Village Life: the “New Consumer” & the future for retail

November 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Part 2

In Part 1 of this blog, “Village Life: the new future for retail?”, we discussed rapid and stunning changes to retailing which left business owners asking  “Where and How do we ‘fit’ now?”.

Connie Comber Business Management Consultant Sydney Australia

Connie Comber, Re-Imagine Business Sydney Australia

The answer to that must include a customer perspective. In Part 1, I referred to the ‘High St’ Revitalisation Project I designed and work on – which has clearly identified consumers have changed; the way we ‘consume’ is changing.

Some of the research behind that finding, by the way, has come from my reviewing academic and international market research and the rest comes from direct consumer questioning carried out within the project locality itself.

It’s essential to remember that the changes to retail businesses have, not insignificantly, resulted from the shake-up consumers have experienced in their own lifestyle patterns. The GFC (and its persistent after-shocks) didn’t just cause economic downturn, it exposed ‘bad’ behaviour that’s seriously damaged millions of people. There’s been the turmoil of a ‘roll-on’ of natural disasters. There are power shifts changing the balance of international economies and creating instability in national currencies; and so on and so forth.

Within all that change, consumers are re-evaluating their priorities and lifestyle decisions. They’re taking a fresh look at the value systems they’ve previously held in, all but, biblical esteem:

The all-consuming accumulation of wealth (dare we say greed) is no longer looking so good & ‘affluence’ isn’t so “cool”, anymore.

Social good matters. That said; how, what, where, when -  we’re still working out.

Personal needs – “me, me, me” isn’t so interesting – our sense of belonging, community, sharing, collaborating, is in come-back.

This widespread values and lifestyle review is rejuvenating a desire for “Village-life”; but the appeal is not “shop till you drop”, it’s a search for social belonging, feeling socially engaged and sharing ‘common space’.

People are also craving convenience, which results from escalating transport costs, the limitations of time-poor schedules and a shrinking fascination with ‘keeping up with the Jones’. Convenience includes ‘local’ and it means basic ‘everyday’ convenience.

So here’s the opportunity: the local village hub, or ‘High St’, MAY be able to satisfy all of this new consumer ambition IF the local ‘High St’ business community responds to these changing needs.

That response must, of course, include – affordability. Research also identifies a distinguishing point of appeal of ‘High Sts’ over shopping malls: that is, where a good village hub features unique, quirky, arty, ‘character-filled’ ‘High St’ retail outlets, it can offer an interesting shopping experience which enriches people’s enjoyment of local ‘Village Life’.

So, for individual retail owners the ‘take-home’ messages seem to be:

  • highlight the special interest your products can appeal to, e.g. books, kids, markets, food, unique fashion
  • angle your products/service to everyday convenience
  • think up new ways to add to convenience e.g. delivery/online
  • make the business sociable – enhancing a local customer’s ‘belonging’ to their community/village
  • be entertaining – make your store an ‘experience’: touch people’s special interests
  • keep some things AFFORDABLE, offering premium quality is a delicate mix to get right these days
  • INCLUDE your customers, in clever ways, as you design responses to the above – never forget it’s about them
  • become an INTERACTIVE business – changing, adaptable, creative, fluid

Discovering ‘the tricks of the new trade’ and sharing the latest know-how is how the retail sector will ‘reboot’.

Do these findings ‘fit’ with how retail store owners’, suppliers, or customers are experiencing the trading ‘climate’ out there? What other features have worked? Add your comments to the discussion and let’s keep enriching the shared know-how.

[The final part (3) of this blog will conclude with a review of the where-to-from-here findings of the ‘High St’ Revitalisation Project. We’ll discuss ‘the new tools of the trade’: how ‘social’ can be the new way-to-go; not just for consumers but for business owners, too. And – how collaboration as a business community can add that all important ‘Ummph’.]

[This blog was first published on the Australian Gifts and Homewares Association blog site] 

Contact Us           

Filed Under: Socially Responsible Marketing, Sustainable Business Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Village Life: the new future for retail?

November 6, 2012 By 1 Comment

Part 1  [see Part 2]

By now, we all know about the radical changes in retail:

  • web-world revolutions
  • the explosion of e-commerce
  • changing consumer spending patterns

The same changes have also had a shocking impact on local ‘High Streets’. But there are some upsides.

As part of a local Business Chamber initiative I’ve been the designer and project manager, this year, for a ‘High St’ Revitalisation project in inner Sydney. I’d love to share that journey with you and hear your own experiences and thoughts.

The project captured one key issue over and over: these changes in retail are here to stay so how do local business owners respond and “where do we fit now?” Tough question: some owners with a long-term iconic presence in their ‘High St’ are clearly stunned at the turn of events.

It became evident, almost immediately, though, that if you give businesses a sense of support, foster collective optimism and build in some practical ‘can do’s’, you can’t keep a good owner’s ‘fighting spirit’ down! There can be positive news in the turnaround.

