With thanks to Kevin Coupe
Thanks to the MNB reader who referred me to a Wall Street Journal piece from over the weekend that I’d missed - an interview with Ira Neimark, the 90-year-old former CEO of Bergdorf Goodman. Neimark talked about lessons he learned over the course of his career, several of which I think are hugely applicable to retailers of any stripe. Among them:
“Customers are always looking for something new to make their lives a bit more exciting, no matter what age or gender, in good times or bad.” These days would certainly seem to qualify as tough times, and yet many people remain aspirational, looking for even the smallest of indulgences that can lift their spirits. For some, it is an iPhone 4S, for others it is a gourmet hamburger. But it seems clear to me that catering to the lowest common denominator is no way to generate the highest possible sales.
“Always take the opportunity to visit every business that relates to your own.” This includes competitive websites. You have no idea, for example, how many people I talk to in the supermarket business who do not know that Amazon.com is in the grocery business, have never gone on Amazon’s grocery pages, and/or have never ordered groceries from Amazon. God luck competing under those circumstances.
”There is no question, in any business, that it is imperative to know as much as possible about your present and potential customer.” Neimark says that he is an enormous proponent of an MBWA degree - Management By Walking Around.” Focus groups, he suggests, is like “kissing a girl through the screen door.”
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