Halloween - Big Business in the UK

Our warehouse is full of spooky looking displays and POS items being picked and packed for roll outs to major supermarket chains across the UK. Ghosts and skeletons, bats and ghouls, mummies and spiders...it's all wonderfully fun and our favourite time of year receiving in these items, and sorting through them ready for installation!

Halloween, although an old festival is gaining popularity year on year as influences from across the pond make this a bigger celebration than it was when I was a child, back then it was penny for the guy and bonfire night that was the main Autumn celebration. Children did go trick or treating and have dress up parties but it's a world away from apple bobbing and homemade costumes...there just wasn't the amount of merchandise availabe then.

 

Now supermarkets dedicate their whole seasonal aisle to Halloween at this time of year and decorate with floor graphics, hanging nets and signs to display ghoulish items that are for sale on the shelves. It does seem to be quite supermarket-centric, unlike Christmas and Easter, as people spend less on Halloween items, looking for cheap sweet and food items, costumes and decorations.

 

Halloween was celebrated more in America and I think Walmart owned Asda have had a big influence on bringing big time promotion of Halloween to the UK, partnering up with brand manufacturers to offer exclusive Halloween themed confectionary items.

 

Halloween is now the third largest selling opportunity after Christmas and Easter so it's understandable that supermarkets spend so much on display items to maximise on sales - just try getting through the supermarket with your children when there's a huge fun and excitingly decorated aisle tempting them in! Reportedly worth more than £300 million to UK retailers in 2011, and with a growth forecast of 12.5% predicted this year by retail analysts it will be worth more like £315 million! A decade ago consumers only spent £12 million on Halloween so you can see why supermarkets and major retailers take the display and promotion of Halloween products seriously.

 

 

 

As we do every year we look forward to the Halloween installations, it's a fun time of year in the warehouse and for the teams out on the road making up seasonal aisles up and down the country delight customers and their children with their spooky displays!

 

Look out for our next blog with photo's of the 2012 displays once they're installed!

Everything Everywhere Get 4G - Mobile Market Impact

Everything Everywhere Group, who own the T-Mobile and Orange networks, have got the go ahead from Ofcom to operate 4G (fourth generation) mobile services on their existing bandwidth today. This was in the pipeline for early next year but Everything Everywhere have been allowed to operate earlier than expected.

Vodafone and O2 have expressed their views on Ofcoms decision today, voicing their disappointment, as it will clearly hold back their businesses with a major rival having a head start in the 4G marketplace. The other providers will be able to bid for 4G broadband by early 2013 as originally planned. Ofcom defended its decision by stating that this will benefit consumers and to hold back an operator that is ready to offer this service would be detrimental to the consumer. They had previously said that they wanted to see at least four credible network operators bidding in 2013 to promote competition in the marketplace.

Ruck Retail Solutions recently audited the entire Orange estate - providing valuable information for the design and installation of point of sale and promotional materials, and no doubt there will be heavy promotion of the super fast 4G broadband service now it has the early go ahead. See the case study here.

Retailers and the Olympics...Story So Far

What a fantastic start to the Olympics Team GB have had! Number 3 in the world for medals received so far and given the populations of America and China, ahead of us in the medal stakes, it makes the amount of excellent athletes our little Island is producing even more impressive. There's no doubt the whole country is proud to be British right now and proud of the Olympics but what has it done for British retailers? Is it what retailers had expected so far?

With complaints from London retailers and tourist attractions that visitor numbers are down and the city was quieter than usual during the week, the expected surge in retail sales has been a bit of a let down. However the West End retailers and Westfields reported an increase in sales over the weekend.

There's no doubt we are all glued to the TV - much of it has been blamed on non Olympic tourists avoiding visiting whilst the Olympics is on and locals staying clear of the city expecting congestion, but as we've seen last week it seems to have been quite the opposite with London roads clearer than they've been for a long time.

It's not just London, the Guardian reported this weekend that retail footfall outside of London is also slow on the High Streets, falling by 9%. However where shopping centres have installed large screens to attract shoppers, they are seeing an increase of visitors, up by 6% -11%, helped in turn by the extended Sunday shopping hours.

Lets see what happens this week - as we go for more medals the more people are engrossed in watching the Olympics, so perhaps it will be a another quiet week of trading and things will pick up again at the weekend. West End retailers have asked London Transport to tone down the advice on avoiding London so foot fall is expected to increase this week as people who'd previously avoided London for fears of being caught up in the predicted chaos return.

Retail Insolvencies are up by 10%

The Olympic games is giving our economy a well needed boost but two days in to them is the news that retail insolvencies are up by 10% this quarter. Many other retailers are in sale trying to offload the summer season merchandise that just hasn't sold due to the bad weather we've had for months, June and April being the wettest since records began. With well know high street names failing like Clinton Cards, Game, Habitat, Peacocks, and now Julian Graves it's all rather worrying.

PricewaterhouseCooper's figures show that insolvency numbers for retailers is 426 in the second quarter of 2012 compared to just 386 in the previous year. Reasons for some High St failures, apart from the bad weather, are said to be due to retailers operating too many stores and online sales having an impact as people look for better bargains.

However it's not all doom and gloom as other retailers are announcing their profits are up, such as William Hill and Harrods up by 15%, John Lewis at record profits, along with pound shops and coffee brands which are in expansion and opening new sites.

More insolvencies are expected as the remainder of 2012 is predicted to be particularly tough for the retail sector.

