Running Briskly Into the Fog

We just finished writing our ten- year retail trend report, entitled Shift 2020: Trends Impacting Retail. It was an exhaustive process but I’m proud of the quality of the report which will offer a practical road map for retailers and  as they embark on a new decade.

In developing the report though, I often found myself questioning the degree to which retailers should be occupied with the future versus focusing on their daily business. Should they be worrying about issues like the decline of conventional media or instead making sure their shelves are stocked and their staff is trained? If they’re considering issues like the changing ethnography of their markets, are they taking their eye off the real ball –delighting customers? In other words, my fear was that the report we just spent months preparing could actually be a distraction to what really matters? The answer, it seemed lay in the balance between tactics and strategy.

Despite being very different things, tactics and strategy are often confused with one another. For example, I spoke to a retailer recently who said that his “strategy” is to use radio ads in his market because he believes they’re more effective than print. In actual fact, the use of radio is a tactic that is part of the strategy of increasing share of voice and awareness within the target segment. Tactics are day-to- day initiatives, tasks and decisions that serve to get things done. Scheduling, ordering, merchandising, training, marketing etc. are all tactical in nature.

Strategy is different. Thinking two or three moves ahead in a game of chess is strategy. Strategy is future focused and often requires throwing out what you thought you knew, in order to formulate a path forward based on new found information. The development of strategy requires research, study and planning.

I maintain that the ability of any independent or specialty retailer to survive and thrive long-term will come down to two things; their ability to create remarkable customer experiences today and their capacity to adapt and change tomorrow. The marriage of solid retailing tactics and informed business strategy will drive their success.

I am not suggesting that success is simple. Most retailers are so overwhelmed with the day-to-day efforts required to operate the business that there’s little time left over to evaluate the future and therefore no chance to develop strategy. In the absence of strategy they are, as a colleague of mine used to say, “Running briskly into the fog.”

In the end, the awareness of future trends is by no means a distraction to what matters but rather an integral component of long-term success. Furthermore, it’s impossible to be strategic without some sense of what the future might hold and where you see yourself within it.