THE GLOBAL PHENONEMA THAT IS HITTING HOME.
THERE IS ONE thing that the pandemic has shown us, home is where the heart is.
Despite lockdowns of outrageous durations, the loyalty to local store has grown exponentialy.
It has shown to large corporations that the retail lifeline, the rope holding the customer to retailer, is not just driving through heavy media campaigns and multi-media branding. Sure that gives strong support, but what about the coal face, the front line, the real-time data that shows a myriad of valuable insights to drive further sales.
Local for too long has been placed third or fourth by many retailers in the media mix.
We are not talking the corner store quarter page ad in the local suburban newspaper. We are not talking the mail drop leaflet with magnetic fridge magnet.
We are talking people. People are your greatest asset, your local customers.
In the late 80s the local suburban store knew their customers, and well.
It was a close family. Then came the mass media age and the heavy artillery of multi-media campaigns took over. In some ways the local store was left to fight with what they had.
LONG LIVE THE LOCAL STORE!
Then online took over the assault, and when local was still working through the battle plan, online stole billions of customer transactions from brick and mortar stores each week!