Louise Lally Podcast

Marketing Your Retail Business ep2 ”Retail Marketing is always in Fashion”

So, whether you're selling anything the objective is clear:

🤚 We need customers

🤚 We need new customers

🤚 We need to protect our existing customers

And

Yes, we haven’t forgotten the most crucial customer and the most cost to our business is our staff and teams that serve our customers every day.

🤚 We need to inspire our teams


This Friday at 11am sees the second instalment of this 3 part series in Retail Marketing where I’m joined with Richard Liverman, Strategy, Marketing, Sales Mentor

In this episode we will delve into:


The 7ps

📝Product
Buying for the customer?
Buying for you?
Buying for both
Assortment of products – good, better, best (range review)

📝Price
-You are the expert- know your market, your customer avatar

-When and how are you planning or do you plan to have a strategy around your price structure.

📝Place
-Omnichannel
-Website?
-Socials?
-Stores?
-Pop ups?
-Shop in Shop?

📝Promotion
-Marketing activities-old school marketing still works.

-Have a plan – stories – share them

📝Personnel
-Can they upsell/Cross selling to other departments/Link selling.

-Do they know the products/knowledge base
Training and development

📝Passion
-Bring your brand and store to life through interacting with customers.

-Energy on the shop floor what does this mean to each one of the team is it attainable and explainable can it be quantified.

-Commitment to every customer great after sales service the sales doesn’t finish at the till turn once off customers into loyal lifelong brand advocates.


📝Presentation (multi-sensory approach)
-Smell – The smell of fresh bread, Confectionary, Cosmetics, Lit candles

-Hearing – Music, instore radio, training / demo area, Silence

-Taste – Sampling, Hotel Chocolat, Sweet Treats Centre Parcs, free mint

-Sight - Look and feel of the store – how do we inspire

-Instore POS

-Barkers, hanging banners, floor graphics – the silent salesperson

-Wall displays, screens (JML), Coke Fridges, Supplier products, cosmetics

-Suppliers need you to succeed ask for support

-Shop in shop (Gap in Next)

Marketing Your Retail Business ep3 ”Inspiring your customers and staff is for life not just for Christmas”

In this last episode on Retail Marketing myself and Richard Liverman delve into the role  marketing plays with staff and customers. We want to understand how and why and how successful marketing is built into the culture of an organisation in an authentic way.

Some of the topics we covered are:

• Who talks to your customers
• Benchmarking good – how is it good?
• Disney land (USA) The happies place on earth – culture / part of the experience

Brands and retailers that support staff

• How can you help colleagues sell products and feel part of something
• Do you give them product, discounts throughout the year

Recruitment is an expensive process

• Keep retain staff
• Train inspire showcase

There is a lot more to Retail Marketing than promotions and signage it plays a key role in every area of the business by having your team involved in designing and implementing marketing strategies in your business will drive revenue growth.

How Retail systems can enhance your store experience

In this episode I was joined with Margaret Bourke  Service Director from Positive Systems Solutions. We discussed on this episode the challenges, opportunities and growth within the current SME Retail Market. Some of the areas we discussed were:

1. The supports available to Retailers at present and how they can be accessed by business owners.
2. The challenges in the current financial marketplace and what is needed to over come these.
3. What opportunities and emerging trends are forming in the SME Retail space and how this can be leveraged for sales growth within it.

Lots of great thought provoking questions on this and ways in which you can drive growth for your business. 

How to connect digitally with customers

In this episode I was joined with Ted Rubin the leading social marketing strategist and creator of Return on Relationship we discussed:

• How to connect on a personal level with your customers that not only builds brand loyalty but also creates a community around your brand.
• The role companies need to play online with their customers in order to create a culture of authenticity and vulnerability that builds that special connection we will share some great stories on this.
• Creating a social community around your brand is for everyone working in the organisation. The staff interacting with your customers are the face of that brand so own this by getting the team involved in promoting it. If store teams were talking about the company products and services as raving fans that will want to promote the products through genuine passion and belief in those products how authentic and relatable is that to consumers and how does that impact sales.

We will discuss everything you need to know to look your customer in the eye digitally and build a lasting relationship online and offline. 

Creating Customer Experiences from the shopfloor

Creating Customer Service from the Shopfloor

In this episode I discussed with Alf Dunbar how he created his customer service model for Retailers "You Are The Difference" and how his personal journey started. In this candid conversation we discussed some of Alf's winning strategies on:
- The power of visualisation
- At the end of everyday using reflect practices through journaling
- Always learning and repeating the process consistently perfecting your craft

So many great insights into not only building a brand through customer loyalty and service but also in the eyes of a business owner. Building resilience in business and grit through the challenges and embracing failure as learnings.

