Our high streets continue to see an influx of homeware offerings from brands better known for clothing. ASOS has launched its own-brand Supply range just a few months after the debut of River Island’s RI Home collection. This blog explores what lies behind this trend and how it may well intensify.

Source: ASOS Supply, RI Home

As Millennials...

10pm, BBC 1. Huw Edwards has his most serious face on. Retail’s long-running difficulties are now headline news. “UK high streets in crisis as more big names disappear.”

And yet this doesn’t quite tell the whole story. With 385 stores in the UK and Ireland, JD Sports remains ambitious about growth at home and abroad. Having reported a stron...

The first glint of sunshine or glow of a daffodil and it seems our thoughts turn to ‘a bit of a spring clean’. With reports of charity shops receiving double the amount of donations they’d normally expect, it looks like a fit of ‘out with the old’ is gripping the UK.

Another symptom, and perhaps a cause, is the recent debut of Marie Kondo’s...

How IKEA’s new Planning Studio plays to hearts as well as minds

The homewares sector is besieged on several fronts. More people are renting, Brexit uncertainty makes big ticket investments feel riskier and over 30% of spend now happens online. Meanwhile, fashionable brands like Made are piling on the pressure. There have been high-profile c...

In 2018 Seth Godin was inducted into the American Marketing Association's Marketing Hall of Fame. Business Week put his book ‘Linchpin’  on its list of ’20 of the best books by the most influential thinkers in business.’ The power of his ideas has made him a highly in-demand public speaker.

In his latest book Godin discusses how the marketi...

Veganuary is now in its fifth year and bigger than ever! 2018 saw consumers and brands alike embracing the trend – a massive 16% of new food launches in the UK were vegan, double the number in 2017. Why are people making this change? Health and animal rights have always played a part, but the environmental repercussions of eating meat are...

There’s way too much for anyone to ever read in their newsfeeds now. Here are a couple of nuggets we think are worth the read/watch. Enjoy!

The end of the beginning

Benedict Evans talks about how in the next few years nearly everyone on the planet will own a smartphone, but their use is in its relative infancy. Ecommerce accounts for a very...

Options, options, options! In a world of endless choice it seems one of the few ways for messages to cut through is simplicity. Many brands are choosing to go minimal with their images and offerings, paring back their branding and letting their products do the talking.

One manifestation of this is Carlsberg, whose bottle, can labels and pro...

The only way is ethics

It’s been building. Iceland’s now famously banned advert spoke movingly about endangered orangutans, but hardly mentioned frozen food. Last week a pop-up in Carnaby Street saw people queuing to buy gifts for refugees. Suddenly, caring is the new black. More and more it seems consumers want to identify with brands’ val...

A growing trend apparent amongst Millennials has been their urge for connectedness. Paradoxically, this may be a symptom of two seemingly opposing effects of the digital age – the atomisation of society due to lives being lived online and the power technology has to unite likeminded people and let them feel part of something bigger. Exampl...