There’s nothing more charming than a small child writing a thank you letter after Christmas, and Sainsbury’smust be feeling a similar sense of gratitude after receiving a letter from Lily Robinson, aged 3½. ‘Why is tiger bread called tiger bread?’ asked Lily. ‘It should be called giraffe bread’. In a response that gained viral momentum on Facebook, customer manager Chris King (aged 27 ?) told Lily what a brilliant idea he thought it would be to rename t... [More]

Imagine, if you can, that you do want to buy me flowers. Perhaps the first place to go, as you don’t live nearby, is online. And you might think, as you look at the search engine, who do I know who sells flowers? You might well type in the name ‘Interflora’, as that’s quite likely to pop into your head. So you might then be surprised if the top link took you through - not to Interflora’s website - but to Marks & Spencer’s. Marks & Spencer, using all t... [More]

A cautionary tale for small businesses emerged when cake maker Rachel Brown offered such a good deal on her cupcakes that her business almost went bust. Rachel, owner of the ‘Need a Cake’ company, normally sells 12 cupcakes with a range of designs and flavours for £26. In a drive to attract customers, Rachel used the online discount voucher site Groupon to offer the same order for £6.50. Usually baking around 100 cupcakes a month, Brown was delighted to begin with and the... [More]

Why did companies like Woolworths, Zavvi and The Pier fail during the recession? There isn’t one simple answer to the question, but something that all three arguably shared was a lack of marketing-led innovation. Woolworths was predicated an out of date model; it appeared tired and shambolic to customers, despite carrying a wide range and a perception of being good value. The Pier did little to change its offering for too long; it had an excellent quality product, but it didn’t innov... [More]

Technology drives much innovation, but how can you be sure that your innovation will be successful? 80% of product launches fail; so how can you be best-placed to avoid the expensive and potentially damaging risk of an unsuccessful innovation? The key is to see the innovation from the point of view of the customer, not the point of view of the company. It can be hard for a company to resist the lure of new technology; if everyone else has got an app, then we need an app too. But this shows how ... [More]