In an age of disruption in retail, it’s tempting to rush to embrace the new and discard the old without question.

“Everything is changing,” we bemoan. “This is a whole new era and the old rules just don’t apply.” From my regular conversations with retail CEOs to endless conference themes, the fixation on change is the one thing that is constant.

So at the WPP Global Retail Forum in Sydney this month, it was refreshing to hear the final speaker remind us of what hasn’t changed. As chief strategy officer of Y&R Group* in Australia, and one of the world’s most celebrated strategic planners, Jon Steel devotes his life to uncovering consumer insights. In an anecdote-rich and PowerPoint-free speech, Steel talked in part to the concept of “unchange – the things that haven’t, and won’t change, because they have to do with the fundamentals of human nature.”

Steel recounted an interview he had done with a candidate for a graduate recruitment program in the UK. Asking the applicant whether there were any brands he particularly admired, Steel expected a predictable answer. But instead of waxing lyrical about Apple or Nike, the graduate (by the name of Wilson) talked about a close relationship with a grocery store in Nottingham.

Said Steel: “The store was run by a gentleman named Patel who would always greet (Wilson) with a hearty ‘Hello, Mr Wilson’. Favourite purchases would be kept to one side for him, and if they were not available he would be given – yes, given – something else to try instead. Unstocked items could be requested… and …Mr. Patel had been known to… leave the store himself to drive a customer home.”

The store could not compete with the supermarkets on price, but its offer was still compelling, even to a customer like Wilson on a student budget. Steel quoted the candidate as saying: “I have often thought, wouldn’t it be great if Mr Patel could run British Airways?” Or Qantas for that matter, as Steel wryly noted.

Recognition. Reward. Trust. Consideration. These are the qualities inherent in the tale of that little grocery store. And they hold true no matter the size of business or the era in time. As Steel said to me in a phone interview post the conference at which he spoke, “the mobile phone has changed more in the last 20 years than people.”

So as retailers, we need to remember that our customers’ fundamental instincts and emotions have not altered in millennia. And we must work to understand how our brands exist in the context of peoples’ lives.

Steel finished his address with a number of suggestions, four of which particularly struck a chord with me:

• “Don’t just do things because you’ll look old-fashioned if you don’t.”
• “Keep things as simple as possible”
• “Keep it personal”
• “Never forget you’re talking to people.”

As we struggle to keep our feet firmly planted on a retail landscape that seems to be buckling beneath us, it’s good to be reminded of the basics. So alongside all this change, just keep the concept of unchange in the back of your mind.

*Jon Bird heads up specialist retail marketing agency IdeaWorks, which is part of the Y&R Group in Australia and New Zealand. Email Jon. Read his blog. On Twitter: @thetweetailer