Red Communication Australia in Pennant Hills, New South Wales, Australia | Advertising/marketing

Red Communication Australia

Locality: Pennant Hills, New South Wales, Australia

Phone: +61 2 9481 7215 or +61 410 408 723

Address: 25 Clement Close Pennant Hills 2120 Pennant Hills, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.redcommunication.com

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25.01.2022 The Shakeout Continues WOW! the consumer electronics and electrical store chain fails. WOW! Another one bites the dust. Predicted by many and not the last to fail in that category. Dick Smith Electronics is up for sale. Harvey Norman is being pounded by critical commentary. Even JB Hi-Fi the market darling has been hit by comparative store losses and profit downgrades. And we haven’t seen the last of the pain in this category as the stresses of change and re-alignment man...Continue reading

19.01.2022 Dobbing On Woolworths & Coles. So the ACCC is calling for ‘anonymous’ claims of Woolworths and Coles using unconscionable behavior in their treatment of suppliers in negotiations. What a monumental waste of time. While nobody would support anything other than punishment to the full extent of the law should Woolworths, Coles or any retailer be found guilty of doing anything illegal, I would be very surprised if either of the two retail giants of Australia went anywhere near ...Continue reading

14.01.2022 Why Should A Landlord Subsidise Your Commercial Suicide? So according to the angle being pushed by some right now, physical retail is mortally wounded and the blame should be laid to rest fairly and squarely on the shoulders of shopping centre landlords. It is morally wrong somehow that they should enforce the terms of the legal instruments that were signed by retailers with the help of their own independent legal advisers. The practice of these landlords has somehow contribu...Continue reading

08.01.2022 Turning Physical Stores Into iPads! It amazes me the naivety of so many retailers in their knee jerk adoption of technology. Normally operating as Luddites, they delay and delay and delay and then, at the last possible moment and under extreme duress, they embrace whatever the most aggressive technology vendor thrusts at them as the solution to all their woes. Integrated retail strategy what’s that? Re-thought consumer-surround business model come again?... The latest gob-smacking development is how many retailers are adopting in-store touch-screen technology that allows the customer to stand in their store and order online either because the item is out of stock or was never ranged in the store in the first place. The customers are offered in-store or home delivery options and find not only is the store’s entire range available online but an extended range is also available online. This poorly thought through customer experience initiative does nothing more than relegate the store experience to a training ground for why the customer shouldn’t bother going to the store because it will be so much easier online. The logic will be argued around new customers or leakage they can gain and the cost of doing business savings potential in an e-commerce model and reduction in front line store labour costs. What the arguments discount of course is the committed costs of operating the store footprint with less and less foot-traffic and the fact that these retailers will set themselves up for a transparent (and technology enabled) price comparison with competitors which will inevitably be lost to the biggest, ugliest, scariest online global retail bully in the world retail playground. It is always interesting to look at the winners in the current environment and how they deploy technology. Most of them do it in a way that the in-store customer doesn’t even recognise. Ted Baker stores for example just take immersive whimsy and go to town with it. Technology is used in a hidden way for customer recognition and efficiency. Even Apple Stores - the current temple of technology make the store experience about what you can’t get online not what you can. The Genius Bar and lots of evangelically infectious advice and assistance drive a physical experience that sees queues at the door before the store opens. Louis Vuitton is about touching the physical merchandise not looking at it on a screen that would be far more comfortable and easily accessed in the intimacy of my home or favourite café. Technology in retail is both necessary and the enabler of amazing productivity gains that can benefit both retailer and customer. But the naïve application of technology can hasten the demise of retailers who were once seen as heroes. This year, watch closely as some very obvious examples rollout before your very eyes and the results will be extremely fast and very ugly. Think before you leap!

