Customer Magazines - the ultimate consumer-shopper-brand connection?

Latest ABC circulation data reveal that the 4 major multiples now account for a combined circulation of 6.5m copies
July-Dec 09
- Tesco Magazine 2,055,391 +1.9% YoY.
- Asda Magazine 1,859,697 - 36.4% YoY.
- Sainsburys Magazine 1,499,244 + 0.4% YoY.
- Morrisons Magazine 974,431 YoY N/A.

Take their total focus upon their shopper needs and appropriate meal-solutions, add a little aspiration, stir in a some 'Clubcard insight', a modicum of supplier brand investment, and make the a la carte menu available where the shopper buys, for unforgettable anticipation and prolonging of the instore shopping experience….

Alternatively, why not try the traditional 'table d'hote' approach of third party media….?

Speech in recession back to basics?

A new survey reveals the most annoying jargon:
1. Thinking outside the box (21 percent)
2. Let's touch base (20)
3. Blue sky thinking (19)
4. Blamestorming (16) (sitting down and working out whose fault something is)
5. Drill down to a more granular level (15) (Look into something in more detail)
6. Let's not throw pies in the dark (15) (we need a plan rather than a haphazard approach)
7. I've got that on my radar (13)
8. Push the envelope (12)
9. Bring your A-game (11) (Be ready to do something to best of ability)
10. Get all your ducks in a row (11)

In this totally new era, why not go all the way and distil a deal down to 'cost' and 'value' to optimise joint profitability?

Have a concentrated and 'essentials' weekend, from the Namnews Team!

UNSW proposes new fiancée formula for proposing marriage

Statisticians from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) may be able to help to decide the right time to propose.
Job-wise, the real pay-off for KAMs could be not only meeting the right partner, they could also find themselves developing a new love for numbers – a win-win for everyone!

Meanwhile, for those in serious need, the UNSW formula may help:

To work out when you should pop the question, follow the process below.

1. First of all, set out the last possible age by which you want to get married, for example, 39. Call this number n.

2. Then, decide the earliest age at which you‟ll start to consider potential partner material, for example, from when you turn 20 onwards. This age becomes p.

3. Subtract p from n (i.e 39- 20), then multiply the result by 0.368*. This gives you 6.992, which then needs to be added back to your minimum age (20), which more or less equals 27.

4. This result is your optimal proposal age. Ideally you should not propose to anyone before you hit this age, but afterwards you should prepare to pop the question to the very next person you date…...

* See P2 of UNSW paper

Have a high probability weekend, from the Namnews Team!

Forgotten PIN Number? (or a growing demand for Tesco DIY hole-in-the-wall banking?)

Remember the frustration when a senior moment resulted in being stuck without vital cash in the early hours?
Luckily that is the time when the police appear to be less focused, at least near the Tesco Express 'hole-in-the-wall' in Ewell, Surrey.
Apparently, an “audacious” robber was able to spend an hour smashing and dragging a cash machine from the wall of a Tesco Express in Ewell during the early hours of Monday.

Police said the machine was then forced open and a significant amount of money stolen, while the theft also left the outside of the store badly damaged.

Despite these little setbacks, nothing will deter Tesco and other grocers from taking their fair share of this 'must have' category..

Doubtful? See 'gap in banking category'

Outsourcing in China, an FMCG opportunity for whom?

Those suppliers who continue to see China merely as a source of cheaper production, should visit the Spring Fair at the NEC. The FT reports that Chinese businesses have almost quadrupled their presence at one of the UK’s biggest gift and homeware events as they seek to build international brands and to raise margins by selling directly to British retailers.
Last year just 65 Chinese businesses exhibited at the Spring Fair, held annually at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. This year 244 companies are showing off their wares, in most Halls.

It is a logical move. A high proportion of the goods that British distributors and wholesalers offer to retailers at the Spring Fair are made in China anyway so the Chinese are merely seeking to cut out the middlemen.

Why not apply this approach to FMCG products, and think about opportunities for chinese producers to enter the UK via private label, whilst they build chinese brand franchise here, in appropriate categories?

