nickshanagher

There has been an interesting debate on the pages of the Financial Times about proposals to force tobacco companies to use standardised packaging. It was sparked by an interview with Alison Cooper, the chief executive of Imperial Tobacco, who said the proposed measures were anti-business. The FT's business and society columnist Michael Skapinker responded the next week with a column that dismissed her suggestions that the government was going too far in destroying brands. He said that of "all legal businesses, smoking stands alone in its harmfulness." He argued that the government had a right to regulate the market but he failed to note that Ms Cooper did not dispute this right. The tobacco industry understands that its products are harmful. Mr Skapinker moved on to say the only arguable point in favour of the cigarette business is that it allows individuals choice "and even that is largely bogus". As a columnist, he is entitled to his views. But he is mis

As a big fan of Gung Ho!, it has taken me a year to get around to reading Raving Fans ! by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles. How many books have these guys written, I thought. Surely this is just stretching the franchise. But I was wrong. There are three rules to great customer service and the book provides a diverting story to help get the messages across. At £3.72 on Amazon and taking a couple of hours to read, is it worthwhile? Yes, if you are thinking about how your customer service could be improved. For local retailers, one of the strengths is that the authors give examples from the retail world. A department store where the staff pin carnations to your jacket and the boss sits in a desk in the middle of the sales floor, a supermarket with valet parking where people drive 40 miles to get groceries, and a service station where the attendants clean your windows and still sell petrol at less than the self-service across the way. The examples give you plenty of opportunities to

The Art of Shopping by Siemon Scamell-Katz is the second book this year to challenge the way that most retailers set up their shops. Like Phillip Adcock, whose book Supermarket Shoppology I recommended last time out, Scamell-Katz has built a career out of studying what shoppers actually do in store. Independent retailers should read this book to help them do two things. Firstly, it will help them to understand how big manufacturers operate and to make informed opinions about which promotions to support and how to build their categories. Remember, there are about 250,000 products that you can stock but most shoppers will only use 300 in a year and only 150 regularly. Where Scamell-Katz is very strong compared to similar authors is he names names and tells you who he has worked for. When he says that the typical brand manager will be in post for two or three years and the best way to make an impact is to redesign the brand, the independent operator may feel that some of their c

I snapped David Morgan of Real Organic as he received feedback  from trade journalists on the quality of his range of cooking sauces. Mr Morgan joined around 50 other small suppliers in the Market that was bolted on to the front of wholesaler Palmer and Harvey's Pro-retail show in Telford last month. In a fantastic book introducing the small suppliers, the wholesaler says: "By chatting to these [suppliers] we hope you'll gain new insights into what could be the next big thing in retail: small." Whether or not this was the case, by chatting to these small businesspeople, independent retailers will  have had an opportunity to recharge their entrepreneurial batteries. If supermarkets put fruit and vegetables inside the front door to slow shoppers down and get them picking products up - stimulating the buying process - then the market must have worked similarly for retailers on the hunt for new ideas to use in their shops. It certainly worked for me. Steve Bailey

At 288 pages, Supermarket Shoppology , the new book from retail expert Phillip Adcock, has a feeling of heft and the good news for busy retailers is that you can learn a lot by just reading 24 of these pages. Those 24 pages are worth the full cover price (£1.53 Kindle, £9.79 paperback). Start at page 191, where Adcock explains how to become a smarter shopper by analysing the five shopping missions: impulse grab and go considered experiential inexperienced. All five take place in news and convenience stores and your understanding of why people shop in these ways could help you unlock greater sales and profits. Shoppers switch between modes depending what is on the shelves in front of them. They buy canned foods in grab and go mode and BOGOF tinned tomatoes in impulse mode. A loaf of bread in grab and go, a chocolate bar in impulse, a pint of milk in grab and go, a bottle of wine to take out to dinner in considered! Adcock is self taught and set up his own consultancy in