Celebrating 5 Years of Brand Growth Inspiration

24th September 2021The EditorsEditorial PicksDistribution

Brands can be built from lorry tarps or cheese. Brand DNAs can be low touch or strong clutch power. Some have Barbie growth qualities, others rather learn from Ken. One way or another, brand growth management can be colourful exiting, and we won more than 30 experts to share it with you.

We turn five this month, a great opportunity to look back at some of our best stories.

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Inspirational Summer Break

2nd August 2021The EditorsEditorial Picks

Lockdowns, home office, homeschooling, re-opening, health restrictions, more lockdowns, and now open again, but for how long?

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Time to Build a Home Textile Collection

22nd July 2021Agustin CaprileBrand RetailCovid-19, Design, Innovation, Retail

Immune to Covid-19 and experiencing steady growth over the past three years, the global home textile market is expected to grow at an even faster pace to reach USD 133 billion by 2025.

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Learnings from a True Entrepreneur: Frances Jerard

15th July 2021Christoph BerendesBrand RetailBranding, Fashion, Retail

Have you ever wondered whether you have the entrepreneur gene and what it takes to build a brand? Multi-talented designer and Kiwi Frances Jerard built hers from scratch and shows it in her Berlin pop-up store. (more…)

Experience and Tech: The Rise of the Destination Store

8th July 2021Ales KernjakBrand Retail, Let's Talk About ...Experience, Retail, Technology

Excluding the pandemic, nothing has had a greater influence on the resurgence of ‘the store as destination’ than Gen Z.

While Gen X and Millennials started to shun the mall in droves, it is the so-called ‘selfie-generation’ that is now seeking out new ways to interact with products before they purchase. (more…)

2021 Goes Into Half-time: Best Reads

1st July 2021The EditorsBest Practice

Amidst the ebb and flow of pandemic restrictions and the belated enjoyment of lots of football, we hope you find the leisure to indulge in our selection of recent best reads!

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Will the Apparel Industry Help Save or Continue to Harm the Environment?

24th June 2021John EnsmingerBrand RetailFashion, Retail, Sustainability

The apparel industry is a significant environmental polluter. Some brands are tackling the challenge of recycling used clothing, but the issue might require more draconian steps.

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Selling Brand Experience not Products: LEGO’s Secret to Success

18th June 2021Guido SchildBrand StrategyExperience, Performance Management, Strategy, Turnaround

Be warned, this post is a declaration of love, childhood memory, and best practice brand experience all in one.

I love LEGO, and they have paid me in great childhood memories and eight wonderful years of assisting in partner and own retail.
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D2C: It’s All About Tech

10th June 2021Christoph BerendesBrand DistributionDigital, Distribution, Strategy

Part two of our D2C series: Software tools bring your D2C strategy to life. Learn which ones are key to consider in this overview.

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D2C: It’s All About Consumer Focus

3rd June 2021Christoph BerendesBrand DistributionDigital, Distribution, Marketplaces, Partner Retail, Wholesale

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) is about mastering technology to give the best possible products and services to your consumers. Brands like Nespresso, Tupperware, Tesla or Peloton show how it’s done.

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The Future in Flagship Retail: A Strategy Update

27th May 2021Guido SchildBrand RetailBranding, Experience, Flagship Store, Innovation, Retail, Strategy

In the middle of global store lockdowns, 100+ lifestyle brands announce the opening of new flagship stores.

Versace, Puma, Under Armor, Gucci, Saint Laurent, Montblanc, Adidas, Lacoste, Dior, Hermes, Supreme and more report new flagship store openings. All that adds up to retail investments of US$ 200m (assuming standard buildout cost and store sizes) in a time when the internet is booming.

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Special Edition: Social Responsibility

20th May 2021The EditorsEditorial Picks

Corporate social responsibility has been on brands and retailers’ radar for decades. In some cases the strategic alignment with CSR was a true commitment to corporate ethics and positive change, in others a device to boost public opinion and employer marketing. (more…)

The Price is Right, Right?

13th May 2021Torben ValstedBrand AnalyticsKPI's, Performance Management, Retail, Strategy

Pricing strategy remains a very timely topic. Learn how to make sound research-based decisions when lowering or increasing your prices.

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Managing Retail Operations in 2021

6th May 2021Guido SchildBrand RetailKPI's, L4L, Operations, Performance Management, Processes & Operations, Retail

Do you measure the payback of TV advertising, sports sponsorship and the profitability of your warehouses by EBIT? You think that’s short sighted? Why then do you measure retail stores with basically the same functions (branding, community building, shipment handling) by its P&L alone?

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How to Compare Store Performance of a Retail Portfolio in Pandemic Times

29th April 2021Heike BlankBrand AnalyticsCovid-19, Footfall, KPI's, Performance Management, Retail

Retail executives often struggle to objectively evaluate the store performance of their portfolio due to changing market dynamics and consumer behaviours pre- and post-Covid. The good old Footfall Utilization Index (FUI) might be of help.

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Sustainable Sourcing & Sustainable Shopping: A Circular Solution

22nd April 2021Agustin CaprileBest PracticeFashion, Supply Chain, Sustainability

Over the past 12 years, product teams around the globe have been on a journey towards more sustainable sourcing, beginning with measuring the impact of production on the environment. And ever since, factories have offered sustainable sourcing. It’s time to move another step forward.

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Evolution of Store Design II

15th April 2021Ales KernjakLet's Talk About ...Branding, Design, Experience, Store Concepts

In this article, we dive deeper into how brands can best appropriate their spend and decipher how intangible elements of a brand’s identity can be rolled out across store formats and concepts to create clarity of brand, irrespective of size or location of the store.

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Initiative Retail Future ‘Zukunft Handel’

8th April 2021Christoph BerendesDigital TrendsDigital, E-Com, Retail

An introduction to the services and tools that ‘Zukunft Handel’ (Retail Future), an initiative launched by Google and the German Retail Federation (HDE), offers to support smaller German retailers in digitising their business.

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Future in Brand Wholesale Distribution: The Cash Cow is dead. Long live the Cash Cow.

1st April 2021Guido SchildBrand DistributionDepartment Stores, Distribution, Marketplaces, Wholesale

Wholesale distribution managers knew it all along, traditional brand wholesale wouldn’t last forever. And 2020 saw an acceleration of change that began long before the pandemic: the termination of mediocre businesses.

But turmoil in wholesale distribution isn’t over yet; ahead lie at least one to two more years of trouble and possibly major strategy changes at online pure players.

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Recovery Scenarios for the Brand & Retail Industry

25th March 2021The EditorsEditorial Picks

While the Covid-19 pandemic is far from over, our 2021 has started on a constructive note with many contributors sharing their insights on what recovering from this crisis could look like across the brand and retail industry.

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