Musings from Dennis #13: The Takashimaya men’s buyer in charge of the upcoming Golf Fair and I discussed our game plan for his upcoming 10,000sqft golf sales event at the basement of the department store. How nice to re-create some of that green by installing grass-green carpeting across the entire floorplan, even cutting a sassy “GOLF FAIR” copy into the carpet, how cool it would be? After all we had good offers, price-offs and discounts and even a virtual golf driving range to create interest. It would just drive sales further! But a few days into the sale, we noticed that sales were not as expected and we decided to investigate. Overlooking this Basement 2 event hall from a floor above, we leaned over the parapet and spent a good 30 minutes to observe. Oh no, customers were entering the sales area in droves, but once they hit the green carpet, their pace began to slow down as if they had entered a garden and began to stroll! We noticed no urgency to make purchases and many strolled out! Little did we realise until then that shopping is psychological and customers are influenced by a variety of factors to help them make that purchase (mostly on impulse). That’s it, from now on it is red carpeting preferred (creates a sense of urgency and importance). Use green carpeting for your events at your own sales risk, folks!
The Real Team
Musings from Dennis #12: In my late 20’s and working at Sentosa Island Singapore (no mobile or cellphones, no social media, no internet, just a pager!), I learnt an important lesson to recognize all my co-workers as equals. I used to simply write an order form to get plants from the nursery or indent more security personnel for our planned events, or get more garbage bins to cater for the incoming crowds. And I expected all these to be fulfilled to the tee. They all were but once ever so often, I needed more plants because the stage needed that much more and so on – and a call for help would be met with ‘but you did not order so my hands are tied’. I began to recognize that these colleagues were all important, despite being invisible to everyone else. Now filled forms came with face-to-face explanation on what we needed and why, so there is context to the work. Saying hello to everyone and being friendly even to the monorail train operators. And offers of help came when I really needed them, especially those last-minute ones. It was wonderful that my colleagues really represented the multiracial fabric that is Singapore. Of course, now after the main party was done, there’s the ‘after-party’ where we ordered extra food for the teams and event swags were shared freely!
Who Do You Work For?
Musings from Dennis #11: Who do you work for? When I was at Takashimaya Singapore as the Shopping Centre promotions manager, had to attend a compulsory afternoon training session organized by the HR dept for Managers and above. The trainer asked us all a question right from the get go: Who do you work for? Most of us replied that we worked for Takashimaya. Wrong he said. We work FOR ourselves only. And we work WITH Takashimaya to produce the results it expects. We bring to our employer our skillsets, experience etc and in turn they bring to us our renumeration like salary, benefits, and work exposure and opportunities to learn etc. It did change my perspective on work till today. Gone are those thoughts that tell me to end work on time (quiet quitting?) because the time I spend at work benefits just one person – ME. Clearly, I have gained, almost 30 years down to the road to where I am today.
Responsibility & Integrity
Musings
from Dennis #10: I was taken aback. I knew for sure that he did not brief our
creative director on the staging backdrop requested for by the Singapore mall 3
weeks back. Yet in this meeting where I was just the retail manager (in my
early 40’s) while he was the marketing manager and the executive in charge, he
apologized to the mall marketing team but put the blame entirely on the
creative director who did not deliver on time! He also said he would brief his
secretary on next steps but we don’t have such a person, just a shared
coordinator resource. Clearly his ego and superiority complex kicked in. Wouldn’t
it be honest and professional to just apologise for the misstep and take
corrective and immediate action? People will respect you for it.
Analyse until paralyse?
Musings
from Dennis #9: my South East Asia SVP was adamant we follow through with our
Mickey retail marketing plans and expressed to me, that time just an Asst
Manager: "Dennis sometimes we need to shoot first then aim later! I don't
agree with your boss.. She cannot analyse until she's paralysed!" Looking
back I can see truth in that statement!
Your Legacy
Musings from Dennis #8: Just saw this on screen.. “If you don’t support John McCain’s funeral, when you die, the public will come to your grave and piss on it.” – John Kelly. While many of us try to separate work and personal life, it is nearly impossible to not be the same seamless person between the two. So what kind of legacy do you want to leave behind among your co-workers, clients and partners?
