the BIG interview
‘There are opportunities for good retail to shine through’
Panasonic UK marketing director David Preece gave his thoughts on the UK retail picture when he met with Gregor Muir at the Panasonic Convention 2017
H
aving been in the industry for a quarter of a century, Panasonic UK marketing director David
Preece is excited by the opportunities presented by new product development, but believes some of the old adages remain most important. “It's all about customer engagement,” he
says. “The opportunities to be creative as a dealer, in the end, translate into value at the shop front. “My first role in Panasonic was in musical instruments, establishing music schools to combat a swiftly declining organ market. The dealers that survived and, in fact, thrived, were the dealers that ran a music school. My first role with the company, a long time ago, was to establish 25 music schools – we ended up with 15,000 students shuttling in and out of the dealers, providing footfall, ongoing lesson fees, accessory purchases, and then the opportunity to engage with the customer over a long period of time and then trade them up through genuine need. It’s those types of programs that independents need to start thinking about.”
Some retailers are having a
great time of it at the moment, and it’s typically the ones that are doing something different, being creative and inspiring consumers
While musical instruments may be a foreign
market for many traditional electrical retailers, crossovers with other product sectors where hobbyists reign supreme are clear to see. “If you’re going to sell cameras, are you
going to have a box on a shelf, or are you going to sell the dream of photography?” David asks. “The two are completely different. You’re selling passion, the output, which is a creative and engaging activity. By running events where you teach people how to use cameras properly, you’re giving people the tools to have better enjoyment of a product. When they get better enjoyment from a product, they’re more
8 |
www.innovativeelectricalretailing.co.uk
comfortable, and they invest more time and money in it.” He expands: “You increasingly
need to have experiential stuff in store – a juice bar in store maybe sounds crazy but it’s not, because it’s all about engagement with the products. One of our big areas of growth is beauty care. I’ve been engaging with a couple of retailers who want to put a salon in store. Some of the retailers I’m talking to have already got coffee shops in store. That’s footfall, that’s profit, that’s margin. Take our beauty care products; the independent channel in days gone by would have turned its back on the shaver market because they saw a £19.99 or a £29.99 shaver. We’re now shipping premium anti-aging products that cost £149 or £199. They’re more considered purchases, and purchases that benefit from a bit of time and relaxation whilst you’re in the buying environment.”
‘Smart home is a fantastic opportunity’ Perhaps the most natural opportunity to leverage the advantages of bricks and mortar retail is in smart home. “It’s about imagination,” David says. “Smart home is a fantastic opportunity for indies because the best way to demonstrate a smart home product is to set it up properly and put it into action. A multiple can’t do that, independents can. That’s what we’re finding – any retailer that can provide that proper demonstration is converting. Indies should be thinking in that way – ‘What have I got to offer that multiples can’t do?’ Smart home is a good example. However the multiples try, they’re not going to roll out 300 proper home monitoring systems, whereas indies can do it.” The smart home market is likely to increase dramatically in the coming months and years, David believes. “We’re going to see an explosion of consumer smart anyway,” he explains. “That will be driven by devices like Amazon Echo, where very quickly consumers’ expectations of how they control their devices will change, and that will give the consumer market a huge opportunity, as well as driving
value through business to business. House construction will start to change in terms of the way energy is provided to the home, but also the way that the home will become controllable as one seamless ecosystem, which is the target in the end - heating, lighting, consumer electronics devices, AV, vehicles, all controllable as one harmonious ecosystem. That is where it is going, and for technology companies that’s exciting. “In retail, I think it would be foolish to ignore that market. Customers will very quickly start to have expectations around that, and things like voice control and interoperability across platforms is going to drive a lot of value. Seamless operation will explode in the next couple of years, and then expectations will quickly change.” He continues: “The younger generation
already expects everything to be done via their smartphone. That’s the future generation of customers that we need to be thinking about how we service, as a channel. The younger generation want to be entertained, so the more engaging the retail environment, the better for that age group. It’s going to be even more important for retailers to have a store where someone from that younger generation is going to get a lot of value from learning about the possibilities of the technology. “Connected home will offer huge value.
Consumers will start to expect it. Once you start to shift to controlling your home in a different way, the demand for future devices will go up. And the guy who has introduced them to that, they’re probably going to come back, because they’ve had a pleasurable experience that’s created value in their lives. They’ll come back for more.”
‘We’re backing the real deal, OLED’ Offering advice and excellent customer service remain core competencies for retailers,
March 2017
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32
