Insanity is doing the same thing & expecting different results
I have often thought that independent retail is one of the hardest businesses to make a go of. Not only do you have substantial overheads; rent, rates etc, but considerable start-up costs; stock, shop fittings advertising & promotion, and all of this before you hear the first ring of your till!
So when the BBC put on a series lately called ‘Mary Queen of Shops‘ aimed at turning round failing retail establishments I was instantly fascinated.
Now it’s true to say, all these “improve your business” reality TV shows have an element of cruel voyeurism to them, rather like the 21st Century equivalent of throwing the Christians to the Lions. ‘Mary Queen of Shops’ was no exception; from the start a blistering insight into how to get things wrong in retail and what to do about it.
My view is that it is very easy to pinpoint the problems of a failing business that is making obvious and mind-numbingly stupid errors… it is much harder to diagnose the underlying causes of a failing business that on the surface appears to be doing everything correctly… these type of businesses never get to the final selection of TV shows such as this as they don’t make for great TV, but oh how much more would we learn by watching these type of companies!
Nevertheless Mary Queen of Shops is a little gem of a programme, the first episode featuring a husband & wife owner/manager partnership (Tim & Sophie) in charge of a high street independent boutique making a whopping loss of £35k per year. The vagaries and tastes of high street fashion I must say are a bit of a mystery to me too… I can remember when I used to be considered trendy (or dare I say it.. even a bit of a trend setter!) but those days are long gone, so my opening stance when watching this revealing programme was one of huge empathy with the owners… get it right and fashion can give you a very healthy income, but get it even slightly wrong and your carefully selected lines won’t sell… you’ll lose money & worst still you’ll gain a reputation as “the place not to shop”.
Enter Mary Portas, more than just a fashion guru… a retail consultant no less.. specialising in high street fashion whose opening stance was far from empathic. Tim made the early error of saying to Mary Portas the words “until it goes on the rail you don’t know whether something is a seller or not” Mary’s reply was so to the point it you could almost cut yourself on her words.. “No, YOU don’t know!… NO YOU don’t know!!” thus implying that some-one more in touch with their customer base might!
It turns out however that she was right, this couple had not done any serious fashion research for 10 years, not even to extent of buying the catwalk magazines so readily available, let alone visiting a catwalk in person. Under Mary’s expert guidance they took a long hard look at their stock (and took a good proportion of it to a car-boot sale), they did some street based customer research (a nerve wracking experience that ended up with Sophie in tears of shame and regret that they hadn’t done this sooner and that their public perception was so poor), and they undertook some coaching from some experts.
Like many retailers Tim & Sophie had been competing on price as their only strategy to cope with falling sales. Their research showed them that their target market no longer thought them trendy, that they were prepared to spend up to £100 on a great outfit compared with the cheap £20-25 outfit that Tim & Sophie sold, and that the window displays were so awful that most never ventured into the shop anyway. No wonder poor Sophie was in tears, it was enough to make anyone’s eyes water.
I often suggest soliciting customer feedback to clients whose business is struggling, and invariably they are resistant. I can see why, there is no more sobering and upsetting experience than to find out that you’ve got it so wrong. However, there are ways of soliciting customer feedback that are a little less brutal than Mary Portas’ street research. Mary went on to show this couple how to segment the market to identify their target customer, how to research what that customer wanted & how much they were prepared to spend to get that look & what competitors are offering to that customer & their pricing. She showed them the importance of lighting & decor to make your shop a “destination”, somewhere to be seen and to experience… not just somewhere to shop. She also arranged some training in styling by getting them to dress a trendy band for a gig… something they did quite well at until the stylist took over & showed them the results a professional stylist could achieve. They visited fashion shows, looked at new collections, re-stocked the shop and re-furbished to open a few days later with a street theatre & leaflet drop launch for the champagne opening…. they’ve not looked back. The tills are ringing and through their re-kindled enthusiasm they’ve re-built their failing business & made it a success again.
This success was based on some clear steps: 1 - find an advisor to help you analyse the business, 2 - get some customer feedback on your existing offer, 3 - do some competitor analysis, 4 - segment your market and identify your target custome>, 5 - find out what that customer wants & how much they are prepared to pay to get it. 6 - get some development or training (often new & innovative suppliers are a good cheap source of this.) 7 - relaunch the business with a new look and feel to compliment your new offer. 8 - publicise this launch in a way which appeals to your target market. 9 - See it from the customer’s angle, not your own. 10 - the golden rule of change “Insanity is doing the same thing & expecting different results.” You HAVE to plan & actually implement your changes, which means finding time to step back and work on the business rather than in it.
Easy? no of course it is not, but the first step is to commit to change and then then take a long hard look at your business… from there the rest is just courage, pure hard work and good judgement.
If you wish to speak with a Business Advisor about improving your business, please call the Business Link Customer Information Centre on 0845 6 048048
