We were invited to attend the opening of the 150th branch of KAUAI, a second in the V&A Waterfront, on Thursday.  An in-house marketing job, it was a PR fail.

I managed to find the Marketing Manager Leeanne Jefferies by chance, and she told me that the area in the shopping centre where Cape Town Fish Market and their outlet is will be transformed into an H&M clothing store, widely popular in Europe and originating from Sweden.   Instead of waiting until February to open their new outlet, and to move out of the existing outlet, they decided to open the new outlet behind the Big Wheel near FNB, very hidden, there being no signage to guide one to it at all, whilst trading in their existing outlet, to make the most of the holiday season.

The launch function was scheduled for a most impractical time of 9h45, and we were reminded the day prior to be punctual in arriving by Retail Junior Retail Manager Samantha van Wyk. She addressed us in Hawaiian, using the word ‘Aloha‘, and ending it off with ‘Mahalo’, which I assumed to be her name, my Hawaiian being a bit rusty!  The switchboard answers the phone with a Hawaiian greeting too.   Leeanne told me that the aptly named co-founder and ‘Chief Innovations Officer‘ John Berry grew Continue reading →