, as a people manager, is that one should use written communications primarily for factual information exchange. Use verbal language for expressing opinions and for debate.

Storms in tea cups have their epicentres in two-dimensional messages.

How to find out stuff, free and fast

You have probably delved in to You Tube, but have you realised that it can be a way of finding out about products you might be researching to buy? Company's are realising this and are putting up short videos of product demonstrations. Best of all, for gadgets and things that have a personal and desirable dimension, the customers themselves are demo'ing them themselves.

I've found useful clips on mobile phones, audio equipment, cameras and such. I'm not in the pay of You Tube, but thought you might use this tip.

Televised football games should be free to attend

I reckon the TV money in football, should be used to make it free for (non-corporate) fans to attend. Of course it's not totally free as far as the fans are concerned ...the cost of getting to the match is not to be sniffed at.

After all, we are increasingly becoming 'extras' that help a TV program be made. Attendees to non-televised games could be rewarded with free tickets to broadcasted matches. For the clubs, many will benefit by better attendance figures, and, if you take the low-cost airline model, there are still revenue opportunities at the grounds ...catering, programmes, merchandise, corporate entertaining, betting, etc.

Gorilla Tactics

Great stuff. This is what Viral Marketing is all about. Generate brand-linked content, that is so hot, it gets forwarded on, friend to friend. I'm talking now of the parody of the Cadbury Gorilla/Phil Collins commercial, by Wonderbra. It apparently contravenes Mr Collins' copyright, so has been removed from You Tube.

Even better then; it has been banned! This was a recipe for success since records such as Je t'aime, High, High, High, and Judge Dread, became off-air hits. Now I'm not wishing to break the law, or condone doing so, but it is a fact of life that the tabloids have long exploited: break a rule, and the compensation/fine paid, is less than the revenue from that gained by being naughty.

What? You want to see the spoof? Well don't tell anyone, but try this ... http://www.heggle.com/item/4994365/Wonderbra_Gorilla_Parody

PS. Now what about this for an idea ...Phil Collins doing the drum intro, to the King Kong movie soundtrack, whilst eating a chocolate bar? No? Oh, THAT'S why I'm not a Creative Director.

Praising the enemy

In the news this week is footballer, Dave Kitson, who is effusing about the sheer skill of the Arsenal players and the team now playing in the English Premier league. Nothing unusual in that, but Kitson is a striker for Reading FC as well a life-long Tottenham fan. The thing is, that dropping prejudices in favour of identifying competitor’s qualities, is a healthy thing.

I once worked for a company that supplied direct marketing services to a well known luxury car brand. How refreshing it was to attend a new launch briefing session at UK HQ, where product managers would compare their new car with the competition. Not only would it be good analytical stuff, but they would be critical of their own model’s weaknesses and praising of the competition if they had anything that was better. Such objectivity can only help one learn and improve I know that might sound obvious, but try looking at a competitive entity and see how many good things that you admire and can list. It might surprise you!

"'In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death taxes and...

Should fireworks be allowed to be used by amateurs, and should there be restrictions on how many days a year that they can be let off? Like with smoking restrictions, there are strong views on either side.

Actually, I'm not going to get in to this debate. But if I did, I'm sure I would hear pro-pyrotechnics folk cite the Nanny State and 'infringement of freedom' and so forth. My point is that, unless you live on an island - with a population of one, you already live with rules, mores and restrictions. It's just that some are there to protect people ...at the cost of perhaps your own indulgence.

So, if i could tread on Benjamin Franklins's* toes a bit, I would add a third certainty ...
"'In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes, and regulations."



*Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy, 1789.

Chaos reigns within - Reflect, repent and reboot - Order shall return

As I'm sure you are aware, the Japanese have a form of poetry called Haiku. It has very a strict 17 syllable 3 line form, namely: 1st line 5 syllables; 2nd line has 7; and 3rd line has 5 again.

The Japanese are currently replacing error messages [eg "This program has performed an illegal function and will now shut down."] with Haiku poems.

Try some of these, sometimes they have an ethereal quality

The web site you seek
Cannot be located,
but Countless more exist

Chaos reigns within
Reflect, repent and reboot
Order shall return

Program aborting:
Close all that you have worked on.
You ask far too much.

Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.

Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.

Your file was so big.
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.

Stay the patient course.
Of little worth is your ire.
The network is down.

A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.

Three things are certain:
Death, Taxes and Lost Data.
Guess which has occurred.

You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.

Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will.

Having been erased,
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.

Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.

Where is the printer?
The printer can not be found
Though it is next to me

If I Ruled The World

If I ruled the world, not only would every day be the first day of spring, but I would also bring in a new law (as well as eradicating Brussell Sprouts from the planet). I would make it near impossible to change the name of a pub.

Trivial, I hear you say? OK, it's not on the same level of importance as combating HIV, but public houses are more than just places to drink. They are historical entities that transcend generations; they are directional markers, they are like trees that watch the future go by.

I moved to Harrogate sixteen years ago, and one old pub has changed its name in that time from The Rum Runner, to The Honest Lawyer, and is now called The Iron Duke. My neighbour remembers it being previously called The Old Tradition. On Tuesday I went to The Muckles, which changed from being Scruffy Murphy's, then on to The Alexandra, which was called The Rat & Parrot last year and something different a year or two before.

The world changes very fast these days, and personally I reckon we could do with a little stability here and there. Or would you like to discuss this over a pint?

Tilting

In our enthusiasm for modifying our behaviour, we often go for All Or Nothing. However, I believe that TILTING is more realistic. Like when I gave up eating meat for 17 years, I still used leather ...so I tilted in the direction of lowering my dependency on domestic animals. Now we are (hopefully) beginning to embrace our carbon footprints. But I can't help using long-hall flights, a car and a trillion other things that are really not going to help the planet. I do recycle, and have done so since collecting milk bottle tops for Blue Peter in the '60s. I do turn things off more, choose less carbon nasty goods and so on. So what I am consciously doing is tilting towards being carbon neutral.

Now if everyone of us in the industrialised world did one small energy-saving thing each day, then the result could equal the output of one power station in a year. So if we all started tilting a bit in the same direction, the collective result would be good, and hopefully the titling gets stronger.

So my motto is: "Less Guilt, just Tilt."

Pathetic Fallacy

It's great weather, the blossom is bursting out and it's just about the best time to be most places, especially Britain.

So where am I off to tomorrow? Alice Springs in the centre of Australia. Accepting the invitation to speak at the conference there, seemed a good idea at the time. Wish it was raining here now!

Unique Names

I started this blog off, using the Sobriquet 'Blog Bloke'.

I was asked by the "original Blog Bloke" to not use that name, as he apparently has it "trade marked".

OK. I've happily changed my monicker; no sweat ...BUT is there a point in restricting unique usage? I mean, we all have our given names, registered at birth ...but we are rarely the sole user of that name. I'm happy to be enlightened!

Spike Milligan

I vaguely remember watching a Spike Milligan series on UK TV show in the late 60s or early 70s, where every now and then, there would be a fake commercial for 'Snibbo'. Whatever, the problem, Snibbo could solve it. Anyone out there know what I'm talking about?