Starbucks continues expansion plans in Sweden

In 2010 the first Starbucks was opened in Sweden at terminal 5 at Arlanda airport. Now it's apparently time for more, as Starbucks plans to open up a few more cafés next year at the high traffic locations of central stations in Gothenburg and Malmö.

Sweden already have a number of Starbucks 'wannabees' including Waynes Coffee and Espresso House. I've complained before that I don't think those two chains have established enough differentiation and uniqueness in their brand and service concept. And with Starbucks entering they might have to think about this, and how to keep their customer base if a Starbucks would open up around the corner. Strong brands always have a big advantage, but of course - in the coffee chain world the biggest advantage of all is great tasting coffee at a high traffic location... 

Ice-cream creation - Cold Stone Creamery is living its vision

I wonder what it is in the North American gene or environment that makes so many Americans creative and unafraid of challenging the norm. This time this thought of mine awoke when I spotted how something old and simple was reinvented into something new and awesome. And it was all related to one of my favourite foods - ice-cream and the great ice-cream experience of Cold Stone Creamery.

I enjoyed this experience during my recent holiday in Dubai. One of the many lavish hotel experiences was the Atlantis hotel where I had the privilege of having lunch and then experiencing one of their ice-cream creations for dessert. Believe me, for anyone who likes a decent ice-cream this is the business!

The Cold Stone ice-cream is not just ice-cream. It is an ice-cream experience where fun and entertainment is joining force with incredibly tasting ice-cream flavours and creations. And the ice-cream is not just ice-cream anymore but instead it becomes the carrier of a broad variety of fantastic fillings, and it's all crushed, created and customised on a granite stone. All to meet your individual ice-cream desires. Mmmm....  what a treat! On their website they say: "Ever since we opened our first store back in 1988, we’ve been serving up what we refer to as Creations" And what I've seen and tasted is certainly delivering on this brand promise.


I love the fact that Cold Stone Creamery have created a real ice-cream experience, that both adults and children can enjoy. All details are carefully organised to deliver your kind of ice-cream creation.

The Swedish version of online food shopping - Dinner Solution Shopping

When I lived in the UK I was a keen online grocery shopper with Sainsburys. It was great to be able to avoid the crowds in the supermarket for a mere 5 pounds delivery charge per week. Online food shopping saved me a lot of time and frustration. Online grocery shopping in Sweden is not as developed as in the UK, so these days I'm spending a few frustrated hours in the grocery store most weekends. However, in Sweden another food service solution is growing strongly. 'Dinner solutions deliveries' are all you need one per week pack of ingredients and recipes (for 5 or 3 dinners per week) delivered to your door through the likes of Middagsfrid and Linas Matkasse.

These companies sell pre-planned dinner solutions for time-starved Swedes. This has been a recipe of success so far as customers only popped up just a few years ago, but now have thousands of customers across the big city regions of Sweden. The customer benefit is dinner planning and dinner shopping in a very simple way. And the solution also offers healthy and new taste experiences on the dinner table, also during weekdays when most people don't have the time or the energy to plan their dinners in detail.

I've finally signed up as a customer of Middagsfrid and from next week I look forward to trying their offer of dinner solutions. The only problem for me is that I still have to cook... I'm not the most enthusiastic cook during the week when I'm tired after a long day at work. But what I do look forward to experience are new kinds of taste experiences, new inspiration and new kinds of food on the dinner table.

I'm convinced that the need for ready food solutions, ready dinner-kits and simple food solutions are going to grow more and more in Sweden. And look forward to following the service innovations within this field over the coming years, whilst hopefully trying many of them personally as well.

Cadbury - brand extension into chocolate-themed cafe chain

Recently I wrote about Cadbury's Spots VS Stripes campaign. Now I want to mention another interesting launch by this much loved British chocolate brand. Cadbury's will open up cafes called Cadbury Cocoa House which will be Cadbury branded, traditional English style cafes where you can expect to enjoy a delicious afternoon tea, along with a range of Cadbury-themed goods.

According to BBC Cadbury says it has been planning the move for some time and negotiations are already underway for sites and the first outlets - in London - could be open for business before the end of the year. However, Cadbury stressed that it was "very early days" for the plan. The plans are part of a joint venture with retailer Harrods. Spokespeople say: "We want to build on the Cadbury heritage and the British heritage of Cadbury. All food will be sourced from the UK where possible, and we will really develop that heritage of the brand - from fireplaces and fireside chairs to traditional English afternoon teas."



This is an interesting move by Cadburys and I will be keen to follow the developments. Moving from product brand to service brand is a challenge, not just because the business model is entirely different, but also because the consumer interactions are in many ways more challenging. A service is customised and the service experience is highly dependant on the situation. The challenges are way different from the world of product retailing. And the delivery of the total brand experience is paramount to success. Let's follow this one!

