Calling all WOW investors ..., page-27

I agree with your second paragraph. Focus groups will only tell you what you want to hear to a point. Ask women what they want in a home improvement store and they will tell you, but will they go in....? No.

Should they have just copied Bunnings.....probably yes, but a cleaner, cheaper version. Would that have worked......maybe. The one thing that came from the groups was that although many shopped at Bunnings there was much to dislike.....To Bunnings credit, they upped their environment, customer service and sharpened their prices as soon as Masters came on the scene. It will be interesting to see if they reduce staff and raise prices now that Masters have gone.

Masters was a start up business, when you do a start up you are never sure exactly what will work and what won't, you need to be able to move fast and change your offer based on what the customers are doing.

What is a bit sad is that the mechanism to monitor customers, (and see that the Tradies didn't come back), was not accepted as it would have taken a % off the margin. Had they done that they would have been able to run marketing offers and see what was working and what wasn't as well as seeing who wasn't a customer.

Also the importance of Tradies was understated (or not understood) and again a scheme to reward them was rejected as it would have taken a % of the margin.

Big lesson learned.......If you start a start up then you CAN NOT treat it as an ongoing business. It must know whats working, what isn't and be quick, agile and able to change its offering based on the feedback.

Expensive lesson.