There are distinctive opportunities in the transforming scene.

[“Where and How do we ‘fit’ now?” can’t be answered by a business owner, alone. A significant proportion of that answer comes from, of course, ‘the customer’ – but who is that now? Have consumers changed; is the way we ‘consume’ changing? From research done during this project, the answer to that is definitely ‘yes’, but more on that in Part 2 of this blog topic.]

For now, when local retail owners were asked what they saw as the key ingredients for responding to these new conditions, it was identified:

  • focus on what can be done not what’s ‘wrong’ (while still being ‘real’ about problems and issues)
  • focus on the talents and uniqueness in any ‘High St’ business that makes “that” store somewhere different to be
  • working in bunkered-down isolation isn’t going to pull any business through – there is a need and a huge opportunity for collaborating with collective networking and marketing
  • the ‘marketing’ conversation isn’t with ‘customers’ alone, anymore – it’s with the community; local residents and interest’ communities that relate to the ‘High St’ – for whatever reasons
  • the solutions are complex and businesses need community support (many different stakeholders within that) to restore their ‘village’
  • business owners need to ‘own’ that ‘new times are here’ and respond in new and different ways.

I’d love to know how those conclusions relate to retailers’ or village dwellers’ own experiences,  in all sorts of other locations? (And more in Part 2).

[This blog was first published as a blog on the Australian Gifts and Homewares Association blog site]

Contact Us        

Filed Under: Re-Imagine Leadership, Socially Responsible Marketing

Sustainable – Shamainable: Does it help My Business

July 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

This blog, by Connie Comber, Re-Imagine Business, was first published on the Australian Gift and Homewares Blog,  for AGHA – http://ow.ly/cxhTU

Sustainable Shamainable – does it help my business?  

When it comes to our own businesses – there’s one key ‘test’ for anything we adopt or change in our business; does it help, or add to the well-being of my business, and does it add value?

So, what then, is ‘sustainable’ business? Is it about carbon and trees and all things green? And/or, is it about doing business in enduring, wholesome ways that help our business thrive into the long-term?

I’m keen to hear your response to those questions … so please comment.

I know, for my own definition, sustainable business covers a lot more than environmental factors. It starts with the value system and culture of a business; its management practices and its ways of building relationships within and without the business. It also factors in the economic health of the business (that has to be sustainable) and the environmental impact of the business.

When all those factors combine, and interact, you get an exciting and really interesting business: a business that works well with people within the business, its customers, suppliers and other key stakeholders; a business that is well-tuned financially and is, therefore, going to be effective in its use of energy, waste and resources.

Even two years ago, I was scolded by serious business people that such a ‘soft’ definition of business performance was ‘pie-in-the-sky’ stuff. Nowadays, it’s being promoted by the Harvard Business School and the top corporate performers, so I’m sticking to my guns!

The former Chairman of Marks & Spencer, Sir Rick Greenbury, was proud of the reputation his company had for employee benefits: “We look after our staff well, but look at how well they look after our customers.”

This was quoted in an article, titled, Happiness, The Key to Company Sustainability, [ http://ow.ly/cbpOS ] by Sir Stuart Hampson, the Chairman of one of the leading UK retail groups John Lewis Partnerships (JLP). He goes on to say, “in the same way, employees who feel a commitment to the success of their business will be better motivated to develop innovative products and processes, get the best out of supplier relationships and nurture a sound reputation in the community – all key ingredients to sustainable success and even to that goal of creating [company] value.”

Neither Marks and Spencer, nor JLP, are considered ‘soft’ performers, so there has to be something in this new way of doing business sustainably. It is a different way of doing business, though, and in times of reduced consumer spending and tight lender funding it may feel counter-intuitive. Traditionally, during these kinds of times, the advice has been to reduce costs, limit staff, ‘stick to the knitting’ or … change less – not more!

These new methods in business, instead, encourage experimenting with the business model, innovating with suppliers, creating new operations and systems and asking the customer what key ‘needs’ they’d most like attended to. That is – opening into the conditions – not closing against them.

I don’t mention these methods, as ideology or ‘niceties’ – my belief in them is hard-won – in my own businesses; different businesses over the years, and in one, in particular, a time when push – absolutely -came to shove.

These different ways of doing business aren’t always obvious and aren’t routinely understood by accountants and more traditional advisors.

This blog space is a good opportunity to toss your thoughts, questions and ideas around.

What’s your experience of these current conditions and a sense of if/where/how sustainability fits?

Please Contact 

Filed Under: Socially Responsible Marketing, Sustainable Business

Social Media or Business Madness; Finding the Sustainable Pathway for your Business

September 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I recently ran a workshop with a colleague, Stephen Robertson (Speaking Up) , called ‘Social Media or Social Madness?’ Connie Comber

The general idea is – Social media is ‘Here’  and here to stay - whether we like it or not. Given that: is it business magic or a minefield? Today’s business world is rapidly changing and unpredictable.

