Growing success

There is a saying in Hollywood that it takes 16 years to become an overnight success. Just like Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point, the phrase suggests that over many years skills are honed, knowledge is built, then combined with experience and judiciously applied to create wisdom. And hey presto, all those things are noticed or respected by the wider population in a very short period of time, and the ideas are widely adopted at “the tipping point”.

Attending the Shopper Marketing Live conference in Sydney last week, brought home just how long the journey has been within the shopper marketing arena and the significance of the tipping point where we find ourselves.

Over the course of the past two weeks, across the US and in Australia, I have had the pleasure of touching base with Paco Underhill at Envirosell, Ken Barnett at MARS Advertising, Bryan Gildenberg at Kantar Retail, and John Thompson and Joe Crafton from CROSSMARK – all people who have been working in, and shaping the shopper marketing space in the US, and arguably globally, over the past decade and a half… some longer.

What struck me as I sat in the auditorium in Sydney with 1,800 manufacturers, retailers and shopper marketing service providers, is just how large, professional, disciplined and far reaching this area of business has become. It also struck me that these thought leaders have shaped the best of shopper experiences we have in clothing, grocery, liquor stores, car dealerships and banks around the world.

It also became obvious, that as with all leading edge and innovative processes, the intellectual investment over time has been made by small private companies, working with large publically quoted retailers and manufacturers to incubate and codify best practice. Simply put, the good and challenging ideas, innovations and intellectual capital which come from individuals have been assisted to spread across hundreds of thousands of minds thanks to the financial capital invested by large corporations.

And the flow-down effect is that smaller manufacturers and retailers can, if they choose to, invest a little intellectual and financial capital in attending events such as Shopper Marketing Live where they can find suppliers who can assist them to be just as professional as the big end of town. This can help them shape great shopper experiences today, by dint of 16 years of wisdom, rather than trying to do it alone and reinvent the wheel.

I mentor a couple of small businesses run by people who truly have the passion and desire to build their small business over time. When they get too big for me, I pass them on to Linda Hailey, the regular small business coach on Channel 7’s Kochie’s Business Builders (KBB) program, who runs a very successful business, supporting small business to grow to medium. You can find her via Google and at the KBB website.

Whether you’ve spent 16 or six years building your business, take the time to make the investment in experts’ wisdom to allow you to be your best.

In his role as CEO of CROSSMARK, Kevin Moore looks at the world of retailing from grocery to pharmacy, bottle shops to car dealers, corner store to department stores. In this insightful blog, Kevin covers retail news, ideas, companies and emerging opportunities in Australia, NZ, the US and Europe. His international career in sales and marketing has seen him responsible for business in over 40 countries, which has earned him grey hair and a wealth of expertise in international retailers and brands. CROSSMARK Asia Pacific is Australasia’s largest provider of retail marketing services, consulting to and servicing some of Australasia’s biggest retailers and manufacturers.