Photo: Pere Hortigüela / Jero Martinez

ABSTRACT

How many stores have you seen closing down as you walk around your neighbourhood? It’s a truly devastating scene. Each shop that has closed down tells a story of pain and sadness.

Yet, haven’t you also seen queues in some bakeries that sell products that are far from cheap? Haven’t you seen queues outside restaurants? Or at Nespresso? What is actually in crisis then: business or a certain approach to things?

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We had learnt that sales depended on something akin to an equation, a recipe known by us experts as Marketing Mix, a set of methods mixed together to ensure that clients would perform as it was expected from them, as if they were robots: shopping.

Display many high quality products in a well-lit shop window, and place them perfectly on the shelves. Apply the normal margin to the retail price, except for a few heavily discounted products. Then arrange the best selling products at the bottom of the shop, make sure your staff are attentive and, above all, open shop in a promising location.

It’s with these methods that we have reached this point.

Thanks to magnetic resonance-based findings, we know that shopping decisions are basically unconscious or implicit. That is, these decisions are not reached through reasoning, but are fuelled by any of the many human emotions at play.

Those who work in their shops have an advantage over those who work in offices, as they are closer to customers and can thus detect their reactions first-hand. They can easily feel that the 2010 downturn is quite different from the situation in 2008. For most, the current crisis is fuelled by fear. Two years ago, it was all about making your ends meet every month.

Once traders understand what is happening to customers in their area of influence, it’s time to act accordingly.

Rather than focusing on reminding people of the economic distress by launching anti-crisis promotions, the store should be turned into a fear-free area, a relaxing, positive, fun place where customers are treated as individuals, not as robots with wallets. No longer a mere store, but a decompression zone.

Promotions don’t build continuous customer loyalty. Small businesses must focus on providing some meaning to a small part of their customers’ existence.

Lluis Martinez-Ribes
Source: La Vanguardia
(14th July 2010)

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Photo: Marcel Germain (flickr.com)

ABSTRACT
Structural problems are emerging in the printed press industry and affecting its business model. A result of new consumer trends, decreasing number of points of sale, the sensibility of newspaper sales vis à vis special offers, and the high percentage of contents produced from agency releases or inserts. The “keep up to date and know more” industry, however, will never enter in crisis. Hence, all that needs to be done is to adopt a new approach, stopping short-sighted debates about printed information vs e-information and start adopting the new mindsets emerging from putting the customer at the heart of the innovation process. [Read more →]

Photo: JM Martinez Ribes.

ABSTRACT
If you want to innovate in retailing it is as important to find the solution as starting with the correct ideas or approaches.
If you do not have a profound understanding of your public your final outcome will be like playing lottery.
Moreover, trying to innovate within set boundaries and only researching the point of sale – neglecting that the purchasing process goes a lot further- will merely help to improve the existing. Hence, the store is the end point and not the starting point of innovation. [Read more →]

It is no secret that Retail Brands market share is growing. The purpose of this video that I recorded for ESADE, is not to reel off a long list of facts and figures but rather to understand what Retail Brands are, and to come up with effective strategies to deal with their growth. Big surprises – of major significance – will be thrown up by what at first seems a symptomatic problem. Anyone who thinks out-of-the-box, and is open to the unexpected is welcome.

© ESADE Alumni / CONOCIMIENTO. Bcn, January 2009. (video in Spanish)
Lluis Martinez-Ribes. La marca en retail.
Associate Professor of the Department of Marketing Management in ESADE...

Window display in a Milan store.

ABSTRACT
No communication means no sale. Next to informing communication should also persuade the customer. And in this context (good) sales people are vital. Retail companies used to be person and smile-intensive, but nowadays they have to be capital-intensive too. The context has changed and a new challenge emerged: how to communicate better with fewer sales people? Opting for IT and sensorial solutions offers answers to the dilemma “cheap coffee for all” versus “expensive customisation”. [Read more →]

ESADE recently asked me to record a short movie with my reflections on retail management, and this is the result.
This video offers a sequence of various micro themes that create a link between marketing and finance, describing how to become the customer’s preferred choice and illustrating some common errors.
It also includes an episode on how to reduce the price sensibility, something that is, I imagine, of general interest in this turbulent climate.

Photo: C. de Psiquiatra (flickr.com)

ABSTRACT
Before coming up with a solution, we’ve first got to know what we’re dealing with. To begin with, if we’re talking about ‘crisis’, we should do so in the plural. Otherwise, a wrong diagnosis will lead to ineffective decision-making.
To address the crises, we encounter a good ally in the direct marketing, supported by neuroscience. Thus the focus should be on providing a positive shopping experience based on emotions to encourage clients to buy. [Read more →]

Emilio Botín, the President of Banco Santander.

ABSTRACT
The day previous to the Formula One Grand Prix in Monza, 200 international journalists witnessed how Emilio Botín, the President of Banco Santander, and Luca di Montezemolo, Ferrari’s President, signed a five-year sponsorship agreement during a press conference. The actual amount was never disclosed but rumours name a sum close to 40 million euros.
Until present, it has been the most important marketing action in the history of Banco Santander. Becoming the main sponsor of the legendary F1 motor-racing team Ferrari permitted the Spanish bank to position itself as a serious contender in the international league. Moreover, this leadership attitude conveys a positive message of economic strength and confidence in the future. [Read more →]

Desigual stand at the Bread&Butter show.

ABSTRACT
Against all odds, there are those who are capable of seizing the opportunity to grow in times of crisis. And they do so because they have the courage to cast off old-fashioned concepts; they invest in their brand, and transmit their brand culture in the stores. They make the world their market based on ‘insight’ and innovation. And all of this configured in one complete business model. This means that now is the best time to start a solid project in retailing. [Read more →]

Photo: F. Sánchez (Francisco Aragón S.L.)
and R. Pradas (Menshen S.L.).

ABSTRACT
“Retail brands” -the inaccurately called “private labels”- can be innovative too. In fact, if they align their strategies and collaborate together, products like the Bosque Verde shoe cleanser emerge, which was awarded the Liderpack price for being the most innovative in Spain. The preconceptions that arise when touching on the issue of brands selling to the wider public can lead to errors in decision-making. Those who define a problem badly, have a hard time finding a solution. [Read more →]