Everything changes, nothing stays the same - sounds like a line from a song and I'm sure it is. That's my theme for today, however.
Are you one of those people that hate it when supermarkets switch things around? One day melons are midway down the first aisle and the next day they are at the back of the last aisle. So why does this happen? Well we go back to my old friend and the scourge of the 21st century - marketing.
Marketing is too often used to paper over cracks - I feel I can say this as I worked in marketing for many years and still do to a lesser extent. If things aren't going right try to gloss over the problems. Our coalition Government are trying to do this right now. Unhappy with the local election results we have prime minister David Cameron and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg cozying up to each other again and appearing in an act of togetherness that has probably been thought up and initiated by some think tank somewhere. Of course we know that Cameron and Clegg don't really like each other from the slagging off they gave each other during the election campaign. Come the next election they will be back to slagging again.
Anyway back to supermarkets, profits are dropping and changes are needed. What the management can't grasp are that profits are dropping because consumers are taking their business elsewhere and this can be down to a number of factors including the increased price of goods, disillusionment with the supermarket or improvement in the competition.
So what happens next - the store is re-designed, thoroughly peeing off people who want to get their melons from aisle one. It leads to confusion amongst customers. And why is it done? Because in their infinite wisdom the shops believe it will increase sales. They stupidly believe that Mrs Smith in looking for her melons will now have to pass the wine department and is likely to grab a dozen bottles of something exotic on her way through to the greengrocery. Actually Mrs Smith is more likely to say "I don't like this. I can't find anything so I'm going elsewhere."
You just get to know where things are and they get moved. It happens in CD/DVD shops, newspaper shops and just about anywhere else big enough to be able to switch things around.
The music download site Napster is a perfect example of this. I paid them £14.99 for what I considered an excellent service. It allowed me to listen to thousands of albums on computers and to legally download albums to listen to on my phone and mp3 player. Then it changed. Napster got taken over by American company Rhapsody. The number of albums and tracks available diminished and suddenly I couldn't find out to transfer tracks to my mp3 player. Many of the tracks I had already downloaded would no longer play.
Before I could just press a button and albums would be downloaded automatically or I could click and drag the albums onto the player. Now apparently I have to set up a playlist with the albums I want in it and sinc these. problem is if I have 30 playlists and want to add a 31st I have to sinc the whole lot every time. If I don't I lose them all. From reading reports of the Napster/Rhapsody merger I understand that the primary reason was to ward off competition from other download sites such as WE7 and Spotify. This is exactly the kind of thing that would make me switch. It's just another example of modern life showing contempt for an individual, whilst stupidly telling them that things are going to improve. And that's today's rant over with.
Are you one of those people that hate it when supermarkets switch things around? One day melons are midway down the first aisle and the next day they are at the back of the last aisle. So why does this happen? Well we go back to my old friend and the scourge of the 21st century - marketing.
Marketing is too often used to paper over cracks - I feel I can say this as I worked in marketing for many years and still do to a lesser extent. If things aren't going right try to gloss over the problems. Our coalition Government are trying to do this right now. Unhappy with the local election results we have prime minister David Cameron and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg cozying up to each other again and appearing in an act of togetherness that has probably been thought up and initiated by some think tank somewhere. Of course we know that Cameron and Clegg don't really like each other from the slagging off they gave each other during the election campaign. Come the next election they will be back to slagging again.
Anyway back to supermarkets, profits are dropping and changes are needed. What the management can't grasp are that profits are dropping because consumers are taking their business elsewhere and this can be down to a number of factors including the increased price of goods, disillusionment with the supermarket or improvement in the competition.
So what happens next - the store is re-designed, thoroughly peeing off people who want to get their melons from aisle one. It leads to confusion amongst customers. And why is it done? Because in their infinite wisdom the shops believe it will increase sales. They stupidly believe that Mrs Smith in looking for her melons will now have to pass the wine department and is likely to grab a dozen bottles of something exotic on her way through to the greengrocery. Actually Mrs Smith is more likely to say "I don't like this. I can't find anything so I'm going elsewhere."
You just get to know where things are and they get moved. It happens in CD/DVD shops, newspaper shops and just about anywhere else big enough to be able to switch things around.
The music download site Napster is a perfect example of this. I paid them £14.99 for what I considered an excellent service. It allowed me to listen to thousands of albums on computers and to legally download albums to listen to on my phone and mp3 player. Then it changed. Napster got taken over by American company Rhapsody. The number of albums and tracks available diminished and suddenly I couldn't find out to transfer tracks to my mp3 player. Many of the tracks I had already downloaded would no longer play.
Before I could just press a button and albums would be downloaded automatically or I could click and drag the albums onto the player. Now apparently I have to set up a playlist with the albums I want in it and sinc these. problem is if I have 30 playlists and want to add a 31st I have to sinc the whole lot every time. If I don't I lose them all. From reading reports of the Napster/Rhapsody merger I understand that the primary reason was to ward off competition from other download sites such as WE7 and Spotify. This is exactly the kind of thing that would make me switch. It's just another example of modern life showing contempt for an individual, whilst stupidly telling them that things are going to improve. And that's today's rant over with.
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