07.01.2022 I Have Seen The Future And It Lives In Melbourne. Amongst all the propaganda, agendas and poor strategic decision-making in retail today, it is wonderful when you come across a diamond in the rough that points to a bright future for our industry in the not too far distant future. Make Designed Objects a Melbourne based ‘blended multi-channel’, designer home-ware retail business is a glowing example of this. Make opened its doors in 2003 in Carlton. They combined store and...Continue reading

06.01.2022 Neighbourhood Pop-Up. I read an article recently on the website Trend Central which outlined a fantastic case study about a neighbourhood in Oakland California that had been fundamentally transformed by a new form of pop-up retail called PopUpHood. Basically the idea was a collaborative community engagement that saw an area under stress completely revitalised through retail. The plan was to gather a group of unique, interesting and passionate retailers together into a strip..., to offer them free rent for six months and to mutually pursue attracting visitors through dynamic magnetism, social media and word of mouth. The retailers were all like-minded, mainly start-ups or independent entrepreneurs looking to sell differentiated products and services on everything but discounts. It has been a phenomenal success at transforming an entire community. Part of the problem for new entrepreneurs in our contemporary era is the competitive context in which they often find themselves, having to fight on attributes they are ill equipped to compete on. This idea ensures a collaborative context where retailers share a vision and the customers they attract (and the mind set with which they shop) are in alignment. This is an idea that could foster the renaissance of unique Australian retail in hubs like Sydney’s Paddington that are dying rapidly. The only problem as I see it will be getting the landlords to unite in a strip or neighbourhood in a way that facilitates it. However, commercial pain may take care of that issue. For as we all know, even the most intransigent landlord has a way of rationalising the medicine that is forced upon them for a disease that is rapidly deteriorating from a conceptual diagnosis to agonising symptoms. Think of an area like Paddington back to its bohemian roots and weeded of any bland, repetitive national chains or commoditised discounters. A mix of interesting owner / operators each with fascinating and romantic stories; experiential stores; and unique merchandise. A hub that attracts people who love to shop for something magical while drawn to the social hub that makes it a real connection point. PopUpHood sounds like a great way not only to re-set a local community but a way to re-set grass roots Australian retail. In the new era we won’t be able to compete with big international retail businesses on price. We won’t be able to compete with them by following globally packaged trends. But we will win in the politically contrived world of open market competition through what makes us in the words of Jack Trout better and different in the hearts and minds of the customer. PopUpHoods could be the start of something big.

04.01.2022 Interest Rates On The Increase? It appears when it comes to the RBA mandated Cash Rate, many bank economists and media commentators sound increasingly like they were trained by Centrebet rather than in how monetary policy works and comprehension of the data that supports RBA movements. Indeed many of them have become lobbyists for a point of view rather than analysts of the data. The undeniable facts of the matter are that Australia is in a golden era again relative to ou...r international competitors. We have full employment for our model. Household income is at a record level and continues to grow. Consumption is up by more than seven per cent retail (both store and non-store combined) up by three per cent to a record high in aggregate dollars taken at the tills (rolling MAT & same month this year basis). Despite the negativity of media and politics we are in a pretty good place. All of the real numbers (as opposed to predictions) are positive, so the pressure is not on an interest decrease but an interest rate increase. This is a good thing for capital inflows to Australia. The RBA is careful and considered. Something the doomsayers and monetary policy lobbyists are not. The RBA considers the actual numbers and the full context of all aspects of the economy, the likely scenarios that may arise and the knock-on effects of any move they make. They are also aware that the monetary policy instrument that is the Cash Rate is becoming an increasingly less meaningful tool in practical application, but a more powerful tool in propaganda terms. Their movements create headlines and influence business and political sentiment. Consumer sentiment is meaningless in retail as people spend money regardless as has been amply proven over the past decade. But business and political sentiment are critical as they affect decision-making. Decision-making that changes competitive context and often delivers self-fulfilling prophecy. Retailers that focus on the things they can affect are the ones that adapt and prosper in an ever-changing market context. The retailers that are pre-occupied with using the RBA Cash Rate, exchange rates, consumer sentiment, the Zeitgeist and tea leaves as excuses for why their business failures are not their fault are deluding themselves and nobody else. Australia is THE place to be right now. But the world we compete in has changed and will always change. You may not be able to affect the context regardless of what the social media comment strings may lead you to believe but you can effect how you react to that context. As Charles Darwin is quoted as saying It is not strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one who is most adaptable to change.

03.01.2022 Worst Christmas At Retail in 34 Years Bah Humbug!!! I woke up to be bombarded by headlines in every major main media that we had just witnessed the worst Christmas at retail in 34 years. Very scary indeed if it were true. The truth if anyone is interested in hearing it is the opposite. According to the most recently released official ABS All Retail Sales data, December 2011 was actually three percent better than December 2010 in physical retail. In addition, online re...Continue reading