Preparation is everything

One of the many success mantras that we all recollect from our earliest memories of conversations with our grandparents, along with “the early bird catches the worm” and “love what you do and you’ll never work a day in your life”, is that “success is born when preparation meets opportunity”.

In the world of retail over the past three years, this has never been truer – whether you’re a retailer or a manufacturer. During that short time, the need to find and show new and innovative products and services, within stores and online, has never been more tightly constrained by time and space.

New, exclusive and home brands have taken up 15 to 20% of retailer shelf space and online catalogue space. These new products, from new and existing suppliers, have been a source of entertainment for shoppers and a source of growth for retailers and manufacturers.

Over the past couple of months I have seen some amazing new products and retail concepts successfully nurtured through the “opportunity and preparation” phase. Some of the online offerings from traditional retailers and pure online retailers are truly changing how and why we shop.

Notably, CEO of PacBrands Sue Morphet pointed out in a Freudian presentation recently, that seven of the top 10 online shopping portals are arms of major US retailers. One is Walmart, and Walmart buyers, just like Coles, Target and JB Hi-Fi buyers, are looking for things that are new and exciting to put in front of their shoppers – no matter whether their shoppers choose to shop in store or online. Both the buyers, and the sellers, need to be prepared for this opportunity to appear in front of them.

So what does preparation meeting opportunity look like? I recently sat at Dallas Fort Worth airport at 5.30am (when the early bird was out catching the worm), waiting to board the first flight of the day, a small Embraer regional jet bound for NW Arkansas Airport.

There are few reasons to go to NW Arkansas Airport, other than a desire to be successful. You wouldn’t go there on holiday. You would go there for the large group of people who have the ability to reach out to hundreds of millions of shoppers around the globe – shoppers who visit their stores, clubs and websites. Walmart lives in Bentonville AR, a 20 minute drive from NW Arkansas Airport

As I sat at DFW waiting for the flight there were two French guys sitting together and three South African guys sitting together. The tired and dishevelled groups were rehearsing their presentations for the buyer they would meet at Walmart in Bentonville in a few hours time.

Perhaps stereotypically, the French guys were presenting innovative packaging designs for – yes you guessed it – wine. They practiced their presentations over and over again on their PCs and iPads in-flight too. While the product was not new, the packaging and reasoning behind it looked compelling to me (with my shopper marketing hat on).

I would love to know how the presentations went and whether their products will now be put in front of hundreds of millions of shoppers to buy. The idea was good and there is no doubting the preparation they had put into their meeting with Walmart buyers. I hope they are successful.

Several years ago, a small wine company in Griffith was prepared to meet an opportunity when a US wine distributor de-listed one low price, high volume label and needed another quickly. Their optimism and preparedness allowed them to meet that opportunity with innovative sourcing and labelling. So they created the world’s largest single wine brand, Yellowtail. Casella Wines is now a global marketing case study and significant contributor to regional Australia’s prosperity.

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.