Incidentally, this year the Spring Fair organisers appear to have relegated the chinese exhibitors to the back-end and least accessible locations in each hall.

Is anyone prepared to take bets on how quickly the tables are turned vs. traditional exhibitors in capturing the traffic hot-spots in next year's Fair?

Takeovers - Defining the Facts of Life?

By definition, when a stronger company takes over a weaker company, key realities apply…
a) Stronger = better than average financial performance (ROCE, Net Margin, Rotation, Gearing….)
b) Weaker = lower than average financial performance
c) Bid price = initial offer at which the stronger company believes they can release potential synergies via increased scale, and rationalisation (cuts), and thus produce an overall performance that is better than the sum of the parts. If they are forced to increase the price (by target company, shareholders, competition or the government), then the cuts have to be deeper and faster. (The stockmarket allows about 12 months to prove that the takeover was a good idea)

d) Making it work: Assets
= Pooling of assets, globally, regionally and locally
= Amalgamating production to optimise efficiency, effectiveness, and minimise duplication
= Redefine 'core' products and rationalise Product portfolios, selling off 'non-core' products to cover integration costs
= Re-assess customer-base and rationalise customer portfolios
= Re-align prices and terms to minimise disparities

e) Making it work: Corporate Culture
= Redefine and unify corporate cultures of each party (corporate culture of the takeover party and 'price-paid' tend to determine speed of integration)

f) Making it work: People
= Starting at the top (globally, regionally and locally) compare job-holders and 'de-duplicate' (See Points 4-7 below for criteria)
= (NB People are not listed as assets in the Balance Sheet, but the quality of the people determines how well the Assets and the company perform).
= The eventual success of the takeover will be determined by how well all of the people are handled, and are seen to be handled, in transition.


Doubtful? (re-read above)

Pre-emptive action:
1 Make your company stronger (better than category average in ROCE, Net Margin, Rotation, Gearing…)
2 This drives your share/stock price up to a point where the company becomes too expensive to buy, and too good to improve
3 Sharpen your competitive edge: better than available competition from the point-of-view of retail customers and consumers in terms of Product, Price, Presentation and Place
4 Clarify your role and how it impacts corporate financial performance
5 Then apply Points 1-3 to your role i.e. make your contribution stronger (better than average impact on ROCE, Net Margin, Rotation, Gearing…)
6 This makes you more valuable, and less easy to replace
7 If you still don't fit, then by definition your personal market appeal will have been enhanced

Still Doubtful?
Why not ask anyone who has been at the receiving end?

Asda's Plans for an Auction Website To Shift Stock To Grey Market

The Grocer's reports that Asda is planning to launch its own eBay type auction website raises a number of issues for traditional retailers in these categories:
1. What will be the cut-off point where clothing, homeware and electricals move from being 'current stock' to
'residual' stock?
2 Asda's efficiencies and narrower ranges could mean that their 'residual' stocks are competing via auctions with traditional retailers' 'current' stocks
3 Will suppliers follow Asda's lifecycling of their products or the slower seasonal sales profile of traditional retailers in launching new products?
4 Will suppliers schedule range changes to suit Asda or traditional retailers?
5 If the Asda initiative works, how about other mults?

Action:
- Opportunity for all parties to reassess the definition of range and lifecycle stages, by channel
- Opportunity for suppliers to focus upon better merchandising of current stock instore, each channel
- Opportunity for traditional retailers to focus upon parts of ranges not stocked by the multiples

Morrisons - a Question of Courage?

Dalton Philips Source: Daily Telegraph

Morrisons had the courage to go outside, fast….

Marc Bolland, with no retail experience, had the courage to go back to the core Morrisons offering, and focus on making it work, fast.

Given the sky-high expectations, Dalton Philips, with an enviable track record in local and global retail (Brown Thomas, Walmart International and Loblaws), hopefully has the courage to keep it simple, focus on maintaining that Morrisons' momentum, and resist the impulse to fix anything before being absolutely certain it is broken, fast…

Needing a strong No 4 player in the UK, hopefully we all have the courage to help him succeed, fast?

Have a fearless weekend, from the Namnews Team!