Think Retail

At the end of every year, it’s tradition to reflect on the things we’ve loved, hated, and what we’re looking forward to for the coming year. 2020 was obviously pretty unusual, and although 2021 promises to be an improvement, it will also certainly be a year to remember. Today, I’m talking to some designers and thinkers from the SLD team about trends in design, technology, marketing, and culture –...

TikTok and Snapchat, Google’s antitrust lawsuit, AOC versus Zuckerberg, it seems like every day there’s a new factor that could change digital marketing, making it a moving target for brand marketers. With so much to stay up to date on, it can be hard to know where to focus your efforts. Luckily, our guest today lives and breathes the world of digital marketing. Martin Waxman is a digital and soci...

The word transformation gets bounced around a lot, and like any other word that starts to become part of our marketing vernacular, it can start to lose its true meaning. That being said, when it comes to what’s happening in the world of retail banking, there really isn’t a better word to describe what’s going on. For banks leading this revolution, we’re seeing fundamental shifts in their model tha...

One of the buzziest and most debated tech terms of the last 5 to 10 years is  artificial intelligence . To start off with, what does the term artificial intelligence actually mean? If you just Google “define artificial intelligence,” you’ll discover that even computer scientists and engineers don’t entirely agree on what to call everything that fits under the AI umbrella. And when it comes to...

What was your first job? Mine was as a teller at a big box store and there’s a very good chance your first job was also in retail. Maybe you were a busboy at a restaurant, or you bagged groceries or sold shoes at the mall. The retail industry is massive. In the U.S. one in four jobs are retail jobs. And yet working in retail is often seen as a default, not a choice to be lauded.    Today...

Digital transformation was something retail organizations and financial institutions were already talking about before COVID hit. The pandemic has accelerated the trend and brought with it more challenges that were not anticipated. While brands have adopted many makeshift processes and systems to address these needs, companies are now wondering what’s going to stick after the pandemic. Today, our...

Any branded environment tells a story and a big part of that story is visual. Today, we’re talking to Cybelle Jones , CEO of SEGD , a not-for-profit professional organization for designers from all over the world who focus on shaping content-rich experiential spaces. Trained as an architect, she’s worked on many projects that involve historical and cultural environments such as galleries and museu...

As disruption from the pandemic rises and falls in waves around the globe, retail brands are pivoting their business to try and make up for related sales losses. Many brands were in good shape to manage this with robust digital and omnichannel ecosystems already in place. Many luxury brands, however, were not as well prepared. Heavily reliant on an in-store, really personal customer experience mod...

Today, we’re talking about cash. Is it going to go away completely? Is it unhygienic? Should retailers still allow cash payments, or is it okay to push consumers towards cards and digital-only? Today, our President Jean-Pierre Lacroix is talking to David Fagleman, Director at Enryo, a consultancy firm in the UK that helps support financial services in times of change. Hosted on Acast. Se...

Brainstorming is a practice that most businesses need to employ from time to time, but it’s not as simple as just getting a bunch of people together with a whiteboard and some sticky notes. It’s a real skill. It requires a lot of preparation, guidance, structure and a plan. You need to be able to help the team focus but also be creative. Brainstorming sessions can be invigorating and exciting, if...

For sports teams, the brand is everything, it’s massive. Fan behavior in which individuals feel their own self-identity is intertwined with a team, even to the extent that the team’s performance is felt on a deeply personal level, has been widely studied by psychologists and academics and has driven sales of billions of dollars of merchandise around the world. But relying on diehard fans for sales...

We all know COVID has changed the game for many retail categories. Some have been obvious winners and others are feeling extremely strained. For the fashion industry, some are saying the pandemic may be a day of reckoning. Today, we’re talking to iconic Canadian fashion designer,  David Dixon , and his brother, interior designer,  Glenn Dixon  about the silver lining and how smart b...

The perks of operating your own independent business are often outweighed by the enormous burdens that come along with it. You become a de facto marketer, administrator, HR specialist. You work incredibly long hours and no matter what category you’re in, you’re facing increasing competition, both for clients and talent from larger organizations. For the  Canadian Orthodontic Partners , the bu...

Design Thinking is a term that many of us have heard, but what exactly does it mean, and how can financial brands benefit from this approach? Today we’re speaking with  Janet Jones , a design thinker with an incredible range of experience in design, strategy, and innovation about design thinking for financial brands. Janet’s experience includes 25 years of interior design, as well as working...

In the financial industry, security is paramount. As the world moves online and technology becomes more sophisticated, so do hackers and scams. The advantages of leveraging technology have just skyrocketed with the impact of COVID-19, but preventing systems breaches can make the difference between customer loyalty and customer attrition. In China, biometric security is rapidly being adopted as a s...

As cannabis legalization sweeps through North America there’s been a corresponding race for brands entering the market in what has amounted to a gold rush turn green. And Organigram is one such brand, they’ve been in the market from the time that medical cannabis became legal in Canada in 2013 and they now offer a range of brands including that medical line Organigram, and recreational lines Ediso...

A field of study that previously was seen as something of an academic niche is now emerging as a key tool that can help brands not only stay relevant, but if leveraged to its full extent, can even help them leapfrog ahead and become leaders. That field is strategic foresight and future studies. Today, we’re talking to Foresight Strategist Robert Bolton to understand exactly what strategi...

In this episode,  Jean-Pierre Lacroix , President of SLD speaks with Manpreet Juneja, a Design Strategist at SLD about a  study we recently conducted  on the subject of future readiness and strategic foresight. The study asked brands to consider the subject of the future and how well prepared they think their organization is to cope with change. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privac...

With economies in a fragile state due to COVID-19, many are wondering what Q2 and Q3 will look like, or if they’re even going to have a job. Retail brands that have incorporated AI are faring better. Today we speak with Max Peiro, CEO of Re-Hub about how Chinese companies have used innovation to get through this difficult time, and what the rest of the world can learn from their experiences. Hoste...

As retail brands are forced to close their doors in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19, many are understandably concerned about the impact this is going to have on their business. In times like this, it’s still important, or maybe more important than ever, to keep the lines of communication open with customers. Despite retail locations shutting down left, right, and center, retailers need t...

Almost every retail category has been transformed by technology, social media, and the mainstreaming of progressive social attitudes. But for the luxury beauty industry, the change has been more long coming than for others and it’s been revolutionary. Up until the past few years, luxury beauty focused on the narrow idea that affluent white women were their one and only target market. Models were a...

For the majority of indie start-up brands, design seems like something of a luxury. Indie operators end up doing a lot of the work on their own, relying on an ad hoc internet education to patch together something that feels like an image. Once they grow and have a bit of money, then investing in design might be on the table. Local Toronto brand Pilot Coffee Roasters took a different approach. They...

Every new year brings the promise of new, magical, game-changing digital innovation. But what we expect from technology doesn’t always deliver quite the way we want it to. As retailers consider the expansion of 5G, AR, VR, and artificial intelligence, there are a lot of promises. But what will they actually deliver? In this episode we speak with  Christopher Hall , Managing Director of the&nb...

In this episode, SLD's Jean-Pierre Lacroix has a conversation with Simon Stenning , a consultant who works exclusively in the foodservice and hospitality sector, providing brands with actionable market intelligence. Simon’s background includes working with huge names like Hilton and Compass. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For years now, Millennials have been the most researched and targeted demographic group in the history of brand marketing. Today, Millennials are approaching middle age, and as their needs shift, Generation Z is stepping into the spotlight. Born in the late 1990s and early 2000s, they’re now coming of age and represent 25 percent of the U.S. population, making them bigger than Boomers or Millennia...