24 JAN 2018 · Discover how we are taking a proactive approach towards understanding Generation Z by listening to our team of Shopper Marketing and Category Development experts getting passionate about the next tranche of shoppers now lining up to disrupt today’s retailers and brands. While ‘intrapreneurial’ and conservative, today’s 13-20 year olds have more information at their fingertips than any previous section of society. They also have more money thanks to staying with their parents for longer. They live in a world of constant and ever-increasing change – they want what’s trending, what their peers will admire and they want it now!

24 JAN 2018 · Find out what we think about Category Vision in this discussion between Category Management and Shopper Marketing experts Christine Edwards and Neil Hutton. A Category Vision is a future-based activity that considers trends and relevance and that enables brands to understand where the real growth opportunities lie – i.e. how to ‘grow the pie’ that is a category rather than to just grow share. It works best when adopted not just across the commercial team, but throughout an organisation so that all activity is aligned behind the same goals.

24 JAN 2018 · In our fourth podcast listen to Big River Solutions’ Category Management gurus on the value of getting the basics right. Category Management has evolved from being heavy duty, expensive, template driven and exclusive to big multinational businesses. Today it is an exercise that can be tailored and agile while delivering tangible return on investment for brands both big and small. Big River Solutions specialises in delivery of category solutions that also reflect shopper insight driven predictions of the future – a practice that brands ignore at their peril.

24 JAN 2018 · In our third podcast, hear Big River’s Category Development and Shopper Marketing experts Simon Spicer, Jenny Munro and Neil Hutton discuss the evolution of in-store promotion in response to changes in shopper behaviour and expectation. Events like Black Sunday and Cyber Monday are here to stay. How do retailers tempt savvy shoppers to spend without slashing profit margins? Is there a way to future-proof through forecasting? Can we lure shoppers away from holding back on shopping for seasonal events? The team come to some interesting conclusions about the problems that might rear their heads as well as some great reasons to be optimistic about the retail scene of the future.

24 JAN 2018 · In our second podcast, we scrutinise the impact discounters have had on the high street. Listen to experts from the Big River team discuss our ever changing shopper habits – The butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker. Perhaps we haven’t retreated this far but shoppers are certainly not doing the huge weekly shopping trips that were a family event 20 years ago.

24 JAN 2018 · Our first podcast takes a look at the effects that the economic turmoil has had on shopper behaviour. Much of this has been against a backdrop where the discounters have proven themselves a force to be reckoned with and the Big Four have lost their direction. Our panel discussed the dynamics behind the discounters’ success and then consider what the retailers are likely to do in the future. Grocery shopping is no longer seen as entertaining at any level – it is a time-consuming chore that just has to be done. Big River Solutions consultants, Christine Edwards, Neil Hutton and Rebecca Ross, discuss this phenomenon and where it might lead. Some conclusions that bear further examination include observations that superstores are being outgunned by the discounters – the latter not being just cheap but also quick, easy and convenient – as well as smaller stores for bite-size shopping.