“Planning Matters”
Merchandise Planning blog by Susan Martin
Perspective | Insights | Observations
Susan’s passion for Planning is matched by her passion for people. Currently running her own company –SMART IN PLANNING– providing consultancy and learning solutions, she enjoys helping businesses maximise their sales and profit through optimising their stock, while developing Planning talent.
A series of “mini blogs” in the format of PLANNING POSTCARDS.
Series 3 - An “even newer” Series
From July and August 2021, with NSW back in extended lockdowns.
A series of “mini blogs” in the format of PLANNING POSTCARDS.
Series 2 - The Summer Series
Released through December 20 and January 2021, almost a full year on from the start of the pandemic.
A series of “mini blogs” in the format of PLANNING POSTCARDS.
Series 1 - The Covid Series
Messages shared through March and April of 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic was unfolding across the globe.
What's really better? A glass half full or a glass half empty? We are conditioned to think the optimistic, and preferable, view is half full.
A Merchandise Planner's job is to consider perspective and context - and that might shed an entirely different light on this default thinking.
Among the jargon that is particular to the Retail industry, are clichés that are almost hard coded into our thinking.
Let’s put a few of our old favourites under the microscope to see if they are
a) tried and true,
b) old thinking that is holding us back, or
c) ripe to be reinvented with new purpose.
It’s intoxicating! What’s not to love about sales growth?
There’s an electricity in the office when things are up; even the weekly Trade meeting is a joy.
But there’s more to growth than high-fiving at the water cooler … Growth in Retail has many faces.
Take a poll on what Merchandise Planning is and does, and you’ll have your work cut out for you interpreting the responses. I’ve seen and heard many descriptions, most falling short of the true power of Planning.
My mantra “Planning as it should be” is about unlocking that potential.
These 6 P’s explore the less obvious nuances of Merchandise Planning.
At this pivotal time, one of the most powerful factors influencing how the new financial year will start, is how this financial year is going to end.
The closing stock of one time period becomes the opening stock of the next.
This means that how we finish up FY19 is vitally important to how we start FY20;
and how we finish FY19 is directly linked to what we do right now.
Now that we’ve settled down to a panic since my last blog topic, we can start to consider what needs to happen before the end of this financial year.
A Review is a good place to start – an assessment of past performance to gain insights and learnings. What I’ve observed is how many businesses do this step, tick the box and leave it there, without actively translating it into a Preview – an extrapolation of those insights, combined with direction, interpreted into a strategy.
I hope this title freaked you out just a little bit; gave you a fleeting sensation of “Sunday night feeling”.
Why? Because I want you to win in FY20. Perhaps enjoy a level of success you have not achieved before. And that type of success requires action … now.
We are probably all familiar with the Big Bang theory of evolution.
Restated in novice (likely inaccurate terms) - a random collection of unrelated stuff coming together and transforming into something meaningful.
Here follows a recent experience which prompted me to consider a Big Bang model of consumer behaviour.