Customer shopping behaviours
Musings from Dennis #7: Customers are creatures of habit especially when they shop. They will browse through a section of merchandise in a specific way all the time (you did not know that did you?). This was something I learnt years ago when our Disney licensee was able to report good sell-through from his allocated gondola fixture at a pop-up shop despite the mall being located where only office workers (the same ones everyday) would frequent and only during lunch time. He revealed that he keeps switching the same merchandise from front to back, left to right, low to high and back – every couple of days. This way when the same customer comes to view the display, she (mostly young moms) feels that she is seeing a new item on sale – but truthfully it’s just the same goods. It takes time and trouble to get this done but hey the results are there! Something to share for those of us in physical retail. I believe the same could be done in e-commerce too.
Your Personal Brand
Musings from Dennis #6: How does your personal brand look like? What do people say about you behind your back? And if you lived a good number of decades, do the people in different stages of your life say the same thing about you despite not knowing each other? I don’t agree that personal brand includes work skillsets. It is more of who you are to co-workers, clients, anyone – even the janitor that cleans up your event after it is over. Your attributes that make you you. “Oh she’s a kind person who looks out after you”.. “oh he always keeps his word”.. “oh he’s a cowboy, don’t trust a thing he promises!” “Oh he looks at status, if you are a low ranking staff, be sure she will ignore you” “Oh he is always saying no, can’t be done or she is one of the most positive “can do” people around”. More than the positive things people say about you now, but over the years do you hear the same thing spoken about you from different people in varying distinct stages of your life?” It's not too late to change if the feedback is not quite what you want to read on your epitaph. Quite a few senior people I know only care about their own superiors and those of their same (lofty) titles and treat the lower rung poorly. It just so happens when I joined my current company nearly 10 years ago that I heard of a VP who left the company and the team actually held a celebration of her departure. At the same time my most recent boss who left some years back is someone I would dearly miss. Tough but always looking out for her staff and showing she absolutely cares. You see long after you think you made a difference, people are not going to remember you for what you did but for who you are. Heaven smiles on such people.
Understanding the Supply Chain
Musings from Dennis #5: It is always good to meet partners like retailers and licensees knowing something about the supply chain – how the goods travel from factory to port to store to shelf and how the pricing structure get stacked from FOB to the final retail price you see on the tag. Early days in licensing I got bluffed a lot. A Singapore buyer once insisted we reduce our royalties so that they can get a better margin from one of our licensees. This licensee cleverly shifted the ‘blame’ onto us while wanting to keep his wholesale price. Of course I was wounded after that attack (buyer was shouting, how rude) and only found out later that our royalty component was tiny compared to both of their margins! These days if I get challenged again, I will ask for both of us to bring out our calculators! Not that same stupid man anymore.
Get It Right The First Time
Musings
from Dennis #4: In my late 20’s and then working at Pico Art Int’l, a design
and exhibition company, based in the events dept – was still feeling my way
around with work ethos and client servicing - and proposals and decks for
clients. Boss checked my work and because this happened more than once said
“Hey Dennis thought about getting it right the first time?” (I felt like that
school kid who hastily hands in his class assignment without first checking for
all those careless mistakes) – Got it Sam, I said .. got it to this day
The Silent Salesperson
Musing from Dennis #3: That humble Point of Sale signage in the store accompanying your product display. It can do wonders for you once you realise it’s your ‘silent salesperson’. Potential customers look at the messaging and needs to be drawn in immediately. You got 10 seconds to attract the attention with the offer, then another 10 seconds to drive him or her to make the purchasing decision (remember most purchases are impulse and unplanned and no brand loyalty exists at POS). Yet many signages fail on the get go. Too wordy, offer is not stated upfront but right at the end of the super long sentence, font too small, bad handwriting (type and print is the best) (seen those tiring shopping mall signages that mall marketeers just want to say everything and jam all the info into tiny fontsize copy to the reader?). Remember, 20 seconds – or you lose that customer.
Licensing vs Franchising
Musings from Dennis #2: If someone comes up to you and asked you about "what’s the difference between Licensing and Franchising", can you in layman terms (no googling!) explain to him or her the difference and then use local examples to illustrate? After I did, I realized I really love the world of Licensing!
Mascot vs Character
Musings
from Dennis #1: How many people in the character IP industry still cannot tell
apart a mascot from a Character? I get so frustrated trying to tell people in
my Disney days that no, Mickey is NOT a mascot unless he represents Disneyland.
Neither is Chase or Marshall or SpongeBob in my current job at Paramount