Mobalpa was established in the French Alps in 1907 as a cabinetmaker and is now the most recognised kitchen manufacturer in France. It has stores in 38 countries worldwide, but so far distribution in the UK has been limited with sales solely through small independent retailers.

The Market Creative has been appointed to launch a pilot store for Mobalpa in the UK, which includes developing the brand and positioning to run across all communication and in-store activity. The store, based in Warrington, will launch in June 2012, and if successful, provide a blueprint for expansion across the UK.

Sue Benson, managing director at The Market Creative says: “We were approached by Mobalpa because of our expertise in kitchen retail, so it is fantastic to be recognised for the work that we have done in this area so far.
“In other parts of Europe, Mobalpa is renowned for exceptional quality and the latest contemporary designs. It’s great to be working with them right at the beginning of their journey here as we help to shape their brand for the UK market.”

Cyril Raberin, Export Manager at Mobalpa adds: “We know there is an appetite for our kitchen concepts in the UK through our success with our independent retailers. We are now ready to become more visible and grow our position. The Market Creative team has shown a creative and fresh approach to marketing our brand, which will help us to engage with UK consumers.”

It certainly ticks a lot of boxes: It has everyone’s favourite celebs including Lisa Snowdon, Jamie Rednapp, Twiggy and Gary Barlow covering a classic Beatle’s track. In typical M&S style, it plays into the emotions of summer and captures a collection of beautiful Brits celebrating the coming season’s events, playing games in the sunshine and topping it all off with a singsong around the BBQ.

At one level, I think it’s a very well made and memorable ad, it’s hugely emotive and aspirational and will definitely be talked about.

On another, I have to ask myself how far is too far? Can the great British public really relate their lives, summer memories and expectations to this over-the-top idyllic lifestyle?

If you’ve not seen it already, have a look and see what you think…

Adam Tregaskis
The Market Creative

With GAME going into administration on Monday, closing half its stores and making over 2,000 employees redundant, the UK retail industry once again suffers a major blow – the largest since the demise of Woolworths in 2008.

The top line of GAME’s situation appears to be a combination of a poor performance over the Christmas period followed by major suppliers pulling the plug on key titles due to worries over payment, not even mentioning the availability of direct download rather than the purchase of physical media.

The broader issue facing retailers is that in this age of price-checking, free delivery and low brand loyalty, why would a consumer visit a specific high street store for commodity items such as a video games, books or music?  What’s stopping as online purchase from a discount retailer or picking it up with the weekly shop from a supermarket? From my perspective, much of it comes down to experience, expertise and guarantee of value.

The ability to see, touch and interact with a product will always have appeal, especially if you can offer more than what’s available elsewhere. Previewing products pre-launch, meeting the people behind the product and providing exclusive variations of a product will all help to enhance the experience. Good customer service and an excellent store environment should both be hygiene factors.

Expertise is hard for the supermarkets and online retailers to provide, and high street stores can also get it very wrong too with staff whose product knowledge is limited to reading off product stickers (yeah, thanks for that), or worse still, the opposite with expert staff unable to deal with the inexperienced consumer’s trivial or ‘stupid’ questions without showing disbelief and complete scorn. A well trained member of staff should be able to add value to every conversation regardless of the customer’s level of understanding.

My final point is providing the reassurance to the consumer that, despite all the in-store benefits of experience and expertise, a purchase made from the high street is going to provide just as much value for money as trawling the internet for a bargain. Retailers can no longer charge more for service when selling a commodity item. A simple price promise goes a long way to cover this issue, and over time the customer will stop feeling the need to worry or check.

With Borders just a memory and GAME in administration, I hope HMV are able to continue to provide a good enough reason for customers to continue shopping with them…

Adam Tregaskis
The Market Creative

The new spring sale campaign includes TV and print advertising as well as fragranced point of sale material, which will fill stores with a floral aroma to engage with customers’ sense of smell. The in-store campaign will feature in all 111 Sharps Bedrooms showrooms throughout the UK from this week.

Sue Benson, Managing Director at The Market Creative says: “We were briefed to develop a campaign that communicates the sale period while increasing design appointment bookings. It’s important to engage with customers at as many different levels as possible, so as well as enabling people to read about the sale, we decided to let them smell it too. Printed air fresheners will fill stores with the aroma of spring, adding to the overall impact.”

The 20-second TV advert will run for three weeks from 26 March and over the spring/Easter period across ITV channels, Channel 4, Five and digital channels on Sky amongst others. It features the voice of Caroline Quentin and highlights the space-saving storage features of Sharps Bedrooms fitted furniture. This is a continuation of the Sharps ‘& You’ campaign developed for the January sale period by The Market Creative, which focuses on the wants and needs of the female customer.

“As many of the Sharps Bedroom stores are concessions within larger stores, we hope that by appealing to customers’ sense of smell we will attract additional footfall, and add to the theatre of the sale too.”

Tim Moore, Marketing Manager at Sharps Bedrooms adds: “Although we regularly promote our seasonal sales with point of sale material, this is the first time we’ve used fragrance to add an additional dimension. We believe that by appealing to as many senses as possible, we can better engage with our customers.”

Retailers think it could help increase trading and the economy in the long-run – they anticipate incremental sales by opening for a few more hours while religious leaders and shop worker unions are in strong opposition. Even in our office, never has such a small change in policy created such strong opposing views. So what are the issues? Well, here are some from the healthy debate we’ve had at The Market Creative offices.

Christian church leaders believe that the ‘specialness’ of Sunday is being eroded and are no doubt concerned that church attendance figures will drop off even further. Some are even arguing that allowing Sunday morning opening of shops is deliberately sabotaging church services by overlapping with them. This leads on to many other points – what about those religions for which Friday or Saturday is their holyday rather than Sunday? Is, or should, the UK be a Christian society, are we not a secular or multi-faith society?

When you look at the issue from an international level, the issue becomes even more clouded. Many of the overtly Christian states in the US are happy to have shops open all day on a Sunday and yet some of the more secular countries of mainland Europe have maintained that shops should remain shut all day. This issue is clearly about more than religion.

What about families wanting to spend time with each other and preserve the ritual of Sunday in a more general sense? For many, the convenience and flexibility of additional opening hours could actually make an improvement to family time. However, the more pull factors there are to take people away from the home, the less likely the family unit will be spending the day together.

And what of those who work in the front line of the retail industry that could see themselves working long hours on a Sunday and not seeing their families at all? The retailers are assuring their workers that Sunday working will remain voluntary and choosing not to work will not be frowned upon, but will this last in the long-term?

What about the inconsistency across other sectors? No-one seems to care about the retail workers in train-stations, airports or motorway service stations – we expect these shops to be open on Sundays. And, what about workers in the leisure industry? It’s fine for them to work on a Sunday isn’t it, or how would we partake in the Sunday rituals of visiting a museum, going out for a meal or early morning exercising at the gym?

Then there’s the economic viewpoint. Additional trading hours have been proven to increase revenues for retailers in the run up to Christmas and in one-off holidays, but will that really remain true for every Sunday over time to cover the increased operational costs? If it is beneficial to retailers, do consumers really need to be spending even more of their hard-earned cash in this time of austerity. Perhaps watching the pennies would be more sensible? At least the increased hours should increase employment for the retailers and also ancillary services around the stores.

For me, all of these considerations are irrelevant. The horse has already bolted – opening for six hours on a Sunday already impacts far more on all of the above than opening a bit earlier and staying open a little later. Also, the web already offers 24/7 shopping, so people can already shop as early or as late as they like on a Sunday.

I believe that the freedom of choice should lie with the consumer and those who work in the service industry should be ready to serve when it suits their customer. We’re all so busy these days and increasing the overall time available to shop should save time by reducing busyness and queuing. We should be able to spend our evenings, weekends and even Sunday mornings using retail services if we want to. I just wish someone would tell this to the banking sector!

In our office at least, the debate rages on…

Adam Tregaskis
The Market Creative

Under The Market group, the Market Family will be dedicated to bringing brands closer to the family market. Jo Whitby, ex-McCann-Erickson, has been working on family brands for the last five years and has been appointed to lead the new division.

The Market Family is set to challenge the traditional agency model by offering a new and unique way of working, which ensures that all work delivered has been through the Family Approval process, which includes:

Family Principles – a set of guiding principles developed by working with families, which campaigns, packaging and any brand materials can be appraised by.

The Family Panel – a ready-made test panel of 12, including healthcare professionals, parents and experts.

Family Pre-testing – focus group qualitative research for pre-market testing by specialists.

As part of the launch activity, a new website has been developed for The Market Family at themarketfamily.co.uk

Sue Benson, managing director says: “My vision has been to create a group of multi-audience and multi-service business units that can operate both collectively and independently. Our team has a wealth of expertise in the family market, having worked with a number of major brands from Cow & Gate and Lego to SSL children’s medicines, so a division devoted to this area was a natural choice for us.

“The Market Family will provide a niche offering to brands looking to connect at any stage of the family journey from conception to bump and birth, right through to schools years. It will redefine the way that marketers think about agency models and provide the blueprint for expansion in the future.”

The company’s existing integrated shopper marketing offering, The Market Creative will continue to service both retailers and brands. Adam Tregaskis has been appointed as account director to head this side of the business. Adam started in retail 13 years ago at GUS plc and has since worked with a number of major retailers including Magnet and Littlewoods.

For further information about The Market Creative visit themarketcreative.com

Ends

Follow us on Twitter @themarketc @themarketf

Media enquiries

Clare Schofield : Unique Creative Communications : 07792 429227 : clares@uniquecc.co.uk

Today’s report by PriceWaterhouseCooper and the Local Data Company sighting closures of high street retailers and an increase in shops offering a value product offering should come as no real surprise as the high street continues to align itself with the economic climate and the wants and needs of society. This isn’t a new trend for the high-street and change is certainly a constant of retail marketing.

