Published on: June 13, 2013
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Hi, I'm Kevin Coupe & this is FaceTime with the Content Guy.
I often take advantage of this forum to use movie metaphors to make points about how retailers can be better at doing business. Today, I'd like to suggest that this can cut both ways.
Google is out with a new study entitled called "Quantifying Move Magic with Google Search," and it makes the entirely reasonable case that you can figure out how successful a movie is going to be based on how often people search for information about it before the movie opens, and especially how often they look at the movie's trailer.
No kidding. In the retail business - especially the food retail business - this is called "sampling."
In a food store, one of the best ways to sell products is to sample them. If an item looks good and smells good and tastes good, the odds are a lot better that the customer is going to buy it.
The thing about the movie business is that until a relatively few years ago, the only place you could see a trailer was in a movie theater, before watching the feature. With the advent of the internet, there now are thousands of places to watch trailers. Good news for us movie buffs.
That's something that great food stores - or even mediocre food stores with a little bit of attitude - are able to do in every aisle and throughout the perimeter. Give customers lots of products to taste, with lots of reason to stop.
Not a hard concept to grasp.
Except that, to be perfectly honest, not enough food retailers do it with anywhere near enough frequency and enthusiasm.
I go to a lot of stores, and a time when there is competition coming from all directions and even an increasing number of ways to avoid going to the store by ordering online, there simply are way too few that are using sampling as much as they can and should.
The aromas and tastes of food can be a wonderful differentiator. And great food ... well that can be transcendent. And yet, in a lot of food stores, if you went in with a blindfold on, you'd never know from the smells and sounds that it is actually a food store.
So, if you're a retailer, go into your store or stores. Look around for the magic sampling moments. And take advantage of them. Or lose one of the great advantages that you have.
That's what is on my mind this Thursday morning. As always, I want to know what is on your mind.
- KC's View: