The evolving Push & Pull of the supermarket business model.
Established supermarkets around the world work from a pretty similar, well-honed playbook. The current business model of supermarket retailers is all about scale and leverage applied to their supply chains, and offer of range and price to consumers. While...
Amazons Australian warehouse is finally open: so what?
So, Amazon opened its first fulfilment warehouse in Australia last Thursday, to the sounds of the incumbent retailers either telling us that they will have no effect, or just not acknowledging the appearance of a giant shadow on the landscape. Back...
What is the most common question in marketing?
How do we build this brand? This question leads to all sorts of strategies and tactics that are all aimed at engaging consumers in some way, to get them to prefer the brand and sometimes even buy and recommend to their friends. Marketers cannot decide...
5 questions that might save Australian manufacturing
The news that Murray Goulburn would be acquired by Canadian dairy giant Saputo, taking out the largest of the few remaining Australian owned FMCG manufacturing businesses is not welcome, while probably an inevitable result of the failure of...
How do you make change when nobody really wants it?
Making change is about the hardest thing any leader has to do. I specify leader, as in my experience, managers cannot effect change, the best they can do is optimise the status quo. Regularly, I am faced with situations where change simply has to be made,...
Too many slices and the loaf disappears: Is this the end of Australian FMCG?
What the hell have we been thinking? Some time ago I mused that the slow death of the Australian FMCG manufacturing base was akin to nicking a slice off a cut loaf, one at a time. At any specific time you do not really notice the difference, but looked at...
8 drivers of empathy that deliver sales success.
Selling is not for everyone, it is a hard gig that requires that you are able to understand and deal with rejection. All the most successful sales people recognise that the process is not about them, but is all about the prospect. Even the most likely...
8 Reasons not to change.
We all understand the power of 'Not broken, don't fix' sort of thinking. When things are going OK, even if that is not as well as you would expect, the temptation to leave the status quo in place is compelling. No risk in that is there. I see reasons not...
5 realities we Australians should be thinking about.
This is a personal rant motivated by the continuing sight of politicians pontificating about stuff that does not matter and either ignoring much of the stuff that does, or presenting as facts, suppositions and bullshit that is supposed to make their case...
9 forces you must harness to be a successful C21 marketer
The tools of Marketing have changed, not just a bit, but totally, since the century clock ticked over. The scary thing is that it seems to me that we have seen nothing yet. It is becoming more unpredictable than riding a wild bull every day! While the...