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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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