At See, we are proud of our network of connected experts – we know lots of great people from a range of fields including design, innovation, retail and semiotics. Here’s a fascinating piece of insight from retail expert Margot Loudon, founder of Think Do.

Hello High Street! Something interesting has been happening over the last couple of years that is just punching it’s way to the surface. High Street brands are taking on the mass and premium brands and providing quality solutions in tough economic times.

After years, actually, decades of hearing endless Apple case studies of how to design products and lead in retail, the tide is finally changing. No longer it is necessary to base all product innovation on a business that has circa 10 product lines in the range. No longer is it necessary to benchmark a spectrum of retail sectors at a cathedral that was designed ten years ago and on my last count has 60 staff on one floor on a Tuesday afternoon. Trying to replicate this ‘Appleness’ is costly, as JC Penney learnt the hard way. According to the Financial Times, the disastrous repositioning of JC Penney in the US that has achieved a loss of  $348m in the last quarter up to May 2013 and sales are down to $2.6m. But ultimately, JC Penney lost their relevance to their most valuable customer, ‘Coupon Mom’.

So, who is doing it well and why. Here are my three current favourites in the UK and US are:

Asda Little Angels

Love it, love it, love it and totally annoyed I didn’t know about it as a first time mum, as I could have saved an absolute fortune on this brilliant range of acceptable and practical products. It is worth noting that it was seen as and still is the only UK grocer who took the risky move of going into own brand baby food and also supported it with a credible and innovative line of feeding and care products as good as any branded comparison. No wonder a number of the products have won the coveted Mother and Baby product awards year on year.

Home by John Lewis

A stylish and affordable range of products for every room of the house, which are ‘stylish adaptations’ of key pieces, associated with the design handwriting of more premium brands, at affordable prices. The rest of the range is a better quality, more edited selection of Ikea style products to make a room complete (in a John Lewis colour palette – nothing wacky or too on trend here). What I liked about it is that they had thought of all those difficult pieces such as lighting, rugs, which are just expensive. It also had it’s own clear brochure and was even merchandised next to the beauty hall on Oxford Street for launch. How did B&Q and Homebase not see this coming?

Threshold by Target

“Beautiful, affordable inspiration for the home…The right mix of classic and modern. An effortless elegance. Beautiful yet affordable”. Again there’s a running theme either side of the Atlantic.

To showcase the range, (interestingly Threshold was launched in autumn 2012 and items have been continually added) Target has built a life-size dollhouse in Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall. The dollhouse, which features 3,500–4,000 products, enables potential customers to see how items will look in their homes before they shop for them. “Kelli Frazer, senior VP, said the house was “designed for exploration” for 500,000 people who visit Grand Central. In the bathroom areas there are make overs being offered, and generally people are being encouraged to touch the product. Daniel Chu, designer of the giant dolls house is about the balance of the thrill of expecting more, and the reality of paying less. Well it sounds like it delivers on thrill, and we will have to see what the customers think about paying less!

Let us know who are your retail heroes.  If you’d like to read more of Margot’s thoughts, visit her blog.

So, what was our take-out from the event?

At See, we specialise in ‘traditional’, face-to-face research (although we have serious misgivings that our techniques and approaches are in any way ‘traditional’).  And we enjoy it and are passionate about it.  However, we are not adverse to utilising new techniques, so long as they truly offer additional insight and value for our clients and help us to better meet the objectives of a project.  Therefore, despite initial reservations about online research often being proposed for the sake of it rather than being a truly better approach than face-to-face methodologies, we can certainly see occasions where online approaches could provide our clients with extra insight and learnings.  There are cost implications: the myth that online is somehow cheaper has well and truly been put to bed, but it’s the additional reach and real-time insight that really appeals.  Ultimately, our fundamental belief in research remains true: the approach must always fit the brief, no matter what.

Get in touch if you’d like to discuss ways in which we can use online, together with our extensive range of other approaches we offer to answer your research needs.

There’s nothing new in this idea – Sainsbury’s have had a similar scheme in place for a couple of years.  However, the key difference with the new scheme is that Tesco includes own-label and frest products, as well as branded ones.  And the others say that it’s not a fair comparison – their own-label products are not the same as Tesco’s and cannot be compared like-for-like.

The ASA are now going to investigate.  But in the UK’s super-competitive, cut-throat retail market how does the average shopper really know or tell who is the cheapest?  Are Tesco pulling the wool over shopper’s eyes?  Can shoppers reliably trust any of the supermarkets’ claims to be the cheapest?  And most importantly, does being the cheapest even matter to shoppers, or is Sainsbury’s ‘price perception’ measurement a more reliable measure?

See has found that talking to shoppers in recent years reveals that they are becoming increasingly savvy and often ignoring pricing claims made by supermarkets.  Specific offers, as well as convenience and preferring to spread their money between different stores and products to alleviate boredom and to experience new things have become the main drivers of choice.  At the same time they are actively using vouchers, discounts and deals more than ever.  And they are increasingly using their mobile to help them save money.

For Tesco time will tell in terms of the success of the campaign, as well as the complaints against it.

What is most striking about the list is the dominance of Nokia – they occupy a whopping 13 of the top 20 places, despite their share of the global mobile phone market in recent years being decimated, primarily by the rise of smart phones and in turn Apple and Samsung.

Nokia’s problems are well documented: they were too slow to identify the pace of change away from feature phones to smart phones and they arguably wasted their time creating and developing their own operating system to challenge Android, Apple, Blackberry and Windows.  Symbian OS was slow and unloved by developers and users in a market place already awash with competing systems.  Furthermore, the handsets they did release were not well-received: once loyal Nokia users switched en-masse to other manufacturers and have yet to return.