Proctor & Gamble launches E-store for online sales of consumer products

Today P&G launches an E-store to U.S. Consumers featuring P&G brands. It's called the eStore, and it is an online shopping site owned and operated by PFSweb featuring the breadth of P&G brands including Tide, Pampers, Olay, CoverGirl, Swiffer and Febreze. The eStore has been created with shopper insights to provide a premier online retail site with the goal of offering new and better ways to shop online for household, beauty and grooming products. More brands will be added to the eStore over the next year. The store also gives shoppers a forum to share feedback on their eStore shopping experiences and provide ideas to improve the site. Shoppers can also post ratings and reviews for P&G products and share tips and tricks for taking care of their family and home at the eStore.

Is this the first bold step by a consumer goods producer to try to bypass the big retail chains. Bold move that I'll follow!

Food retail innovation with impact - 'My Supermarket'

I discovered My Supermarket today and now I cannot stop browsing the offers on show. If only I could do online food shopping via the My Supermarket solution! It's not only clever and tempting, you get a bargain too. For a food and food innovation junkie like me I cannot get hold of myself when I see all the lovely offers from the oh so clever food retailers in the UK. Love it!

ICA To go - for time-starved city Swedes

Are city Swedes ready for ready-meals? ICA, the largest food retailer in Sweden appears to think so with the launch of ICA To go – a new convenience food retail concept for time poor city dwellers. The new concept will be focused on providing fresh food, ‘fast to cook’ food and ready-meal solutions for time-poor, and (most likely) fairly cash rich city folks. The first shop will open on busy Kungsgatan sometime later this spring. The move also follows the success of Gooh, the innovative ready-meals initiative by Lantmännen. After five years in the Stockholm region where Gooh is moving from strength to strength. The Gooh movement is now moving over the Swedish west-coast with 18 so called ‘shop-in-shop’ retail spots opening across Gothenburg during February 2010. From its launch until this day Gooh hasn’t really faced any serious competition. Tthe ICA move is a sure sign that this privileged situation won’t last forever. The interesting thing will be to see what kinds of food ICA have dec ided to offer time-starved city folks and professionals. Gooh’s offer is hard to beat with their offer of high quality, premium ready-meals based on their co-operation with Swedish maestro chef Stefano Catenacci.

Well, this sure is an interesting development in Sweden, where we don’t yet have the convenience food retail concepts similar to e.g. Tesco Extra, M&S Food and Sainsbury’s Local that one can spot on any high-street in the UK. So,soon I’ll be back with my first report after visiting Ica To go. Being one of those time-starved people I hope it will be a positive one!

Tele2 - Interesting challenger brand positioning

This year the Swedish mobile phone operator Tele2 have certainly done some great and massive work building their brand as the fun challenger in their market against the likes of Telia, Telenor and Tre. I must admit that I was a bit confused about their brand strategy at first. When I first saw their ‘Sheep/Cheap’ commercial I wondered why on earth cheap was the only thing they wanted to communicate about their brand. But I’ve since understood that the cheap strategy is certainly much more than a cheap message. It’s about being different, a unique challenger. And I’ve become more and more convinced that they are on the right track. With a good strategy and their massive Marcom spending I’m more and more convinced that their challenger brand strategy is bound to make them a leader sooner rather than later. Perhaps not number one but at least number two. And, if I remember things correctly, with a low customer churn in mobile phone operating business, one certainly needs to push hard to gain and retain customers. After a massive Marcom push and with a strong supporting strategy Tele2 must certainly be a brand that is top-of-mind for most customers. And when their contracts are up for renewal, well, I certainly think more of them will choose Tele2.

I will write more about Tele2 soon. I’m impressed with their challenger brand strategy and would love to tell you more about it.

Internal assessment of concepts and ideas

About a week ago I wrote about external assessment or consumer screening of concepts at an early stage of concept development. Today I want to add a few thoughts regarding the internal assessment of concepts i.e. the assessment of which concepts can actually be most profitable for the company in a short- and long-term perspective given internal capabilities and resources. I’ve added a shortlist of assessment criteria that I use but simply see these criteria as a suggestion, and have a think about if there are different criteria that you need to add given your companies specific circumstances. The criteria I often use are:
Strategic Assessment Criteria
- Is the concept in line with the vision / strategy of the company?
- Does the concept meet a large opportunity area or gap in the market?
- Is the concept strong or competitive enough to beat off the competition?
Capabilities Assessment Criteria
- Can the concept be developed given our technological platform, purchasing, production and packaging capabilities?
- Can the concept be developed given time to market demands and estimates?
- Cost of developing concept?
- Can the concept be brought to market successfully given sales and marketing capabilities?
Launch Assessment Criteria
- Is the concept strong and differentiated enough to get listed? (fmcg concept)
- Level of marketing and sales support investment?
- Estimated time before ROI?

These are just a few of the assessment criteria I would consider using. But as I mentioned above, the criteria that you use need to be discussed and finalised internally with your colleagues and with the managers who control internal resources. And there are surely specific assessment criteria that your company need to add given your market objectives and circumstances. Good luck!

Nice new organic coffee and grocery shop concept by swedish retailer Coop

Well, is it new or not? I claim that it is new simply because I cannot find any information about it on the Coop website or anywhere else... Isn't that a bit strange? Well, it might be a little less secret now when I write about it...  I spotted this organic concept store in Gothenburg this weekend and the idea and execution was so nice so I had to write about it.

The swedish retailer Coop has been positioning itself as the most organic and fair trade retailer in the market for a long time. And this positioning could indeed be very appealing for consumers. This concept store is one step on the way... a very positive step! I want to know more about Coops plans for this concept!

Innovation and how to assess concepts - part 1

Companies spend a lot of energy and investments on bringing new concepts and products to market. But still, most of those concepts or products fail within a year after launch… Research findings vary, but I’ve seen articles that claim that as many as 90% of innovations don’t contribute to company goals i.e. they fail. The monies involved may not be linked to massive investments in production facilities or marcom. But the employee and project resource that’s required to bring a new product to market are enough to make a failure very expensive.


I’ve seen first hand how companies ignore taking the precautions necessary to ensure that they get a return on innovation investment. Human factors like ignorance, incompetence or fear of failure are often at fault. So, if you don’t want your concept to fail (and if you’re responsible and competent) - what steps do you need to take in order to assess that your concept or innovation has got the power to last? Well, the least one can do is to ensure that the concept has been thoroughly assessed based on both external and internal success criteria. External criteria are related to market and consumer factors and internal criteria are related to company capabilities.


Well, I need to try to follow the KISS principle and keep things short and simple. So, today I’ll deal only with the external assessment factors at the early stages of idea or concept assessment. And if time permits I’ll focus on the latter stages of concept screening later on this week. I will also get back to the internal assessment criteria in more detail.  


Early stage concept assessment – Assessment criteria

To make a good job out of this assessment you need to involve qual research with your target consumer or customer. Focus groups, in depth interviews…, mini groups – there are different methodologies to chose from.

I would normally include the following assessment criteria at this stage:

• Insight relevance – does the insight that the concept is based upon correlate to a prevailing consumer need? Is this needstate large enough to be of importance? And do consumers recognise themselves in this needstate and in this situation? How often? When? Where?

• Uniqueness – Do consumers perceive the concept to be different to what they’ve seen in the market? Does this difference or uniqueness stand out and is it appreciated as a positive factor?

• Impact on brand – This is a relevant assessment factor if you plan to add the concept to a branded family where it may have a positive or negative impact on the mother brand and/or other brands in the portfolio. Ask consumers if this concept is something that feels natural or awkward within the branded family.

• Clarity – is the concept clear and easy to understand? Can you simplify it even further to make it more compelling and easy to grasp?

• Benefit relevance – Do consumers really appreciate the benefits that this concept offers? Are the relevant and interesting enough for consumers? Are they worth paying for?

• Price – Since this is an early stage assessment I would only add a couple of short questions to check if the project teams ambitions regarding price point and margin correspond to consumer price expectations.

• Total market potential – Based on the response to the above criteria I would then make a total summary of the concept potential.

Huh, I’ve done a serious amount of writing now. Have you fallen asleep? I hope this was helpful anyway and as promised, I will get back to the issue of later stage concept assessment as well as internal assessment. Bye!

Kalori - good idea but can it be a long-term successful concept?

It's fun to see innovative thinking within the restaurant business. And this is a nice example of a simple yet very clever restaurant concept that I visited today - the Stockholm based lunch restaurant Kalori. Kalori is a health concept restaurant based on the idea that none of the meals on offer should include more than 400 calories. And Kalori also offers a range of health drinks for the stressed out office workers around the corner. I like the idea - it is a good and very simple to understand idea in theory. But when reality sets in execution is everything... And I did not find Kalori's execution good enough. Why? Well, I belive that food must always look great and taste good. The retail space, the food on offer, the taste - everything could have been so much better if Kalori had added more flavour and taste to its low calorie concept.

Lovefilm - great example of brilliant customer service

I really enjoy movies and I have spent a lot of money renting DVDs over the years. A while back my brother (who also likes his movies) introduced me and my husband to Lovefilm - I think he gave us an 'introduce a friend' Christmas offer. The offer gave us three months free of charge membership. Since then we have been Lovefilm subscribers. We started off with the 3 movies per month offer and we were really happy with the service from day 1. However, only recently we realised how amazing and customer oriented Lovefilm really is! This started when we had our baby and thus needed to freeze our membership for a while (babies are time consuming little things!). We were impressed that Lovefilm did not have any problem with us freezing our membership. And then a few weeks ago we wanted to see if we could change our membership to something less time demanding and less costly e.g. one movie per month. This was also no problem! Lovefilm has clearly realised that the cost of attracting new customers is higher than maintaining current relationships. Few companies truly understand this magic formula (compare to the rigidity of e.g. telecom companies). I'll certainly remain a Lovefilm subscriber.
If you want to know more about Lovefilm - check out their UK website which has far more content compared to the Swedish version. There's also an ad on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbBIdINatts