In No Particular Order

I was pleased to be invited, along with Frederik Nieuwenhuys of Fredhopper.com, to give the keynote at the IADS meeting in Amsterdam on Thursday, looking at the future for department stores online. We received a warm and open welcome at the de Bijenkorf flagship store for two days.

My pleasure turned quickly to a feeling of privilege, however, during two days of open, candid, revealing and utterly stimulating presentations and discussions.

I’m unable to recount details or attendees, but I can say that the leading stores in the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Turkey, Mexico, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland and Chile were represented.

A further highlight was the informal discussion time in the evenings, where I found in particular the directorate of IADS to be in possession of a mine of information, challenging ideas and an archival historic view on the sector… We’ll be hearing more of this in future issues of InternetRetailing!

My (publishable) take-aways from the meeting were:

• a focus on the customer and customer expectations, rather than technology
• concentration on ROI, and investing in business process and ‘cross-channel’ as much as in ‘building the web store’
• a tension between comprehensiveness and focus when it comes to online range – along with a view that there’s no single, simple answer
• a focus on growth (surprising in this economic climate) – geographically, in terms of range and scale of operations.

I’ve lost count of the number of conferences I’ve sat through, but I can’t remember the last time that I sat through two days without a single weak presentation, scribbling notes and ideas all the while and having my preconceptions challenged to regularly.

In my view this emphasises the benefit of smaller, peer meeting that allow for candour. I’d certainly be pleased to attend any further events by IADS based on this exemplary conference, and will reflect on the format for upcoming InternetRetailing events. A well-spent couple of days.

After a week or two of conferencing and marketing meetings I’m getting a bit sick of the talk of ‘branding’ and ‘brand values’. Call me curmudgeonly, but I hold fast to the notion that I as a consumer bestow ‘brand’ status on a product or service and that this status is something earned as a result of some underlying value: working as or better than claimed; consistency; transparency; fair dealing. And then a little bit of desire and ‘wow’ to finish things off.

This true story recounted to me yesterday says all that’s needed about the power of a brand – even with competitors…

A friend, let’s call her “Nicole” for the want of a spare false name, had recently requested a PAC code from her mobile provider (let’s call them T-Mobile, just for the sake of the story). The PAC code closes your account and allows you transfer the number to another network.

As well as a PAC code, the request invariably triggers calls from the bowels of the contact centre and the ‘customer recovery’ team – those rare beasts empowered to grant your tariff desires, issue free phones, and generally persuade you to cancel the request and ‘de-churn’ yourself.

Said T-Mobiler introduced himself to “Nicole” and started the spiel. “Nicole” tried to cut him off saying that nary a blandishment nor inducement would change her mind and could he please leave her alone.

Silence for 10 seconds. Then – “You’ve bought an iPhone, haven’t you”.

“Yes”.

“OK. I understand. Thank you very much.”

When even your competitors’ battle hounds decide to go home and floss their teeth you know that your brand is in a strong position.