Of course, they are not alone: Sony Ericsson has gone, now becoming Sony mobile (which has lately been bringing out desirable handsets but has still not recaptured their sales volumes and market share of the past).  Motorola has not hit the heights of the RZR again, LG seem to be no-where, Blackberry is struggling and even HTC – a rising star, but a few years ago – is down on its luck.  This has left Samsung and Apple to slug it out at the top.

So, what now for Nokia?  Since their tie-up with Microsoft, Nokia has focussed on Windows mobile which, despite being a well designed and easy to use OS, has not yet been widely adopted.  The question remains as to whether they will ever be able to recapture their former glory?  Or are they destined to become a relic of technological history with only a small part to play in the mobile future?

Now the BBC has got in on the act, with its ‘Great British class calculator’.  They have broken down the three traditional British social classes (upper, middle and working) into seven more detailed, descriptive classes.  These are:

• Elite - the most privileged group in the UK, distinct from the other six classes through its wealth. This group has the highest levels of all three capitals

• Established middle class - the second wealthiest, scoring highly on all three capitals. The largest and most gregarious group, scoring second highest for cultural capital

• Technical middle class - a small, distinctive new class group which is prosperous but scores low for social and cultural capital. Distinguished by its social isolation and cultural apathy

• New affluent workers - a young class group which is socially and culturally active, with middling levels of economic capital

• Traditional working class - scores low on all forms of capital, but is not completely deprived. Its members have reasonably high house values, explained by this group having the oldest average age at 66

• Emergent service workers - a new, young, urban group which is relatively poor but has high social and cultural capital

• Precariat, or precarious proletariat - the poorest, most deprived class, scoring low for social and cultural capital

The question now is whether these definitions could be used as valid means of recruitment?  The good news is that the questionnaire to identify yourself is fairly short and easy to complete.  However, the chatter on Radio 5 today (3rd April 2013) suggests that what group people actually fall into (based on their own answers) often fails to resonate with how they see and feel themselves.  Another problem of course is that ABC1C2DE is so easy to say and use – with this new system, what will we acronym happy researchers and marketers do instead?!

Yet, there has been a – albeit very small – outcry in the past couple of weeks over the decision of the London Beth Din (who decide what is kosher and what isn’t) to no longer approve Walkers Salt and Vinegar crisps.  This is due to a change in the manufacturing process which may mean that non-kosher meat extracts could come into contact with the crisps, rendering them not kosher.  This article gives a very interesting summary of the reasons for withdrawing their approval.

This begs the question about how important are the interests of a small minority of consumers to a large multinational company?  Walkers / Pepsico are perfectly within their rights to alter their manufacturing process as they see fit, even if it leaves a few customers disappointed.  However, it is interesting how their approach contrasts to that of their sister company Fritolay in the US, where despite less than 2% of the population, a kosher symbol is a sign of quality.  As a result, many flavours of Lay’s (Walkers equivalent in US) have a kosher symbol to cater for Jewish customers and – by implication – Muslim and vegetarian customers too.  

In light of the horse meat scandal in the UK, is there now an opportunity for the kosher symbol to ever become a signpost for quality and control of ingredients in the UK?  Could it help restore consumer confidence in the beleaguered food industry here?

Apple’s meteoric success has been its ability to convince owners of their products they are part of an exclusive ‘cool’ club and that those who don’t own their products are somehow lesser people, unless they go and buy one.  I remember distinctly feeling that whilst sitting at the Ace Hotel in New York a couple of years ago typing away on my (company) Dell computer whilst surrounded by creative looking types all working away on their Airs and Pros.  Oh the shame I felt!  As a result, when I started See Research, I saw the ‘light’ – I now own an iPhone, iPad, Pro and an Air – I can now claim to wear the technical uniform of my industry.

Don’t get me wrong; these products are great.  They are each easy to use and beautifully designed and built.  They certainly feel like they justify their significant price premium.  However, I believe that part the challenge that exists for Apple going forward is that whilst new products and versions are released every six months or so, perhaps it has become the case that existing loyal customers might be wondering just how different is new one over the previous one in order to justify the expensive outlay the new products require?  Meanwhile, I don’t feel so special anymore when everyone in my local Starbacks is tapping away at one Apple product or another.  Even my 75 year old father owns an iPad!  In truth, how different is my iPhone 5 over my ‘old’ 4s?

Apple’s problem is not unique – numerous mass-premium brands grapple with how to continue to sell more products to consumers, whilst still making owners feel they are part of a special and exclusive club.  The perennial challenge for these brands is how to maintain innovation, desirability and price premium, together with growing popularity, sales and market share.

I believe the only way is through continued innovation and brand building – ensuring that you always create exciting, quality products that consumers not only want, but regard as a must-have item – those that don’t have it, still feel they want it, no matter how many others they see around them.  Each one is different and better, not just more of the same.

However, the critical aspect for Morrisons is that they are years behind the game.  This is compared to their key rivals, Tesco and Sainsbury’s, both of whom have well-established online and convenience arms.

Could being late to the party be a help or a hinderance?  Whilst both online and convenience are fast-growing, it’s as yet unclear whether either are profitable in the long term, or at least as profitable as operating their traditional, large-format supermarkets.  At the same time, the delay could allow Morrisons to identify what’s profitable and what’s not when shaping their service and offer going forward.  One of the options on the table is to join up with the well-received but still not profitable Ocado.  It continues to be interesting times in the UK supermarket sector.

The site has been launched in the UK, with others countries to follow – visit Alexander & James and let us know what you think.  You might even pick up some drinks inspiration and knowledge on the way, together with a lovely bottle of 16 year old Lagavulin!