How do we find the pathway for our business that will create sustainable business? How do we handle the good and the bad of this new media – where every one’s an ‘instant expert’ and very few people know what really works? What are the sustainable business methods and outcomes when using social media? Every business operator needs to know how to make effective decisions around this new communication. In this seminar we pointed out it doesn’t start with technology – it starts with YOU.

We asked; “What do you really feel about it?   What’s working for you, what isn’t? How can you make what you need happen – and manage any downsides?”

This discussion was designed to take business owners to the next level of feeling ‘in command’ of their needs and requirements when implementing these new tools in their own business. Not be at the mercy of the latest ‘dictates’ from the experts and the most recent ‘top-10-rules’.

We wanted business owners to leave knowing THEIR choices in regards to their principles and priorities with the use of these new media. And feel strong in deciding what is true and right for their business when it comes to modern social media tools.

It was good lively and robust debate on the day. Even business owners not yet participating in this new media [much] recognise the importance of making these kinds of decisions – social media is rapidly becoming as ubiquitous as email and mobile phones and could well, predictably, in time, overtake them.

Privacy vs publicity was a persistent dilemma. For example, do you leave yourself open to vexatious complaint on facebook – to the whims and deliberate misunderstandings of a disgruntled customer – who’s disgruntled in their life but you’re a handy target? Versus; “we asked our customers to give our business feedback, on the website – they did – (feedback they’d never given before even though many were regular customers) - and it was great, we really improved our service as a result.”

Is it de-humanising business by making the message SO universal people forget how to have an ACTUAL real-time conversation with a colleague who’s only down the corridor after-all! Or, is it people-power like we’ve never had before – giving each and every one of us a voice – an informal vote in shaping how we want this society to ‘shape-up’ for the future.

Is it holding business accountable - and is it holding people in business accountable for their behaviour in transparent, consistent ways? Do the ‘wrong thing’ and you will most likely get caught short somewhere?

I’d love to report that we solved it all in a breakfast seminar – as you can guess – that’s not the case. What it did was explore some key issues and points for attention. The outcomes highlighted the need for ‘rules of etiquette’ – some agreed codes for conduct – or, in short, some transparent common values statements around the business use of social media.

For this audience, the ’rules’ were all around ‘good values’. Frequent themes were words like:

Discipline; don’t post any and everything and bore and bother people, have some respect for making the communication purposeful, strategic, targeted, useful.

Check your own personal filters; is the message, and the way you are communicating it, valid, truthful, respectful, responsive?

Authenticity of the message, and the sender, came up over and over. And plain good old manners – e.g. is your phone off in company? Or, if the message your communciating isn’t ‘getting through’ on 16 attempts at 10-second-grab tweets and sms’ – then Pick-up-the-Phone and talk to a real person! Not to mention – have a face-to-face!

There’s ‘nothing new under the sun’, really – every which way you turn, the business world is being confronted with the task of ‘cleaning up its act’. Whether it be ecological or cultural, people are longing for the sense of goodness and good-heartedness in their business day.

I think the real message is – we need seminars on remembering how to be authentic, real-time, transparent, respectful and self-responsible humans - being business people!

It really comes down to the reality that for every upside of social media there is likely to be a counter-acting down-side – as there is with new technology of any kind. It is a new emerging arena full of conundrums, contradictions and dilemmas. The technology itself is pretty neutral – its the users that overlay the positive or negative.

When all the specific debate about social media is said and done [which it certainly isn't yet!] – I still think that this user-response trend is a reflection of a change in the overall business culture (for the better, I’m thinking). The “anything goes, dog-eat-dog” kind of ‘the Godfather’ business mindset, is transforming. Several rounds of GFC consequences has sobered and straightened things up – somewhat. We are beginning to say – it’s not OK to be harmful in business – and, maybe, social media is giving us the tools to speak up?

I think we don’t quite know, yet – what this new culture will transform into – but we do seem to be shifting, quite palpably, from the old ‘money-first; no-consequences-to-greed-and-selfishness’ culture. Social media is playing an important role in liberating our voice for change – but we need to – somehow – manage the down-sides.

For business to be sustainable, endurable and future-proofed we need to become more authentic, wholly present, and reciprocating human beings?

Love to know your thoughts. Give us a call …

Filed Under: Socially Responsible Marketing, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Sustainable Businesses – What Makes Them Tick?

June 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Today I read an interesting article entitled the Five Habits of Highly Effective Sustainable Businesses.  You can read more about it here. https://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2011/06/20/5-habits-highly-effective-sustainable-businesses

What practices would you add?

Filed Under: Socially Responsible Marketing Tagged With: