Lovemarks

The Future Beyond Brands

Expanded Edition

Shopping is a nine trillion dollar industry and it’s in need of a Lovemarks makeover. “Diamonds in the Mine”, the new chapter in this expanded edition of the bestselling Lovemarks,

• shows how Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy that can be used to track the secrets of success that create the ultimate shopping experiences;
• takes in the history of shopping;
• samples the local and global habits of shoppers;
• examines supermarkets — what went wrong?;
• looks at how to create the Theater of Dreams in-store;
• and proposes the new rules of shopping.

It is an insightful collection of ideas for owners of small stores and operators of superstores, for producers and consumers and marketers.

“The store is where the action happens,” says Kevin Roberts. “It’s where the people who make and sell stuff win or lose. And the outcome lies in the hands of the consumer.

“Shoppers have power and they exercise this power with every choice they make. Shopping is a form of activism where consumers support the businesses that have earned their love as well as respect.”

Roberts says winning the retail challenge will be an obsession of 21st century business.

“Great retailers know that shopping is not simply about economics. It’s about emotion. It’s about empathy with consumers. It’s about relationships. The objective for retailers is to touch consumers, to find out and deliver what shoppers want from the shopping experience, to win Loyalty Beyond Reason.”

“Diamonds in the Mine” kicks economic rationalism out the shop door and shows shopping for what it truly is: an emotional and primal act.

“When we go shopping, we track, we stalk, we browse, we forage, we close in, we return home in triumph,” says Roberts. “Shoppers feel delight at a bargain, and satisfaction at filling a refrigerator. And we shop with our whole body, looking for products and places that stimulate our senses of sight, sound, taste, touch and smell.

“Done well, retail is seductive. It provides shoppers with a satisfying, pleasurable and memorable experience.”

“Diamonds in the Mine” takes readers through the crowded free-for-all of a Casablanca bazaar to the coziness of an English corner shop, sampling the delights of a new-style Spanish supermarket, a no-brand Japanese store, a Manhattan design gallery, a Parisian boutique, an Austin Texas Whole Foods, and an Australian online emporium.

“In wonderful stores around the world, shopping is being reinvented right now by creative and passionate retailers,” says Roberts.

In contrast to most supermarkets which Roberts says “are aircraft hangar-sized sheds that play 1980s happy music and are lit to search-and-destroy mission standards,” these new retailers look through the eyes of the shopper, tuning into their needs to deliver superb service and offer environments that charm and delight.

“Diamonds in the Mine” is a smart, stimulating and straight-shooting addition to Lovemarks — an insightful collection of ideas for owners of small stores and operators of superstores, for producers and consumers and marketers.