Electrical stores, travel agents, books stores, furniture retails and fashion stores are all struggling and many of the multiples are consolidating the number of stores to out of town locations.

But it isn’t all doom and gloom with value retailers, top-up supermarkets, charity shops, bakers and shoe shops all opening new stores on the high street. Maybe not the most aspirational of sectors, but growth is still growth and importantly the changes reflect the areas consumers are now in need of.

This switch from premium and lifestyle purchases to focus on distressed and essential purchases will continue as the masses feel the pinch in their purses and wallets. Even the middle-classes are following suit and being frugal is seen as fashionable rather than penny-pinching.

This trend will no doubt reverse as soon as the long awaited recovery arrives. And purchases which consumers are currently delaying will be made once the financial pressure lifts.

And what would my advice be to retailers right now; well if you’re a value retailer then this is your opportunity to make hay while the sun shines – more customers are looking for a bargain so make sure you’re capitalising on this by broadening your target audience and increasing your market share. This also a good time to be reducing your overheads by negotiating on your property rent.

Whatever your business, with high street footfall down then it is vital that your website and digital offering is second to none. For commodity items, price point is key with brand-promiscuous consumers finding it easier and easier to compare costs.

For premium or lifestyle brands, then moving to out of town locations with easier access and parking will be very tempting, but if you want to make the most of your high street locations then emphasis on providing a reason to visit is key. Allowing consumers to touch, feel and interact with your product is essential and providing an engaging retail experience will draw people to your brand.

The hard times are probably here for some time to come, but the right retail environment can see you though until the good times roll again.

Adam Tregaskis

The Market Creative

The Market Creative team was briefed to develop a campaign that generates awareness for the overall Johnson’s offer as well as specific deals that are relevant to student life. In this campaign the retail estate was the bedrock of the activity.

The story begins in the retail environment where students are asked ‘however the mess gets there, Johnson’s will get it out’. Using language that’s more appropriate to the broader retail environment, but imagery that will certainly surprise and stop students the retail solution hijacks the windows. The campaign then develops when we reach the locker room when language and imagery is much more in the vernacular of students – a cheeky diversion for the brand.

Sue Benson Managing Director at The Market Creative says: “We had great fun creating this campaign. It’s a really interesting process testing a variety of copy tones that both satisfy the client and which students will respond to. Let’s face it, laundry is probably not at the top of most students ‘to do’ list – so we had to find ways to intrude their lives by replaying back some of the mischief they get in to. The campaign is a great example of using channel specific messages to engage with the audience as it spans retail, press, ambient and social media.”

Ellie Tuite-Dalton, Category Manager at Johnsons the Cleaners adds: “Although we’ve always had a student discount this is the first campaign we have done to really drive sales. The campaign also gave us an opportunity to test new technologies such as QR codes which The Market really brought to life.”

The campaign runs across all of Johnsons’ city centre Manchester stores, The Mancunion and the university sports and recreational facilities.

This report provides a snap shot of the retail winners and losers during the crucial Christmas and New Year trading period.

Considering the low levels of consumer confidence going into the period the results show a reasonably good Christmas – more winners than losers. Of course we have to ask ourselves at what cost to margin – but clearly shoppers are happy.

To download the full report click here.

The brand position “& YOU”, which expresses the unique interrelationship between Sharps and its female customers is at the heart of this multichannel campaign that covers TV, press, digital and instore. It breaks on ITV and Channel 4 on 24th December 2011 and will run throughout the critical Christmas period into January.

Sue Benson, Managing Director at The Market Creative commented: “This campaign has been a joy to work on. We’ve really been able to indulge our feminine side and develop retail work that has all the emotional and intuitive cues that women respond to, even in the dark world of mono national press. The biggest shift has been the introduction of Caroline Quentin as the voice of the TV commercial. Her delivery of the ’48 pairs of shoes… and counting’ line is rooted in a deep understanding of women’s love of shoes and therefore utterly believable.”

“The team at The Market Creative has yet again demonstrated an absolute understanding of the Sharps business and of course of the female shopper” said Tim Moore, Marketing Director at Sharps Bedrooms, “Crucially they have led the strategic development process that has focused the brand around Service, Storage, Space & Style – a platform that is now used across our entire business. In this campaign they have created the perfect balance of brand messaging with direct response drivers that will be needed to be successful during what’s predicted to be a tough Christmas for all retailers.”

The campaign will also feature the new Sharps brand identity, which was also developed by The Market Creative and has already been unveiled in its retail channel. The evolutionary approach to the identity was developed to give the brand a softer more feminine feel whilst retaining much of its equity.

This is the first major campaign since Sharps Bedrooms broke away from Homeform Group, and this new single brand focus has really facilitated the shift towards more female centric activity.

Media enquiries
For further comments please contact Clare Schofield at clares@uniquecc.co.uk or 07792 429227