Ian Scott Insights - Rethink Retail
A fresh perspective often comes from a good conversation. In a drive to ensure we don’t operate in a bubble we regularly reach out to inspiring people from different sectors connected to hospitality and invite them to come and join us in a conversation.
It’s impossible not to come away fired up with ideas and fresh insights and none more so than with retail analyst, influencer and collector of impeccable shirts, Ian Scott.
Read his insights on what hospitality can learn from retail, why some technology is an ego trip and why marketing groups make him wince.
ON what hospitality can learn from retail
Sell an occasion not a product.
Rather than trying to sell the product, build an experience around it consumers can buy into. For example, selling a can of soup becomes less about the item itself and more about the supporting elements. The soup is served on a G-Plan table with John Lewis crockery, Viners cutlery and Tom Raffield lights overhead. You don’t sell the soup you sell the meal. The occassion gives you context, the beneift is collaborating with other brands.
Everything is cheaper somewhere else but the experience will remain a key driver to foster consumer connections with brands.
ON technology
There’s a lot that’s an ego trip.
Touchscreens can make fast food, slow! Going through nudges to add unwanted extras then being presented with a bit of paper is not pleasant. It might be good for data collection but doesn’t enhance the customer experience.
Technology needs to support the experience in a way that people will find useful.
ON marketing ‘groups’
It always makes me wince..
I have concerns about the way age-based groups are categorised and used in marketing. When talking about ‘Gen Z’ or ‘Millennials’ we use arbitrary age grouping then have a tendency to mass generalise about millions of people in one go. These groups are useful for general – and generational – trends, but beyond this are mostly irrelevant. Within an age group are millions of individuals, each one is spontaneous, emotionally driven and fickle – like all humans.
It is more beneficial to understand the shopping missions and needs states that target customers have than trying to collate individuals into neat little groups.