Books: How shopkeepers got the upper hand
True, retailers are putting the squeeze on producers, but this book underplays the binding spell of brands, says Rita Clifton.
This is an interesting concept for a book for several reasons. Some years ago, I remember interviewing someone who was looking to move from retail. At the time, I was working with a quite traditional FMCG company and it was obvious that it would have to up its pace and develop deeper customer relationships to survive.
It would have been a good idea if someone from the more brutal world of retail marketing were to put a metabolic firework in the traditional marketing sphere. However, the recruitment traffic was still going from FMCG to retail then and you saw how quickly recruits became 'retailised' - or died.
In fact, the best retailers have been great at 'brandisation' and have profited from that in every sense. That few packaged goods brands have had the energy to push the other way makes retailisation a potentially important subject.