The Financial Benefits of the Olympics for our Economy

With the Olympics about to start and contracts coming to an end it's interesting to look at the impact of the Olympics on our economy. It's been a big investment so far but will reap rewards for businesses of all sizes small and large over the coming weeks.

So far British companies have been able to access almost £6 billion worth of contracts to build and supply the Olympic games, with 98% of contracts from the Olympic Delivery Authority going to UK based companies. Two thirds  of those went to small or medium sized enterprises.  Over 30,000 people will have worked on the Olympic site to get it ready as well as an approx contractor workforce of 100,000 to be employed during the event - although that figure will be slightly less now G4 have defaulted on their security contract.

On top of that LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games) are using an estimated £700m worth of goods and services. It's good news for businesses, despite the overbearing protectiveness of the Olympic brands taken against bakeries for example. It's good to hear that the government wants rules relaxed around this and also are relaxing Sunday trading hours over the Olympics so retailers will be able to make the most of the event.

In a speech recently David Cameron said he thinks the Olympics will generate around £13 billion for our economy - figures based on UKTI studies on the impact of other games such as Sydney.

He said: "I am confident that we can derive over £13bn benefit to the UK economy over the next four years as a result of hosting the games. I am certain that when you add in the benefits from construction the total gain will be even greater."

Goldman Sachs estimate we will see an increase of 0.3 - 0.4 % GDP in the third quarter this year. That's a good stimulus for a flagging economy in times of recession - however temporary or long lived the impact the Olympics will have on our economy it looks to me like a positive thing for our country and for business.

Friday 13th! Origins in Myth and Impact on Retail

So today is Friday 13th! For those who are are superstitious it's a day to avoid doing anything which might cause the chaos of calamitous disasters the days is famous for! Some people have such a fear they stay in bed - go home and lock all the doors! What impact does this have on retail sales?

It is said that Friday 13th costs retailers in the USA between $800-900 million! Are we that superstitious in the UK and if so why are we so supertitious?

Paraskevidekatriaphobia is the term for people gripped with fear over Friday 13th and the

origins of Friday 13th superstitions likely come from a combination of different myths and legends throughout history.

13 generally is seen as an unlucky number with many buildings missing out 13th floors and 13th rooms, flats and house numbers. It is said if 13 people sit down to dinner one will be dead within a year! This probably stems from an old viking myth where Loki, the god of mischief gatecrashed a party of 12 gods and caused the death of one of the guests... and of course 13 guests at the last supper...Jesus was also crucified on a Friday.

There are 13 witches in a coven, although in pre Christian times 13 was seen as a sacred symbol of femininity and fertility as was Friday. 13 was viewed as a lucky number by the ancient Egyptians and Chinese too. As patriarchal religions took over Friday and the number 13 became negative as the church tried to stamp out prior pagan practices and feminine goddess worship by calling it blasphemous, and witchraft associated with the devil.

But despite all these different theories it seems that the superstition of Friday 13th being a day of bad luck is a relatively new thing starting in the 19th century...a combination of unlucky Fridays and unlucky number 13 hyped up by the media...so maybe we shouldn't worry too much, and it doesn't seem UK retailers need to worry either! We certainly won't be as we install POS promotions instore, it's just another day to us!

If you want to learn more about the origins of the myths and legend mentioned in this blog visit:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/cs/historical/a/friday_the_13th.htm

The Olympic Effect - The Benefit for Brands

It's just 25 days to the London Olympics! With Olympic themed promotional jobs coming in thick and fast it got me thinking about the impact a huge sporting event such as the Olympics has for brands. Sponsors spend millions; other brands equally spend a lot of money on linking their brand with the Olympics. They spend a lot of time, money and effort promoting their brands and products alongside the huge worldwide sporting event, but is it worth the spend?

Diageo turned down sponsorship of the 2012 London Olympics. Chief Marketing Officer Andy Fennell speaking at Cannes Lion Festival said that 'It's really hard to get a return' in response to why they'd declined and that he thought brands sponsored events mostly due to '....board level corporate conviction...'

Different brands will sponsor the Olympics for different reasons and it's not always easy to measure the ROI. For some it's about reinforcing their existing presence as a top global brand, such as Coca-Cola, others are looking to increase brand awareness globally and increase sales ...but mostly it's about reaching one of the largest audiences. It is said that the Olympics will be the most watched event of the year and that is always going to be hard to resist for many brand marketers. With a well thought out marketing strategy promoting products and brands before, during, and after the Olympics it can have a real feel-good positive impact on brands.  Coca-Cola has a huge amount of adverts going out with sporting icons and music artists such as Mark Ronson, Labrynth, Katy B, and Eliza Dolittle with their 'Move to the Beat London' campaign.

Adidas are pushing their sports as well as leisure wear sales with younger audiences with their ad featuring music by Wretch 32 and footballer David Beckham.

With McDonalds having built the largest restaurant in the world on the Olympic park their sponsorship goes a step further in my opinion. It's half the size of a football pitch, seating 1500 people and will be staffed by 2,000 employees. It is estimated that they will sell 50,000 Big Mac's over the games! This along with a coordinated campaign in all of their restaurants really goes hand in hand with the new green healthier style image they are moving towards. 

It's advertising Gold for sponsors such as McDonald's and Coca-Cola as far as I can see, no matter how hard it is to measure their ROI with this kind of sponsorship. It shows the world they are top of their game, right out in front and silver or bronze just won't do.