European Retail Digest articles from March 2005

European Retail Digest archives from March 2005

Ross Davies 1940-2005.
March 22, 2005... Readers will be saddened to learn of the untimely death in April of Ross Davies, Emeritus Fellow of Templeton College and the Founding Director of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management, after a short illness. As well as the Institute...

Relevant and responsive: the dunnhumby vision.(Feature / Loyalty Marketing)
March 22, 2005... dunnhumby is a relatively young business, formed by Clive Humby and Edwina Dunn in 1989. The company has a turnover of around GBP35 million, and is growing at a rate of about 40% a year. The dunnhumby headquarters are in London and there are...

Loyalty marketing for 50+ consumers: findings for a better understanding of loyalty behaviour.
March 22, 2005... Customer Orientation Customer orientation is not only the core of the modern understanding of marketing but also one of the crucial success factors of management. Although the needs and desires of customers have always been central to...

Loyalty cards: are retailers ignoring non-card-holder behaviour?
March 22, 2005... Introduction Since the 1980s, both the academic literature and business practice have shown a growing interest in the positive effects of a high level of customer loyalty on the performance of firms. As a result of this interest, in the...

Private Benjamins: the most powerful retail loyalty tool in your arsenal may be right under your nose.
March 22, 2005... Although enjoying a long and successful history as a credit tool, the retail private-label credit card has been losing ground in the 'share of wallet' wars. Used as a tool to understand customers, influence their behaviour and communicate with...

Driving behaviour change for the public sector with commercial loyalty programme techniques.
March 22, 2005... Introduction The Connexions card Programme is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) between the Department for Education and Skills and Capita plc. It aims to encourage young people to stay in post-16 learning by rewarding them for...

Quick, flexible and smart: interview with Andre Tordjman, Director of Marketing, Auchan.(Interviews)
March 22, 2005... Auchan began in 1961 with Gerard Mulliez opening the first store in Roubaix in the district of Hauts Champs, appealing to the French delight in puns, and is now the 16th largest distribution group in the world with 346 hypermarkets and 631...

Quality, freshness and strong national identity: interview with Renata Simekovic, Marketing Director, Konzum, Croatia.(Interview)(Company overview)
March 22, 2005... Konzum has been a retail company since 1957. In 1992, Konzum changed its registration into a joint-stock company. In July 1994, Agrokor took over the control package of shares and became the majority owner. Konzum opened its first stores...

The value of customer-owners: an interview with Kari Neilimo, CEO, S-Group.
March 22, 2005... S-Group operates grocery and consumer goods stores, restaurants, service and petrol stations, hotels, car dealers and agricultural outlets throughout Finland. S-Group comprises regional co-operative societies, and the SOK corporation and its...

Talking shop: interviews with Sverre Leiro, CEO of NorgesGruppen and Anders Moberg, CEO of Ahold/ICA.(Company overview)
March 22, 2005... Two of the major Scandinavian food retailers are NorgesGruppen in Norway and ICA in Sweden and Norway. Retail Institute Scandinavia recently interviewed NorgesGruppen's about the current situation on the market and his expectations of the...

Speciality chain stores gaining ground in Scandinavia.
March 22, 2005... Looking at a ten year period, chains selling shoes, sports and consumer electronics have strengthened their position in Scandinavian shopping centres and on the high street. In the time from 1993/1994 to 2002/2003 Scandinavian consumers learned...

Red tape and regulation: more or less?(European Political Issues)
March 22, 2005... The European Union is unpopular with many of its citizens. This sad fact is underlined by the polls during the writing of this article predicting trouble in having the proposed new Constitution ratified by referendum in two of the 'founding'...

Private labels in Poland.(News Analysis)
March 22, 2005... In recent years, the quality of private label products and their market shares have grown to such an extent that most consumer goods manufacturers, brand leaders included, cannot afford to ignore them. Private labels are, however, not just...

Department store consolidation: causes and consequences.(Letter / America)(Letter to the editor)
March 22, 2005... Dear Reader Back in September 2001, this column discussed the challenges facing the American department store industry and predicted a future of consolidation and downsizing (Rogers, 2001). In what is a healthy sign for the department...

The retail divide: leadership in a world of extremes.(Viewpoint)(Company overview)
March 22, 2005... Introduction Today's market forces are shaping a global consumer marketplace that will look radically different in 2010, affecting retailers as never before. Traditional strategies will be eclipsed by unprecedented customer diversity,...

Convenience 2005: meeting demand for easy eating, The Church House, Westminster, London, March 2005.(Company overview)
March 22, 2005... Time constraints and changes in consumers' eating habits are two key characteristics of modern life. As a result, people are increasingly looking for convenience. Retailers and manufacturers shared their experiences and innovative approaches on...

Retail week conference, London Hilton Metropole, March 2005.
March 22, 2005... Despite attempts by parties unknown to disrupt proceedings through a mass evacuation of the conference hotel on the first day, it was a large, good-humoured and enthusiastic audience who heard and were able to question the wide range of retail...

e-Retailing.
March 22, 2005... e-Retailing by Charles Dennis, Tino French & Bill Merrilees (2004), Routledge, ISBN 0-415-31141-1 It can be hard objectively to review a book that uses a quotation from the reviewer as part of the rationale for its being written!...