In the UK, Mothercare holds the enviable position of being a brand synonymous with new mums as the number one destination for all things baby and toddler-related. When they announced they were to launch in Australia, my first thought was how on earth will they differentiate themselves in such a saturated market? Well they have and I’ll tell you how…

As a mother of two young kids, one of whom is very new, I join my compatriots in including Chadstone Shopping Centre on my regular baby outing itinerary. When the only way to get your baby to sleep is by having the pram on the move for hours, Chadstone offers much-needed coffee, mindless entertainment, clean feeding-room facilities and an escape from either end of Melbourne’s extreme weather.

For those who live in Melbourne and know Chadstone, the shopping centre has redefined its baby and children’s section following the cosmetic facelift and expansion. I’ve written previously about Pumpkin Patch and its brand decline in the eyes of mums (suffering from Perma-Sale Syndrome for starters. Read the comments to this article and you’ll get a good idea of perception vs reality). Well, Mothercare is at the other extreme right now and been very clever about its Australian market entry.

My mother-in-law has worked in Mothercare London for a number of years and I know the retailer from my time there. Their ELC Kids educational toys have been available in Australia for years and many of them are fantastic, however the clothing is very middle of the road. It’s not higher end designer like Big or Country Road and it’s not cheapie quick ‘n easy like Best and Less or Target. It sits in what’s often thought of as that dangerous middle ground.

My first visit to the store was with little expectation and more out of solidarity to my mother-in-law than for potential custom. It quickly turned into a surprisingly memorable retail experience.

How are Mothercare different from numerous other kids’ retailers? These 3 things stood out to me right away:

1. They have a lot of very experienced staff who are quickly on hand to advise you. And unlike other shopping experiences where you’d rather be left alone, new mums are often desperate for advice and some friendly words (from another adult).
2. The woman who greeted me at the door made a friendly comment about how young my baby’s cry sounded (3 weeks at the time) and introduced herself as a midwife who was there every week and could offer advice beyond the retail, she also told me that
3. There is a baby change room always available in the back of the store with all the facilities I’d need. (I checked it out, it’s super clean, private and stocked with complimentary wipes etc).
   

Those three things right there, coupled with the store stocking all the fundamentals for both a new and more experienced parent, stand them out beyond their retail origins. They have successfully positioned as a source of parenting information and an easy one-stop-shop for any mum.

It’s always a pleasant surprise to come across a business that fills a need that you hadn’t yet defined for yourself.

As someone who has spent several years living in Tokyo (1997-1999) I always have one eye on what goes on there. As a marketer it is (was) an even more remarkable place to see - the fashion, innovation, luxury, strict adherence to trend groups, kookiness, shopping… Tokyo has always been an especially insightful place to watch.

So it is with great interest, and a little sadness, that I read this latest research from McKinsey Quarterly on how the new Japanese consumer is becoming, well, more like us. I feel a little sad because when I lived there as a young professional new to my career, I loved how extraordinarily different the Japanese consumer lifestyle was from the New Zealand one I had grown up with. The shopping districts were like nothing I had ever seen before, the passion for luxury and labels was eye popping and the immaculate attention to how products and brands could define an individual was nothing short of extraordinary.

I happily allowed myself - and my meager first job wages - to be influenced, even in a comparatively tiny way, to become a more discerning (snobby?) consumer. I may not have bought a $10,000 Louis Vuitton handbag, but I happily and proudly offloaded the bulk on my monthly salary in Marui and discovered fashion labels I’d never laid eyes on in NZ. But change is inevitable and it’s hardly surprising what McKinsey has uncovered.

Some interesting findings from the McKinsey article:

• Sales of relatively affordable private-label foods have increased dramatically, and many consumers, despite small living spaces, are buying in bulk.
• Instead of eating out, people are entertaining at home.
• Change stems not just from the recent downturn but also from deep-seated factors ranging from the digital revolution to the emergence of a less materialistic younger generation.
• Luxury-goods companies are watching a decade of growth disappear, with year-on-year sales declines of 10 to 30 percent.
• They are also deserting department stores in unprecedented numbers, preferring to spend their time in malls and stand-alone specialty shops.
• More than 50 percent of consumers are buying more online than they were just 12 months ago.

Read the full article here: The new Japanese consumer

What I’m reading (and RSS subscribing to) this year:

• The Gates Notes: Bill Gates has this week launched his personal new website The Gates Notes which is, of course, exceptional in many ways. The navigation reminds me of mind flow - an information collective set out in an intuitive way. Includes updates of what the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are working on and sections titled What I’m Thinking About, What I’m Learning, Infrequently Asked Questions.  This is someone who could have spent their early retirement perma-cruising the Bahamas on a 20,000 foot yacht and has instead put money and full time resources behind philanthropy on an immense scale. If I had big charitable donations to make, this is where I’d put the money.
• Freakonomics blog: This is the New York Times blog from journalist and economist (respectively) Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt, authors of the bestselling Freakonomics and the new Superfreakonomics. The blog was designed to “keep the conversation going initiated in their books and includes guest contributors from different worlds, whose common connections is the application of data and numbers in unique social contexts.
• Branding Strategy Insider: The comprehensive blog of branding strategists Derrick Daye and Brad VanAuken, with regular contributions from the world’s top marketing specialists such as Mark Ritson, Al Ries, Martin Lindstrom. There’s such an overwhelming supply of marketing reading and”gurus” online that you could simplify things for yourself by reading the articles here once a week.
• Brand New: If you have an interest in corporate and brand identity (AKA logos) this blog gives unbiased reviews of who is doing what, and why it does or doesn’t work. Of course a totally subjective topic, but always with a sharp view and copious comments from copious other readers.
• Marketing Ritson: The website and article archive of marketing expert and ‘International Consultant to many of the World’s Greatest Brands’ Mark Ritson. He is a hilarious and totally brutal writer who isn’t afraid to call out a disaster piece of marketing regardless who it comes from. Harvard Business Review Columnist of the Year 2009.

Whose writing do you read regularly?

New Zealand is big on promoting itself as the destination of choice for thrill seekers and adventure junkies, but there’s an equally lucrative market they should be talking to more often and that’s young families.

The marketing of New Zealand, at least here in Australia, has long been around the sporty outdoor activity gig - a message now well and truly ingrained. If you want to go bungy jumping, jet boating, heli-skiing, mountain hiking… <insert double-barrel extreeeme activity here> - we know the country to go to.

Now here we are in holiday mode with a very young child and that type of action adventure is as far from mine and my husband’s reality as lounging around bars all day with friends in sexy European locations. It’s not because we don’t want to you understand, we just can’t.

As a New Zealander I know NZ is a great place for families with young kids, especially for neighbouring Australians who are a mere 3-4 hour flight away, but I wonder why NZ tourism hasn’t made a bigger deal about this segment of the market and made sure New Zealand is as analogous with family as it is with adventure.

Here’s my typical mental checklist for a holiday with young kids:

1. How far is it? My child/I will go insane on any flight longer than 4 hours - unless we’re going for a month plus
2. Is it safe? Nothing on the front page today on terrorism, floods, disease, crime
3. Is there good  stuff to do that kids can get in on too? Enough to keep the kids entertained and good food/wine/sights for us
4. Is it easy to get around? I can rent a car and drive everywhere easily or public transport is solid
5. Are prices ok? Accommodation, food, currency is working for me right now

Being from New Zealand, I know NZ ticks all these boxes (except perhaps public transport, but we can overlook that as driving is so easy there). From Australia you’ve arrived within a few hours, you can jump in the car and drive to some beautiful beach destinations, you can jump on a ferry and head to gorgeous island wineries, you can eat in some fabulous restaurants, you can hit the groovy boutiques for a spot of shopping, you can go fruit picking at the best farms around, it’s all there and it’s all very easy with little kiddies in tow.

So I wonder why NZ Tourism doesn’t feature families in their marketing more prominently.  They should run some campaigns in Australia (to start with) that talk specifically to parents, get us excited about having a “milder” NZ adventure, A.K.A. world class tourism that doesn’t necessarily involve leaping off a bridge or having to wear protective head gear. It’s a ripe message just waiting to be picked.

IKEA in Sweden have used a simple Facebook function, photo tagging, in a seriously genius way. Watch the short video below and see creativity at is finest.

Agency Forsman and Bondenfors created a FB profile for the store manager, uploaded storeroom photos and invited people to tag the photo with their name.  First to tag won the item. Thanks to Facebook’s news feed, update and forwarding function, this promotion spread like crazy.

Sam Mutimer of Lets Refresh - thanks for finding this one!

Melbourne’s Chadstone shopping centre has opened its luxury wing to massive crowds. So massive in fact that rather than risk a riot, management started and finished a voucher promotion at 5am on opening day.

Yesterday, a beautiful sunny day, the queues to Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Tiffany, Chanel… were more than 30 deep with security staggering people allowed through the door. By all accounts it has been a veritable success.

Today, a rainy Melbourne day, Luxury has a different story and the new marble floor is dotted with blue plastic buckets as rain, rather than sunlight, pours through that designer glass ceiling.

I wonder what Karl Lagerfeld, Patrizio di Marco et al would have to say about that…

There is a serviced apartment complex in the Gold Coast’s Burleigh Heads that my family and I have been going to for almost ten years. When I got married all our guests stayed there too, so at a quick calculation I’d say we’ve contributed about $30,000 to their bottom line over the years.

For those who’ve never been there, Burleigh Heads is a beautiful beach that’s close enough to Surfers Paradise to feel connected to the action, but far enough to remain untouched by the overdevelopment other Gold Coast areas have suffered.

This complex was by far the nicest in the area, an area that is basically holiday accommodation the entire length of the coast. It was also very competitively priced for a relatively slick place with the beach just across the road.

In the last few months it has changed ownership and been renamed under its new brand and new management. It has also seriously gone down the gurgler and for all our loyalty over the years, I think we’ve done our dash with this place.

In a one week stay I can reel off this little list of failings:

• Dishwasher was broken: Not a good start for a 3 bedroom apartment with 4 kids under 10. We arrived on the Thursday and management sent someone on the following Wednesday (one day before we left) to check it out. Not to fix it mind, just to review it. Apparently management cannot fix anything inside the apartment, they can only tell the owners to do it.
• Main balcony sliding door jammed: Again, for a beach holiday with the balcony as the key selling feature it ain’t a good look. Maintenance guy came on Wednesday, six days into our stay and one day before we left and said “Yep, previous guests told us about this…”
• Two cereal bowls in the cupboard: Fun times for an apartment that sleeps 8.
• TV remote has broken battery cover and flat batteries: They couldn’t check the batteries and shove some cellotape round the thing?
• Towel rail missing the bar
• Tap dripping in the bathroom
• Bins don’t come with rubbish bags
• Apartment complex UP lift button not working: If you want to go upstairs from the 6th floor you have to push the down button, get in the lift and push UP button when inside. So if someone downstairs has pushed it before you, you’ll ride all the way down before you can go back up again.

Even when you’ve been a guest of this place as many years as we have there comes a point when you start to wonder why bother. If it takes a week for management to call in their maintenance people… If the resort do nothing more than man-the-front-desk and have no control over repairs inside the apartment… If standards keep slipping every time you go… It’s time to look around for a new place. Hell, why not pay more and go somewhere with some customer service? i.e. an extravagant place where they line their bins with bin bags…

Maybe the Gold Coast was a holiday mecca in its heyday and resorts didn’t have to lift a finger to fill the rooms - but those days are gone. Too many choices and holiday time too precious to waste doing the sort of maintenance you left home to avoid.

Management of these places have to lift their game because as guests we can forgive one or two oversights that are dealt with quickly, but lazy service and an entire checklist of chores and I’m looking for a new place to spend my hard earned money.

There’s a marketing crossroads companies come to when they’re at that stage of going from Small Company to Less-Small Company. It’s an interesting time for a marketer who has worked with businesses large and small, as you have to be very diplomatic and appreciate this as a pivotal step for your client.

It’s usually the point when companies have a stream of big business of their own and cannot help but compare themselves with their (usually) much more sophisticated clients. It’s also when there’s a bit of downtime from a period of fast reactive growth and the company starts thinking about proactively approaching new business.

Although logo and branding are only a part of marketing and communications, I still find with the smaller businesses it is this that requires the most urgent attention and it is this that can be the hardest sell.

One of the challenges is the perception of the logo as a simple icon and the psychological price point that the small business owner has versus the large established company.

Where a big blue chip is prepared to pay tens, if not hundreds of thousands for a new logo, the small business owner can’t see how this ‘badge’ can be worth more than a few thousands dollars. A few thousand? Why so much when they can go back to their own designer and get them to knock up three for $500.

Many may think the logo is just a symbol or a mark that sits in the top left corner of the stationary and website, but a brand is not the same thing at all. When a small company comes to that crossroads, it’s a total mindset change that raises them to a different playing field.

Needless to say there are a multitude of core business and marketing strategies that are necessary for successfully growing a small company. When it comes to that professional rebranding step though, I find that’s when the entire company - from senior level through to workers on a factory floor - start to feel the buzz and a sense of increased pride in where they work.

Without fail there’s controversy and disagreement among the staff when the new logo and brand are chosen. There are mutters of disapproval as style guidelines are enforced and the person on the front desk is told no more palm tree email backgrounds or festive signature fonts. There is an absolute uproar when Snappy Snap local printer is put under review and retired because the print quality doesn’t measure up to the new standard.

It’s a challenging time and unless you’re a marketer with total belief in yourself and in your expertise you won’t win this battle and potentially even worse, in the long term you’ll be blamed for not doing what you were hired to do in the first place: elevate the company.

There is inevitably always a good ending to this if done well. As the new signage goes up outside and in the foyer, the new stationary gets handed out and personal business cards go to individuals, as the sales team receive their impressive new collateral, as the vehicles start driving around with new decals and the uniforms arrive in a fresh new style, the website launches looking slick and professional, the trade press runs the wave of concurrent media.

When everything the company produces has the same, strong, consistent brand, that’s when it all comes together and the buzz becomes palpable. The branding controversy all but disappears and the business moves on to the next step of implementing the business and marketing strategy with a confidence in its ability to make an excellent impression every time.

For this reason I will always fight the fight with small business clients and implore them to start working with a small external team of suppliers at a much higher level than what they were in the past. That includes an excellent design, print and web partner - all marketing savvy, all highly experienced and all with initiative and skill to advise you on the best possible solutions.

FYI: A great website that reviews good and bad corporate identity is Under Consideration’s BRAND NEW