retail bank, furniture store or traffic department?

there is a famous saying that goes something like…

“marketing is the most important function in any company, far too important to be left to the marketing department”

this broadened the scope of marketing as well as the responsibility for it. there is a similar move afoot in retail, and nothing demonstrates it better than the recent acquisition of ellerines by african bank. now the bank looks like a furniture store and is a pucker retail environment

contrast this with the major “retail” banking environments. there is little distinction between their branches and the licensing hall at your local traffic department, apart maybe from the quality of the finishes. they provide a good bank but a lousy shop. this may give us some insight into why we hate going to the bank but see shopping as relaxing or even entertainment.

so, as much as we want to improve the experience for our shopper, as retailers, we could show other organisations, like banks, a thing or two about people, product and space.

pick n pay made a customer promise a few years ago that the manager will always be available, and will spend most of his time on the sales floor. in the bank, the manager is furthest person from the customer. the only time you get to see her is when you are in trouble.

another promise, made by many grocery retailers, is that the moment there is more than one shopper at a till, another till will be opened until all are open. imagine a bank where all the tellers were open.

in a fashion retailer, the shopper can interact with the product. he can look at it, touch it, price it and try it on. think of all the information that he can gather from this process…colour, size, style, fashionability, fabric, quality, price, fit… to name a few. the challenge for the bank is to find a way for him to easily gather enough information to make a decision. if a bond or a savings account was a thing, what would it look like?

these are just a few of the thoughts i have had when pondering the question…

what would my bank look like if it was run by a retailer?

for those non-bankers amongst us, replace the words “my bank” with “my office”, “my reception”, “my department”, “my charity” or anything else for that matter.

would people want to come to it?
would they easily find what they needed?
would the offering make sense to them?
is the balance between self service and assistance correct?
would they be happy to give you what you want in return for what they got?
would they come back?
what would your returns percentage be?

…worth a thought

who's your partner?

small and big business's alike ponder over whether to invite a partner into their business. that is only the first question, after that come who, what percentage ownership, exit strategy and many more...

there is one "partner" that is often overlooked.

...the shopper...

there are many businesses where customers or potential customers are included in the business. in some theatre productions the audience even scripts the plot as the actors act it out.

so what about retail...

there are two remarkably successful companies and one upstart that come to mind - ikea, zara and let's dish

firstly ikea - their mantra is to provide the the cheapest (well designed furniture) available. their method is to do 50% of the work, and outsource the rest to the shopper, therby ensuring the price is kept low. ikea's 50% is design and maunfacture. the shopper's job is shopping, delivery and assembly. they realise that the shopper doesn't have a truck and that is where flat-pack furniture comes in (part of the ikea 50%). this model is so entrenched that to buy online from ikea costs more than in stores - why? because they are doing the delivery which is the "shopper's job" and so the price has to go up.

next zara - they have built one of the fastest (if not the fastest) clothing supply chains in the world. it takes just over 21 days from concept to store. this allows them to interpret the latest fashion from catwalks and red carpets around the world, and put them in front of the shopper in-store very quickly. in the next stage, store staff feed shopper observations, opinions and insights back to the designers at head office, effectively including the shopper in the design team. the super fast supply chain is then used to fill the stores with up-to-date fashions that the shoppers actually want!

lastly let's dish - here the 29 store retailer provides a venue, ingredients and recipes for home cooked meals. the customer books a two hour session in store and prepares a month's worth of meals which can be frozen and re-heated when needed. they obviously play on health, fresh ingredients, no preservatives etc. but let's dish are effectively a ready meal manufacturer where the labour is provided by their customer.

who best to have a vested interest in your success than your shopper? this besides the fact that people love to belong and to contribute...

is your shopper part of your business model? if not, how would you include her? if yes, tell them, it's worked for these three...