Last night I learnt how to distill gin. From Sam Galsworthy, the engaging co-founder of Sipsmith Gin in Hammersmith. Thank you, Sam.I was introduced to Prudence, their beautiful copper pot still. She is a curvaceous and lovely toy, with lots of levers and piers and portholes, through which we could peer to see the botanicals steeping - liquorice, orris root, juniper, cassia bark, Spanish lemon and orange peel...
I was also re-introduced to Sipsmith's excellent gin, sloe gin and barley vodka. I've been drinking the gin for a while now, and the sloe gin makes a superb gift for elderly fathers.
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Here are Tom's thoughts on sampling, why it's so important for brand building and how to do it well. Thank you very much, Tom.
What we at MOMA believe it does
Sampling is our key to getting consumers into the MOMA! world!
The main thing is getting people to physically try our breakfast - our products are pretty unique so it's really important for people to taste it in order to understand and appreciate it - and once we've done that most people love it.
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Last week I was invited to Net-A-Porter's offices for a fashion show. (Thank you very much, Alix Partners.) How does Net-A-Porter offer incredible value to its customers? With most items costing three figures, it's not exactly Primark.
I couldn't fathom it out, until a young professional woman from Alix Partners told me how:
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Like all of us, Homer is a 'cognitive miser'. We don't like thinking - deliberative thinking is hard and difficult.
Humans make less than perfectly thought out decisions all the time, intuitively, emotionally, effortlessly and quickly. We're good at it - it's why we have survived.
If you give people a choice of three things on a menu, they will choose in the middle. Online clothing retailers exploit this brilliantly.
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Jamie Mitchell, formerly Innocent's UK Managing Director, and now CEO of Daylesford Organic, shares with us his thoughts on why small brands can always win against big ones. Many thanks to you, Jamie.
In his words:
"Having worked with, met with and generally hung out with lots of small, independent brands, one thing comes through over and over again when I think about which ones are most likely to succeed in their chosen (viciously competitive) market: “I think, therefore I am”. OK, so maybe linking Descartes' existential theories to strategies for small brands may be a bit of a stretch, but let me try and convince you.
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