The Folding 3-pin Plug, a Lateral Solution for an 'impossible' Problem?

In 1946, it was decided to standardise the UK three-pin plug for all sockets and appliances. However, it has proved a bulky inconvenience in the modern world.
Min-Kyu Choi, 29, a design student from Bayswater, West London, determined to end the 64-year reign of the unwieldy three-pin electrical plug and has won the Brit Insurance design of the year award, by realising that the barrier was the plug, not the socket.
Despite TVs going flat, videos being junked for the slimline DVD and record players being replaced by MP3 devices, the plug remained virtually unchanged for more than half a century.

A lesson for us all in refusing to accept the status quo…

Have a really experimental weekend, from the Namnews Team!

Getting Past the Buyer's Gut-instinct…?

In the absence of sufficient data and sufficient time, a buyer is right to fall back on gut-instinct…
But today, you can do this quickly and inexpensively via online research, in 3 easy steps:

1. We carefully select a sample of that retailer’s main shoppers who buy your category, from a pool of over 250,000 registered panel members
2. We design a questionnaire that investigates the buyer’s key objections and then gather actual feedback from their real category buyers
3. We feedback easy-to-digest charts that makes customers’ views clear, and decision making easy

For an example of what your buyer might need to see, if they are relying purely on gut-instinct, see KamLibrary

By Barney Byfield, POW Marketing, 020 7993 6137 / 0113 322 6454

NIVEA Conversion of an empty shop in Hamburg….

Still think empty shops are just empty opportunities...?

See 'Empty Shop Usage' below

Virtual window-shopping at empty units or bigtime product placement?

Local councils in the UK such as Brighton & Hove (above) are attempting to restore life to the high street by adding fake shop-fronts to empty shops at a cost of £1,500 per unit. The government-funded projects involve colourful graphic designs featuring a range of different shop-types and café/restaurants, which are either taped inside the windows or screwed to the facia so they can be removed and reused as required.

Whilst this is intended as a way of keeping the high street alive in terms of appeal to shoppers and potential investors, perhaps the big idea might be for brand suppliers to see the move as a whole new approach to product placement?

Imaginatively designed shopfronts that feature retail-partner windows and displays of sponsor-brands, varied by promotional period, have to represent cost-effective and novel alternatives to traditional poster-advertising…whilst making a positive contribution to the local community….

Meanwhile, pro-active brand-owners already running with the ball?


NB See this as a long-term placement opportunity. Unlikely that many empty shops will revert to traditional usage because of fundamental changes in shopping habits...
Need convincing?
See 'Kind of Blue on the UK High Street http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDzfzB6nVfI

A new open-door opportunity to re-enter a closed shop for Tesco?

Following the Office of Fair Trading’s (OFT's) year-long investigation into the estate agency sector, the regulator has proposed changes to the law which would allow supermarkets and search engines, for example, to sell property for a flat fee, a change from current levels of 1.5% to 3.5% of the sale price.

This means that multiple retailers and online search engines (Tesco and Google, for those needing pointing) can opetrate via a (low) flat fee....

Under the OFT proposals, a firm such as Tesco would be exempt from the need to check the accuracy of each house sale advertisement on its website. The seller would be responsible.
OFT spokeswoman: "…. we just need enough to start shaking things up and putting pressure on the traditional model.”
Wanna bet?
Have a de-regulated weekend, from the Namnews Team!

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?