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Suzannah C.
🚀 Tech Co-Founder | Growth Marketing & Merchandising Expert | GPT & Web 3.0 Advocate | NoCode Innovator 🌐︎
Suzannah Cranwell is a professional with a focus on creating and enhancing relationships to ensure long-term business success. She excels in both B2B and B2C environments, leveraging her expertise in behavioral research, trading, merchandising, and business strategy to optimize customer experiences. Suzannah's approach emphasizes leveraging emotions, needs, and desires for brand engagement while aligning with business objectives for profitability. Her skill set includes identifying core consumers, defining brand purpose, analyzing emotional drivers and behaviors, and optimizing product positioning. With a background that includes roles at Holland and Barrett, Wiggle, and Pantofola d’Oro, Suzannah has proven success in sales, profitability, and conversion.
Highlights
It's been a bumper week for Next 🚀 It's evidence that success is what happens when you have a leader who knows importance of simplicity in navigating challenges 👏 I've pulled together an article which gives headline observations of how Lord Wolfson's approach has been a steadying force during some wonky retail times. Plus there's a useful blurb on how you can learn and apply the 'simplicity' mindset to your own life. Enjoy. 👀
Next | Marks and Spencer | Reiss | FatFace
#ukretail #ecommerce #marketing #highstreet #businessdevelopment #leadership
Boom! A lesson in lateral thinking by Lord Wolfson 🤓 This is what happens when you're faced with a challenge and you don't overcomplicate it 👇
Lord Wolfson cited Next's success being due to: "Exceeding the expectations of our existing customers and attracting customers who, until now, might have thought that the Next brand was not for them."
Let's focus on the last bit. And how Lord Wolfson attracted said non-Next customers.
He didn't try to convince them otherwise. And spend a tonne of cash on an overpriced marketing campaign.
Nope. He figured that if they didn't like the Next brand, then so be it.
He'd just buy other brands.
Boom! Problem solved.
What's more, buying brands gives Next returns that are about more than just customer acquisition. Quoting Fortune:
"[Next] has been on an acquisitive streak in recent years, buying brands including FatFace, Joules, Cath Kidston, and Made. The company also has control over UK fashion house Reiss."
It gives Next double bubble.
First, per the intro part of this post, it makes Next attractive to customers that didn't think that the Next brand was for them.
Which to be clear, it still isn't... Technically. But the brands that Next stocks are.
Second, buying brands means that Next has dibs in both sides of the the supplier / retailer relationship.
Which is where I'll focus from hereon in.
The most obvious win here is that if (for example) FatFace increases its cost price, Next both wins and loses. As in, it can balance the books as much as possible. A cost on one side is a gain on the other. (I know I'm massively simplifying the money-go-round).
And maybe (speculative obv), Next can give brands leeway with payment terms. Given they'd be shooting themselves in the foot if their buy negatively / fatally impacted the brand's cashflow. They can directly control the oxygen that's keeping their supplier network alive.
Next also gets double bubble on any brand marketing spend. Because if FatFace increases its profile by spending cash on FatFace marketing, customers will find their way to Next.
Quite handy when reviewing marketing budgets. FatFace can spend on brand, with Next shouldering some (but not all) cost. Then Next can just focus budget on faster transactional return activities such as Google Ads / Shopping.
Finally (and possibly my favourite because it's proper management of stock cover to ensure a healthy final sale price), Next can also support FatFace with physical distribution.
Which means tunnelling product from high cover / slow moving locations into stores that have a higher rate-of-sale.
The benefit here is that Next can keep the stock moving for the brand, increasing sell-through and reducing overstock items. Items which would either end-up on sale or being written-off.
Kudos to the team at Next 👏
https://lnkd.in/eq5M48cp
Marks and Spencer | FatFace | Cath Kidston | Reiss
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Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
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