I have sat in forums surrounded by independent and regional retailers and listened to their disdain for Amazon—even though they probably frequent the site for their own family. Recently, my office manager was kicked off of Amazon. Yes, you read that right. How can you live without using Amazon? Guess what, she survived. There is life without Amazon. This blog explores 4 ways … [Read more...]
4 Obstacles to Succeeding Online and In-Store
I have been researching what obstacles brands face when trying to succeed online and in-store through my contacts on LinkedIn. It has been very enlightening and has confirmed some of what I already suspected and opened my eyes to other barriers. Most of the conversations started out with my contact saying either, "how long do you have to talk" or "you sure have opened a can of … [Read more...]
3 Ways Your Package Design is Killing Your Brand
This blog explores three different case studies where a package design hurts a brand. 1. Too Drastic of a Package Redesign This is a brand I am very familiar with and I have purchased for several years.The name of the product was prominent and the image did a pretty well of differentiating the types of product (Rice Pilaf, Rice, Couscous) This is what I was accustomed to … [Read more...]
How Libratone Took an Unconventional Approach to Retail
In my quest to keep meeting consumer electronics (CE) marketers and understand the obstacles they face at retail, I was recently able to have an hour-long conversation with Mike Culver, president of Libratone. He is responsible for sales, marketing, customer service/support, operations and P&L for the company. When Mike was offered the position at Libratone, he … [Read more...]
B8TA: The Try-and-Buy Technology Retailer
"b8ta stores are designed for discovering, trying and buying the latest tech products." I finally visited a b8ta store in Santa Monica, California last week. It is exactly how I imagined it would be. For those of you who aren't familiar with the retail chain, it is a store that is designed to give customers hands-on access to all of the products they sell. They focus … [Read more...]
What CE Independent Retailers can Learn from the Corner Bicycle Shop
My son has a dream of owning his own bicycle shop. I figured there has to be a book about how to start your own retail bicycle store and sure enough I found one: "Leading Out Retail: A Creative Look at Bicycle Retail and What All Retailers Can Learn From It" by Donny Perry. (Published in 2014). Perry foreshadows a lot of what is happening to independent retailers today and … [Read more...]
Brick-and-Mortar vs Online Retailers: Is one the death of the other?
When online stores started becoming a more popular way to shop, pundits predicted the death of all brick-and-mortar stores. Here we are, more than a decade later, and we still have physical stores. There are some brick-and-mortar retailers that became giants on-line and there are some on-line brands that have opened a physical store. Some of the brands that opted to … [Read more...]
Can Manufacturers Present their Brand Better at Retail?
If you are a consumer technology brand selling at retail, it depends on your budget if you can really make your product stand out among the competition. Progressive retail stores want to offer their customers an experience so they cater to the needs of their customers which makes them want to return. The stores that come to mind are: Urban Outfitters, Trader Joes, and … [Read more...]