How your Store windows can make you money?

How visually enticing is your store window to passers by? 🧐

Experience starts outside the front door of a store.
How do you increase sales? 🤷🏼‍♀️ You can’t without customers inside your store so you really need👇

✅Higher footfall in your business.
This comes from creating windows and displays in your store that entice customers to come in and shop.

What does the data say??? In a recent study by NCD up to 24% of consumers were attracted into a store based on the visual aspect of it.

SO WHAT RETAILER WOULDN’T WANT AN ADDITIONAL 24% EXTRA FOOTFALL COMING THROUGH THEIR DOORS????

In this episode I spoke with the amazing Ian Scott all around visual merchandising and of course creating impactful displays and windows.

Strong City centres need Strong Retailers

Paul is the Managing Partner of Shuz that operate 23 Skechers stores in Ireland and employ over 300 staff.

This episode was centred around “Strong City Centres need Strong Retailers”

We discussed on the episode the Retail landscape currently with Highstreet and Shopping centre locations. The role that government and local Councils play in supporting Retailers back into city centre locations.

The increase in sales from bricks and mortar retail currently which has overtaken online sales and continues to rise. How can city centres create opportunities for Retailers to open more physical stores.

✔️ There is a clear demand for retail stores but what are the challenges currently for brands?
✔️ Where are the opportunities and how can this be leveraged best to support retailers to open up in these locations?
✔️What are other countries doing for bricks and mortar Retailers that we can learn from?
✔️What has been the impact of poor parking availability and access to some of these locations?
✔️How can some towns be revived again with bringing in pop up shops, markets and smaller independent start up Retailers?
✔️Can Retailers create destination areas like some other places have done and how can this be replicated to increase more shoppers?

How to Retail in Multinationals to Investing in Start ups

In this last episode I spoke with Dan Ryan he is a Retailer at heart that after working across the globe for large global brands like  Selfridges also known as Brown Thomas here in Ireland and Penneys also known as Primark globally he now works as a mentor and investor to start up Retail brands.

Dan talks us through his own journey in Retail and how he worked across various roles in Buying, Merchandising, Operations and lots more. His approach in Retail has been to understand not only the people in the business but the cultural aspects too.

We discussed the following;

• How do you manage large global brands in new markets.
• What do investors want to see when you are seeking investment as a Retailer.
• How can you win investment when seeking it through Angel investors.
• What small start ups can learn from when setting up a new Retail business that have been taken from the learnings of large scale Retail Multinationals.
• How has the Retail landscape changed and what is emerging now with brands.
• The importance of networking for your brand and having a compelling story to tell 

There are lots of great case studies that are discussed on this episode that will help you understand how large multinationals operate and the role that investors play in start up Retail Businesses. 

How Building Resilience can Influence your life

The superpower of Resilience and how to harness it

In this episode I spoke with Andrew Fitzgerald author of "How did I get here travelling the road of resilience" we discussed his book and how the events that occurred in his life has shaped him in building resilience through his personal and business relationships and success.

We discussed the ups and downs in his personal life and changes that occurred from relocating to another country with his wife.

In this candid and open conversation Andrew shared going backwards in order to move forwards. Having to overcome challenges as a learning where most may have given up and the role that his resilience played in making a success of his hopes and dreams. 

The hidden Secrets of how Retailers operate

On this episode I am joined on the Retail series with Karim Doukir also known as the Fresh Prince of Retail we discussed areas of Retail that are waiting to be potentialized on as there is now an even BIGGER appetite for bricks and mortar Retail then ever before.

Creating the shop floor experience starts with understanding the personality of a Retail stores shop floor this can be the energy that is felt by your customers through your team is it excitement, enthusiasm, positive can do attitude, compassion and empathy? Or is it feeling forced, robotic and scripted? How does a Retail business harness these emotional connection within a store team and with customers? 

The brand is not a brand until it emotionally connects with customers so how are Retailers currently doing this?

Collaboration within departments in a retail store is key to driving efficiencies the trap that a lot of large chain retailers make is poor communication and collaboration across multi faceted departments internally. These departments to name a few may consist of Marketing, Buying, Visual Merchandising, Loss Prevention, HR and others which work in silos it impacts the Regional and Store Managers to a point that they become overloaded with tasks and deadlines from other departments many times crossing over one another. This creates stores that are so task focused the customer naturally then becomes the last priority as they chase to get things done.

So what can be done to counteract this and better manage situations like the one described? 

Some strategies we discussed were setting an outline for peak trade within your Retail store that is a No Tasking time zone and reviewing operational tasks that best suits the needs of the customer by outside of trade. Ultimately the biggest contributor to the success of a Retail business comes down to one key aspect which is the team hired into that business.